ABSTRACT
Perceptual organization refers to constraints on what is perceived (e.g., with visual angle held constant, apparent size and apparent distance covary; apparent figural quality varies with apparent simplicity of configuration). Three major classes of organizational phenomena (space, shape/form, and movement) have been important to perceptual theory. Theories of organization differ in the roles assigned to stimulus structure (intrastimulus constraints) and to mental structure (interresponse constraints) and on the degree of wholism posited (i.e., the size of the structure within which constraints are strong). The major perceptual theories are analyzed in these terms. Phenomena are reviewed that very sharply limit the tenability of any theory to which spatial or temporal wholism is important and that clearly demonstrate mental structure in the absence of stimulus structure.
The class of theory proposed by J. S. Mill and Helmholtz—that we perceive by fitting the most likely or expected (global) object or event to the sampled (local) sensory components—remains the one best suited to the widest range of organizational phenomena (including the Gestalt phenomena). Mental structure does not simply reflect physical (stimulus) structure, however, and the different levels of organization must be separated before such theories can be seriously considered and developed.
