Amodal Completion Perception Imagery (original) (raw)

Amodal Completion, Perception and Visual Imagery

Phenomenology and Mind, 2013

Amodal completion typically occurs when we look at an object that is partially behind another object. Theorists often say that in such cases we are aware not only of the visible parts, but also, in some sense, of the occluded parts, because otherwise we could not have a perceptual experience of the object as continuing behind its occluder. Since no sense modality carries information about the occluded parts, this information is provided by other means. Amodal completion raises two questions. First, what is the mechanism involved? Second, what kind of experience do we have of the occluded parts? According to Nanay, the so-called Imagery Theory answers both questions. For this theory, information about the occluded parts is the product of a low level, vision specific, neural mechanism that takes place in the early vision processing areas of the brain. This mechanism provides a representation of the occluded parts and, as a result, the observer enjoys a quasi-sensory or quasi-perceptua...

Bertamini, M., & Hulleman, J. (2006). Amodal completion and visual holes (static and moving). Acta Psychologica, 123, 55-72.

Acta psychologica, 2006

Occlusion is a frequent occurrence in a cluttered world of opaque objects. Often information about the shape of partly occluded objects can be gathered from the visible portion of the object and in particular its contours. Here we address the case where a region of a surface is visible exclusively through an aperture (visual hole). We make several observations about the grouping of surface regions visible through holes, and the appearance of moving objects and holes. These observations support the view that holes are shape properties of the object-with-hole.

Do we visually experience objects' occluded parts

Numerous philosophers – both in recent history, like Edmund Husserl, and in our time, like Alva Noë – have held that we visually experience objects' occluded parts, such as the out-of-view exterior of a voluminous, opaque object. The gist of the case for this idea is that it best explains the fact that we see objects as whole or complete despite having only a part of them in view at any given moment. My aim in this paper is to explain why this idea and the case for it should be rejected. It's not a phenomenological datum that we experience objects' occluded parts and the reasons for thinking we do, I argue, aren't compelling. Furthermore, I anticipate and reply to attempts to salvage the idea by appeal to purported perceptual expectation and amodal completion. Lastly, I deal with potential concerns that the only way to capture the phenomenal character of perceiving voluminous objects is to say experience outstrips what's in view, providing a description of such experience without any implication of that idea.

The Limiting Case of Amodal Completion: The Phenomenal Salience and the Role of Contrast Polarity

Brain Sciences

In this work, we demonstrated unique and relevant visual properties imparted by contrast polarity in perceptual organization and in eliciting amodal completion, which is the vivid completion of a single continuous object of the visible parts of an occluded shape despite portions of its boundary contours not actually being seen. T-junction, good continuation, and closure are considered the main principles involved according to relevant explanations of amodal completion based on the simplicity–Prägnanz principle, Helmholtz’s likelihood, and Bayesian inference. The main interest of these approaches is to explain how the occluded object is completed, what is the amodal shape, and how contours of partially visible fragments are relatable behind an occluder. Different from these perspectives, amodal completion was considered here as a visual phenomenon and not as a process, i.e., the final outcome of perceptual processes and grouping principles. Therefore, the main question we addressed t...

Amodal Completion Revisited

i-Perception, 2020

Amodal completion (AC) is analyzed, by looking at its historical roots and persisting conceptual difficulties. Looking at the origin of the concept, it becomes clear that it is not equivalent to perception of occluded parts. The role of fragment incompleteness is discussed, to clarify that it cannot be taken as a necessary factor for eliciting AC. The standard view of AC, depicted as a set of processes that extrapolate from veridically represented image fragments, is evaluated and rejected on the basis of evidence that AC modifies also modal parts. The theoretical importance of AC phenomena and their potential to reveal the inner forces of perceptual organization are emphasized, with specific reference to the minimum principle. Instances in which AC might be expected but does not occur are examined, to define the limits of such an integrative process.

Completion of occluded objects in early vision: an exploration of spatial limits

1993

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A new perceptual problem: The amodal completion of color

Visual Neuroscience, 2008

Amodal completion is the most common form of visual completion occurring when portions of an object are hidden, due to their occlusion behind another object (Michotte, 1951). Just as a shape is completed amodally behind another occluding shape, so is a color behind another occluding color or behind a lighting: a bright light reflected by a three-dimensional object. Four possible phenomenal combinations related to the amodal completion of color are shown: amodal or modal coloration or discoloration. Purposes of four experiments were: (1) to demonstrate the amodal completion of color under different stimulus conditions and under chromatic and achromatic conditions and (2) to extract the general principles ruling the amodal completion of color: “which, among many, is the color that completes amodally?” and, consequently, “which is the region of an object that determines its color?” The results showed the effectiveness of the amodal completion of color and that chromatic and achromatic ...

Bruno N., Bertamini, M., & Domini F., (1997). Amodal completion of partly occluded surfaces: Is there a "mosaic" stage. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 23, 1412-1426

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1997

Recent investigators have proposed that modal completion is a sequential process requiring a prefiminary mosaic stage. Results of 6 studies of the time course of completion processes show support for this mosaic-first view with pictorial displays, but not with displays involving occlusion specified by binocular parallax or when pictorial displays were observed monocularly. These results still do not rule out the mosaic-first view. A parallel model, however, can account more economically for the available data.