Principles of perceptual grouping: implications for image-guided surgery

Frontiers in Psychology

Birgitta Dresp-Langley¹ 

关键词: Gestalt theory;    law of good continuation;    principle of Prä;    gnanz;    collinear integration;    border ownership;    figure-ground;    image-guided surgery;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01565

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The laws and principles which predict how perceptual qualities can be extracted from the most elementary visual signals were discovered by the Gestalt psychologists (e.g., Wertheimer, 1923; Metzger, 1930, translated and re-edited by Spillmann in 2009 and 2012, respectively). Their seminal work has inspired visual science ever since, and has led to exciting discoveries which have confirmed the Gestalt idea that the human brain would have an astonishing capacity for selecting and combining critical visual signals to generate output representations for decision making and action. This capacity of selection and integration enables the perception of form and space, and the correct estimation of relative positions, trajectories, and distances of objects represented in planar images. The Gestalt laws and principles were initially aimed at answering a single all-encompassing question: “Why does the world look the way it does.” They have subsequently been made operational in experimental studies (for an illustration of on-going research see the international METHUSALEM project, coordinated by Johan Wagemans, at www.gestaltrevision.be) aimed at deepening our insights into the ways in which specific characteristics and qualities of visual configurations may determine perceptual organization and behavior at various levels of processing. Perceptual organization directly determines the ability of human observers to assess (1) which parts of an image belong together to form a unified visual object or shape, and (2) which parts should be nearer and which further away from the observer if the represented objects were seen in the real world. This opinion paper argues that the Gestalt principle of Prägnanz and the Gestalt law of good continuation address specific problems of perceptual organization with critical implications for visual interface design, and the design of image-guided surgery platforms in particular.

【 授权许可】

CC BY