Gestalt psychology is a theory of visual perception developed by German psychologists in the early 1920s. It was intended to explain how people manage to make meaningful judgments about a world in constant chaos. The word "gestalt" means "one whole." It is this term that reflects the process of perception, processing and synthesis of disparate parts of reality.
The main misconception about the essence of Gestalt is associated with the incorrect translation of the term into English: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
In fact, the idea of Gestalt is that “the whole is different from the sum of its parts.” This means that our perception of the whole exists independently of the perception of its parts. Or, in other words, when parts are combined, a whole is formed that has a new dimension of existence.
Gestalt principles: proximity, similarity, completeness, continuity and figure-ground.
Marketers can learn a lot from Gestalt psychology. After all, the human mind ceases to use logic when it comes to visual perception. Optical illusions are one example that proves this.
People don't make decisions on their own. Their actions are influenced by prejudices, external circumstances, and many other factors. This means that knowing how they respond to visual stimuli can be extremely useful. Gestalt psychology will not only make your visual message more effective, but also give you room for creativity.
Let's see how the principles of Gestalt psychology listed above can be used in visual marketing.
Law of Proximity
The law of proximity states that we subconsciously perceive objects located close to each other as objects of the same group. Our brain strives for continuity of perception, and this subconscious grouping gives us a clear interpretation of the relationship between objects.
Law of Proximity: Nearby objects cluster together. The circles on the left appear to be vertical columns, and the circles on the right appear grouped in horizontal rows.
Marketers and advertisers can use the law of proximity to create a memorable and compelling visual message, as Prada did in the print ad below. Placing different elements next to each other at equal distances gives a striking visual effect.
Law of Similarity
According to the law of similarity, we perceive objects with common elements as if they were part of each other. The “common elements” here are shape, color, size, texture or any other visual element.
Law of Similarity: Similar objects group together. Most people see vertical rows of squares and circles.
In web design, the law of similarity is useful when you need to group dissimilar objects, such as images and text of different sizes. One way to create visual unity in this case is to give them a common property. For example, background color.
On the eBay page above, images and texts of different sizes belong to the same group due to the common green color. This approach helps consumers connect details more easily and process information faster.
Another way to apply the law of similars is to violate it. You can draw attention to a single element by visually separating it from the rest of the page. The call to action button in the image below is a perfect example of this. It stands out against the blue background and is impossible to miss.
What does Gestalt psychology talk about?
This branch of psychology considers the existence of two “human worlds”:
- Physical, which does not affect personal experiences
- The world of sensations reflects the influence of many external factors on our consciousness.
Gestalt psychology did not accept the principles of dividing consciousness into its component parts. Representatives of this direction noted that perception is not formed only through sensations, and the properties of a figure cannot be described by characterizing each part separately. The human consciousness collects each piece of the mosaic and forms a single whole , forming a gestalt. What it is?
Gestalt (form, image) is the structural formation of particles into a single whole. This is the basic concept of Gestalt psychology.
People must be aware of their needs, emotions and feelings, communication preferences and perceptions of the outside world. Gestalt psychology does not focus on quickly resolving minor problems. At its core there is something more. Working with a specialist in this field will allow you to completely reconsider your life position and completely immerse yourself in the real world.
Basic principles of Gestaltism
In order to achieve a holistic perception and orderliness of its structure, it is necessary to resort to the basic principles of Gestalt:
- The principle of proximity - those images that are nearby are perceived together.
- The principle of similarity is that several forms that have a common size, shape, and color are perceived together.
- The principle of closure - consciousness strives to complete the missing parts of the figure, which subsequently takes on its full form.
- The principle of integrity - the world is perceived in a simplified and holistic form.
- The principle of contiguity is characterized by the proximity of stimuli in time and space.
- Common area - the listed concepts form our complete perception of reality, taking into account past life experiences.
We recommend that you read: What is the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people?
