A model of selective attention to disambiguate ambiguous figures

✍ Scribed by Nobuo Kawabata

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 955 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0882-1666
• DOI: 10.1002/scj.4690240603

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Ambiguous figures are visual stimuli which are interpreted multiply by the human visual system.

This paper proposes a model which disambiguates ambiguous figures. The model that was formulated was based on the characteristics of visual information processing, accompanied by selective attention.

In the ambiguous figure “my husband and my father‐in‐law,” it was necessary to simulate visual information processing so that attention was directed to the multiple features in the figure to disambiguate the ambiguous figure.

Pictures obtained from the model were examined as to whether or not they were interpreted unambiguously. Results show that the model simulating selective attention can disambiguate the ambiguous figures. This suggests that the image per se, viewed through selective attention, becomes unambiguous before the figure is interpreted at the higher level. The results show also that the computer simulation of selective attention would make it possible to examine factors affecting the initial interpretation of the figure.