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
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