Collaborative Research: Gestalt Detection

The Salk Institute For Biological Studies, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

When we look at the world, how do we know which parts of the visual input belong to the same object and which do not? The process known as perceptual grouping takes elements of the visual input and combines them into what we experience as a visual scene that contains objects, people, plants, shadows, and so on. Most of the time perceptual grouping is involuntary but it can come under voluntary control. For this reason, the study of perceptual grouping is a part of the larger effort toward understanding consciousness. Although phenomena of perceptual grouping are an essential foundation of perception, they are often described using a list of qualitative "principles," such as proximity, similarity, and good continuation, that are vague and unquantified. Michael Kubovy at the University of Virginia and Sergei Gepshtein at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies are proposing to clarify some of the fundamental processes of perceptual grouping, using rigorous methods of measurement and modeling. The researchers start with simple visual patterns that allow them to study one force of perceptual grouping at a time. The individual forces of grouping will then be combined, using more complex visual patterns, with the goal to derive general quantitative laws of perceptual grouping. The researchers will study the interaction of geometric factors (such as proximity between elements of visual displays) and intensive factors (such as the luminance and contrast of the elements) in perceptual grouping. The laws of combination of grouping factors will be compared with the laws of combination of other sensory cues, which have been intensively studied in the perception of visual depth and in multisensory integration. Software to be developed for this research program will be made accessible to the public. In addition to addressing fundamental issues in visual perception, the work has the potential to influence developments in visual media such as art, animation, and film.