Determination of visual figure and ground in dynamically deforming shapes

Figure/ground assignment – determining which part of the visual image is foreground and which background – is a critical step in early visual analysis, upon which much later processing depends. Previous research on the assignment of figure and ground to opposing sides of a contour has almost exclusively involved static geometric factors – such as convexity, symmetry, and size – in non-moving images. Here, we introduce a new class of cue to figural assignment based on the motion of dynamically deforming contours. Subjects viewing an animated, deforming shape tended to assign figure and ground so that articulating curvature extrema – i.e., “hinging” vertices – had negative (concave) contour curvature. This articulating-concavity bias is present when all known static cues to figure/ground are absent or neutral in each of the individual frames of the animation, and even seems to override a number of well-known static cues when they are in opposition to the motion cue. We propose that the phenomenon reflects the visual system’s inbuilt expectations about the way shapes will deform – specifically, that deformations tend to involve rigid parts articulating at concavities.