8.1 Perceptual organisation: the Gestalt principles Flashcards
What is the underlying law of the ‘laws of perceptual organisation’?
The law of Pragnanz.
Who was the founder of the heart psychology and what did he notice?
Max Wertheimer. He noticed that our visual system tended to organise material in predictable ways.
What does the law of Pragnanz state?
That we attempt to per owe a coherent structure, and the visual system always per covers the simplest shape in an object.
What do the gestalt psychologists assume that we perceive?
We do not perceive an object as individual items, but group things together to make a whole.
Navon (1977) investigated the gestalt law. Small letters were presented as a large letter with the same and different letters to the original. What did he find?
It took longer to identify the smaller letters which were not the same as the large letter that they were making up. There was no difference to the time times to identify both large letters.
Name the 3 main gestalt laws?
- similarity
- proximity
- closure
Explain the law of Similarity?
We tend to group together similar items. E.g rows of x’s and rows of o’s, columns of x’s and o’s.
Explain the law of Proximity?
Items close together tend to be grouped together.
Explain the law of Closure?
We tend to fill in missing information to make figures and characters whole.
What is a fault of some of the gestalt laws?
It can describe the organisation of 2D objects but not 3D objects.
Does the gestalt laws have ecological validity?
Yes, as it can often explain real like perception.
