Structural information theory (SIT) is a theory about human perception and in particular about perceptual organization: the way the human visual system organizes a raw visual stimulus into objects and object parts. SIT was initiated, in the 1960s, by Emanuel Leeuwenberg and has been developed further by Hans Buffart, Peter van der Helm, and Rob van Lier. It has been applied to a wide range of research topics, mostly in visual form perception but also in, for instance, visual ergonomics, data visualization, and music perception.
SIT began as a quantitative model of visual pattern classification. Nowadays, it also includes quantitative models of symmetry perception and amodal completion, and it is theoretically founded in formalizations of visual regularity and viewpoint dependency. SIT has been argued to be the best defined and most successful extension of Gestalt ideas. It is the only Gestalt approach providing a formal calculus that generates plausible perceptual interpretations. For a review of the application of SIT to a wide range of perceptual phenomena, see Structural Information Theory: The Simplicity of Visual Form.
Read more about Structural Information Theory: The Simplicity Principle, Structural Versus Algorithmic Information Theory, Simplicity Versus Likelihood, SIT Versus Connectionism and Dynamic Systems Theory, Modelling Principles, Visual Regularity, Cognitive Architecture
Famous quotes containing the words structural, information and/or theory:
“The reader uses his eyes as well as or instead of his ears and is in every way encouraged to take a more abstract view of the language he sees. The written or printed sentence lends itself to structural analysis as the spoken does not because the reader’s eye can play back and forth over the words, giving him time to divide the sentence into visually appreciated parts and to reflect on the grammatical function.”
—J. David Bolter (b. 1951)
“Computers are good at swift, accurate computation and at storing great masses of information. The brain, on the other hand, is not as efficient a number cruncher and its memory is often highly fallible; a basic inexactness is built into its design. The brain’s strong point is its flexibility. It is unsurpassed at making shrewd guesses and at grasping the total meaning of information presented to it.”
—Jeremy Campbell (b. 1931)
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—H.L. (Henry Lewis)