ABSTRACT
Perceptual processes are probably connected with personality structure just as intimately as are learning and conditioning. Some of the similarities between learning and perception phenomena were noted by W. Kohler and J. Fishback, in particular the favourable influence of rest intervals and the phenomenon of reminiscence, and they suggested that the processes responsible for these phenomena in learning, and neural satiation in perception, might be similar. Kohler's own formulation of the general hypothesis underlying his work postulates that 'a specific figure process occurs whenever a figure appears in the visual field. M. Wertheimer links up, as had Kohler, phenomena such as speed of ambiguous figure reversal with figural after-effects, and provides some experimental evidence regarding the correlation between satiation phenomena and 'metabolic efficiency'. Since physico-chemical changes in tissues are metabolic in nature, the individual may be said to have a greater metabolic modifiability; this greater modifiability is attributed to a more efficient functioning of general metabolic processes.
