Illusory Figures: From Logic to Phenomenology

Gestalt and cognitive-Bayesian approaches considered incompleteness as a necessary and sufficient factor for illusory figure formation. In this work, the role of incompleteness has been explored in terms of its inner logic and through an accurate phenomenal analysis of counterexamples and limiting or critical conditions. They demonstrated a bunch of logical issues and paradoxes, and, more importantly, that incompleteness is neither sufficient nor necessary to induce illusory figures. These issues are strongly reduced and possibly solved when the incompleteness is replaced by more simple concepts concerning interacting boundaries, grouping and surface filling-in processes during figure-ground segregation.