LOCAL AND GLOBAL MINIMA IN VISUAL COMPLETION - EFFECTS OF SYMMETRY AND ORIENTATION

The visual information that specifies three-dimensional objects is oft en incomplete because objects occlude parts of themselves and other ob jects. Yet people rarely have difficulty perceiving complete, three-di mensional forms. Somehow the visual system seems to 'complete' partial ly specified objects. The perceptual processes underlying this seeming ly effortless and immediate completion are poorly understood. Sekuler and Palmer designed in 1992 the primed-matching paradigm for the objec tive study of completion effects and their microgenesis. Results from the paradigm suggest that global processes may play a role early in pe rceptual completion, and that local processes dominate only under limi ted conditions of figural regularity and orientation. These results ar e not consistent with purely local or purely global theories of comple tion. The findings have implications for object perception and represe ntation.