PSYCH101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Gestalt Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Information Processing

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH101
• Professor: online

Document Summary

According to the gestalt psychologists, exactly the same stimuli produces two radically different perceptions. One is figure: what stands out; and one is ground: what is behind. That is not being perceived at the moment that you are looking at it. Tells us that we are taking the stimuli and adding our preconceptions and understandings to it, thus influencing what we see: gestalt principles. The whole is not equal to the sum of its parts. Our thoughts and preconceptions shape what we perceive, we don"t perceive reality, reality may be out there in abstract but our perceptions are our take on reality. We don"t see exactly what is out there, our perception is shaped by our thoughts. We see through the lens of our thoughts and preconceptions. Proximity: group things that are close together as being part of the same group. Similarity: tend to group similar things together. Connectedness: things that are connected together, we tend to group together.