Lecture Gestalt 090308

8/3/2019 Lecture Gestalt 090308

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Parsons_Design 3Gestalt Theory Reresher

09.03.08

The eye sees only

what the mind is prepared to comprehend.Henri Bergson


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Cognitive Psychology

To de-mystiy the rules that govern the visual worldone must have a solid understanding o howmessages are received and decoded.

Cognitive Psychology is the eld o study thatinvestigates how meaning is derived rom visualstimulus.


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Decoding Visual Stimulus

Cognitive Psychologists classiy how individualsprocess input into a perceptual hierarchy an order in which dierent levels o awarenessoccur in the arrival o meaning.

The hierarchy traces the transition rom chaos tocomprehension and is independent o medium. It canbe applied to the study o visual, aural, or multi-mediacommunication.


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Perceptual Hierarchy

MEANINGFORMSTRUCTURESENSATION

STIMULUS RECOGNITION


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A Theory o Perception

Around 1900 psychologist Max Wurtheimerbegan research in auditory perception. His goal wasto understand what was at work in the human eortto perceive and organize their world. Wurtheimer

discovered through this initial research that humanspsychologically structure visual stimulus.

The result o this study was the beginning o a newpsychological discipline. Gestalt Psychology.


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Application to Graphic Design

Gestalt theory is particularly valuable inunderstanding where visual organization starts,because it gives concrete evidence o how theeye organizes visual experiences.


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The Gestalt Theory

1The parts o a visual image may be considered,analyzed, and evaluated as distinct components.

2The whole o a visual image is greater thanthe sum o its parts.


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Principles o Gestalt TheoryFigure/Ground (stimulus)

The undamental principle o perception whichallows us to read imagery. This is made possible bycontrast.


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Principles o Gestalt TheorySimilarity

The degree o sameness to each other.Sensations are grouped and ordered in the mindbased upon their likeness toward one another.


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Principles o Gestalt TheoryProximity

Degree o distance between sensations.Sensations are avored according to nearness oparts. Closer parts orm groups by visually uniting.


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Principles o Gestalt TheoryContinuance

Grouping that results in a continuation o direction.Sensations are grouped into directional orms whenthe receiver reads motion implied by position.


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Principles o Gestalt TheoryClosure

Grouping into recognizable orms or shapes.Sensations are grouped into a complete visual ormthrough the principles o similarity, proximity, and

continuance.


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Emergence


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Emergence

Emergence is demonstrated by the perception o theDog Picture, which depicts a Dalmatian dog sningthe ground in the shade o overhanging trees.The dog is not recognized by rst identiying its parts

(eet, ears, nose, tail, etc.), and then inerring thedog rom those component parts. Instead, the dog isperceived as a whole, all at once.


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Multistability


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Multistability

Multistability (or multistable perception) is thetendency o ambiguous perceptual experiences topop back and orth unstably between two or morealternative interpretations. This is seen or example

in the Necker cube, and in Rubins Figure / Vaseillusion.

Other examples include artist M. C. Eschers

artwork and the appearance o fashing marqueelights moving rst one direction and then suddenlythe other.


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Reication


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Reication

Reication is the constructive or generative aspecto perception, by which the experienced perceptcontains more explicit spatial inormation than thesensory stimulus on which it is based.

For instance, a triangle will be perceived in pictureA, although no triangle has actually been drawn. Inpictures B and D the eye will recognize disparate

shapes as belonging to a single shape, in C acomplete three-dimensional shape is seen, where inactuality no such thing is drawn.


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The Gestalt Theory in Summary

1The parts o a visual image may be considered,analyzed, and evaluated as distinct components.

2The whole o a visual image is greater thanthe sum o its parts.

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Lecture Gestalt 090308