Perceptual Grouping and Subjective Contours

The appearance of subjective contours is so compelling that they are often treated as phenomena with little connection to other aspects of form perception, although the chapters by Day, Rock, Kellman and Loukides, and Mingolla and Grossberg in the present volume do deal with this connection in various ways. In this chapter an attempt is made to examine the relationship between the presence of perceptual grouping and the tendency to see subjective contours. Interestingly, there can be an inverse relationship under certain conditions.