Law of image completion
This law says we usually connect elements that are not really related into forms that are familiar to us. The brain strives to add missing links, although it has no reason to do so. Naturally, we combine elements only into forms that are already familiar to us.
An example of this is the image below. Taking a quick look at the picture, you will see circles and triangles that are not there.
Law of Image Completion: An object grouped together appears as a whole. We ignore the spaces and finish drawing the lines. There are no triangles or circles in the drawing, but our brains fill in the missing information to create familiar shapes and images.
You can find the use of the law of image completion in the logos of some famous brands such as WWF or Apple. When we look at a WWF picture, we automatically fill in the blanks and see a panda.
Marketers can also use this law to create more engaging and memorable content.
What problems does this type of psychology solve?
Gestalt psychology allows us to be aware of our experiences and choose the right solution for them. But for this, a person needs to abstract from his past experience, clear his consciousness of the standards of cultural and personal traditions.
The founders of this direction in psychology identified 5 main stages that allow us to understand and solve the emerging problem:
- The emergence of a problematic situation - at this stage, a feeling of tension appears, which stimulates creative forces.
- Analysis of the problem and its awareness is the perception of a holistic image of the problem situation.
- Solving the problem - thought processes take place unconsciously.
- Alternative methods for solving the problem (insights)
- Execution.
The concept of insight in Gestalt psychology has become fundamental. It explained all forms of mental activity, including productive ones. The individual and his environment were considered only as a single whole.
Thanks to many works, Gestalt psychology has become widely used in the field of psychotherapeutic practice. The most widespread direction in modern psychotherapy, Gestalt therapy, was built on its principles. Without a doubt, we can say that Gestalt psychology has made a huge contribution to the development of world science.
Law of Continuity
The Law of Continuity states that we prefer to interpret visual information as continuous. Below you can see an example in which scattered dots appear to us as smooth lines.
Law of Continuity: Lines appear to trace a smooth line. The top circled branch in the picture seems to come from the first segment of the line. Because of this, it seems to us that there is a solid, continuous line in front of us.
Because of our brain's tendency to see lines as directional, the law of continuity is sometimes used in logos where broken lines form a continuous shape. In the example of the IBM logo below, we can easily read the lettering despite the spaces.
Law of figure and ground
The Law of Figure and Ground describes how we focus visual attention by separating figure from ground. The figure is the part of the composition that we pay attention to.
This law explains that a figure is the visual element that requires the least effort to recognize. In other words, this is the part of the image that stands out the most. The rest of the visual is background.
There are 3 types of figure-ground relationships. All of them have excellent capabilities for building effective visual communication.
- The figure can be clearly separated from the background (stable relationship).
- Part of the image can be perceived as both a figure and a background (ambiguous relationship).
- Both figure and ground have equal visual weight. The eye switches from one to the other (reversible relationship). Take a look at Rubin's "Vase":
The sustainable attitude is most popular among marketers. Space and contrast can create an effect that easily draws attention to the desired location.
The iPhone 7 home page is a very clear example of a strong figure-ground relationship.
This page highlights the strong contrast between the white header text and the black background. Even the product itself almost blends in with the new one, making the text clearly visible.
Gestalt psychology: basic principles, concepts, areas of research.
⇐ PreviousPage 12 of 67Next ⇒The history of Gestalt psychology begins with the publication of the work of M. Wertheimer “Experimental studies of the perception of movement” (1912)
The reason for their dissatisfaction was that higher mental processes remained outside of precise experimental analysis, which was limited to sensory elements and the principle of associations.
1. Basic concepts:
Gestalt is a holistic structure that has a special quality compared to the sum of its parts. A specific feature of Gestalt is the property of transposition (transfer). Experiment - 2 points at a certain distance from each other are lit alternately with different intervals of 200, 30 and 50 ms. At a certain time interval (50 ms), apparent movement, a stroboscopic effect, and a phi-phenomenon occur (the phenomenon of pure motion, Wertheimer’s article, see the beginning). Movement as a special quality cannot be reduced to the sum of two points.
