Gestalt psychology
Encyclopedia
Gestalt psychology or gestaltism ( - "essence or shape of an entity's complete form") is a theory of mind and brain of the Berlin School; the operational principle of gestalt psychology is that the brain is holistic
, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies. The gestalt effect is the form-generating capability of our senses, particularly with respect to the visual recognition of figures and whole forms instead of just a collection of simple lines and curves. In psychology, gestaltism is often opposed to structuralism
. The phrase "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts" is often used when explaining gestalt theory.
(a member of the School of Brentano
). The idea of gestalt has its roots in theories by David Hume
, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
, Immanuel Kant
, David Hartley
, and Ernst Mach
. Max Wertheimer
's unique contribution was to insist that the "gestalt" is perceptually primary, defining the parts of which it was composed, rather than being a secondary quality that emerges from those parts, as von Ehrenfels's earlier Gestalt-Qualität had been.
Both von Ehrenfels and Edmund Husserl
seem to have been inspired by Mach's work Beiträge zur Analyse der Empfindungen (Contributions to the Analysis of the Sensations, 1886), in formulating their very similar concepts of gestalt and figural moment, respectively.
Early 20th century theorists, such as Kurt Koffka
, Max Wertheimer
, and Wolfgang Köhler
(students of Carl Stumpf
) saw objects as perceived within an environment according to all of their elements taken together as a global construct. This 'gestalt' or 'whole form' approach sought to define principles of perception
-- seemingly innate mental laws which determined the way in which objects were perceived.
It is based on the here and now, and in the way you view things. It can be broken up into two: figure or ground, at first glance do you see the figure in front of you or the background?
These laws took several forms, such as the grouping of similar, or proximate, objects together, within this global process. Although gestalt has been criticized for being merely descriptive, it has formed the basis of much further research into the perception of patterns and objects ( Carlson et al. 2000), and of research into behavior, thinking, problem solving and psychopathology.
It should also be emphasized that gestalt psychology is distinct from gestalt psychotherapy
, although gestalt psychology had a considerable influence on the development of gestalt therapy. Laura Perls
, one of the founders of gestalt therapy, studied gestalt psychology before she became a psychoanalyst.
The theoretical principles are the following:
Based on the principles above the following methodological principles are defined:
on the mechanism of frogs' eyes indicate that perception of 'gestalts' (in particular gestalts in motion) is perhaps more primitive and fundamental than 'seeing' as such:
Cyberneticist Valentin Turchin points out that the gestalts observed in what we usually imagine to be 'still images' are in fact exactly the kind of 'moving objects' which cause the frog retina to respond:
and invariance.
dog sniffing the ground in the shade of overhanging trees. The dog is not recognized by first identifying its parts (feet, ears, nose, tail, etc.), and then inferring the dog from those component parts. Instead, the dog is perceived as a whole, all at once. However, this is a description of what occurs in vision and not an explanation. Gestalt theory does not explain how the precept of a dog emerges.
Reification is the constructive or generative aspect of perception, by which the experienced percept contains more explicit spatial information than the sensory stimulus on which it is based.
For instance, a triangle will be perceived in picture A, although no triangle has actually been drawn. In pictures B and D the eye will recognize disparate shapes as "belonging" to a single shape, in C a complete three-dimensional shape is seen, where in actuality no such thing is drawn.
Reification can be explained by progress in the study of illusory contours
, which are treated by the visual system as "real" contours.
Multistability
(or multistable perception
) is the tendency of ambiguous perceptual experiences to pop back and forth unstably between two or more alternative interpretations. This is seen for example in the Necker cube
, and in Rubin's Figure/Vase illusion
shown here. Other examples include the Three-legged blivet
and artist M. C. Escher
's artwork and the appearance of flashing marquee
lights moving first one direction and then suddenly the other. Again, gestalt does not explain how images appear multistable, only that they do.
Invariance
is the property of perception whereby simple geometrical objects are recognized independent of rotation, translation, and scale; as well as several other variations such as elastic deformations, different lighting, and different component features. For example, the objects in A in the figure are all immediately recognized as the same basic shape, which are immediately distinguishable from the forms in B. They are even recognized despite perspective and elastic deformations as in C, and when depicted using different graphic elements as in D. Computational theories of vision, such as those by David Marr, have had more success in explaining how objects are classified.
Emergence, reification, multistability, and invariance are not necessarily separable modules to be modeled individually, but they could be different aspects of a single unified dynamic mechanism.
