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Psychology · Ch 4 — Sensory, Attentional and Perceptual Processes

The Principle of Continuity

4.4

The Principle of Continuity

This principle states that we tend to perceive objects as belonging together if they appear to form a continuous pattern. For instance, when two smoothly curving lines cross one another at a single central point, we are far more likely to identify two continuous curved lines -- one running from a point labelled a to a point labelled b, and another running from a point labelled c to a point labelled d -- than to identify four se …