Question

Answer the following question in 3-4 complete sentences.

On the left is a black and white image. The black space appears to be a vase, and the white space appears to be two people looking at each other. On the right is the same image, but the black and white spaces are inverted.
Explain what you see in the image on the left, verses the image on the right. What a person sees when looking at the above two pictures depends on what concept?

Answer 1

On the left the black region tends to be perceived as the figure (a vase) while the white areas recede into the background and can be seen as two faces in profile. On the right the black and white are inverted so your attention flips: the faces become the figure and the vase becomes the background. What a person sees depends on figure–ground organization, a Gestalt perceptual principle (also described as an ambiguous or reversible figure and influenced by perceptual set).