At first these figures are not 
identifiable, but with 
continued inspection or a hint, 
the fragments suddenly are 
perceptually reorganized and 
recognized. In viewing these 
figures, recognition requires 
grouping the same elements 
differently. In each case, an 
impression of depth emerges 
where before only two 
dimensions were seen.

    Arriving at these impressions 
of form and depth is not merely 
a matter of going from 
perception to identification in 
a bottom-up direction because 
along with such identification 
comes a perceptual change. 
Whereas normally recognition 
of an object does not alter our 
perception of its form or depth, 
these patterns look different in 
several ways when they are 
recognized. Grouping is 
different; depth generally 
emerges that was not present 
before; and, perhaps most 
importantly, the figures now 
look like the objects they 
represent--they have the 
shapes and depth relations of 
those objects. If these 
fragmented-figure effects were 
not perceptual in character, it 
would be mysterious indeed 
why viewing them would not 
lead immediately to 
recognition. Thus we can 
assume that some mental 
process that precedes or 
accompanies the moment of 
recognition entails a 
perceptual reorganization.