Productive thinking is solving a problem with insight.
This is a quick insightful unplanned response to situations and environmental interaction.
Reproductive thinking is solving a problem with previous experiences and what is already known. (1945/1959).
This is a very common thinking. For example, when a person is given several segments of information, he/she deliberately examines the relationships among its parts, analyzes their purpose, concept, and totality, he/she reaches the "aha!" moment, using what is already known. Understanding in this case happens intentionally by reproductive thinking.
Other gestalts psychologist Perkins believes insight deals with three processes:
Other views going against the gestalt psychology are:
Gestalt psychology should not be confused with the gestalt therapy
of Fritz Perls
, which is only peripherally linked to gestalt psychology. A strictly gestalt psychology-based therapeutic method is Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy
, developed by the German gestalt psychologist and psychotherapist Hans-Jürgen Walter.
. The laws of similarity and proximity can, for example, be used as guides for placing radio button
s. They may also be used in designing computers and software for more intuitive human use. Examples include the design and layout of a desktop's shortcuts in rows and columns. Gestalt psychology also has applications in computer vision
for trying to make computers "see" the same things as humans do.
James J. Gibson was a Gestalt Psychologist who focused on vision and what he termed ecological perception. He also coined the term affordance
which has been productive of various human factors
and usability
research.
and computational neuroscience
, gestalt theories of perception are criticized for being descriptive rather than explanatory in nature. For this reason, they are viewed by some as redundant or uninformative. For example, Bruce
, Green & Georgeson conclude the following regarding gestalt theory's influence on the study of visual perception:
Holism
Holism is the idea that all the properties of a given system cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone...
, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies. The gestalt effect is the form-generating capability of our senses, particularly with respect to the visual recognition of figures and whole forms instead of just a collection of simple lines and curves. In psychology, gestaltism is often opposed to structuralism
Structuralism (psychology)
Structuralism in psychology refers to the theory founded by Edward B. Titchener , with the goal to describe the structure of the mind in terms of the most primitive elements of mental experience...
. The phrase "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts" is often used when explaining gestalt theory.
Origins
The concept of gestalt was first introduced in contemporary philosophy and psychology by Christian von EhrenfelsChristian von Ehrenfels
Christian von Ehrenfels was an Austrian philosopher, and is known as one of the founders and precursors of Gestalt psychology.- Life :...
(a member of the School of Brentano
School of Brentano
The School of Brentano refers to the philosophers and psychologists who studied with Franz Brentano and were essentially influenced by him. While it was never a school in the traditional sense, Brentano tried to maintain some cohesion in the school...
). The idea of gestalt has its roots in theories by David Hume
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
, Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
, David Hartley
David Hartley (philosopher)
David Hartley was an English philosopher and founder of the Associationist school of psychology. -Early life and education:...
, and Ernst Mach
Ernst Mach
Ernst Mach was an Austrian physicist and philosopher, noted for his contributions to physics such as the Mach number and the study of shock waves...
. Max Wertheimer
Max Wertheimer
- External links :* * * * *...
's unique contribution was to insist that the "gestalt" is perceptually primary, defining the parts of which it was composed, rather than being a secondary quality that emerges from those parts, as von Ehrenfels's earlier Gestalt-Qualität had been.
Both von Ehrenfels and Edmund Husserl
Edmund Husserl
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was a philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the 20th century philosophical school of phenomenology. He broke with the positivist orientation of the science and philosophy of his day, yet he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in logic...
seem to have been inspired by Mach's work Beiträge zur Analyse der Empfindungen (Contributions to the Analysis of the Sensations, 1886), in formulating their very similar concepts of gestalt and figural moment, respectively.
Early 20th century theorists, such as Kurt Koffka
Kurt Koffka
Kurt Koffka was a German psychologist. He was born and educated in Berlin and earned his PhD there in 1909 as a student of Carl Stumpf...
, Max Wertheimer
Max Wertheimer
- External links :* * * * *...
, and Wolfgang Köhler
Wolfgang Köhler
Wolfgang Köhler was a German psychologist and phenomenologist who, like Max Wertheimer, and Kurt Koffka, contributed to the creation of Gestalt psychology.-Early life:...
(students of Carl Stumpf
Carl Stumpf
Carl Stumpf was a German philosopher and psychologist.Born in Wiesentheid, he studied with Franz Brentano and Hermann Lotze...
) saw objects as perceived within an environment according to all of their elements taken together as a global construct. This 'gestalt' or 'whole form' approach sought to define principles of perception
Perception
Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
-- seemingly innate mental laws which determined the way in which objects were perceived.
