Amodal

Amodal is a term used in perception, cognitive science, and philosophy to describe information or representations that are not tied to a single sensory modality. It refers to how the brain handles data that are incomplete, occluded, or not currently observable by one sense, by forming coherent perceptions that span multiple modalities. The prefix a- means “without,” and modal relates to sense modalities such as vision, hearing, or touch.

Amodal completion is a central idea in vision science. When part of an object is hidden behind another, observers typically perceive a single, continuous object rather than two disjoint shapes. This amodal completion relies on contour continuity, shading, motion cues, and prior knowledge about objects. It contributes to the perception of object persistence and stability in dynamic scenes, even as the retinal image changes.

Amodal perception and representation extend beyond vision to cross-modal processing. Events are often experienced as unified across senses even when data from one modality are missing or ambiguous. For example, a moving object that produces a sound can be perceived as a single event whose timing and identity are coherent across vision and audition. In cognitive theories, amodal representations encode information independently of a specific modality, supporting flexible integration, categorization, and language grounding.

Applications and relevance include studies of infant object permanence, multisensory integration, and the development of artificial vision systems that predict occluded shapes. The concept also informs philosophical discussions about the relationship between perception and cognition and how information is represented in the mind.