Research
The exact reasons behind multistable perception are still in debate.
However, we do know that multistable percepts are the result not only of visual distortions to the eye, (in fact there is little distortion), but of a process known as binding. Binding, according to Schwartz et al., is the process in which our perceptual systems create coherent interpretation of the world around us.
According to Leopold et al., there are “at least three fundamental properties that are common to all forms of multistable alternation[s]”, exclusivity, inevitability, and randomness. While exclusivity makes no two visual representations are present at once, inevitability makes it so that a person inevitably reaches a perceptual solution, and randomness which makes the reversals occur at random intervals. Leopold and Logothetis, based on these three factors, suggests that perceptual reversals occur as a result of intervention by “central, sensorimotor areas” which become conscious only when faced with ambiguity.
In conclusion, the reasons that people have perceptual reversals are because of the differences in binding, the process in which a person interprets the world around him/her.
However, we do know that multistable percepts are the result not only of visual distortions to the eye, (in fact there is little distortion), but of a process known as binding. Binding, according to Schwartz et al., is the process in which our perceptual systems create coherent interpretation of the world around us.
According to Leopold et al., there are “at least three fundamental properties that are common to all forms of multistable alternation[s]”, exclusivity, inevitability, and randomness. While exclusivity makes no two visual representations are present at once, inevitability makes it so that a person inevitably reaches a perceptual solution, and randomness which makes the reversals occur at random intervals. Leopold and Logothetis, based on these three factors, suggests that perceptual reversals occur as a result of intervention by “central, sensorimotor areas” which become conscious only when faced with ambiguity.
In conclusion, the reasons that people have perceptual reversals are because of the differences in binding, the process in which a person interprets the world around him/her.