Insight is a holistic understanding of the situation - such a holistic organization of a problem situation that allows you to resolve the problem and eliminate the conflict contained in it. Insight in thinking (understanding) - gestalt in perception.
Research covered perception, thinking, memory, affects, and will.
Method - phenomenological method - direct description by the observer of the content of his perception, his experience (description of objective perception as they see it at the moment). Allows you to describe not only subjective phenomena, but also externally observable behavior (experiments on animals). There is no difference between description and explanation (description is explanation).
2. Basic principles:
The principle of isomorphism (an expression of the structural unity of the world: physical, physiological and psychological: the mental world is an exact structural reproduction of the dynamic organization of the corresponding brain processes).
The principle of structure (a whole that determines the properties and meaning of its parts is called structure): an element does not have a meaning, but receives it in a certain structure in which it is included.
Research in visual perception.
“Gestalts” were chosen as units of analysis
- integral formations that appear in the phenomenal plane as a figure against the background.
A figure
is a certain thing in the perception of which all its properties are quite clear and distinct.
The background
is a certain substance, unclear and blurry in relation to the figure
Elements of the visual field are combined into a structure depending on a number of factors (proximity of elements to each other, similarity of elements, closedness, symmetry, etc.).
Between all objects in the field of perception there are two types of forces that help structure reality:
1. binding forces that unite objects into gestalts. The closer the objects are in space and time, the stronger the binding forces. Ex: two close pricks on the skin seem fused, or two slightly disparate points in space seem to be one. But if only these forces acted, the entire field of perception would merge into a single homogeneous sphere.
2. Therefore, dividing forces are also needed. “They are peripheral in nature and separative in function.”
Figure and background properties:
1. the figure looks more intense than the background
2. the contour is perceived as belonging to the figure
3. The figure appears phenomenally closer (and larger) than the background, and the background continuously extends behind the figure.
Laws of perception:
1. Proximity
– the closer objects are to each other, the more likely they are to appear in a holistic manner;
2. Similarities
– the more similar the parts of a figure are to each other, the more likely they are to be organized into a whole;
3. Continuation
– the more elements in the visual field appear in places corresponding to the continuation of a regular sequence (functioning as parts of familiar images), the more likely they are organized into a whole.
4. Closedness
– the more the elements of the visual field form closed wholes, the more readily they will be organized into holistic images.
This phenomenology was explained using the principle of isomorphism. ( Isomorphism principle
:
when a sensory impact is projected onto the cortex, an excitation will arise on it, the same in form as this very impact;
a consciously perceived square must correspond to an area of excitation, square in shape in such and such a place in the visual cortex) Structures are a direct reflection in consciousness of a physiological process in the brain that arises as a result of external influences that reach the cortical fields in the form of afferent impulses. Physiological patterns were explained by the physical laws of the electromagnetic field. Köhler's experiments with chickens. Light and dark stripes + grain. The grains were presented on a light gray and a dark gray sheet of paper. On the first one it was possible to peck, on the second the grains were glued. Gradually, through trial and error, the chicken developed a positive reaction to the light gray leaf. She unerringly approached the light gray leaf and pecked the grains. When the reaction became stronger, a critical experiment was performed: light gray and white sheets were presented. Chicken behavior: positive reaction to a white sheet and negative to a light gray one. Conclusion: the chicken was trained not for absolute darkness or lightness of tone, but for relative one. Another critical experience with black and dark gray sheets. The reaction is similar (orientation to relative lightness). All this shows with perfect clarity and convincingness that the chicken reacts to the situation offered to it as a whole: a reaction to a lighter tone. Those. the structure of visual perception of the chicken as a whole determines the properties of its constituent elements. Hence the conclusion that structures are primary primitive acts. The whole is not the highest, as was previously thought; the structural is not the result of intellect, creative synthesis, etc.
