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Updated: Dec 25, 2025

Design and Use of an Apparatus for Presenting Graspable Objects in 3D Workspace
Published on: August 8, 2019
Grasp Affordances in Bistable Perception of the Necker Cube
Thomas R Brooks1, Till D Frank2, James A Dixon2
1The College of Idaho, Caldwell, ID.
Abstract:
Stimulus-response compatibility effects illustrate the mutual depen-dence of perception and action processes. Ellis and Tucker (2000) showed that object identification was facilitated when the response required a grip that was compatible with the stimulus. In the current study, we extend grip-compatibility effects to perception of the Necker cube. Participants reported the perceived orientation of a Necker cube by orienting a hand-held cube into a compatible or an incompatible position. Participants in the incompatible condition were quickly attracted to the FRB (front-side right bottom) percept, consistent with previous work. However, participants in the compatible condition showed an extended period of metastability, switching between the two perceptual states about equally. A second experiment replicated these results and showed that a control condition in which responses were made with a key press produced intermediate levels of metastability. These results are interpreted in terms of the dynamics of bistable perception.
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