Temporal windows of perceptual organization: Evidence from crowding and uncrowding

Abstract

Organizing visual input into coherent percepts requires dynamic grouping and segmentation mechanisms that operate across both spatial and temporal domains. While crowding disrupts target perception when nearby elements fall within the same spatial pooling window, specific flanker configurations can alleviate this effect through Gestalt-based grouping, a phenomenon known as uncrowding. Here, we examined the temporal dynamics underlying these spatial organization processes using a Vernier discrimination task. In Experiment 1, we varied stimulus duration and found that uncrowding emerged only after 160 ms, suggesting a time-consuming process. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the target and flankers. We found that presenting good-Gestalt flankers briefly before the target (as little as 32 ms) significantly boosted uncrowding, even in the absence of temporal overlap between the two stimuli. This effect was specific to conditions in which flankers preceded the target, ruling out pure temporal integration and masking accounts. These findings suggest that spatial segmentation can be dynamically facilitated when the temporal order of presentation allows grouping mechanisms to engage prior to target processing. Moreover, the observed time course indicates that segmentation is not purely feedforward, particularly for stimuli that are likely to recruit higher-level visual areas, pointing instead to the involvement of recurrent or feedback processes.