Studies of thinking.
Stages of thinking: setting a problem based on conditions; grouping, reorganization and structuring; discovery of structure by insight; finding ways of implementation in accordance with this structure.
Köhler : the intellectual solution is that the previously unconnected elements of the field begin to unite into a certain structure corresponding to the problem situation. “Insight” - illumination. Early 20s: experiments with great apes. Cage, bait, stick.
3 stages:
1) chaotic disorderly activity
2) stage of inaction
3) insight (the monkey jumps up, grabs a stick, takes out the bait).
Intellectual behavior - solving specific problems. Everything necessary for the solution is presented in the visual field. Insight is a qualitative change in behavior. Before insight, the problem situation is disordered, behavior is chaotic. Afterwards, the parts are united into a whole, behavior is orderly and has a purpose. The means and the end are interrelated. 1) understanding without solution (no stick - functional replacement of the stick - good mistake by the subject). There is insight, but the goal is not achieved. 2) a decision without understanding (a decision by analogy with the actions of relatives. The goal is not achieved (“stupid” chimpanzee). Behavior in parts externally coincides with the decision system, but the parts are disconnected, and actions do not produce results. No insight - insight does not reduce to the sum their parts.
Wertheimer : thinking consists of discretion, awareness of structural features and structural requirements in actions that correspond to these requirements and are determined by them, and thereby changing the situation in the direction of improving its structure. The conditions for restructuring a situation are the ability to abandon the usual patterns and schemes established in past experience and reinforced by exercises that turn out to be inadequate to the situation of the task. The transition to a new point of view occurs suddenly as a result of illumination - insight.
K. Levin: The basis of human activity in any of its forms (action, thinking, memory) is intention - need. A need is a certain desire, a tendency to fulfill, to realize some goal. Quasi-needs are formed in an actual situation in connection with accepted intentions; goals direct a person’s activity. Quasi-need creates a system of tension in the individual that strives for release. Discharge and then satisfaction of the need.
Each thing in the psychological field is characterized not by its physical properties, but appears in some relation to the personality of the subject (positive and negative valence).
The unity of personality and environment is a living space that has properties - a level of reality, a time perspective. In his understanding of living space, Levin included expectations, ideas about the future (ideal plan) and the past, but in connection with the way they are presented in the present, hence the problem of goal formation and goal-directed behavior.
The main provisions of Gestalt theory:
1. The idea of image integrity;
2. The idea of isomorphism (there are similarities between psychological processes and nervous (material) processes;
3. The idea of the immanent dynamics of Gestalt (figure - background). Changes may occur in the picture of the world that we have;
4. The dominance of a “good figure” (closed, symmetrical, balanced);
5. The idea of assimilation and contrast (the perception of an individual, assimilating him with the group (stereotypes);
6. The principle of structure.
13. Cognitive approach in psychology: basic principles, concepts, methods and areas of research.
It appears at the turn of the 50s and 60s, during a difficult period for science, because everything collapses. In physics, Newtonian-Galelean principles are collapsing. Discontent is growing in psychology. Undergo changes in linguistics, etc. New sciences are emerging: neurosciences, computer sciences.
The reorientation to the study of cognitive processes seemed revolutionary. But in essence it was a counter-revolution. The first revolution was the activity of the young Pavlovites (behavioral revolution - when the subject of psychology, for its objectification, was called only behavior). But perception, memory, thinking were transformed from the angle of behavioral direction. Perception - discrimination, memory - learning, language - verbal behavior.
The counter-revolution brought consciousness back to experimental psychology. It was a response to the reductionism of behavioral psychology.
Origins of cognitive psychology.
1 source – neo-behaviourists:
Ø Tolman. He introduced the concept of an intermediate variable, as which he considers cognitive processes. He introduces the concept of cognitive maps (not only in humans, but also in animals). He introduces the concept of purpose (not only in humans, but also in animals).
