Perceptual organization and neural computation (original) (raw)
A century of Gestalt psychology in visual perception: II. Conceptual and theoretical foundations
Psychological Bulletin, 2012
In 1912, Max Wertheimer published his paper on phi motion, widely recognized as the start of Gestalt psychology. Because of its continued relevance in modern psychology, this centennial anniversary is an excellent opportunity to take stock of what Gestalt psychology has offered and how it has changed since its inception. We first introduce the key findings and ideas in the Berlin school of Gestalt psychology, and then briefly sketch its development, rise, and fall. Next, we discuss its empirical and conceptual problems, and indicate how they are addressed in contemporary research on perceptual grouping and figure-ground organization. In particular, we review the principles of grouping, both classical (e.g., proximity, similarity, common fate, good continuation, closure, symmetry, parallelism) and new (e.g., synchrony, common region, element and uniform connectedness), and their role in contour integration and completion. We then review classic and new image-based principles of figure-ground organization, how it is influenced by past experience and attention, and how it relates to shape and depth perception. After an integrated review of the neural mechanisms involved in contour grouping, border ownership, and figure-ground perception, we conclude by evaluating what modern vision science has offered compared to traditional Gestalt psychology, whether we can speak of a Gestalt revival, and where the remaining limitations and challenges lie. A better integration of this research tradition with the rest of vision science requires further progress regarding the conceptual and theoretical foundations of the Gestalt approach, which is the focus of a second review article.
On the Dynamic Perceptual Characteristics of Gestalten
Oxford Handbooks Online, 2014
The theoretical applicability of the constructs of configurality, holism, and Gestalten are ubiquitous in perceptual psychology, yet there is a noticeable absence of a generally accepted, unified theory of Gestalt phenomena. Aside from a few quite specific models of performance in some particular sphere, rigorous definitions and quantitative models are scarce. In addition, in the realm of quantitative dynamic information-processing characteristics, definitions, proposed explanations, and derivations regarding concepts of holistic vs non-holistic objects are rare if extant at all. The primary goal of this chapter is to argue for the establishment of a mathematical language within which the properties of strategic concepts that describe and purport to distinguish configural as opposed to nonconfigural perception can be elucidated. We do this in two ways, each of which is intended to compel formal connections among diverse operational concepts, and facilitate the translation to testable experimental hypotheses.
On the structures of perceptual Gestalten
1985
The objects we perceive exhibit structures and properties which are not indigenous to the world as it is in itself. Thus whilst the two horizontal lines in the MiilIer-Lyer illusion are objectively of equal length, they are experienced as being such that one is shorter than the other. There is a distinction between the structure as we experience it, the perceived Gestalt, and the underlying autonomous objectual formation.
Reconciling simplicity and likelihood principles in perceptual organization
Psychological Review, 1996
Two principles of perceptual organization have been proposed. The likelihood principle, following H. L. F. von Helmholtz (1910/1962), proposes that perceptual organization is chosen to correspond to the most likely distal layout. The simplicity principle, following Gestalt psychology, suggests that perceptual organization is chosen to be as simple as possible. The debate between these two views has been a central topic in the study of perceptual organization. Drawing on mathematical results in A. N. Kolmogorov's (1965) complexity theory, the author argues that simplicity and likelihood are not in competition, but are identical. Various implications for the theory of perceptual organization and psychology more generally are outlined.
Perception, 2005
The transcendental psychology approach [Mirakyan, 1999 Outlines of Transcendental Psychology (Moscow: IPRAS)] focuses on the way that visual representations need to be created over time. For example, even simple attributes, such as the perceived width of a line, change systematically when the stimulus is first presented. Such phenomena can provide important cues to the spatial and temporal properties of the representation process. We therefore investigated the temporal development of perceived line width by presenting contoured hexagons consisting of 0.3 deg wide lines at a range of short durations, and asking observers to estimate perceived line width by comparison with long-duration figures. Our results confirm that perceived line width increases smoothly between 10 and 50 ms, reaching a maximum rate of about 15 deg s À1. This reveals a basic temporal limit to visual processing that can explain why the maximum perceivable speed is about 30^50 deg s À1 (objects must remain fixed for at least 10 ms for any representation to emerge), and why the maximum speed perceivable without blur is about 4^5 deg s À1 (objects must remain fixed for at least 50 ms for the perceived width to stabilise). It may also explain other, apparently illusory, phenomena such as the flash-lag effect (Eagleman and Sejnowski, 2000 Science 290 1051), in which a stationary flash and a rapidly moving object in the same location appear to be spatially offset. The spatial uncertainty associated with a dynamically changing, rapidly moving object will produce a predictable shift in its perceived position.
Functional segregation and temporal hierarchy of the visual perceptive systems
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 1997
In extending our previous work, we addressed the question of whether di¡erent visual attributes are perceived separately when they belong to di¡erent objects, rather than the same one. Using our earlier psychophysical method, but separating the attributes to be paired in two di¡erent halves of the screen, we found that human subjects misbind the colour and the direction of motion, or the colour and the orientation of lines, because colour, form, and motion are perceived separately and at di¡erent times. The results therefore show that there is a perceptual temporal hierarchy in vision.
Visual Perception: Theoretical and Methodological Foundations
This chapter contains three tutorial overviews of theoretical and methodological ideas that are important to students of visual perception. From the vast scope of the material we could have covered, we have chosen a small set of topics that form the foundations of vision research. To help fill the inevitable gaps, we have provided pointers to the literature, giving preference to works written at a level accessible to a beginning graduate student. First, we provide a sketch of the theoretical foundations of our field. We lay out four major research programs (in the past they might have been called "schools"), and then discuss how they address eight foundational questions that promise to occupy our discipline for many years to come. Second, we discuss psychophysics, which offers indispensable tools for the researcher. Here we lead the reader from the idea of threshold to the tools of signal detection theory. To illustrate our presentation of methodology, we have not focused ...