Objective measurement of dominance control in binocular rivalry

Abstract

Six male as attempted to identify stimuli superimposed on either of two dichoptically viewed rivalry patterns. Ability to influence dominance switches was confirmed with this objective procedure, by reason of a decreased error rate (1) with 3-sec advance knowledge as to which pattern would receive a test stimulus, and (2) with knowledge that an 83% majority of all stimuli would be presented in a given field. However, even when test stimuli were self-initiated, dominant-field and suppressed-field scores were not close to the error rates predicted on the basis of monocular levels and of random guessing, respectively, indicating either misjudgments of pattern dominance or, more likely, a failure of the dominant field to totally suppress its opponent. © 1970 Psychonomic Society, Inc.