Gestalt principles

Question 1

Gestalt principles

Answer 1

a group of principles that organise visual perceptual features and that intergrate them into connected patterns or whole forms

Question 2

1) Figure-ground

Answer 2

• viewer perceptually groups and separated some features of a stimulus so that part of a stimulus appears to stand out as an object (the figure) against a plainer background (the ground)
• probably inborn (first perceptual ability to appear after people with cataract regain sight)
• camouflage breaks up figure-ground organisation by blurring the contour of a figure against a background
• can be switched in reversible figures

Question 3

2) Closure

Answer 3

• viewer’s tendency to perceptually complete an incomplete figure by filling in an imaginary contour line so that the figure has a consistent overall form
• reveal powerful tendency to form shapes even with minimal cues

Question 4

3) Similarity

Answer 4

• viewer’s tendency to perceive stimuli that have similar visual features as belonging together and forming a meaningful single unit or group

Question 5

4) Proximity

Answer 5

• whereby stimuli close together in space are perceived as belonging together and forming a meaningful single unit or group
• e.g. three people standing together, one person standing away = group and outsider