Perceptual organization comprises a wide range of processes such as perceptual grouping, figure-ground organization, filling-in, completion, perceptual switching, etc. Such processes are most notable in the context of shape perception but they also play a role in texture perception, lightness perception, color perception, motion perception, depth perception, etc. Perceptual organization deals with a variety of perceptual phenomena of central interest, studied from many different perspectives, including psychophysics, experimental psychology, neuropsychology, neuroimaging, neurophysiology, and computational modeling. Given its central importance in phenomenal experience, perceptual organization has also figured prominently in classic Gestalt writings on the topic, touching upon deep philosophical issues regarding mind-brain relationships and consciousness. In addition, it attracts a great deal of interest from people working in applied areas like visual art, design, architecture, music, and so forth. The Oxford Handbook of Perceptual Organization provides a broad and extensive review of the current literature, written in an accessible form for scholars and students. With chapter written by leading researchers in the field, this is the state-of-the-art reference work on this topic, and will be so for many years to come.
Section One: General Background 1: Johan Wagemans: Historical and conceptual background: Gestalt theory 2: Liliana Albertazzi: Philosophical background: Phenomenology 3: Jan Koenderink: Methodological background: Experimental phenomenology Section Two: Groups, Patterns, Textures 4: Joseph L. Brooks: Traditional and new principles of perceptual grouping 5: James R. Pomerantz and Anna I. Cragin: Emergent features and feature combination 6: Peter A. van der Helm: Symmetry perception 7: Ruth Kimchi: The perception of hierarchical structure 8: Statistical regularities 9: Ruth Rosenholtz: Texture perception Section Three: Contours and Shapes 10: Robert F. Hess, Keith A. May, and Serge O. Dumoulin: Contour Integration: Psychophysical, neurophysiological, and computational perspectives 11: James H. Elder: Bridging the dimensional gap: Perceptual organization of contour in two-dimensional shape 12: Manish Singh: Visual representation of contour and shape Section Four: Figure-Ground Organization 13: Mary A. Peterson: Low-level and high-level contributions to figure-ground organization 14: Marco Bertamini and Roberto Casati: Figures and holes 15: Rob van Lier and Walter Gerbino: Perceptual completions 16: Matthew W. Self and Pieter R. Roelfsema: The neural mechanisms of figure-ground segregation 17: Naoki Kogo and Raymond van Ee: Neural mechanisms of figure-ground organization: Border-ownership, competition and perceptual switching 18: Steven W. Zucker: Border inference and border ownership. The challenge of integrating geometry and topology Section Five: Surface and Colour Perception 19: Alan Gilchrist: Perceptual organization in lightness 20: Walter Gerbino: Achromatic transparency 21: Hannah Smithson: Perceptual organization of colour 22: Barton L. Anderson: The perceptual representation of transparency, lightness, and gloss Section Six: Motion and Event Perception 23: Michael Herzog and Haluk Ogmen: Apparent motion and reference frames 24: Nicola Bruno and Marco Bertamini: Perceptual organization and the aperture problem 25: Stefano Vezzani, Peter Kramer, and Paola Bressan: Stereokinetic effect, kinetic depth effect,and structure from motion 26: Christopher D. Blair, Peter U. Tse, and Gideon P. Caplovitz: Interactions of form and motion in the perception of moving objects 27: Howard S. Hock: Dynamic grouping motion: A method for determining perceptual organization for objects with connected surfaces 28: Martin A. Giese: Biological and body motion perception Section Seven: Perceptual Organization and other Modalities 29: Susan L. Denham and Istvan Winkler: Auditory perceptual organization 30: Astrid M. L. Kappers and Wouter M. Bergmann Tiest: Tactile and haptic perceptual organization 31: Charles Spence: Cross-modal perceptual organization 32: Noelle R. B. Stiles and Shinsuke Shimojo: Sensory substitution: A new perceptual experience 33: Melvyn A. Goodale and Tzvi Ganel: Different modes of visual organization for perception and for action Section Eight: Special Interest Topics 34: Paul C. Quinn and Ramesh S. Bhatt: Development of perceptual organization in infancy 35: Lee de-Wit and Johan Wagemans: Individual differences in local and global perceptual organization 36: Celine R. Gillebert and Glyn W. Humphreys: Mutual interplay between perceptual organization and attention: a neuropsychological perspective 37: Marlene Behrmann, Jennifer J. Richler, Galia Avidan, and Ruth Kimchi: Holistic face perception 38: David Alais and Randolph Blake: Binocular rivalry and perceptual ambiguity 39: D. Samuel Schwarzkopf and Geraint Rees: Perceptual organization and consciousness 40: Alex Holcombe: The temporal organization of perception Section Nine: Applications of Perceptual Organization 41: Daniel Osorio and Innes C. Cuthill: Camouflage and perceptual organization in the animal kingdom 42: Gert J. van Tonder and Dhanraj Vishwanath: Design insights: Gestalt, Bauhaus and Japanese gardens 43: Jan J. Koenderink: Perceptual organization in visual art Section Ten: Theoretical Approaches 44: Jungseock Joo, Shuo Wang, and So ng-Chun Zhu: Hierarchical organization by and-or tree 45: Jacob Feldman: Probabilistic models of perceptual features 46: James T. Townsend and Michael J. Wenger: On the dynamic perceptual characteristics of Gestalten: Theory-based methods 47: Cees van Leeuwen: Hierarchical stages or emergence in perceptual integration? 48: Cees van Leeuwen: Cortical dynamics and oscillations: What controls what we see? 49: Jacob Feldman: Bayesian models of perceptual organization 50: Peter A. van der Helm: Simplicity in perceptual organization 51: Jan J. Koenderink: Gestalts as ecological templates
Johan Wagemans has a BA in psychology and philosophy, an MSc and a PhD in experimental psychology, all from the University of Leuven, where he is currently a full professor. Current research interests are mainly in so-called mid-level vision (perceptual grouping, figure-ground organization, depth and shape perception) but stretching out to low-level vision (contrast detection and discrimination) and high-level vision (object recognition and categorization), including applications in autism, arts, and sports. He is supervising a long-term research program aimed at reintegrating Gestalt psychology into contemporary vision science and neuroscience (see www.gestaltrevision.be) He is chief-editor of Perception, i-Perception and Art & Perception.
Reviews for The Oxford Handbook of Perceptual Organization
This will be the standard reference work for a generation to come...the contributions from leading experts in the study of perception are sweeping and authoritative * Matthias Hartmann, Perception *
