ABSTRACT
In the early 1900s, the Gestalt psychologists proposed that a perceived whole was different from the sum of its components (e.g., Koffka, 1935; Kohler, 1929; Wertheimer, 1923). Within shape perception, specifically, strong support for this notion was provided by demonstrations of perceptual inclusiveness (Vernon, 1937): Certain perceived shapes (e.g., see Fig. 6.1) absorbed their components to the point of making them no longer recognizable (Wertheimer, 1923; Kohler, 1925, 1929). It was argued that these demonstrations of perceptual inclusiveness supported the well-known Gestalt tenet in the following manner: Any perceived whole that cannot be perceptually analyzed into its components is not the sum of those components; just as a cement wall, which cannot be easily decomposed into lime, clay, and water, is not simply the sum of those elements.
