Synonyms
Visual integration; Visual synthesis
Definition
Visual closure refers to the ability to perceive and recognize objects, shapers, features, or symbols from incomplete or degraded visual stimuli. It reflects the capacity of humans to fill in missing information from incomplete sensory input to achieve a meaningful percept.
Historical Perspective
The principle of visual closure had its roots in Gestalt psychology (Ellis 1938; Harlow 1938; Köhler 1929). Gestalt psychology theorized that operationally brain functions (i.e., perception and cognition) are holistic consisting of analog processes that occur in a parallel manner and are self-organizing. This led to the well-known conclusion regarding perception, and cognition more generally, that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Based on this framework, all perceptual processes act to achieve optimal organization and reconciliation with the objects that are being perceived. A critical principle driving Gestalt...
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References and Readings
Ellis, W. D. (1938). A source book of Gestalt psychology. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
Foreman, N. (1991). Correlates of performance on the Gollin and Mooney tests of visual closure. Journal of General Psychology, 118(1), 13–20.
Harlow, R. F. (1938). Philosophy’s contribution to Gestalt psychology. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 5, 185–200.
Holmes, D. S. (1968). Search for “closure” in a visually perceived pattern. Psychological Bulletin, 70(5), 296–312.
Jones, E. C., & Dennis, M. E. (1972). Perceptual closure as a function of gap size. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 35(1), 126.
Köhler, W. (1929). Gestalt psychology. New York: H. Liveright.
Mooney, C. M., & Ferguson, G. A. (1951). A new closure test. Canadian Journal of Psychology/Revue Canadienne de Psychologie, 5(3), 129–133.
Poppelreuter, W. (1990). Disturbances of lower and higher visual capacities caused by occipital damage: With special reference to the psychopathological, pedagogical, industrial, and social implications. Oxford/New York: Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press.
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Cohen, R.A. (2018). Closure. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1352
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1352
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