[Pattern goodness and perceptual organization].

The present study examined the relation between the manner of perceptual organization and pattern goodness. We presented regularly arranged dot patterns (Experiment 1) and randomly arranged dot patterns (Experiment 2). In both experiments, the participants were asked to evaluate the goodness of the patterns using a 7-point scale and to encircle the dots in the manner that the participants had organized them. The results for both experiments showed that patterns organized with fewer groups were rated as better than patterns organized with more groups, despite having the same structure. These results indicate that the variation in pattern goodness which is not explained by the physical structure of the pattern is explained by the manner of perceptual organization used by the observer.