ABSTRACT
To see an object means to detect and represent a bounded volume of matter. To see objects accurately means that our perceptual representations correspond to facts about the physical world: what things cohere and where the world breaks apart. Carving the world into objects links fundamental aspects of physical reality to a primary format of cognitive reality. Our comprehension of scenes and situations is written in the vocabulary of objects, and to objects we assign basic properties important for thought and action, such as shape, size, and substance.
