FIGURE-GROUND ORGANIZATION AND OBJECT RECOGNITION PROCESSES - AN INTERACTIVE ACCOUNT

Traditional bottom-up models of visual processing assume that figure-g round organization precedes object recognition. This assumption seems logically necessary: How can object recognition occur before a region is labeled as figure? However, some behavioral studies find that famil iar regions are more likely to be labeled figure than less familiar re gions, a problematic finding for bottom-up models. An interactive acco unt is proposed in which figure-ground processes receive top-down inpu t from object representations in a hierarchical system. A graded, inte ractive computational model is presented that accounts for behavioral results in which familiarity effects are found. The interactive model offers an alternative conception of visual processing to bottom-up mod els.