Late influences on perceptual grouping: Amodal completion

Abstract

Perceptual grouping is generally assumed to be an early visual process that operates on a previously unorganized image-based representation. The present experiment shows that elements perceived as occluded by a closer surface tend to be grouped with elements having the same shape as the amodally completed percept rather than with those having the same retinal shape as the incomplete stimulus. It is therefore concluded that perceptual grouping by shape similarity either occurs after amodal completion or is a temporally extended process that occurs both before and after it.