PERCEPTUAL GROUPING BY SIMILARITY AND PROXIMITY - EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS CAN BE PREDICTED BY INTENSITY AUTOCORRELATIONS

A model for perceptual grouping based on measurements of spatial corre lations is proposed and tested, Gestalt-like grouping experiments were performed to study and quantify the effect of element similarity (sha pe, luminance) and proximity, Observers reported the horizontal or ver tical organization of stimuli with proximity and similarity providing conflicting grouping cues, Proximity grouping was found to be perceive d much faster than similarity grouping, However, with increasing proce ssing time, similarity was found to dominate grouping. The experimenta l results can be accounted for by assuming a process that compares hor izontal and vertical intensity autocorrelations. The model suggests th at correlations are measured across a limited spatial range, and that this range increases with processing time.