Gestalt Effect and Schema Theories

Gestalt theory

Gestalt according to Wertheirmer’s theory is wholeness means operational principle of the brain is holistic, relationship of the object create as a whole and the contexts is space and culture may alter meanings. This mean Gestalt is the whole is different from the sum of its parts.

There are five laws of Gestalt which called Principles of Perceptual Organization but I took only three out of the five laws. There are Proximity, Similarity and Continuation.

Proximity

This means that the object is joined as group together. Take a look at the image below:-

As we all know, our brain are too lazy to operate or think anything. It will scan and decide the closest thing that looks like in this image. The closest image that our brain can come out is an image of a Dog.

To explain more on Proximity take this image for example:-

In this image we can see that the vegetables are grouped in term of their forms and types. This is how our brain works; we see an object and form them into group to make one simple conclusion which means this is vegetable’s section in supermarket.

Similarity

This means that the object that we see and look similar to another and often group them as the same. Take the image below as an example:-

We see that this image is a picture of sea lions laying on the ground like sun bathing their body but as you look closer at the end of right side, it doesn’t look like a sea lion but instead it’s a camping bag that shaped and color like a sea lion, because of the similarity of the shape and color it can be mistaken as a real sea lion.

To make more understandable to this similarity law, take a look at this image:-

This image shows gray scale of human look alike body and somewhere in there has a yellow scale of human look alike body but as our brain perceive it, we will group it as the same as the rest because the shape of the image is similar as the gray scale image.

Continuation

This is where our eyes are naturally moved through one object to another or our brain trying to fill the empty spot that was left. Take this video for example:-

When you look at the dominos falling to each other your eyes are forced to see how they flow till the very end and you don’t realize that your brain has been replaying the scene that catches your intention where the dominos are perfectly on timing to fall and accurate place and you will definitely remember the thumbs up. This is what meant by the law of continuation, it catches your eyes in a motion to another object and also making our brain to repeat the event to fill the empty spot inside our imagination.

References:

The Gestalt Principles. Retrieved September 10, 2011 from http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm