The effect of proximity and continuity on amodal completion

This chapter explores the broad thesis that most if not all perceptual experiences are infused or soaked with imaginings. To begin, the author articulates a sense of imagination useful for this discussion, avoids some pitfalls, and incorporates the result into a schematic guidance principle. The thought behind the principle is that imaginative contributions to perceptual experiences are self-generated ingredients to perception that have a reasonably direct, ampliative impact on the relevant perceptual experiences. This framework is then applied to three sets of case studies: object-kind and object-sameness experiences (Strawson 1970); colour (Macpherson 2012); and amodal completion (Nanay 2010) and perceptual constancy. Although the case studies have interesting differences, they all conform to the guidance principle. Since each has the potential to independently justify the thesis that perceptual experiences are infused with imaginings, they collectively provide sound motive to provisionally endorse it.

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The “Mosaic Stage” in Amodal Completion as Characterized by Magnetoencephalography Responses

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2006.18.8.1394 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 18 (8) ◽

pp. 1394-1405 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Gijs Plomp ◽

Lichan Liu ◽

Cees van Leeuwen ◽

Andreas A. Ioannides

Keyword(s):

Neural Activity ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Early Stage ◽

Amodal Completion ◽

Peak Latency ◽

Per Se

We investigated the process of amodal completion in a same-different experiment in which test pairs were preceded by sequences of two figures. The first of these could be congruent to a global or local completion of an occluded part in the second figure, or a mosaic interpretation of it. We recorded and analyzed the magnetoencephalogram for the second figures. Compared to control conditions, in which unrelated primes were shown, occlusion and mosaic primes reduced the peak latency and amplitude of neural activity evoked by the occlusion patterns. Compared to occlusion primes, mosaic ones reduced the latency but increased the amplitude of evoked neural activity. Processes relating to a mosaic interpretation of the occlusion pattern, therefore, can dominate in an early stage of visual processing. The results did not provide evidence for the presence of a functional “mosaic stage” in completion per se, but characterize the mosaic interpretation as a qualitatively special one that can rapidly emerge in visual processing when context favors it.

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Is Perception Stimulus-Dependent?

Review of Philosophy and Psychology ◽

10.1007/s13164-021-00558-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sergio Cermeño-Aínsa

Keyword(s):

Amodal Completion ◽

Visual Categorization ◽

Australasian Journal ◽

Dependence Criterion ◽

The Senses ◽

Natural Way

AbstractThe most natural way to distinguish perception from cognition is by considering perception as stimulus-dependent. Perception is tethered to the senses in a way that cognition is not. Beck Australasian Journal of Philosophy 96(2): 319-334 (2018) has recently argued in this direction. He develops this idea by accommodating two potential counterexamples to his account: hallucinations and demonstrative thoughts. In this paper, I examine this view. First, I detect two general problems with movement to accommodate these awkward cases. Subsequently, I place two very common mental phenomena under the prism of the stimulus-dependence criterion: amodal completion and visual categorization. The result is that the stimulus-dependent criterion is too restrictive, it leaves the notion of perception extremely cramped. I conclude that even the criterion of stimulus-dependence fails to mark a clearly defined border between perception and cognition.

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Amodal Completion and the Perception of Depth without Binocular Correspondence

Perception ◽

10.1068/p3305 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 31 (9) ◽

pp. 1037-1045 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Benoit A Bacon ◽

Pascal Mamassian

Keyword(s):

Amodal Completion ◽

Correspondence Problem ◽

Illusory Contours ◽

Binocular Matching ◽

Partially Occluded ◽

Global Surface

Half-occlusions and illusory contours have recently been used to show that depth can be perceived in the absence of binocular correspondence and that there is more to stereopsis than solving the correspondence problem. In the present study we show a new way for depth to be assigned in the absence of binocular correspondence, namely amodal completion. Although an occluder removed all possibility of direct binocular matching, subjects consistently assigned the correct depth (convexity or concavity) to partially occluded ‘folded cards’ stimuli. Our results highlight the importance of more global, surface-based processes in stereopsis.

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