Gestalt Principles of Perception

11 Key excerpts on "Gestalt Principles of Perception"

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  A History of Modern Psychology

  • C. James Goodwin(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  260 CHAPTER 9 GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY tendency for our perceptions to mirror reality as closely as possible. When the situation is ambiguous, the organizational principles work to provide the most reasonable guess about the nature of what is being perceived. Thus, even though Figure 9.6 could have been created in several different ways, we tend to perceive the figure as being composed of an overlapping rectangle and a triangle, the simplest and most likely hypothesis. Similarly, when we encounter incomplete figures (e.g., Figure 9.7), we try to construct a “good figure” by filling in the gaps, a phenomenon called closure. FIGURE 9.5 Gestalt perceptual organizing princi- ples of (a) proximity, (b) similarity, and (c) good continuation, from Wertheimer (1923/1967b). FIGURE 9.6 The gestalt principle of Prägnanz. The figure on the left could have been created in several ways. We tend to perceive it as being composed of a rectangle and a triangle, the simpler of the two possibilities shown on the right. THE GESTALT APPROACH TO COGNITION AND LEARNING 261 Behavioral versus Geographic Environments The organizing principles might be designed to help us perceive the world as it is, but that is not to say that our perceptions mirror physical reality. The gestaltists, most notably Koffka in his Principles of Gestalt Psychology (1935) made an important distinction between the world as it is in reality, what he called the geographical environment, and the world as we perceive it, the behavioral environ- ment. It is the latter perception that determines how we act. Koffka used an old German folktale to drive home the point. It concerned a weary traveler in the dead of winter who reached an inn after riding on horseback for hours over what seemed to be a vast open snow-covered plain. When he arrived, the innkeeper asked from which direction he had come.

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  Hergenhahn's An Introduction to the History of Psychology

  • Tracy Henley(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  The contention that physical forces in the brain determine consciousness was called psychophysical isomorphism, and the contention that brain activity is always distributed in the most simple, symmetrical, and organized way was called the law of Prägnanz. According to the Gestaltists, the most basic perception is that of a figure–ground relation-ship. Perceptual principles that cause the elements of perception to be organized into configurations include continuity, by which stimuli following some pattern are seen as a perceptual unit; proximity, by which stimuli that are close together form a percep-tual unit; similarity, by which similar stimuli form a perceptual unit; inclusiveness, by which a larger perceptual configuration masks smaller ones; and closure, by which incomplete physical objects are experienced psychologically as complete. The Gestaltists viewed learning as a perceptual phenomenon. For them, the existence of a problem creates a psychological disequilibrium, or tension, that persists until the problem is solved. As long as there is tension, the person engages in an effort to find the solution to the problem. Problems remain in an unsolved state until insight into the solution is gained. Insightful learning is sudden and complete. Also, the person retains the information gained by insight for a long time and can easily transfer that information to similar problems. The application of a principle learned in one problem-solving situation to other similar situations is called transposition. Productive thinking involves the understanding of principles rather than the memorization of facts or the utilization of formal logic. The Gestaltists thought that memory, like other psychological phe-nomena, is governed by the law of Prägnanz. Expe-rience activates a brain activity called a memory Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.

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  A History of Modern Psychology

  • Duane Schultz(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  We do not have to learn to so organize, as the structuralists and associationists claimed. Higher-level perception, such as labeling an object by name, is, of course, more dependent on learning. According to Gestalt theory, the primary brain process in visual per-ception is not a collection of small separate activities, but is, instead, a dynamic system. The visual area of the brain does not respond in terms of separate elements of visual input, with these elements being connected by a principle of association. Rather, the brain is a dynamic system in which all those elements active at a given time interact. Ele-ments that are similar or close together tend to combine; elements that are dissimilar or far apart do not tend to combine. Several of the principles of organization are listed here, and examples are given in Figure 12.1. 1. Proximity: Parts that are close together in time or space tend to be perceived together. For example, in Figure 12.1a the circles are seen in three columns rather than as one large collection. 2. Similarity: Similar parts tend to be seen together as forming a group (Figure 12.1b). Since the circles and the dots appear to belong together, we tend to perceive rows instead of columns. 3. Closure: There is a tendency in our perception to complete incom-plete figures—to fill in gaps. In Figure 12.1c we perceive three squares even though the figures are incomplete. 4. Prägnanz: There is a tendency to see a figure as being as good as possible under the stimulus conditions. A good figure is one 278 GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY Ο o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o ( a ) o o O O o o • • • · • • o o o o o o • • • · • • o o o o O o (b) ( c ) Figure 12 J, Examples of perceptual organization. that is symmetrical, simple, and stable, and that cannot be made simpler or more orderly. These organizing factors do not depend on the higher mental processes of the individual nor on his past experience, but are present in the stimuli themselves.