It is based on the here and now, and in the way you view things. It can be broken up into two: figure or ground, at first glance do you see the figure in front of you or the background?
These laws took several forms, such as the grouping of similar, or proximate, objects together, within this global process. Although gestalt has been criticized for being merely descriptive, it has formed the basis of much further research into the perception of patterns and objects ( Carlson et al. 2000), and of research into behavior, thinking, problem solving and psychopathology.
It should also be emphasized that gestalt psychology is distinct from gestalt psychotherapy
Gestalt therapy
Gestalt therapy is an existential/experiential form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility, and that focuses upon the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating...
, although gestalt psychology had a considerable influence on the development of gestalt therapy. Laura Perls
Laura Perls
Laura Perls in Pforzheim, was a noted German-born psychologist and psychotherapist who helped establish the Gestalt school of psychotherapy....
, one of the founders of gestalt therapy, studied gestalt psychology before she became a psychoanalyst.
Theoretical framework and methodology
The investigations developed at the beginning of the 20th century, based on traditional scientific methodology, divided the object of study into a set of elements that could be analyzed separately with the objective of reducing the complexity of this object. Contrary to this methodology, the school of gestalt practiced a series of theoretical and methodological principles that attempted to redefine the approach to psychological research.The theoretical principles are the following:
- Principle of Totality - The conscious experience must be considered globally (by taking into account all the physical and mental aspects of the individual simultaneously) because the nature of the mind demands that each component be considered as part of a systemSystemSystem is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole....
of dynamic relationships. - Principle of psychophysicalPsychophysical parallelismPsychophysical parallelism, in philosophy, is the theory that mental and bodily experiences occur in tandem with each other, but without any type of causal interaction; it denies the interaction between the body and the mind. In other words, the mind and body are two independent phenomena but...
isomorphismIsomorphism (Gestalt psychology)In Gestalt psychology, isomorphism refers to a correspondence between a stimulus array and the brain state created by that stimulus. For example, in the phi phenomenon in which a pair of alternating and spatially separated patches of light create the illusion of motion, it is argued that the brain...
- A correlationCorrelationIn statistics, dependence refers to any statistical relationship between two random variables or two sets of data. Correlation refers to any of a broad class of statistical relationships involving dependence....
exists between conscious experience and cerebralHuman brainThe human brain has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times larger than the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size. Estimates for the number of neurons in the human brain range from 80 to 120 billion...
activity.
Based on the principles above the following methodological principles are defined:
- Phenomenon experimental analysis - In relation to the Totality Principle any psychological research should take as a starting point phenomena and not be solely focused on sensory qualities.
- Biotic experiment - The school of gestalt established a need to conduct real experiments which sharply contrasted with and opposed classic laboratory experiments. This signified experimenting in natural situations, developed in real conditions, in which it would be possible to reproduce, with higher fidelityFidelity"Fidelity" is the quality of being faithful or loyal. Its original meaning regarded duty to a lord or a king, in a broader sense than the related concept of fealty. Both derive from the Latin word fidēlis, meaning "faithful or loyal"....
, what would be habitual for a subject.
Support from cybernetics and neurology
In the 1940s and 1950s, laboratory research in neurology and what became known as cyberneticsCybernetics
Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...
on the mechanism of frogs' eyes indicate that perception of 'gestalts' (in particular gestalts in motion) is perhaps more primitive and fundamental than 'seeing' as such:
- A Frog hunts on land by vision... He has no fovea, or region of greatest acuity in vision, upon which he must center a part of the image... The frog does not seem to see or, at any rate, is not concerned with the detail of stationary parts of the world around him. He will starve to death surrounded by food if it is not moving. His choice of food is determined only by size and movement. He will leap to capture any object the size of an insect or worm, providing it moves like one. He can be fooled easily not only by a piece of dangled meat but by any moving small object... He does remember a moving thing provided it stays within his field of vision and he is not distracted.
Cyberneticist Valentin Turchin points out that the gestalts observed in what we usually imagine to be 'still images' are in fact exactly the kind of 'moving objects' which cause the frog retina to respond:
- The lowest-level concepts related to visual perception for a human being probably differ little from the concepts of a frog. In any case, the structure of the retina in mammals and in human beings is the same as in amphibians. The phenomenon of distortion of perception of an image stabilized on the retina gives some idea of the concepts of the subsequent levels of the hierarchy. This is a very interesting phenomenon. When a person looks at an immobile object, “fixes” it with his eyes, the eyeballs do not remain absolutely immobile; they make small involuntary movements. As a result the image of the object on the retina is constantly in motion, slowly drifting and jumping back to the point of maximum sensitivity. The image “marks time” in the vicinity of this point.
