Memory and Learning in Figure–Ground Perception

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter illustrates the evidence that long served to support the figure-ground-first assumption. It reviews Peterson and her colleague's early work revealing shape and object memory effects on figure assignment. In this early work, observers reported their subjective impression of where the figure lay with respect to the border of interest; in other words, figure–ground perception was assessed via direct report. In Figure–ground assignment occurs when two regions share a common border (as the black and white regions). One region—the figure—is typically seen as shaped by the border. The other region— the ground—is seen as shapeless near the border it shares with the figure; it appears to continue behind the figure as its background. A number of questions are reopened by the findings of Peterson and her colleagues, questions for which answers generated within the figure-ground-first assumption are no longer valid. The chapter also reviews some research conducted to answer these questions and introduce a new model of figure assignment. The answer to these questions can be valuable, not for finding the place to draw a line dividing visual perception and memory, but rather for understanding both the nature of object memory and the nature of the interactions that determine figure assignment.