Citation

Peterson MA, Harvey EM, Weidenbacher HJ. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 1991; 17(4): 1075-1089.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, American Psychological Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1837298

Abstract

Observers viewed upright and inverted versions of figure-ground stimuli, in which Gestalt variables specified that the center was figure. In upright versions, the surround was high in denotivity, in that most viewers agreed it depicted the same shape; in inverted versions, the surround was low in denotivity. The surround was maintained as figure longer and was more likely to be obtained as figure when the stimuli were upright rather than inverted. In four experiments, these effects reflected inputs to figure-ground computations from orientation-specific shape representations only. To account for these findings, a nonratiomorphic mechanism is proposed that enables shape recognition processes before figure-ground relationships are determined.

Language: en