Properties
The key principles of gestalt systems are emergence, reification, multistabilityMultistability
Multistability is a system property. It refers to systems that are neither stable nor totally instable, but that alternates between two or more mutually exclusive states over time....
and invariance.
Emergence
Emergence is the process of complex pattern formation from simpler rules. It is demonstrated by the perception of the dog picture, which depicts a DalmatianDalmatian (dog)
The Dalmatian is a breed of dog whose roots are often said to trace back to Dalmatia, a region of Croatia where the first illustrations of the dog have been found. The Dalmatian is noted for its unique black- or brown-spotted coat and was mainly used as a carriage dog in its early days...
dog sniffing the ground in the shade of overhanging trees. The dog is not recognized by first identifying its parts (feet, ears, nose, tail, etc.), and then inferring the dog from those component parts. Instead, the dog is perceived as a whole, all at once. However, this is a description of what occurs in vision and not an explanation. Gestalt theory does not explain how the precept of a dog emerges.
Reification
For instance, a triangle will be perceived in picture A, although no triangle has actually been drawn. In pictures B and D the eye will recognize disparate shapes as "belonging" to a single shape, in C a complete three-dimensional shape is seen, where in actuality no such thing is drawn.
Reification can be explained by progress in the study of illusory contours
Illusory contours
Illusory contours or subjective contours are a form of visual illusion where contours are perceived without a luminance or color change across the contour. Friedrich Schumann discovered illusory contours.-Examples:...
, which are treated by the visual system as "real" contours.
Multistability
Multistability
Multistability is a system property. It refers to systems that are neither stable nor totally instable, but that alternates between two or more mutually exclusive states over time....
(or multistable perception
Multistable perception
Multistable perceptual phenomena are a form of perceptual phenomena in which there are unpredictable sequences of spontaneous subjective changes...
) is the tendency of ambiguous perceptual experiences to pop back and forth unstably between two or more alternative interpretations. This is seen for example in the Necker cube
Necker cube
The Necker Cube is an optical illusion first published as a rhomboid in 1832 by Swiss crystallographer Louis Albert Necker.-Ambiguity:The Necker Cube is an ambiguous line drawing....
, and in Rubin's Figure/Vase illusion
Rubin vase
Rubin's vase is a famous set of ambiguous or bi-stable two-dimensional forms developed around 1915 by the Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin...
shown here. Other examples include the Three-legged blivet
Blivet
A blivet, also known as a poiuyt, devil's fork or widget, is an undecipherable figure, an optical illusion and an impossible object...
and artist M. C. Escher
M. C. Escher
Maurits Cornelis Escher , usually referred to as M. C. Escher , was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints...
's artwork and the appearance of flashing marquee
Marquee (sign)
A marquee is most commonly a structure placed over the entrance to a hotel or theatre. It has signage stating either the name of the establishment or, in the case of theatres, the play or movie and the artist appearing at that venue...
lights moving first one direction and then suddenly the other. Again, gestalt does not explain how images appear multistable, only that they do.
Invariance
Class invariant
In computer programming, specifically object-oriented programming, a class invariant is an invariant used to constrain objects of a class. Methods of the class should preserve the invariant. The class invariant constrains the state stored in the object....
is the property of perception whereby simple geometrical objects are recognized independent of rotation, translation, and scale; as well as several other variations such as elastic deformations, different lighting, and different component features. For example, the objects in A in the figure are all immediately recognized as the same basic shape, which are immediately distinguishable from the forms in B. They are even recognized despite perspective and elastic deformations as in C, and when depicted using different graphic elements as in D. Computational theories of vision, such as those by David Marr, have had more success in explaining how objects are classified.
Emergence, reification, multistability, and invariance are not necessarily separable modules to be modeled individually, but they could be different aspects of a single unified dynamic mechanism.
Prägnanz
The fundamental principle of gestalt perception is the law of prägnanz (German for pithiness) which says that we tend to order our experience in a manner that is regular, orderly, symmetric, and simple. Gestalt psychologists attempt to discover refinements of the law of prägnanz, and this involves writing down laws which hypothetically allow us to predict the interpretation of sensation, what are often called "gestalt laws". These include:- The law of closure – The mind may experience elements it does not perceive through sensation, in order to complete a regular figure (that is, to increase regularity).
