Understanding Gestalt Psychology: Principles & Perceptions

1. Presentation By- Dr. Rashmi Singh Assistant Professor Dept. of Psychology

2. Gestalt Psychology B.A.- III, Paper: II, Unit III, M G K V P

3. Gestalt psychology • Introduction • Beginning of Gestalt psychology • Apparent motion • Laws of Perceptual Organisation • Understanding “Figure-Ground” • Figure-Ground” Segregation • Properties of figure and ground • Lack of a Gestalt psychology today

4. Describe what you can see…………..

5. Wilhelm Wundt (1879): Our PERCEPTION is constructed from the combinations of our SENSATIONS

6. Gestalt Psychology The Gestalt perspective formed partially as a response to the structuralism of Wilhelm Wundt, (1879) who proposed that “perception” was a function of “sensation” and focused on breaking down mental events and experiences to the smallest elements. Gestalt Psychology postulates that - “ The whole is different /greater than the sum of the parts"

7. Geatalt Psychology was founded by German thinkers Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka and focused on how people interpret the world. GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY Kurt Koffka

8. Beginning of Gestalt psychology 1910 – Max Wertheimer on vacation noticed that distal objects seemed to move with the train; nearby objects went past. Why? Study of apparent motion – why stationary objects appear to move Began to study this phenomena with two former students of Karl Stumpf – Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler

9. Apparent motion • Phi phenomenon – is an optical illusion of seeing a series of still objects as moving E.g. creating by flashing a vertical light that is followed 50-60 mseclater by a horizontal light produces the appearance of movement. The light appears to move from vertical to horizontal • Movement only perceived if delay was 50 – 60 msec • The perceptual experience had properties the individual components did not • 1st Gestalt paper presented in 1912

10. Gestalt psychologists developed a set of principles to explain perceptual organization, or how smaller objects are grouped to form larger ones. • These principles are often referred to as the "laws of perceptual organization."

11. How do we “organize” (i.e., cluster, group, give meaning, prioritize) our sensations into perception?

12. "The whole is different than the sum of the parts" Gestalt Psychology – Laws of Perceptual Organization

13. Eight Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization

14. Eight Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization 1. Law of Pragnanz- good figure or simplicity The law of Pragnanz is sometimes referred to as the law of good figure or the law of simplicity. This law holds that objects in the environment are seen in a way that makes them appear as simple as possible. You see the image above as a series of overlapping circles rather than an assortment of curved, connected lines.

15. Eight Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization

16. Eight Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization 2. Law of Similarity: “Similar things appear to be grouped together” Circles and squares are evenly spaced both horizontally and vertically, yet we “see” vertical columns. Why? Because we group things that are similar.

17. Law of Similarity

18. Six Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization 3. Law of continuity – “Points that, when connected, result in straight or smoothly curving lines are seen in such a way as to follow the smoothest path.” “Perceptual path of least resistance” What defines these lines? a  c? or a  b? c  b? or c d? Determined by smoothness

20. Eight Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization 4. Law of proximity (or nearness) – “Things that are near to each other appear to be grouped together” This guy doesn’t “belong”

21. Law of Proximity

22. 5. Law of Closure— Eight Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization Law of Closure—The law of closure states that individuals perceive objects such as shapes, letters, pictures, etc., as being whole when they are not complete. Specifically, when parts of a whole picture are missing, our perception fills in the visual gap.

23. Six Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization 6. Law of Common Fate “Things that are moving in the same direction appear to be grouped together” – choreography of movement

24. Eight Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization 7. Law of familiarity (or meaningfulness) – “Things are more likely to form groups if the groups appear familiar or meaningful”

25. Six Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization 8. Law of familiarity (or meaningfulness) – “Things are more likely to form groups if the groups appear familiar or meaningful” What do you see below? Find……

26. Six Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization There are allegedly 12 faces

27. Elaborations of the “laws:” Palmer and Rock • Principle of common region • Principle of element connectedness • Principle of synchrony

28. Elaborations of the “laws:” Palmer and Rock • Principle of common region • Principle of element connectedness • Principle of synchrony

29. Elaborations of the “laws:” Palmer and Rock • Principle of common region • Principle of element connectedness • Principle of synchrony

30. Elaborations of the “laws:” Palmer and Rock • Principle of common region • Principle of element connectedness • Principle of synchrony

31. How do we perceive objects in our world? Summary of Gestalt rules • Good fit, closure, simplicity • Similarity • Good continuity • Proximity • Common fate • Familiarity (meaningfulness) • Common region • Connectedness • Synchrony Classical Gestalt “laws” Modern Gestalt “laws”

32. Fundamental Gestalt question: How do we separate (segment, segregate) objects • Understanding “Figure-Ground” • Are there properties of figure and ground?

33. Figure-Ground segregation The figure is more “thing-like” than the ground

34. Figure-Ground segregation What is this?

35. Figure-Ground segregation • “Figure” is perceived as being “in front” of the ground • “Ground” tends to be perceived in the surrounding pattern • “Figure” is perceived as the smaller object • “Surroundedness”

36. Small things generally are seen as figure Figure -Ground Segregation

37. Figure against the ground

38. Symmetrical areas tend to be seen as figure Figure -Ground Segregation

39. Symmetry (i.e., both sides convex or concave) generally is seen as figure Figure -Ground Segregation

40. Symmetry is indicated in “parallelism”

41. Figure -Ground Segregation Meaningful things generally are seen as figure- win

42. Meaningful things generally are seen as figure 5 huts Figure -Ground Segregation

43. Properties of Figure and Ground? • “Thing-like” appearance • Figure is perceived as “in front” of ground • Ground is perceived by a surrounding stimulus (“surroundedness”) • Figure is perceived as the smaller object • Ground is unformed • Contour “belongs” to the figure • Figure is seen in the symmetry of forms (opposite-mirror images or parallel images “belong” together) • Meaningfulness of information can infer figure-ground

44. Illusory motion-The term illusory motion, also known as motion illusion, is an optical illusion in which a static image appears to be moving due to the cognitive effects of interacting colour contrasts and shape position Apparent motion is the most common type of illusory motion and is perceived when images are displayed in succession at a specific frame rate such as in a movie.

45. Illusion of Perceived Motion:

46. This + next 2 slides: Are any of these items moving? Or are they perfectly still??

47. Illusion of motion

48. Now…focus completely on ONE single “almond”…What happens?

49. Fate of a Gestalt psychology today- • Gestalt psychology most important from 1915 to the 1940’s – mostly in Germany, Today it has lost its popularity and criticized also. • Gestaltians are criticised for the preference Gestaltists are deemed to have for theory over data, and a lack of quantitative research supporting Gestalt ideas. • In some scholarly communities, such as computational neuroscience and  cognitive psychology , gestalt theories of perception are criticized for being descriptive rather than explanatory in nature • They spent the majority of their time criticizing others instead of consolidating ideas into practical and testable theories

50. Contd… • Described how perceptual processes work, rather that theorizing how they worked. • Others took Gestalt ideas and incorporated them into their own theories • Seen today as one of the most important psychologists for his contributions of making psychology applicable to real humans in the real world • Much of his work on group dynamics still used in counseling, educational, industrial, and clinical settings.