Gestalt Psychology

Gestalt
----means pattern, form or shape. ----a unified or meaningful whole.

It maintains that the human eye sees objects in their entirety before perceiving their individual parts.
Gestalt principles are restricted to perception.

Learning was something the Gestalt psychologists were particularly interested in.

Gestalt psychologists tend to emphasize cognitive processes in the study of learning.

The whole is greater that the sum of its parts.

Ernst Mach introduced the concepts of space forms and time forms. He pointed that all science is based on experience.

Space Forms

Christian Von Ehrenfels is the actual originator of the term Gestalt. He wrote a book entitled On Gestalt Qualities.

Oswald Kulpe is best known for the idea of imageless thoughts

The Big Three in Gestalt Psychology

Marx Wertheimer

--founder of Gestalt psychology

--he wrote his best known book Productive Thinking

Phi Phenomenon

He considered thinking

to happen in two ways:

Productive Thinking Reproductive Thinking

Wolfgang Kohler
--he wrote the book
Mentality of Apes and Gestalt Psychology He gave an emphasis on self-discovery when it comes to human learning.

Kurt Koffka
--he wrote Growth of the Mind: An Introduction to Child Psychology and Principles of Gestalt Psychology

Gestalt Laws

Law of Pragnanz
Pragnanz is German for pregnant. This law states that we are innately driven to experience things in as good a gestalt as possible.

The Logo of Macintosh

Law of Closure
It says that, if something is missing in an otherwise complete figure, we will tend to add it.

Law of similarity
It states that we will tend to group similar items together, to see them as forming a gestalt, within larger form.

Law of Proximity
It says that things that are close together as sees as belonging together.

A real-world example of the law of proximity from MTV Music Awards 2002

Law of symmetry
States that the mind perceives objects as being symmetrically forming around a center point.

Law of continuity
states that elements of objects tend to be perceptually grouped together and therefore integrated into perceptual wholes if they aligned together with an object.