1. Gestalt Principles Visual and Musical Examples

2. Sensation and Perception Sensation is the process of receiving stimuli (e.g., light and sound) from the environment. Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information to give it meaning. Put another way, perception is the process of finding meaningful patterns in sensory information.

3. Purpose of Perception According to David Marr (1982), the purpose of perception is to create a mental representation of (some portion of) the world.

4. Gestalt Theory of Perception A very interesting episode in the history of psychology was the proposal by a group of German scholars -- notably Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler -- that form is the primitive unit of perception. Robert Solso “Cognition and the Visual Arts (page 87)

5. Gestalt? Gestalt is a German word that translates very poorly into English. Roughly speaking, a gestalt refers to a whole pattern, a form, or a configuration. It is a cohesive group, thought by Gestalters to be derived from a number of “laws” or “principles”. Mark Ashcroft “Human Memory and Cognition” (page 579)

6. Principles of Perceptual Organization Proximity Similarity Pragnanz Closure Continuation Symmetry Figure and Ground

7. Proximity If like objects are located near each other in the physical world, we tend to group them together perceptually

8. Proximity as a Grouping Factor in Melody in Melody after a bit by Beethoven

9. Similarity If elements are similar with respect to some characteristic (e.g., shape or size or color), then they tend to be grouped together.

10. Similarity as a Grouping Factor in Melody in Melody after a bit by Mozart

11. Pragnanz The German word Pragnanz translates into English as “pregnant with meaning,” and is one of the more controversial aspects of Gestalt theory. Figures with Pragnanz are said to have “good shapes.” The psychological implication of Pragnanz is that our mind seeks stable, regular figures in the environment and that we may feel uneasy if unable to find such objects. Robert Solso “Cognition and the Visual Arts (page 96)

12. Pragnanz as a Grouping Factor in Melody in Melody after a bit by Borodin