UNIFORM CONNECTEDNESS AND GROUPING IN THE PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION OF HIERARCHICAL PATTERNS

The principle of uniform connectedness (S. E. Palmer & I. Rock, 1994) states that connected regions of uniform visual properties correspond to the entry-level units of visual stimuli: The implications of this p rinciple for the perceptual organization of hierarchical patterns were investigated in 3 experiments. Primed matching and visual search were used to examine the microgenesis of organization for patterns that va ry in number and relative size of their elements. Results for the few- element patterns showed an initial representation of elements with a w eaker representation of global configuration. Grouping of elements int o global configuration consolidated with time and involved focused att ention. The entry-level units of many-element patterns were global con figuration and texture. Individuation of elements occurred later and i nvolved focused attention. These findings are discussed with reference to processes underlying perceptual organization.