Perceptual Organization

Abstract

Perceptual organization is the process of giving structure to our experience of objects, scenes, and events in the world. The literature on this complex and fascinating topic is huge, dealing with a wide range of phenomena, processes, neural mechanisms, models, and theories. The present overview starts from the seminal work by the Gestalt psychologists, covering the classic laws of perceptual grouping and figure–ground organization. Then follows a review of the main lines of psychophysical and neural research carried out on these and related topics in the past 50 years. The final section covers new directions of research. They refine the conceptual framework and sketch theoretical approaches that could offer interesting alternatives to the mainstream view of information processing in the cortical hierarchy. There is hope for a synthesis to emerge from this scattered field of research, leading to a better understanding of perceptual organization.

Camouflage

“…But equally, an understanding of concealment strategies shed light on perception and cognition. The latter was realized by the Gestalt psychologists at the start of the 20 th century, who used animal camouflage as evidence for the generality of their ‘principles of grouping’, the means by which the brain organizes separate, simple, visual stimuli into discrete, coherent, objects (Osorio & Cuthill, ; Wagemans, ). For example the fact that a prey species has contrasting colour patterns that intersect the edge of its body suggests that its predator's visual system uses similarity of colour and continuity of outline to detect and recognize prey (see Concealing Form).…”

From Michotte Until Today: Why the Dichotomous Classification of Modal and Amodal Completions Is Inadequate

“…Grouping : The perceptual integration of isolated stimulus elements into wholes and perceptual completions can also be understood as different kinds of grouping. Wagemans (2018, pp. 833–838) recently suggested to distinguish between five types of grouping: clustering (of sets of elements that share one or more properties), segregating (between two of those subsets), linking (of elements in a specific way, e.g., pairwise coupling to lines or contours), layering (segregating with figure/ground attribution), and configuring (organizing individual elements in larger, structured wholes or Gestalts with configural properties, e.g., in closed shapes with high degrees of regularity or in familiar objects).…”

Superior Disembedding in Children with ASD: New Tests Using Abstract, Meaningful, and 3D Contexts

“…Perceptual organization, as defined by Palmer ( 1999 ), is “the process by which the bits and pieces of visual information that are available at the retinal image are structured into the larger units of perceived objects and their interrelations” (p. 255). As a result, the incoming sensory information does not appear to us as a collection of disjointed sensations, but gives rise to a particular organization of spontaneously combined and segregated objects (Wagemans 2018 ; Wagemans et al 2012 ). The main prerogative is that one will see the forest before the trees , and be able to discern the overall pattern or global picture first, prior to perceiving the underlying mass of individual elements or details.…”