Visual Closure

About the Visual Closure exercise

Recognizing something from a partial view happens constantly: a mug half hidden behind the kettle, a word with the tops of the letters lost in a fold, a coat on a crowded hook. After a stroke or a brain injury, or with visual perception changes, the mind may need more of the picture before it can name what it is looking at.

Visual Closure is a free online visual closure exercise. A line drawing appears with part of it missing, and the person works out what it is and picks the complete picture from four choices. A dial sets how much is visible, progressive reveal fills the picture in until it is recognized, and each answer is timed.

What Visual Closure practices

Visual closure

The fragment has to be completed in the mind before it can be matched, whether the picture is a cup with gaps erased or only a few islands of a fish.

Visual discrimination

The four choices are other things of the same family, four kitchen objects or four figures, so the fragment must be read for detail rather than guessed from the category.

Orientation

Near-miss wrong answers show the same picture mirrored or turned, so which way the fragment faces matters as much as what it shows.

How the tool works and what it records

Pictures come from objects (142 line drawings in eight families: kitchen, animals, tools, vehicles, clothing, nature, home, music), figures (generated abstract forms, like the printed pack's Level 3), or both, alternating. Fragments are gaps (parts erased) or pieces (only islands remain). Free presets: light gaps (60 percent visible), heavy gaps (35), and figures in pieces (45). Pro unlocks the dials: 20 to 80 percent visible, progressive reveal, near-miss wrong answers, a choice of families, hiding the fragment after 1 to 10 seconds, and 5 to 20 items.

Progressive reveal starts at 15 percent and shows 10 percent more every two seconds until answered. Large print, thicker lines, and high contrast are free. Results show correct out of items, median time on correct answers, total time, the visibility used or, in progressive rounds, recognized at, and a score per family. A free account allows 5 rounds a day per tool; Pro removes the cap, saves a session log, and exports a worksheet PDF.

Screen or paper?

The screen suits anyone who wants the visibility dial and the progressive reveal, which turn how much of a picture was needed into a number, along with timing, instant scoring, and a fresh picture every item. Paper suits a person who prefers to circle an answer with a pencil, work without a device or wifi, or keep the finished pages.

The printable version is the Visual Closure worksheet set on rehabworksheets.com, and there is a free visual closure worksheet to try first, with no email required.

Using it well

• Start at 60 percent visible. The light gaps preset leaves most of each object on screen, so the person learns the format on familiar things. Drop to heavy gaps, or step the dial down 5 percent at a time with Pro, once rounds are mostly correct.
• Use progressive reveal to see how much was needed. The fragment starts at 15 percent and grows every two seconds until answered. The recognized at figure is the average share visible when the person was right, so lower means less of the picture was needed.
• Turn on the accommodations first. Thicker lines, high contrast, and large print are free and change nothing about the scoring. Try them before lowering visibility, so a miss reflects closure rather than a faint line.
• Try figures once objects are easy. Figures mode uses generated abstract forms with no everyday meaning, like the printed pack's Level 3, and pieces style leaves only islands, so nothing can be guessed from the category.

Common questions