Perceptual Organization of Visual Structure Requires a Flexible LearningMechanism

Bhatt and Quinn (2011) provide a compelling and comprehensive review of empirical evidence that supports the operation of principles of perceptual organization in young infants. These principles, which are largely synonymous with the Gestalt laws of visual perception, raise a number of important, and as yet unanswered questions. Bhatt and Quinn tackle some of these questions and propose several mechanisms by which infants progress from a few principles of perceptual organization to the full set of principles that operate in adults. The first question is about origins: Are any of the principles of perceptual organization present at birth in the absence of visual experience? Although the Gestalt psychologists assumed that all the principles of perceptual organization were innate, presumably because of evolutionary pressures to ensure their presence in the species, these early 20th century psychologists did not have the methods required to measure the operation of these principles in young infants. Bhatt and Quinn (2011) summarize evidence that by 3–4 months of age there are at least two such principles of perceptual organization in operation: common motion and good continuation. Unfortunately, these data from 3to 4-month-olds do not confirm a nativist origin because 3–4 months of postnatal visual experience provides an enormous opportunity for the learning of these principles. Demonstrations of