The role of amodal completion in shape formation: some new shape phenomena

Amodal completion occurs when a portion of an object is hidden as a result of its occlusion behind another object. Under these conditions, the object perceived as occluded is seen as a unitary shape, whose boundary contours amodally complete behind the overlapping modal object. Kanizsa (1972, Studia Psychologica 14 208-210) and his collaborators demonstrated some effects related to the amodal completion: shrinkage of the whole figure partially occluded; expansion of the modally visible portions of the same figure; shape deformations against the Gestalt principles of regularity, simplicity, symmetry, and past experience; global increasing of colour quantity of the partially occluded figure. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that the amodal completion is not a necessary factor in inducing the previous effects. This was accomplished through phenomenological experiments whose stimuli were crucial instances (counterexamples) disproving the amodal completion hypothesis and proving the role played by thedirectional symmetry of the element components of each stimulus pattern. Some new phenomena demonstrated the main role of the directional shape organisation, considered as a principle of shape formation.