Subsymmetries

Abstract

This paper concerns the cognitive simplicity of 35 black and white patterns. The patterns are rank-ordered according to four experimental measures of simplicity. The correlation between these different rank orders is high, and it is therefore possible to construct a single "simplicity" order for the patterns. It is then shown that the simplicity of different patterns is almost perfectly accounted for by the relative numbers of subsymmetries in the different patterns. © 1968 Psychonomic Society, Inc.