Seeing Can Be Remembering

Recent work suggests that memory representations may guide basic perceptual functions, such as figure-ground perception. In three studies we assessed top-down contributions to figure-ground perception in typical development and in two developmental disorders: Down syndrome (DS) and autism (ASD). We investigated how figure-ground segregation is modulated by high-level cues (i.e., memory representations) and low-level cues (i.e., convexity and surface integration). Study 1 results showed that both high-level and low-level contributions to figure-ground perception are functional by the age of 4 years. In Study 2, individuals with DS exhibited intact figure-ground segregation based on low level cues when compared with mental age–matched participants, but they showed attenuated effects of high-level memory cues on figure-ground assignment. In Study 3, individuals with ASD showed intact effects of both high-level and low-level cues on figure-ground perception, counter to previous suggestions that high-level influences on perception are usually impaired in ASD.