Cite as:
Nucci M, Wagemans J, 2004, "Goodness of regularity in dot patterns: Global symmetry, local symmetry, and their interactions" Perception 33 ECVP Abstract Supplement

Goodness of regularity in dot patterns: Global symmetry, local symmetry, and their interactions

M Nucci, J Wagemans

Goodness is a classic Gestalt notion, defined as salience or perceptual strength of a given pattern. All operational models of goodness have assigned a central role to mirror symmetry but not much attention has been paid to the distinction between global and local mirror symmetry, and their possible interactions. We designed eight different types of dot patterns (all consisting of 80 dots), combining different numbers (0, 1, and 2) and orientations (parallel or orthogonal to each other) of local and global axes of symmetry (affecting 50% or 100% of the dots, respectively) at different orientations (vertical and horizontal). Each of a large number of trials (eg 640) consisted of a short presentation (eg 200 ms) of a new dot pattern, which subjects had to classify as regular or random. We hypothesised that the overall goodness of patterns is not a simple sum of the amount of regularity present in them but depends on cooperation and competition between symmetries. The results confirmed our hypothesis, showing that performance in this regularity-detection task did not increase in a linear way when some symmetries were added to other symmetries.

These web-based abstracts are provided for ease of seaching and access, but certain aspects (such as as mathematics) may not appear in their optimum form. For the final published version of this abstract, please see
ECVP 2004 Abstract Supplement (complete) size: 1686 Kb