Languages for Gestalts of line patterns

• Published in: Journal of mathematical psychology Vol. 47; no. 4; pp. 429 - 449
• Main Authors: Dastani, Mehdi, Scha, Remko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.08.2003
• Subjects: Gestalt; Minimum principle; Perceptual structures; Structural information theory; Visual perception; Minimum principle; Structural information theory; Gestalt; Perceptual structures; Visual perception
• ISSN: 0022-2496; 1096-0880
• DOI: 10.1016/S0022-2496(03)00031-2

Any formal model of visual Gestalt perception requires a language for representing possible perceptual structures of visual stimuli, as well as a decision criterion that selects the actually perceived structure of a stimulus among its possible alternatives. This paper discusses an existing model of visual Gestalt perception that is based on Structural Information Theory. We investigate two factors that determine the representational power of this model: the domain of visual stimuli that can be analyzed, and the class of perceptual structures that can be generated for these stimuli. We show that the representational power of the existing model of Structural Information Theory is limited, and that some of the generated structures are perceptually inadequate. We argue that these limitations do not imply the implausibility of the underlying ideas of Structural Information Theory and introduce alternative models based on the same ideas. For each of these models, the domain of visual stimuli that can be analyzed properly is formally defined. We show that the models are conservative modifications of the original model of Structural Information Theory: for cases that are adequately analyzed in the original model of Structural Information Theory, they yield the same results.