2. 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”.
3. Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception
We impose visual organization on stimuli
W.E. Hill, 1915 German postcard, 1880
4. Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception
Illusory
Contours
The Kanisza triangle as figure-ground illusory contours
5. Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception
Three Main Principles:
Grouping (proximity, similarity,
continuity, closure)
Goodness of figures
Figure/ground relationships
6. Law of Equilibrium
Items in a visual field strive for
balance with other items in the field
Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception
8. 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
11. Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception
Grouping: Law of Similarity: Shape, Scale, Color
12. 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
13. 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.
14. 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
17. 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!)
18. Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception
Figure/Ground relationships
Figure – seen as the foreground
Ground – seen as the background
Contours – “belong” to the figure
20. 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.
22. 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
23. 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?)
