Occlusion phenomena raise two questions: (1) When will an occluding and a partly occluded object be seen, as opposed to several nonoverlapping objects? (2) What is seen behind the occluding object? Available theories give no satisfactory description of occlusion data. In our view, this situation is at least partially due to the fact that patterns used in occlusion studies are always regular, whereas it is almost unknown which regularities are actually perceived in occlusion patterns. We have therefore collected a complete set of data for a restricted domain of patterns with minimal regularity. Starting from these data, we have developed a model of the perceptual organization of this class of patterns and tested it in a second experiment. The model is a specification of the Gestalt law of good continuation. It assumes that there is a tendency to describe a pattern by the smallest possible number of contour elements and with the smallest possible changes of direction within and between necessary contour elements. The results fit in well with the predictions of the model. It is further demonstrated that the model also describes the preferred interpretations of many regular patterns, published in other studies.
Kellman and Shipley (1991) recently advanced a new theory to explain the perception of partly occluded objects and illusory figures. The theory is a formalization of the Gestalt law of good continuation. In this paper we describe their account of occlusion when the contour of the occluder is completely specified by a display. Next, we outline some critical objections and present a number of counterexamples. Finally, we compare their theory with Wouterlood and Boselie's (in this issue) model of occlusion phenomena, which might also be considered as a formalization of the law of good continuation.
The minimum principle states that a perceiver will see the simplest possible interpretation of a pattern. Some theorists of human perception take this principle as a core-explanatory concept. Others hold the view that a perceptual minimum principle is untenable. In two recent extensive surveys of the relevant literature a more differentiated position is taken: the minimum principle is not renounced in a definite way. In the research reported here, an intuitively appealing specification of a minimum principle is tested. An experiment on visual pattern completion was performed in which patterns were presented to subjects who traced the contours of the shapes they saw. It was predicted that there would be a preference for interpretations that describe a pattern as a set of separate shapes with minimal information load as computed by Leeuwenberg's coding language. However, only half of the responses given by the subjects were predicted by this specification of a minimum principle. It was further demonstrated that locally complex interpretations of junctions of contour elements are easily made, but not in order to attain globally minimal interpretations.
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