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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 4, 2025

RBDT: A Computerized Task System based in Transposition for the Continuous Analysis of Relational Behavior Dynamics in Humans

RBDT: A Computerized Task System based in Transposition for the Continuous Analysis of Relational Behavior Dynamics in Humans

Published on: July 17, 2021

Amodal completion and relationalism.

Bence Nanay^1,2

¹Centre for Philosophical Psychology, University of Antwerp, D 413, Grote, Kauwenberg 18, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium.

Philosophical Studies

|July 20, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Relationalism about perception struggles to explain amodal completion, the brain's ability to perceive unseen object parts. This study argues relationalist accounts of perceptual experience fail to coherently address this phenomenon.

Keywords:

Amodal completion Perceptual phenomenology Perceptual representation Relationalism Representationalism

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Area of Science:

Philosophy of Mind
Cognitive Science
Perception

Background:

Amodal completion involves perceiving occluded object parts without sensory input.
Current philosophical accounts of perception, like relationalism, face challenges in explaining this phenomenon.

Purpose of the Study:

To critically evaluate relationalism's capacity to account for amodal completion.
To demonstrate the incoherence of relationalist explanations for perceiving unseen object portions.

Main Methods:

Philosophical argumentation and conceptual analysis.
Examination of the core tenets of relationalism regarding perceptual experience.
Analysis of the implications of relationalism for understanding amodal completion.

Main Results:

Relationalism, when construing the perceptual relation to the entire object, fails to account for amodal completion.
Relationalism, when construing the perceptual relation to only unoccluded parts, also fails to explain amodal completion.
Neither of the relationalist's viable options provide a coherent account of amodal completion.

Conclusions:

Relationalism about perception is inadequate for a coherent theory of amodal completion.
Alternative philosophical frameworks may be necessary to fully explain how we perceive occluded object parts.
The study highlights a significant gap in current philosophical theories of perception.