Ambiguity in Mind and Nature: Multistable Cognitive Phenomena [Paperback]

Ambiguity in Mind and Nature is the result of cognitive multistability, the phenomenon in which an unchanging stimulus, usually visual, gives rise in the subject to an oscillating perceptual interpretation. The vase/face picture is one of the most famous examples.
In this book scientists from many disciplines including physics, biology, psychology, maths and computer science, present recent progress in this fascinating area of cognitive science. Using the phenomenon of multistability as a paradigm they seek to understand how meaning originates in the brain as a consequence of cognitive processes. New advances are achieved by applying concepts such as self-organization, chaos theory and complex systems to the latest results of psychological and neurophysical experiments.I Basic Concepts.- The Function of Meaning in Cognitive Order Formation.- Some Basic Concepts of Synergetics with Respect to Mult ist ability in Perception, Phase Transitions and Formation of Meaning.- II Psychophysical and Phenomenological Approaches.- Multistability as a Research Tool in Experimental Phenomenology.- The Significance of Perceptual Multistability for Research on Cognitive Self-Organization.- Task, Intention, Context, Glofcality, Ambiguity: More of the Same.- Multistability  More than just a Freak Phenomenon.- Recognition of Dynamic Patterns by a Synergetic Computer.- III Attractors in Behavior.- Multistability and Metastability in Perceptual and Brain Dynamics.- Self-Organizational Processes in Animal Cognition.- Dynamic Models of Psychological Systems.- IV Semantic Ambiguity.- Ambiguity in Linguistic Meaning in Relation to Perceptual Multistability.- The Emergence of Meaning by Linguistic Problem Solving.- V Models of Multistability.- A Synergetic Model of Multistability in Perception.- Concepts for a Dynamic Theory of Perceptual Organization: An Example from Apparent Movement.- Artificial Neural Networks and Hakens Synergetic Computer: A Hybrid Approaclã