A Failure of the Proximity Principle in the Perception of Motion

The proximity principle is a fundamental fact of spatial vision. It has been a cornerstone of the Gestalt approach to perception, it is supported by overwhelming empirical evidence, and its utility has been proven in studies of the ecological statistics of optical stimulation. We show, however, that the principle does not generalize to dynamic scenes, i.e., no spatiotemporal proximity principle governs the perception of motion. In other words, elements of a dynamic display separated by short spatiotemporal distances are not more likely to be perceived as parts of the same object than elements separated by longer spatiotemporal distances.

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