A number of neuropsychological studies suggest that the association of color, shape and movement as "features of an object" is not simply a matter of linking or "binding", but shown to be inefficient to not bind elements into groups when considering associationvon der Malsburg, Christoph. "The What and Why of Binding: The Modeler's Perspective." Cogprints, 1 September 1999, https://web-archive.southampton.ac.uk/cogprints.org/1488/. and give extensive evidence for top-down feedback signals that ensure that sensory data are handled as features of (sometimes wrongly) postulated objects early in processing. Pylyshyn has also emphasized the way the brain seems to pre-conceive objects from which features are to be allocated to which are attributed continuing existence even if features such as color change. This is because visual integration increases over time and indexing visual objects helps to ground visual concepts.