- The law of similarity – The mind groups similar elements into collective entities or totalities. This similarity might depend on relationships of form, color, size, or brightness.
- The law of proximity – Spatial or temporal proximity of elements may induce the mind to perceive a collective or totality.
- The law of symmetry (figure–ground relationships) – Symmetrical images are perceived collectively, even in spite of distance.
- The law of continuity – The mind continues visual, auditory, and kinetic patterns.
- The law of common fate – Elements with the same moving direction are perceived as a collective or unit.
Gestalt views in psychology
Gestalt psychologists find it is important to think of problems as a whole. Max Wertheimer considered thinking to happen in two ways: productive and reproductive.Productive thinking is solving a problem with insight.
This is a quick insightful unplanned response to situations and environmental interaction.
Reproductive thinking is solving a problem with previous experiences and what is already known. (1945/1959).
This is a very common thinking. For example, when a person is given several segments of information, he/she deliberately examines the relationships among its parts, analyzes their purpose, concept, and totality, he/she reaches the "aha!" moment, using what is already known. Understanding in this case happens intentionally by reproductive thinking.
Other gestalts psychologist Perkins believes insight deals with three processes:
- Unconscious leap in thinking.
- The increased amount of speed in mental processing.
- The amount of short-circuiting which occurs in normal reasoning.
Other views going against the gestalt psychology are:
- Nothing-special view
- Neo-gestalts view
- The Three-Process ViewThe Three-Process ViewThe Three-Process View is a psychological term coined by Janet E. Davidson and Robert E. Steinberg.According to this concept, there are three kinds of insight: selective-encoding, selective-comparison, and selective-combination....
Gestalt psychology should not be confused with the gestalt therapy
Gestalt therapy
Gestalt therapy is an existential/experiential form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility, and that focuses upon the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating...
of Fritz Perls
Fritz Perls
Friedrich Salomon Perls , better known as Fritz Perls, was a noted German-born psychiatrist and psychotherapist of Jewish descent....
, which is only peripherally linked to gestalt psychology. A strictly gestalt psychology-based therapeutic method is Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy
Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy
Gestalt theoretical psychotherapy is a method of psychotherapy based strictly on Gestalt psychology. It was developed by the German Gestalt psychologist and psychotherapist Hans-Jürgen P...
, developed by the German gestalt psychologist and psychotherapist Hans-Jürgen Walter.
Uses in human–computer interaction
The gestalt laws are used in user interface designUser interface design
User interface design or user interface engineering is the design of computers, appliances, machines, mobile communication devices, software applications, and websites with the focus on the user's experience and interaction...
. The laws of similarity and proximity can, for example, be used as guides for placing radio button
Radio button
A radio button or option button is a type of graphical user interface element that allows the user to choose only one of a predefined set of options....
s. They may also be used in designing computers and software for more intuitive human use. Examples include the design and layout of a desktop's shortcuts in rows and columns. Gestalt psychology also has applications in computer vision
Computer vision
Computer vision is a field that includes methods for acquiring, processing, analysing, and understanding images and, in general, high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical or symbolic information, e.g., in the forms of decisions...
for trying to make computers "see" the same things as humans do.
James J. Gibson was a Gestalt Psychologist who focused on vision and what he termed ecological perception. He also coined the term affordance
Affordance
An affordance is a quality of an object, or an environment, which allows an individual to perform an action. For example, a knob affords twisting, and perhaps pushing, while a cord affords pulling...
which has been productive of various human factors
Human factors
Human factors science or human factors technologies is a multidisciplinary field incorporating contributions from psychology, engineering, industrial design, statistics, operations research and anthropometry...
and usability
Usability
Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. The object of use can be a software application, website, book, tool, machine, process, or anything a human interacts with. A usability study may be conducted as a primary job function by a usability analyst or as a secondary job...
research.
Criticism
In some scholarly communities, such as cognitive psychologyCognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....
and computational neuroscience
Computational neuroscience
Computational neuroscience is the study of brain function in terms of the information processing properties of the structures that make up the nervous system...
, gestalt theories of perception are criticized for being descriptive rather than explanatory in nature. For this reason, they are viewed by some as redundant or uninformative. For example, Bruce
Vicki Bruce
Vicki Bruce OBE, MA, PhD, CPsychol, FBPsS, FRSE, FBA born 1953 in Essex, England is a British psychologist, Professor of Psychology and current Head of the School of Psychology at Newcastle University. She is known for her work on human face perception and person memory, including face recognition...
