Overview
This lecture covers the Gestalt principles of perception, explaining how humans organize sensory information into meaningful patterns and how bias, experience, and context shape perception.
Introduction to Gestalt Psychology
- Gestalt psychology was founded by Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, and Kurt Koffka in the early 20th century.
- Gestalt means "form" or "pattern," emphasizing that the whole is different from the sum of its parts.
- Perception involves actively organizing sensory input into meaningful wholes through predictable principles.
Major Gestalt Principles of Perception
- Figure-Ground Relationship: We distinguish objects (figure) from their background (ground); what is labeled as figure or ground can shift.
- Proximity: Objects close to each other are grouped together by the mind.
- Similarity: Items that look alike are perceived as belonging together (e.g., color, shape).
- Continuity (Good Continuation): We prefer to see smooth, continuous lines and patterns over abrupt changes or broken figures.
- Closure: The brain tends to fill in gaps to perceive complete, whole objects even when parts are missing.
Perceptual Set and Influences
- Perceptual hypotheses are educated guesses based on sensory information, past experiences, and expectations.
- Perceptual set refers to the tendency to perceive things in a certain way due to mental state or characteristics.
- Verbal priming or context can bias perception, especially in ambiguous situations.
Perception, Bias, and Culture
- Perception is influenced by individual experience, biases, culture, and prejudice.
- Implicit biases can affect how people interpret ambiguous stimuli, as shown in research on racial stereotypes affecting split-second decisions.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Gestalt Psychology — A psychological approach emphasizing organized wholes and patterns in perception.
- Figure-Ground Relationship — Differentiating a main object (figure) from the background (ground).
- Proximity — Tendency to group items close together.
- Similarity — Grouping objects that are alike.
- Continuity — Perceiving smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones.
- Closure — Filling in missing information to perceive whole objects.
- Perceptual Set — A predisposition to perceive things a certain way due to experience or expectations.
- Perceptual Hypotheses — Inferences the mind makes based on sensory data and prior knowledge.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Watch the recommended video on real-world Gestalt principles.
- Review examples of each Gestalt principle in daily life.
- Reflect on how your own experiences or biases might influence your perceptions.