Jf. Stins et C. Vanleeuwen, CONTEXT INFLUENCE ON THE PERCEPTION OF FIGURES AS CONDITIONAL UPON PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION STRATEGIES, Perception & psychophysics, 53(1), 1993, pp. 34-42
Two experiments tested the effect of context on figure perception. Sub
jects were shown rapid sequences of three figures: a prime, a whole, a
nd a part. They were asked to decide if the third figure was a part of
the second (Experiment 1) or if the second and third figures were the
same or different with respect to a particular angle (Experiment 2).
The prime served to establish a context for stimuli that followed to b
e compared. Priming had influence on the part-whole comparison in Expe
riment 1, but not on the local comparison in Experiment 2. The results
of Experiment 1 were interpreted as evidence for a role of prior info
rmation in perceptual organization. Experiment 2 showed that the task
must require an integrative perceptual organization strategy for the p
riming effects to occur.