ABSTRACT
Gestalt psychology provided many contributions to our understanding of visual perception and posed the basis for several research topics that are still hotly debated. Scientific investigation regarding figure-ground segregation and perceptual grouping has been amazingly productive over the last one hundred years (among others, some of the more recent published works are: Claessens and Wagemans, 2008; Gori and Spillmann, 2010; Gori et al., 2008b; Vezzani et al., 2012; for a more complete review see Wagemans et al., 2012 and Chapter 2 by Wagemans in this volume) revealing how central these topics are in the scientific community. The Gestalt tradition, however, risked a premature ending: Wertheimer and Koffka died prematurely and in Germany Metzger, Rausch, and Gottschaldt did have many PhD students, but few of them carried on in the Gestalt tradition (Wagemans et al., 2012 and Chapter 2 by Wagemans in this volume). However, the pioneering work of Spillmann has played a prominent role in connecting the Gestalt view with modern neurophysiology and psychophysics and reinvigorating Gestalt tradition (e.g. Gori and Spillmann, 2010; Spillmann 1997, 1999, 2006, 2009; Spillmann and Dresp, 1995).
