home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Illusion - Is Seeing Really Believing?
/
Illusion - Is Seeing Really Believing (1998)(Marshall Media)[Mac-PC].iso
/
mac
/
ILLUSION
/
SROCK_TX.CXT
/
00226_Text_ref19t.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-12-31
|
1KB
|
42 lines
Figure-Ground Differentiation
In initially viewing the map of
Europe, our attention is drawn
to the black regions because
they are smaller than and more
or less surrounded by the white
regions, because they contrast
more sharply with the white
page than do the white regions,
and because the convention in
our society for printed matter is
to color or outline things in
black on a white background.
For these reasons, we tend
unconsciously to regard the
black regions as the "things"
and the white regions as the
background. In so doing, we
assign the outline between
black and white to the black
regions. The black regions thus
take on a certain shape.
The mind, then, organizes
the pattern in a particular way,
into a particular figure-ground
differentiation. This mental
process, which was described
in 1921 by the Danish
psychologist Edgar Rubin, is
fundamental in all perception.
The terms "figure" and
"ground" have filtered into the
common lexicon, but they are
often simply understood to
differentiate the object that
stands out (figure) from the
object or objects that recede
into the background (ground).
But that is only part of their
meaning.