Ø Subjective behaviorism of Miller, Pribram, Gollanter. They postulate the existence of overriding processes in the body (mediating the body's response to an external stimulus). These are 2 instances - an image (all accumulated cognitive knowledge, i.e. a picture of the world, all the knowledge that we possess) and a plan (knowledge of the instructions that guide us when carrying out an operation - an algorithm). Other significant introductions: (debate between Tolman and Watson - whether behavior is molar or molecular) they try to unify the positions by offering a synthetic view. Those. behavior can be considered at different levels: 1. superficial, general level - a holistic act under behavior (behavior strategy), 2. can be decomposed into x and y. 3. four, not 2 simple operations. Stages 2 and 3 – tactics for achieving the goal. As a holistic act, it determines the strategy, in detail - the tactics of achieving the goal. As a unit of behavior: test - operation - test - exist: test - operation, test - implementation.
3 the source of the emergence of cognitive psychology is Gestal psychology (it supported interest in the problem of consciousness in the era of the dominance of behaviorism). The main thing is the objects of gestalt research - cognitive processes.
4 source:
· research by Piaget, who, studying child psychology, evaluates the cognitive components of the psyche - periodization.
· Bartlett – study of perception, thinking, etc. Introduced the concept of schema into cognitive psychology: the form of organization of our experience is a schema.
· Work on the perception of the Gibsons (James and Eleanor).
· Luria, who raised the question of considering the brain and consciousness as a unified system. He made significant contributions to the treatment of parallelism.
· Influence beyond psychology - the development of cybernetics, the invention of artificial intelligence, the emergence of a new view of the world in physics (crisis of the view of the objective world, crisis of the idea of contrasting subject and object, independence of the object from the subject).
All this served as a reason for renewed interest in consciousness.
Founders of cognitive psychology
: George Miller (together with Bruner in 60, creates a center for cognitive research at Harvard University), Wilrick Naiser (in 67, releases “Cognitive Psychology”).
Criticism of cognitive psychology - artificiality, laboratory nature - there is no idea how the process of cognition proceeds in reality.
Naiser, being the founder of the movement, became one of the first and most prominent critics.
Features of cognitive psychology:
1. metaphorical science (like psychoanalysis) – uses models (a working scheme that can be refined, rejected, etc. during the research process). In the 17th century, it was a metaphor for everything – watches and cars (La Mettrie).
In the 20th century, the computer claims the role of metaphor. Those. the same thing, and a clear gap between reality and metaphor.
2. According to the model of theory and information processing, the process of cognition can be divided into a number of stages, each of which has its own unique set of operations. The ability to process information is limited at 2 levels: at the sensory level (the amount of information that can be perceived) and the cognitive level (the amount of information that can be processed). During processing, energy is modified (from physical to nervous), abstracted (from mosaic to more generalized and abstract), and correlated with past experience.
There is a revival of interest in the problem of the unconscious - it appears as more emotional and rational. Representatives of cognitive psychology prefer to talk about the unconscious. Unconscious at different stages. There cannot be conscious processing: the process starts and occurs on an unconscious level. Those. processing occurs unconsciously. Thus, we can say that the process can proceed unconsciously (faster and more efficiently) and consciously.
Functional asymmetry.
Human-Animal Connection: Some operations are the same, e.g. memory and other symbolic and cognitive processes are more complex than previously thought.
Cognitive Psychology Assessment:
1) areas: perception, pattern recognition, attention, memory, imagination, language functions, developmental psychology, problem solving, thinking, human and artificial intelligence.
2) All the features of a psychological school - laboratories, journals.
3) criticism from outside and from within: lack of unity in most terms (they cannot agree on where the main and where are private, non-fundamental concepts)
4) no emotions, which is deadening
5) Neisser says that lack of ecological validity, indifference to cultural issues, cognitive processes are studied as abstract.
6) reductionism – a machine metaphor, the use of primitive processes.
⇐ Previous12Next ⇒
