Necker cube reversals as a function of age and IQ

Holt, Gary L.; Matson, Johnny L.

doi:10.3758/bf03334278

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…This is of particular singificance here because a new stimulus has been tried with a significance sample size. It is suggested that further research using visual perceptual illusions, including the Necker cube with the four different perspectives (Holt & Matson, 1974), may aid the study of developmental differences over age. An examination of causative agents should be enhanced by applying methods such as the one described here.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effects of age on perceptual changes using two new perspectives of the Necker cube

Holt

Matson

1976

Bull. Psychon. Soc.

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Eleven age groups of 22 each were shown the Necker cube illusion on three separate trials, using a different instructional set for each. Frequency of reversals was determined by the number of times the subject indicated that the "X" on the cube changed perspectives during a 90-sec trial. The results of a 3 by 11 analysis of variance revealed a .01 level of significance between the peak age groups, 25 and 45 years, and the 55-, 65-, 75-, 85-, 95-, 5-, and 10-year·old groups. These data suggest that young and old people were less able to reverse visual perspectives than the middle age groups.Since the original study by Necker (1832), most perceptual research using the Necker cube examined the illusory quality of perceptual reversals. Results showed that factors such as brain damage (Cohen, 1959), heart rate, cold (Roland, 1970), retinal anoxia (pickergill & Jeeves, 1964), and hyperventilation (Tar· gowski & Baer, 1966) affected reversal rates, while lumination and the presence of cataracts did not (Heath, Ehrich, & Orbach, 1963). These studies suggest that physiological factors are important in determining the number of perceptual switches recorded. A further assumption is that the aging process may create percep· tual changes. Results with the Miiller-Lyer, Ponzo, and Titchner circles illusions follow this hypothesis.In that the Necker cube has not been used to test the effects of age on reversal rate, the present study will examine whether different age groups report a similar or divergent number of reversals on the Necker cube illusion using different instructional sets varying in degree of structure. Also, two additional perspectives of the Necker cube have been identified (Holt & Matson, 1974) and used for this experiment as a measure of perceptual reversabili ty. Varying instructional sets and adding two new perspectives may prove to be a useful development in creating a more sensitive instrument for examining visual perceptual differences. METHOD Subject3Two hundred and forty-two volunteers were obtained from the general population of upper New York State and central Illinois. Of this sample, 11 males and 11 females were chosen from each of the following mean age groups: 5, 10, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55, 65, 75, 85, and 95 years. Equal portions of the sample were collected from both sections of the country. Many of the 85-and 95-year-<>lds lived in nursing homes. ApparatusA Kodak 800 Carousel slide projector was used to present the stimulus and a battery-powered digital counter aided in 4 recording. A hand-<>perated stopwatch was incorporated to time duration of stimulus exposure. ProcedureThe experiment was divided into three separate 90·sec trials; each was composed of different instructional sets. The first two sets of instructions prompted spontaneous, or random, reversals in which the subjects could change the "X" in any order. Instructions on Trial 3 specifically directed the subject where to see the "X" on the cube.Frequency of reversals consisted of the number of times the subject pressed the detonator on...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also, two additional perspectives of the Necker cube have been identified (Holt & Matson, 1974) and used for this experiment as a measure of perceptual reversabili ty. Varying instructional sets and adding two new perspectives may prove to be a useful development in creating a more sensitive instrument for examining visual perceptual differences.…”

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confidence: 99%

The effects of age on perceptual changes using two new perspectives of the Necker cube

Holt

Matson

1976

Bull. Psychon. Soc.

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“… 5 Such a finding is not completely surprising, given the presumption that all typically developing children eventually succeed on theory of mind tasks. Holt and Matson (1974) found that IQ predicted the number of Necker cube reversals in children between the ages of 7 and 10. …”

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Ambiguous figure perception and theory of mind understanding in children with autistic spectrum disorders

Sobel

Capps

Gopnik

2005

British J of Dev Psycho

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Researchers in early social‐cognition have found that the ability to reverse an ambiguous figure is correlated with success on theory of mind tasks (e.g. Gopnik & Rosati, 2001). The present experiment examined children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) without mental delay to see whether a similar relationship existed. Ropar, Mitchell, and Ackroyd (2003)demonstrated that children with ASD with mental delay were impaired on theory of mind tasks, but were as likely as mentally delayed controls to generate both interpretations of an ambiguous figure when informed of its ambiguity. The present study replicated this finding on children with ASD without mental delay. However, overall perception of ambiguous figures was different. These children were less likely to spontaneously generate both interpretations of the figure, and more likely to perseverate on a single interpretation than the comparison children. Like Ropar et al., we found no correlation between theory of mind and informed reversals, but spontaneous reversals were correlated with performance on an advanced theory of mind task. These data suggest that reversals of ambiguous figures are linked to higher‐level representational abilities, which might also be involved in social functioning, and impaired in children with ASD.

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“…Switch rates in the Necker cube strongly correlate with IQ and age in children (Holt & Matson, 1974). In a large-scale study with 490 observers, visual abilities such as detecting a simple figure in a more complex one correlated with the strength of spatial illusions (Coren & Porac, 1987).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

About individual differences in vision

et al. 2017

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a b s t r a c tIn cognition, audition, and somatosensation, performance strongly correlates between different paradigms, which suggests the existence of common factors. In contrast, visual performance in seemingly very similar tasks, such as visual and bisection acuity, are hardly related, i.e., pairwise correlations between performance levels are low even though test-retest reliability is high. Here we show similar results for visual illusions. Consistent with previous findings, we found significant correlations between the illusion magnitude of the Ebbinghaus and Ponzo illusions, but this relationship was the only significant correlation out of 15 further comparisons. Similarly, we found a significant link for the Ponzo illusion with both mental imagery and cognitive disorganization. However, most other correlations between illusions and personality were not significant. The findings suggest that vision is highly specific, i.e., there is no common factor. While this proposal does not exclude strong and stable associations between certain illusions and between certain illusions and personality traits, these associations seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

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Necker cube reversals as a function of age and IQ

Cited by 7 publications

References 15 publications

The effects of age on perceptual changes using two new perspectives of the Necker cube

The effects of age on perceptual changes using two new perspectives of the Necker cube

Ambiguous figure perception and theory of mind understanding in children with autistic spectrum disorders

About individual differences in vision

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