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Gestalt Laws

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Gestalt Principles (Gestalt Laws) Visual Perception
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Gestalt Principles (Gestalt Laws)

Visual Perception

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Gestalt – Movement in experimental psychology which began prior to WWI.

We perceive objects as well-organized patterns rather than separate components.

“The whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts.”

Based on the concept of “grouping”.

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

We impose visual organization on stimuli

W.E. Hill, 1915 German postcard, 1880

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Illusory

Contours

The Kanisza triangle as figure-ground illusory contours

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Three Main Principles:

Grouping (proximity, similarity, continuity, closure)

Goodness of figuresFigure/ground relationships

Law of Equilibrium

Items in a visual field strive for balance with other items in the field

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Grouping:

Law of Proximity

Law of Similarity

Suggests that units which resemble each other in shape, size, color, or direction will be seen together as a homogenous grouping (of the same kind)

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Grouping:

Law of Similarity

Gestalt/Visual Perception

A look closer at Gestalt Laws

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Grouping: Law of Similarity: Shape, Scale, Color

Law of Continuation

(or good figure) visual perception works to pull figures out of the background to give them definition against the undistinguished field in which they are located. . .

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Law of Good Continuation, or Continuity

Objects arranged in either a straight line or a smooth curve tend to be seen as a unit.

Law of Closure

Each chunk should be self-contained (provide closure)—without good continuation a reader will fill in the gaps

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Law of Closure

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Law of Common Fate

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Goodness of Figure, or the Law of Pragnanz

(Pragnanz is German for Pregnant, but in the sense of pregnant with meaning, not with child!)

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Figure/Ground relationships

Figure – seen as the foreground

Ground – seen as the background

Contours – “belong” to the figure

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Reversible Figure/Ground

relationship

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Reversible Figure/Ground

relationship

Can be affected by the principle of smallness:

Smaller areas tend to be seen as figures against a larger background.

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Reversible Figure/Ground

Relationship:

Tessellation – interlocking figure/ground

M.C. Escher

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Gestalt laws of Grouping organize the visual scene into units

The Law of Pragnanz, or Goodness of Figure creates the simplest most meaningful pattern

Figure/Ground relationships define important parts of the scene

Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception

Problems with Gestalt theory:

It is a phenomenological approach

Some of the terms are vague

(e.g. what is the “simplest” organization?)


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