Figure-Ground Differentiation under Different Perceptual Sets

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Abstract
Witkin and his colleagues have found that the ability to perceive figure independently of ground correlates with many personality traits and forms of social behavior. Rudin and Stagner extended these findings to include the perception of persons and proposed a more general concept to explain the results, that of ego autonomy. Witkin's position appears to be that ability to perceive figure independently of ground is a unitary trait measurable by such tests as the Rod-and-frame Test (RFT); Rudin and Stagner's position is that ability to change set and to select what is to be figure and ground is an operational definition of ego autonomy. To decide between the two positions, Ss were given both the RFT and the Self-contextual Influence test (SCI) under two sets: to be minimally influenced by the field and to be maximally influenced by the field. Results showed those Ss best able to ignore the ground when told to do so were also best able to let ground influence the perception of the figure when so instructed, thus supporting Rudin and Stagner's position.

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