Understanding the Laws of Perception in Gestalt Psychology
The Collection
The elementary theory is devoted to studying the feelings and is considered part of the contents of perceptions. The sensations are studied as simple and indivisible contents of perception. We now know that this is so because perception involves many factors that should be studied as a whole. Feelings are related to the stimuli triggered by the external or internal environment: noise, odor, flavor, or something that falls before us. These stimuli trigger an activity through the sensory organs (visual, olfactory, etc.) and are “warning” signals to the brain through the nervous system.
The concept of feeling has diminished in importance from the point of view of its psychological meaning. Gestalt theory focuses on perception.
Perception is the acquisition of all stimuli acting at any given time.
What do you perceive now? The book you are reading is perhaps the focus (center), and your perceptual field is made up of sounds (street, radio, the teacher, your brother, etc.), and other things around you (the classroom, the room of your house, the person who sits next to you if you’re reading in a group). Depending on your concentration while reading, you will perceive a greater or lesser degree of the other stimuli. It may be that you only receive the letters of this text and have made abstraction of none of the possible elements to be perceived around you, given your interest in this subject. Perception is a form of knowledge of reality; perception is, for cognitive psychology.
Each person receives according to their circumstances, feelings, and sensory needs and possibilities. For example, a blind student studying this lesson perceives the nuances of tone in one reading, confronting the examples bundled with an unusual way of perceiving reality.
The Laws of Perception:
The discovery of these laws is one of the major contributions made by Gestalt psychology. Before the development of these famous laws, the Gestalt psychologists set out certain principles:
1) The Principle of Organization:
The perception is organized as a whole; the value of each element of the perceptual field depends entirely on the context in which it is included.
2) The Principle of Cogency or Law of Good Form:
The way in which perception is organized is always the simplest and best way possible, considering all the factors that coexist in the perceptual field at any given time.
Proximity Act:
Elements that are close in space and time tend to be grouped perceptually. In the example, how can we observe this law? Delete as appropriate.
Good Curve Act or the Common Destiny:
The elements that form a good curve or have a common orientation tend to be perceived as wholes. In the examples, A is seen as continuous, as is B. In the second figure, we tend to differentiate the square from the circle.
Law of Identity or Similarity:
According to this law, stimuli similar in size, color, weight, or shape tend to be perceived as sets.
We tend to perceive incomplete figures as if they were complete. We have come full circle and read the word “Psychology” by filling in the missing lines in both figures.
Figure-Ground Law:
This is one of the fundamental laws discovered by Gestalt theory. Usually, we see a major figure and a background that contrasts with the first. When there is a clear difference between figure and ground, a perception can be misleading.
Other:
So far, we have focused on the object of the person or the perceiver. Human perception is predominantly different from many animal species in which olfactory perception is the primary means. The way a person perceives is always related to their personality, interests, and the factors present at the time of perception. Perception is not a passive uptake of external objects (the poster I’m looking at) or internal (the pain I feel at this moment), since it involves the active participation of the individual.
Surely you’ve experienced something similar: learning the meaning of a word that was unknown to you; from that time, it often appears in different texts or conversations. Do you know why? Before getting to know its meaning, it went unnoticed, meaning it was not perceived. This often occurs with similar brands, names of prominent people, actors, etc.
Conditions of Perception:
1) “Every perception is primarily a reaction of the whole organism to a complex of simultaneous and successive excitations.”
2) “All perception is also a response to this complex personality, which has its memories, habits, and intellectual or emotional counseling, whether temporary or lasting.”