Grouping and segmentation in binocular rivalry.

Dichoptic presentation of dot arrays produces binocular rivalry if the arrays are of opposite contrast relative to background. Rivalry can occur even if individual dots in one eye's array do not overlap with the dots in the contralateral eye's array. The amount of unitary perception of only one array is a measure of the probability that the stimuli rival as textured surfaces rather than as portions of arrays or as individual dot elements. In accordance with Gestalt grouping principles, arrays of uniform brightness or color produced more unitary perception than mixed arrays. However, experiments with parametric variation of dot motion coherence suggested that segmentation mechanisms based on detection of collinearity can also influence perceptual selection and suppression in binocular rivalry.