Hidden figures are ever present

Preference judgments about alternative interpretations of unambiguous patterns can be explained in terms of a rivalry between a preferred and a second-best interpretation (cf. Leeuwenberg & Buffart, 1983). We tested whether this second-best interpretation corresponds to a suppressed but concurrently present interpretation or whether it merely reflects an alternative view that happens to be preferred less often. Two patterns were present immediately following each other with a very short onset asynchrony: a complete pattern and one out of three possible subpatterns of it, corresponding to the best, the second best, or an odd interpretation of the complete pattern. Subjects indicated which subpattern was presented by choosing among the three subpatterns shown after each trial. The scores, corrected for response-bias effects, indicated a relative facilitation of the second-best interpretation, in agreement with its predicted "hidden" presence. This result is more in line with theories that capitalize on the quality of the finally selected representation than with processing models aimed at reaching one single solution as fast and as economically as possible.