PSYC 336 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Gestalt Psychology

• School: University of San Diego
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 336
• Professor: Appleton-Knapp

Document Summary

Argued that organization is contributed by the perceiver. The perceptual whole is often different from the sum of its parts. The determination of what is the figure and the ground. Any changes in perception are caused by you and not by some change in the stimulus. Many stimuli are ambiguous and in need of interpretation. Perception is guided by proximity and similarity. We tend to group things by similarity in color, shape, sie. Elements that are close to each other or resemble each other are parts of the same object. Tend to perceive closed figures rather than incomplete ones. We tend to interpret a form in the simplest way possible. Gather raw data interpretation of this information. Go beyond the information given and decide how the form is laid out in-depth and what is figure and what is ground. Your interpretation of the input happens before you start cataloging the input"s basic features.