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Fig. 1.16 The first X-ray
photograph, produced by
R ontgen in 1895, showing his
wife's hand with a wedding
ring
The epistemological advantages of visualization are its repeatable Gestalt
features. The simplest of Gestalt features is the appearance of a figure against a
ground, or the appearance of a foreground figure in a background. Usually, we are
able to single out some features from a background without any problems, although
sometimes it takes a lot more perceptual and cognitive processing before we can be
certain what forms the foreground and what forms the background. Gestalt patterns,
for example, are often connected to the moment of an “Aha!” as we suddenly realize
what the intended relationship between the features and the background is supposed
to be.
Do you see a vase or two people facing each other in Fig. 1.17 ? It depends on
which one you think is the figure. If you take the white vase as the figure, then the
two faces will recede into the background. The figure-ground switch in this picture
represents a typical Gestalt switch . The same set of pixels can be interpreted as the
parts of totally different patterns at a higher level. Isn't it amazing!
In the “naıve image realism” of visual isomorphism, recognizing objects is
straightforward, even though the observer may have never seen such images before.
The isomorphism, meaning the same shape, makes it easy to connect. In Ihde's
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