Figure-Ground Perception

Consolidated by 

Akshata Jayant Chonkar (1630221)

I CEP-B

Christ University, Bangalore

Figure-ground perception has evolved from the Gestalt school of thought. Figure–ground organization is a type of perceptual grouping which is a vital necessity for recognizing objects through vision.

Perceptual organization is a construct of the Gestalt School of thought. Gestalt theory was first developed in the early 1900s by Austrian and German psychologists. Some of the notable founders of Gestalt theory include Max Wertheimer, and Kurt Koffka. One of the main beliefs of Gestalt theory is that a something as a whole consists of interacting parts that can be separated, analyzed, and rearranged in the whole. In other words, the whole is different from the sum of its parts. Max Wertheimer and scientists with him believed that humans have an inborn tendency to construct meaningful perceptions from fragments of sensory input. This theory of perception proposes that people make sense of the world around them by taking separate and distinct elements and combining them into a unified whole. For example, if you look at shapes drawn on a piece of paper, your mind will likely group the shapes in terms of things such as similarity or proximity. 

People automatically focus on some objects in the perceptual field to the exclusion of others. What we focus on is the figure, and what fades away is the the background.

When a person sees buildings, cars, trees, people, etc.- all these objects are perceived as figures in front of backgrounds of the sky, or other buildings, etc. When figure-ground relationships are ambiguous, or capable of being interpreted in various ways, our perceptions tend to be unstable, shifting back and forth. An example of this would be a reversible figure, which is a drawing that one can perceive in different ways by reversing the figure and ground. In some examples, a shift occurs in our perceptions of what is figure and what is ground.

Psychologists have created different kinds of stimuli in order to study how people separate figure from ground. The interpretations that people derive from these stimuli are real, even though the objects are ambiguous or are nonexistent.  

 The "faces or vases" illustration is one of the most frequent demonstrations of figure-ground. What you see depends on whether you see the white as the figure or the black as the figure.

If you see the white as the figure, then you perceive a vase. If you see the black as the figure, then you see two faces in profile. Most people are able to reverse their perceptions and switch back and forth between the vase and faces images.

When looking at a visual scene, people tend to look for ways to differentiate between the figure and the ground. Some ways that people accomplish this include:

Blurriness: Objects in the foreground tend to be crisp and distinct while those in the background are blurry or hazy.

Contrast: High contrast between objects can lead to the perception of figure and ground The Rubin vase is one example.

Size: Images that appear to be larger will be perceived as closer and part of the figure while those that are smaller will seem further away and part of the background.

Separation: An object isolated from everything else in a visual scene is more likely to be seen as a figure versus background.

Law of common fate: Elements seen moving together are perceived as belonging together

All of these laws help us understand how people transform raw visual inputs into meaningful displays

Bibliography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure–ground_(perception

http://study.com/academy/lesson/figure-ground-perception-definition-examples.html

https://www.verywell.com/what-is-figure-ground-perception-2795195

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