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  No longer available |Learn more

  Stevens' Handbook of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Sensation, Perception, and Attention

  • (Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Before discussing new findings and ideas regarding the Gestalt principles, I need to make two remarks about issues that may have escaped notice. First, when describing perceptual organization, Wertheimer (1923/2012, pp. 346–347/p. 177) referred to “whole forms and articulation into subwholes.” This introduces the idea of hierarchical Gestalts, with integrated wholes (“Ganze”) and subwholes (“Teilganze,” “Unterganze”). This idea also emphasizes that a part is also not a given piece of the stimulus (from which the overall organization is created) but a particular component of the organized percept. The exact nature of the relationships between parts and wholes is a complicated one (see later), but it is clear that parts result from an organization and not the other way around. Second, it is not so clear perhaps whether the Gestalt principles are grouping principles or principles of figure–ground organization or both. The reason is that Wertheimer started off his paper with simple linear arrangements of dots, which clearly entail grouping, and ended with complicated configurations of abutting, overlapping or nested shapes, which already seem to imply figure–ground organization. For now, we could say that proximity, similarity, common fate, and good continuation are grouping principles, whereas symmetry, parallelism, closure, convexity, and other characteristics of good forms are principles determining figure–ground organization. The remaining ones—Prägnanz, set, and experience—are general principles applying to all forms of perceptual organization. Next, we will develop a somewhat richer account of different types of Gestalts.

  A CENTURY OF RESEARCH ON THE GESTALT PRINCIPLES

  Wertheimer's (1923/2012) paper is truly foundational in providing the empirical, methodological, and conceptual basis for a research program on perceptual grouping and figure–ground organization, and in sketching the outlines of Gestalt theory to explain the phenomena discovered in this program (see also Vezzani, Marino, & Giora, 2012). In this chapter, I cannot do justice to the complete literature on perceptual organization, which is quite extensive. In 2012, we summarized a century of empirical research on perceptual grouping and figure–ground organization (Wagemans, Elder, et al., 2012), as well as theoretical discussions and progress (Wagemans, Feldman, et al., 2012). Each of these papers is already longer than this chapter. In 2015, The Oxford Handbook of Perceptual Organization

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  Design and Order

  Perceptual Experience of Built Form - Principles in the Planning and Making of Place

  • Nigel C. Lewis(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  Such configuration, which forms a unified whole, has properties that are not found in any of its parts (for example, rhythmic pattern). This affects the way in which objects are visually perceived, with separation of images into ‘figure’ and ‘ground’ and organised in accordance with grouping laws or principles. These include the following visual Gestalt qualities, which are illustrated further in accompanying Exhibit 6.1. Visual Gestalt Qualities Proximity – shows that the relative closeness (proximity) offers the strongest tendency to interconnection or grouping of units. Similarity – indicates that elements within an assortment of objects are perceptually grouped together if they are similar to each other, in terms of size, colour, texture, shape or contours. Closure – indicates that objects, although not actually complete, are perceived as being whole and seen as closed units. Symmetry – leads to objects that are perceived as being symmetrical and formed around a central point or line in a coherent manner. Continuity – determines that elements of objects tend to be grouped together and integrated into continuous perceptual wholes, even if interrupted. Common fate – results in objects that are perceived as having a common trend in motion and move along the smoothest path. Past experience – implies that in general objects in close proximity tend to be categorised as a unit/set in accordance with past experience. Good Gestalt (Pragnanz) – results as elements of objects tend to be perceptually grouped wholly together if they form a regular, simple and orderly pattern with conciseness and orderliness. 7.3 Schematisation and Phenomena Piaget has outlined the process of learning to see, whereby children start to ‘schematise’ concrete objects. and their interrelationships

