"Figure" Salience as a Meta-Rule for Rule Dynamics in Visual Perception

Kazuhiro Sakamoto

Abstract: The brain faces many ill-posed problems whose solutions cannot be achieved solely on the basis of external conditions. To solve such problems, certain constraints or rules are required. Using a fixed set of rules, however, is not necessarily advantageous in ever-changing environments. Here, I revisit two of our previous psychophysical experiments. One pertains to visual depth perception based on spatial frequency cues, and the other involves apparent group motion. Results from these experiments demonstrate that perceptual rules change dynamically depending on the experimental conditions. They also suggest the existence of a meta-rule governing the dynamics of perceptual rules, which I refer to as a meta-rule of “figure” salience.