When you first look at a certain painting by Salvador Dalí, you see an archway filled with people fighting. But when you look a bit longer, the archway seems to become a horse and many of the people become textures in the landscape. As you continue to look, your perception keeps flip-flopping. This phenomenon, known as a "reversible image," exemplifies which general principle about human perception?
A) The same stimulus can be parsed in more than one way.
B) Ambiguous figures will gradually fade away as we habituate to them.
C) We attend to the stimulus that is most meaningful at the time.
D) Only a few basic perceptual abilities are inborn.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The reversible image shows that the same stimulus can be parsed in more than one way, as people can see both the archway and the horse depending on their perception.

When You First Look at a Certain Painting by Salvador