Gestalt Psychology and Perception

Max Wertheimer

Published paper on motion perception in static images

Gestalt psychology

Psychology movement that perceives the whole as different from the sum of its parts

Figure-ground relationship

Segmenting visual world into figure (focus) and ground (background)

Perceptual interpretation

Brain creating perception beyond sensory inputs in predictable ways

Proximity

Grouping things close to each other together

Reading

Grouping letters into words based on spaces

Similarity

Grouping things that are alike together

Law of continuity

Perceiving continuous, smooth lines rather than jagged, broken lines

Closure

Organizing perceptions into complete objects rather than parts

Pattern perception

Discriminating among different figures and shapes

Perceptual hypotheses

Educated guesses made while interpreting sensory information

Perceptual set

Generated by perceptual hypotheses, influenced by personalities, experiences, and expectations

Verbal priming

Producing biased interpretation of complex ambiguous figures

Implicit racial prejudice

Affects perception, demonstrated in studies with weapon identification

Cultural factors

Influence perception, especially in relation to racial prejudice and stereotypes