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  Handbook of Cognition

  • Koen Lamberts, Rob Goldstone, Koen Lamberts, Rob Goldstone(Authors)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  (Because these dynamical-systems notions are central within Gestalt theoriz-ing, we shall return to them briefly in the evaluation section below.) The apparent primacy of the Gestalt A basic tenet of Gestalt psychology is that the whole is different from the sum of the parts. This means that what we perceive cannot be explained as the simple linear addition of features delivered by early vision; nonlinear interactions between the low-level features or with high-level processes are required. Two characteristics of these true Gestalt phenomena have been highlighted: first, that the whole may be perceived prior to its parts; and second, that the parts may be altered by the whole within which they are embedded. The best example of the first characteristic of Gestalt perception – that the whole may be per-ceived prior to its parts – is Navon’s (1977, 1981) evidence for global precedence or, in his own words, the perception of ‘the forest before the trees’ in the case of hierarchical letters. A large letter presented as an organized array of small letters, for example a big S made of small H’s, is more likely to interfere with an auditorily presented tar-get letter than the small letters constituting the large letter. This demonstrates that the whole (i.e. the large letter) is perceived prior to the parts (i.e. the small letters) and thus that the whole cannot be perceived by aggregating the information about the parts. Subsequent research has shown that the global precedence effect might depend on the size scale or spatial frequency to which observers initially direct their attention, on the visual angle, or VISUAL PERCEPTION I: BASIC PRINCIPLES 21 A B Figure 1.8 Kanizsa triangles, with two components of the illusion: illusory contours and perceived brightness differences. In (A) the central triangle is perceived as whiter than the background; in (B) as darker. on the limited resolution of the small-scale letters (for a review, see Kimchi, 1992).

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  A History of Modern Psychology

  • Per Saugstad(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Here the points appear to be organized spon- taneously as vertical lines. Figure 5.3 The law of proximity II. The Gestalt Laws 93 By means of another arrangement, Figure 5.4, Wertheimer thought he could demon- strate the law of similarity – namely, that points which are similar are organized as lines that we perceive as vertical. Figure 5.4 The law of similarity. Our perception is also organized according to three other principles. The first two are the law of good continuation and the law of closure. The third principle, the law of common fate, states that the parts of the visual field that move in the same direction are perceived as belonging together. Wertheimer also formulated a law he called the law of good figure (the law of Prag- nanz). According to this law, our perceptual representations tend to become as simple as possible, and as a result we perceive forms as being as simple and symmetrical as possi- ble. Koffka (1935) regarded this as a superordinate principle. Many modern researchers in perception are still concerned with this principle, which is often called the minimum principle. An Evaluation of the Gestalt Laws G. E. Müller had proposed factors of perceptual organization similar to those of Wertheimer. In contrast to Wertheimer, he claimed that attention is involved and explained the organization as resulting from an association of the different parts. Wertheimer agreed that attention in the form of a set can influence perception, but only as a tendency to continue an ongoing process. If, for example, we have begun to perceive something as a figure against a definite background, there is a tendency to continue to organize the stimulation in this way. Wertheimer did not deny that previous experience could influence the organization, but previous experience would then operate 94 5 Phenomenology and Gestalt Psychology only with the principles he had formulated.

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  A History of Psychology in Metascientific Perspective

  • K.B. Madsen(Author)
  • 1988(Publication Date)
  • North Holland

    (Publisher)

  Gestalt psychology, on the other hand, regards sensory organization as resulting in the formation of wholes, and primarily the latter's subsequently acquired 'meaning' or 'sense', etc. (Kohler, 1947, p. 139)13. The implicit hypothesis contained in many passages in Kohler's book may be reformulated explicitly: 3RD HYPOTHESIS: Sensory organization determines the experience of per- ceptual wholes. These can acquire 'meaning' by association. sensory organization. In the symbolic version: The Gestalt psychologists' production 181 3rd Hypothesis: H (sensory organization) + H (perceptual wholes) + H (associative 'meaning'). These three hypotheses are used by Kohler in order to explain the well-known 'Gestalt laws' , such as 'the principle of similarity', 'the principle of proximity' and 'the principle of the good Gestalt', etc. and to explain common optical or geometrical illusions. We shall return to these in connection with the data- stratum. Kohler also uses Gestalt psychological hypotheses about 'sensory organi- zation' to explain how people undertand each other's consciousnesses by way of their external behavior. This theory of 'social perception' is contained in Chapter VII: ,,Behavior, and may be summarized as follows: ,,If A observes B, then A will experience B's behavior as perceptual wholes in the form of goal-directed actions and expressions of A's state of being. This experience has a structural similarity (is isomorphic) with the observed per- son's conscious experiences. The hypothesis pertaining to social perception may be reformulated as follows: 4THHYPOTHESIS: On account of the isomorphy between a person's con- sciousness and behavioral expression, the behavior of an- other person (0) causes isomorphic psycho-physiological processes in the observer (S), which provide an experience of 0's behavioral expression together with his conscious experiences.

