Perceptual organization as nested control (Q1062646)

The paper introduces an approach to a unified explanation of several types of perceptual phenomena. It is argued that perceptual organization is the structuring of environmental stimuli into so called nested structures of control. A mathematical model for such a structuration is proposed, based on group theory. The perceptual areas for which the proposed theory is offered in this paper are \textit{D. Marr} and \textit{H. K. Nishihara}'s [Representation and recognition of the spatial organization of three-dimensional shapes. Proc. R. Soc. Lond., Ser. B 200, 169-294 (1978)] theory of shape description, the orientation-and-form phenomenon and \textit{G. Johansson}'s [Configurations in event perception. Almqvist and Wiksell (1950)] motion phenomenon, for instance.