title: Who owns the contour of a visual hole?
abstract: Holes are useful in the study of shape, contour curvature, and border ownership. Several authors have suggested that holes have figural or quasi-figural status. I discuss three criteria to test the evidence that holes behave more like figures than like ground: (i) holes perceived as such; (ii) similar performance for holes and figures; (iii) different performance for holes and other ground regions. Using these criteria, I review the literature and conclude that holes do not have figural status in relation to border ownership. I also argue that holes are ideal stimuli to study figure-ground organisation.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Liverpool, UK. M.Bertamini@liverpool.ac.uk
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bertamini
mesh_terms: D015350:Contrast Sensitivity; D003463:Cues; D003867:Depth Perception / Q000502:physiology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D009903:Optical Illusions; D010466:Perceptual Closure; D011601:Psychophysics; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*