Question

Context can influence our expectations and so it can influence our perceptual set. Describe one way in which you might set up a context in which you think people would be more likely to see the vase rather than the face. Now describe a context where people might be more likely to see the face. How would you test your hypotheses about this?

Answer 1

Rubin’s famous reversible face-vase figure, which he used to demonstrate that a figure is always perceived against a background. People alternate between two perceptions i.e. as the face for some time and then the vase after some time.
However, which figure people will be more likely to observe can be altered by setting a context. Say, if the photograph of a face is shown before showing Rubin face-vase, then certainly people more likely will see the face first. Furthermore, context can be changed by the story of man mentioning the face or something related to man and its facial figure. This all will set likelihood of face perception first in the figure.
On the other hand, if photographs of vase or flower is shown before showing Rubin's face-vase figure then certainly there is all likelihood that Vase will be perceived first in the Face-Vase figure. similarly, talking about flowers or its pot before seeing the figure will increase the likelihood of Vase perception first in Rubin Face-Vase figure.