Confronted with an object of perception, an individual will spontaneously try to identify unambiguously and consistently all its parts; except in rare instances of “illusory phenomena,” he will immediately succeed. This elementary fact is formalized in a law of visual perception. It is used to define sets of stable states for a sensory mode of a biological system. As characterized, stable states are to perception as quantum states are to atomic structure: they represent natural states of physical systems. They are shown to be observable and to have an exact mathematical representation.A class of bounded open subsets of a two-dimensional Euclidean space, whose boundaries are piecewise compact analytic arcs, is used to construct a nontrivial mathematical model for stable states. The finitely many components of this mathematical model of a stable state (image) are mapped onto an object of perception (icon) by perceptual judgments. These judgments, which include the judgment of stability, have an exact interpretation in this model. They unify and make precise such traditional notions of psychology as “Gestalt,” “figureground,” and “(visual) boundary.”Postulates for a general theory of perception are given. They are used to establish a formal relationship between biological and subjective studies of sensory phenomena and so provide a framework in which subjective studies can be used to analyze (their associated) biological processes. In applying these methods to cases, all icons are divided into two classes (the static and dynamic cases). The static case is treated.
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