VISUAL STIMULI WERE CONSTRUCTED SO THAT ANY GIVEN STIMULUS BY ITSELF APPEARED TO BE A RANDOM COLLECTION OF DOTS. HOWEVER, WHEN 2 CORRESPONDING STIMULI WERE SUPERIMPOSED BY MEANS OF A 2-FIELD TACHISTOSCOPE, A 3-LETTER NONSENSE SYLLABLE WAS PERCEIVED. WHEN A TEMPORAL INTERVAL WAS INTRODUCED BETWEEN THE PRESENTATION OF THE CORRESPONDING STIMULUS HALVES, ORGANIZATION IN PERCEPTION WAS A DECREASING FUNCTION OF INTERSTIMULUS INTERVAL OVER A RANGE IN EXCESS OF 100 MSEC. THE APPLICABILITY OF A CONCEPT OF A DECAYING SENSORY TRACE IN ACCOUNTING FOR THE INTEGRATION OF FORM PERCEPTION OVER TIME WAS INVESTIGATED. CLEAR EVIDENCE OF A DECAYING SENSORY TRACE WAS FOUND; HOWEVER, THIS CONCEPT WAS UNABLE TO ACCOUNT FOR ALL ASPECTS OF THE DATA. THE APPLICABILITY OF A PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT ACTING IN CONJUNCTION WITH A DECAYING SENSORY TRACE WAS CONSIDERED AS WAS ALSO THE POSSIBILITY OF DISCONTINUITY DETECTORS WHICH INHIBIT OR BREAK UP TEMPORAL ORGANIZATION. SS WERE 5 MALE AND 1 FEMALE GRADUATE STUDENTS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)