L7- Perceptual organisation
What is perceptual organisation?
What we perceive
- Coherent objects, events, scenes
What this is built of
- Bits + pieces i.e. features (edges, blobs, orientations, motion, colour etc)
Perceptual organisation is the process by which visual features are combined
(structured, organised) into meaningful wholes
What would the world look like without perceptual organisation?
We wouldn’t see coherent objects, events + scenes
- Our visual experience would lack structure
Perception without organisation is ‘piecemeal’
- A ‘snowstorm’ of visual input (features)
- Continuously changing as we move our eyes
The problem of organisation
Retinal input is anything like what we subjectively perceive:
- An array of neural signals from photoreceptors
- Rapidly changing as we move our eyes
The challenge is to find structure in this array of signals
Grouping principles
Gestalt psychologists experimented with varying simple dimensions of groups of
elementary elements + literally see how it changed the first impression (perception)
- Which elements are seen as ‘going together’?
Laws of grouping- Wertheimer
Some principles of grouping
What is perceptual organisation?
What we perceive
- Coherent objects, events, scenes
What this is built of
- Bits + pieces i.e. features (edges, blobs, orientations, motion, colour etc)
Perceptual organisation is the process by which visual features are combined
(structured, organised) into meaningful wholes
What would the world look like without perceptual organisation?
We wouldn’t see coherent objects, events + scenes
- Our visual experience would lack structure
Perception without organisation is ‘piecemeal’
- A ‘snowstorm’ of visual input (features)
- Continuously changing as we move our eyes
The problem of organisation
Retinal input is anything like what we subjectively perceive:
- An array of neural signals from photoreceptors
- Rapidly changing as we move our eyes
The challenge is to find structure in this array of signals
Grouping principles
Gestalt psychologists experimented with varying simple dimensions of groups of
elementary elements + literally see how it changed the first impression (perception)
- Which elements are seen as ‘going together’?
Laws of grouping- Wertheimer
Some principles of grouping
