Apparent position governs contour-element binding by the visual system

An assumption inherent in many models of visual space is that the spatial c oordinates of retinal cells implicitly give rise to the perceptual code for position. The results of the experiments reported here, in which it is sho wn that retinally non-veridical locations of contour elements are used by t he visual system for contour-element binding, lend support to a different v iew. The visual system does not implicitly code position with reference to the labelled locations of retinal cells, but dynamically extracts spatial p osition from the aggregate result of local computations. These computations may include local spatial relationships between retinal cells, but are not confined to them; other computations, including position derived from loca l velocity cues, are combined to code the position of objects in the visual world.