, Green & Georgeson conclude the following regarding gestalt theory's influence on the study of visual perception:
- "The physiological theory of the gestaltists has fallen by the wayside, leaving us with a set of descriptive principles, but without a model of perceptual processing. Indeed, some of their "laws" of perceptual organisation today sound vague and inadequate. What is meant by a "good" or "simple" shape, for example?"
See also
- Gestalt therapyGestalt therapyGestalt therapy is an existential/experiential form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility, and that focuses upon the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating...
- often mistaken for gestalt psychology - Structural information theoryStructural information theoryStructural information theory is a theory about human perception and in particular about perceptual organization: the way the human visual system organizes a raw visual stimulus into objects and object parts. SIT was initiated, in the 1960s, by Emanuel Leeuwenberg and has been developed further by...
- Rudolf Arnheim
- Wolfgang MetzgerWolfgang MetzgerWolfgang Metzger is considered one of the main representatives of Gestalt psychology in Germany....
- Kurt GoldsteinKurt GoldsteinKurt Goldstein was a German Jewish neurologist and psychiatrist who was a pioneer in modern neuropsychology. He created a holistic theory of the organism based on Gestalt theory which deeply influenced the development of Gestalt therapy...
- Pál Schiller HarkaiPál Schiller HarkaiPál Schiller Harkai Hungarian philosopher and psychologist.He organized Psychological Institute at Budapest University in 1936.- His career :...
- Solomon AschSolomon AschSolomon Eliot Asch , also known as Shlaym, was an American Gestalt psychologist and pioneer in social psychology.-Early life and education:...
- Hermann FriedmannHermann FriedmannAdolph Hermann Friedmann was a Polish-German philosopher and jurist.- Literary works :...
- James J. Gibson
- James TenneyJames TenneyJames Tenney was an American composer and influential music theorist.-Biography:Tenney was born in Silver City, New Mexico, and grew up in Arizona and Colorado. He attended the University of Denver, the Juilliard School of Music, Bennington College and the University of Illinois...
- Graz SchoolGraz SchoolThe Graz School of experimental psychology and object theory was headed by Alexius Meinong, who was professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Graz where he founded the Graz psychological institute ....
- Important publications in gestalt psychology
- MereologyMereologyIn philosophy and mathematical logic, mereology treats parts and the wholes they form...
- Optical illusionOptical illusionAn optical illusion is characterized by visually perceived images that differ from objective reality. The information gathered by the eye is processed in the brain to give a perception that does not tally with a physical measurement of the stimulus source...
- Pattern recognition (psychology)Pattern recognition (psychology)Pattern recognition involves identification of faces, objects, words, melodies, etc. The visual system does more than just interpret forms, contours and colors. Pattern recognition refers to the process of recognizing a set of stimuli arranged in a certain pattern that is characteristic of that set...
- Pattern recognition (machine learning)Pattern recognitionIn machine learning, pattern recognition is the assignment of some sort of output value to a given input value , according to some specific algorithm. An example of pattern recognition is classification, which attempts to assign each input value to one of a given set of classes...
- Amodal perceptionAmodal perceptionAmodal perception is the term used to describe the perception of the whole of a physical structure when only parts of it affect the sensory receptors...
- PhenomenologyPhenomenology (psychology)Phenomenology is an approach to psychological subject matter that has its roots in the philosophical work of Edmund Husserl. Early phenomenologists such as Husserl, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty conducted their own psychological investigations in the early 20th century...
- Fuzzy-trace theoryFuzzy-trace theoryFuzzy-Trace Theory is a theory that is used in several different areas of psychology, such as cognitive, developmental and social psychology. FTT is a theory of memory and cognition with broad ramifications for the study of judgment and decision-making and two decades of empirical support...
External links
- Gestalt Society of Croatia
- International Society for Gestalt Theory and its Applications - GTA
- Embedded Figures in Art, Architecture and Design
- On Max Wertheimer and Pablo Picasso
- On Esthetics and Gestalt Theory
- The World In Your Head - by Steven Lehar
- Gestalt Isomorphism and the Primacy of Subjective Conscious Experience - by Steven Lehar
- The new gestalt psychology of the 21st century
- The Pennsylvania Gestalt Center
- Gestalt Theory
- Ecological Approach to Visual Perception
- James J. Gibson in brief