Your brain glues scattered dots into shapes before you even try
In 1923, Max Wertheimer catalogued the rules your visual system uses to bundle raw fragments into objects: things close together, similar in shape or color, or moving in unison get grouped as one perceived whole. These Gestalt laws explain why a handful of dots reads as a line, or a flock of birds looks like one shifting shape instead of hundreds of separate animals. The grouping happens automatically, before conscious interpretation starts.