Grouping of Multiple Ambiguous Contours: Towards an Understanding of Surface Perception

Coplanar lines of different orientations rotating in depth and viewed in parallel projection may appear to rotate in different directions and reverse independently of each other, or they may appear coplanar and all reverse together. The frequency of the latter ‘grouped’ appearance for lines with an orientation range of 30° was a function of the number of lines in a given space. Grouping was greater for lines converging to an implicit vanishing point and for lines with collinear edges regardless of their orientations. Line length and, by inference, interline separation also had effects on the nature of the response.