On the Discovery of Monocular Rivalry by Tscherning in 1898: Translation and Review

Abstract

Monocular rivalry was named by Breese in 1899. He made prolonged observation of superimposed orthogonal gratings; they fluctuated in clarity with either one or the other grating occasionally being visible alone. A year earlier, Tscherning observed similar fluctuations with a grid of vertical and horizontal lines and with other stimuli; we draw attention to his prior account. Monocular rivalry has since been shown to occur with a wide variety of superimposed patterns with several independent rediscoveries of it. We also argue that Helmholtz described some phenomenon other than monocular rivalry in 1867.