Gestalt Principles

Learned in PSYCH101 through Visual Perception.

This applies also to how we perceive sound! We complete those automatically. Damn humans are smart. https://contensis.uwaterloo.ca/sites/courses/PSYCH-101/lecture-content/module-4/4c.aspx

Figure or Ground

Scenes are divided into either Figure or Background.

“You should be able to see either white angels or black demons, and you should be able to easily switch back and forth between the two, but you cannot see both the angels and the demons at the same time because one must always be the background.”

Principle of Proximity

Objects positioned closely tend to be grouped together in perception.

“six columns of circles rather than 6 rows of circles”

Principle of Similarity

Objects resembling each other tend to be grouped in perception.

“six rows of circles rather than 6 columns”

Principle of Continuity

Objects are perceived as continuous.

“a square rather than a collection of 20 circles”

Principle of Closure

Objects are perceived as completed forms by filling in gaps.

“IBM logo”