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  Points of View in the Modern History of Psychology

  • Claude E. Buxton(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  . . To this the other parts of the struc-ture are related in a hierarchical system. Such structures are to be called Gestal-ten in a precise sense. b. Almost all impressions are grasped either as chaotic masses—a relatively seldom, extreme case—or as chaotic masses on the way to sharper formation, or as Gestalten. What is finally grasped are impressions of structure [Gebildefas-sungen]. To these belong the objects in a broad sense of the word, as well as relational contexts [Beziehungszusammenhänge]. They are something specifically different from and more than the summative totality of the individual compo-nents. Often the whole is grasped even before the individual parts enter con-sciousness. c. The epistemological process—knowledge in a precise sense—is very often a process of centering, of structuring, or of grasping that particular aspect that provides the key to an orderly whole, a unification of the particular individual parts that happen to be present. (Wartensleben, 1914, pp. Iff.; see also Wertheimer, 1980, p. 14) Here we have nearly all the fundamental principles of Gestalt theory, presented that the beginning of its development. The most important features of the doctrine at this stage were Wertheimer's use of the term Gestalt to refer to both individual objects and organization of objects in the psychological field; his differentiated conception of consciousness, which clearly does not exclude the existence of elements but takes them to be unusual, boundary cases; and his use of the term Gestalt not only for the objects of consciousness and the system of their relations, but also for the knowledge process thought to underlie their appear-ance. Wertheimer later applied the metaphor of restructuring, or re-centering to human problem solving and thinking.

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  A History of Modern Psychology

  • C. James Goodwin(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  This distinction between physical reality and reality as perceived led Koffka to a point that would soon be elaborated by Kurt Lewin, with his concept of “life space” (see later discussion). If the behav-ioral and geographic environments differ, then two people in the same geographic environment are likely to perceive it differently. For instance, the perceptions of a walk in the woods by a geologist and a botanist will vary considerably. THE GESTALT APPROACH TO COGNITION AND LEARNING Although the title of Koffka’s 1922 landmark article in Psychological Bulletin gave the impression that gestalt psychology was concerned only with perception, such was not the case. Rather, the gestalists conceived of their system as a general psychology, and they made specific contributions to the study of thinking, problem solving, and learning. The two best-known examples are Köhler’s research on prob-lem solving in apes and Wertheimer’s posthumous book, Productive Thinking (1945/1982). Köhler’s 256 CHAPTER 9 GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY The Mentality of Apes (1917/1926) was first published in German in 1917, and then translated into English in the 1920s. Köhler on Insight in Apes Early in his book, Köhler took dead aim at Thorndike’s puzzle box experiments. As you recall from Chapter 7, Thorndike concluded that learning and problem solving were processes of trial and “acciden-tal success,” with unsuccessful behaviors gradually being eliminated in favor of behaviors that worked. Köhler, however, disagreed that problem solving was such a mechanical, step-by-step process. Instead, in keeping with his gestalt orientation, he argued that solutions to problems occur when individuals can view the entire problem field and rearrange the elements of the problem into a new and meaningful con-figuration. Solutions have a perceptual quality to them, and they occur quickly, once the components have been reconfigured. Köhler used the term insight to label such a process.

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  History of Modern Psychology

  A Global Perspective

  • C. James Goodwin(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  It is the latter perception that determines how we act. Koffka used an old German folktale to drive home the point. It concerned a weary traveler in the dead of winter who reached an inn after riding on horseback for hours over what seemed to be a vast open snow-covered plain. When he arrived, the innkeeper asked from which direction he had come. The rider pointed to the plain and the innkeeper, “in a tone of awe and wonder, said: ‘Do you know that you have ridden across the Lake of Constance?’ At which the rider dropped stone dead” (p. 28). Apparently, realizing that the behavioral environment (“this seems to be a wide open plain”) does not match the geographical environment (“a frozen lake that could easily crack under the weight of a horse—I could have drowned!”) can be rather stressful. This distinction between physical reality and reality as perceived led Koffka to a point that would soon be elaborated by Kurt Lewin, with his concept of “life space” (see later discussion). If the behavioral and geographic environments differ, then two people in the same geographic environment are likely to perceive it differently. For instance, the perceptions of a walk in the woods by a geologist and a botanist will vary considerably. THE GESTALT APPROACH TO COGNITION AND LEARNING Although the title of Koffka’s 1922 landmark article in Psychological Bulletin gave the impression that gestalt psychology was concerned only with perception, such was not the case. Rather, the gestalists conceived of their system as a general psychology, and they made specific contributions to the study of thinking, problem solving, and learning. The two best-known examples are Köhler’s research Figure 8.8 Because of the gestalt principle of closure, we perceive these incomplete drawings as a dog, a giraffe, and Edgar Allen Poe. 288 CHAPTER 8 GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY on problem solving in apes and Wertheimer’s posthumous book, Productive Thinking (1945/1982).

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