Gestalt Psychology and Perception

The human brain is capable of perceiving and interpreting information or stimuli received through the sense organs (i.e., eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin) (Weiten, 1998). This ability to perceive and interpret stimulus allows the human being to make meaningful sense of the world and environment around them. However, even as the human being is able to perceive and interpret stimuli information through all sense organs, stimuli is most often or primarily interpreted using the visual (eyes) and auditory (ears) sense organs (Anderson, 2009). However, for the purpose of this paper, the visual information process will be examined.

2. Gestalt theory said, "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" meaning that the mind processes information simutouniousley. The gestalt theory made psychologists learn more about the way we learn and think. The work the Gestalt psychologists did lead to the rise of cognitive psychology in America, which

The Gestalt approach to therapy emerged during the 1950’s and was developed by Frederick Perls (1893-1970). The aim of Gestalt therapy is to increase awareness, so that the client comes to resolution of unfinished business and the integration of the thinking, feeling and sensing processes. In Gestalt therapy the emphasis is placed on the present experience, the perception of the individual as a whole and the direct awareness of emotions and action. Gestalt therapists believe that the emotional problems and frustrations that are experienced by individuals are attributed to the lack of recognition and understanding of their own feelings. In addition to this Gestaltist believe that many individuals lose

Gestalt therapy took its name from the school of academic psychology called Gestalt psychology. Perls asserted that Gestalt psychology had influenced the development of his ideas, but the Gestaltists claimed that there was no connection between the two. Later scholars suggested a common substrate linking the academic Gestalt psychology of Max Wertheimer (1880–1943), Wolfgang Köhler (1887–1967), and Kurt Koffka (1886–1941) and the Gestalt therapy of the Perls and their collaborators Ralph Hefferline (1910–1974) and Paul Goodman (1911–1972). This commonality involved appreciation of the whole rather than a reductionistic approach to understanding psychological phenomena and behavior.

"Perception is not determined simply by stimulus patterns. Rather, it is a dynamic searching for the best interpretation of the available data..... which involves going beyond

These organizing principles will determine how the elements in a scene will be grouped together..The role of the Gestalt principles in perceptual organization gives everyone the ability to see objects as continues, simple, similar, and proximity. Continuation allows the human brain to look at a coil of rope as one continuos rope and ropes that overlap each other as two separate strands of rope. If a person did not have the ability of continuation simple processes would take a lot longer while a person uncoiled the entire ropes to make sure that it was one continuos rope. Pragnanz gives a person the ability to look at something in a simplier form when there are more complex ways to look at it. Such is the case with the Olympic five circles, the prananz theory gives the human the ability to see it as five rings flowing together but the brain without the ability may look at it as nine different objects that did not have any flow or connection to them at all. Similarity is when similar items will appear to be grouped together. Grouping can occure when there are items that are of similar shape, size, or orientation. Proximity is very important on how the brain can group similar object together and how by changing the color of some objects will redirect the brain to a different patternization. Such is the case when a block of dots that are 7 high and 7 wide. If all of the dots are the same color the perception in the brain would group them in a horizontal pattern but once

(11) Individuals use the perception process to select, organize, interpret, and retrieve information from the world around them.

all individuals examined, they had a greater interest in objects with solid coherent structures, rather

d reflection on the main influences on Gestalt psychology and how they contributed to its development.

Perception is defined as how you look at others and the world around you. Being able to select, organize and intercept information starts the perceptual process. Perception affects the way people communicate with others. An individual’s pattern of thinking can affect their perception of others. Most people communicate best with people of similar cultures.

Humphreys and Bruce (1989) proposed a model of object recognition that fits a wider context of cognition. According to them, the recognition of objects occurs in a series of stages. First, sensory input is generated, leading to perceptual classification, where the information is compared with previously stored descriptions of objects. Then, the object is recognized and can be semantically classified and subsequently named. This approach is, however, over-simplified. Other theories like Marr and Nishihara’s and Biederman’s

I chose Gestalt Psychology for my first perspective, it is how people experience objects and perceive things as a whole. Gestalt allows us to look at everyday objects and distinguish them from their surroundings. Without the Gestalt Theory people would see every atom that made up a whole object. As I look at my computer screen, I do not see every little atom, I see the screen as a whole. From this perspective, learning objects as a whole instead of each individual part is beneficial because it allows us to open our minds for new learning experiences. However, there may be things in life that do not provide enough visual clues to determine what it is supposed to be.

Gestalt psychology is based upon the idea that we experience things as unified wholes. This approach to psychology began in Germany and Austria during the late 19th century in response to the molecular approach of structuralism. Rather that breaking down thoughts and behavior to their smallest element, the gestalt psychologist believed that you must look at the whole of experience. The problem that gestalt theory confronts is that of an extended event, whether an action,

Essentially when taken as a whole, this forms the basis of thought that the mind takes events in as a whole instead of breaking them down into measurable or distinct events. The idea is that the whole of an experience has more meaning than the experience when it is broken down.