This reprinted chapter originally appeared in Vision Science: Photons to Phenomenology,
1999, 255-269. It explores perceptual organization and begins with a discussion on the …

Gestalt psychologists first investigated and developed a theory of object perception. They
approached the problem of visual objects in terms of figure-ground segregation and …

The field of perceptual organization in vision is surveyed and analyzed from
phenomenological, empirical, and theoretical perspectives. Structuralist, Gestaltist, and …

The problem of perceptual organization is central to understanding vision. Its importance—
and its difficulty—can perhaps be most easily appreciated by considering the output of the …

This chapter summarizes a growing body of literature on organizational effects in vision.
Although they are readily experienced phenomenally, these effects also surface in the …

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 …

A common notion holds that the visual system produces a facsimile representation of the
visual world. However, what we perceive phenomenally can often not be explained on the …

Our present understanding of perceptual organization has its roots in the observations and
qualitative principles of the Gestalt psychologists. Gestaltists and their associates identified …

Gestalt laws are still an important point of reference for the understanding of perceptual
processes. However, the distinction between figure-ground segregation and grouping, as …

Gestalt principles (regularities of figure–ground articulation and grouping laws) account for
the organization of the visual field, but what is the origin of those principles themselves …