Updated on
September 24, 2026
Gestalt Psychology: Perception, Principles and Learning
Gestalt psychology and Gestalt theory explained: Wertheimer, Köhler and Koffka, six grouping principles with classroom examples, and a quick layout check.
What is Gestalt psychology?
Gestalt psychology is the early twentieth-century school associated with Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler. It argues that perception organises sensory parts into meaningful wholes, so arrangement changes what each part means. Its main legacy concerns perceptual grouping, figure-ground organisation and insight, not Gestalt therapy or Gestalt Language Processing.
Gestalt psychology explains why we see patterns before pieces. Move the gaps, colours or lines on a page and the same items can seem to form different groups. For a teacher, that becomes one practical question about any worksheet or slide: what will learners see as belonging together, and is it the right thing?
The school began in Germany around 1912 with Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler. Its lasting findings are about perception: how we group things, how a shape stands out from its background, and how a problem can suddenly look different. It is not Gestalt therapy, which came later, and it is not a teaching method.
A review of 43 lab studies found that grouping helped people hold some simple displays in short-term memory (Li et al., 2018). The size of the gain depended on the task and the cue. That is a finding about dots and shapes in a lab, not proof that a page layout raises attainment.
For example, a classroom diagram with four dots set as two close pairs tends to look like two groups. The dots stay the same. Only the gaps change.
What Is Gestalt Psychology?
Gestalt psychology is a school from the history of psychology and a set of findings still studied today. Its central idea is that we see parts through their place in a whole. So perception is more than adding up separate sensations.
Key takeaways
- Gestalt psychology asks how perception organises elements into coherent forms, patterns and objects.
- Proximity, similarity, good continuation and common fate are grouping tendencies, not fixed laws of learning.
- Modern research retains many Gestalt phenomena while revising the classical explanations.
- Köhler's work made insight influential, but it did not establish a trial-free teaching method.
- Visual organisation can help or hinder interpretation, depending on the task and the concept being represented.
Gestalt is a German term often translated as form, configuration or organised whole. The point is not that wholes are always larger or better. It is that changing the arrangement can change what the same local element appears to be. A line may look like an edge, a boundary or part of a letter according to its context.
The familiar slogan is often given as “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. That wording is misleading when treated as Koffka's quotation. The historical position is better expressed as the whole being other than the sum of its parts. Relations within the whole alter the role of each part.
Gestalt psychology sits within the wider history of the fundamental theories of learning, but it asks a narrower question. It is mainly about perception and how we organise what we see. It is not a full account of teaching, memory or behaviour.
Origins and Founders
Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler led what became known as the Berlin School. They rejected the idea that experience is built by adding up tiny sensations, the approach of the structuralists. They also asked a different question from American functionalism, which asked what mental processes are for. Greenwood (2020) names holism and psychophysical isomorphism as the school's founding commitments.
Wertheimer's 1912 work on apparent motion is usually taken as the start of the movement. Two still lights, flashed one after the other, can look like one light moving. The motion is in neither light on its own, so the explanation had to lie in timing and relations.
A historical caution matters here. Phi should not be used as a name for all apparent object motion. Steinman et al. (2000) distinguish phi from beta movement and explain why later summaries often collapse them.
Wertheimer's demonstration opened a research programme, but it was not proof of every later Gestalt claim.
Koffka brought Gestalt psychology to English-speaking readers. Köhler built its theory and studied problem solving. Together they formed one historical tradition among several.
It was not a label for each later approach that stressed the whole. Gestalt therapy and Gestalt Language Processing arose in other contexts.
Principles of Perceptual Organisation
Gestalt principles describe when we tend to see items as one group, one line or one moving pattern. They include proximity, similarity, good continuation and common fate. They are useful descriptions, but how strongly each one works depends on the display, the task, attention, what the viewer knows and the other cues on the page.
Wertheimer (1923) gave an early systematic account of grouping. Modern reviews continue to study the phenomena while treating the classical list as neither final nor exceptionless (Wagemans et al., 2012). Later work has added and formalised proposals such as uniform connectedness (Palmer and Rock, 1994).
Swipe across to read all columns on a smaller screen.
| Principle or tendency | What observers may group | Evidence and boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Proximity | Elements that are near one another may appear to belong together. | Spacing can organise a display, but another cue may override it. |
| Similarity | Elements sharing colour, shape, size or orientation may form a group. | Similarity helps only when the shared feature represents the intended relation. |
| Good continuation | Aligned contours may be seen as continuing smoothly through an interruption. | It describes a perceptual preference, not a rule that every line will be followed. |
| Common fate | Elements moving in the same direction may appear to form one unit. | Motion supplies a grouping cue whose effect depends on competing motion and context. |
| Closure and connectedness | Incomplete contours may appear complete, while connected elements may form a unit. | These are distinct proposals. The familiar classroom list is not a settled canon. |
A row of eight dots can show the pull of space. Put a small gap after every two dots. Four pairs may appear. Now make the first four dots blue and the last four green.
Colour may favour two larger groups. Neither cue has changed the dots. The cues have changed how the set is split.
The same point applies to lines. Two short strokes can line up across a gap. They may look like one line behind a block.
Turn one stroke and that path may break. Such displays show a bias in what we see. They do not show that the same rule will guide every task.
These principles concern organisation of a display, not a person's fixed “visual learning style”. The separate guide to visual learning covers the wider educational discussion. Here, a diagram is useful as a perceptual case only when the grouping it invites is compared with the structure it is meant to show.
The diagram below takes six cues and shows what each one means for a worksheet or a slide.
Diagram · Build It
Six cues that tell learners what belongs together
Each cue is a tendency, not a law. When two cues point different ways on one page, check which one wins.
Proximity
Learners see
Items close together look like one group.
On a worksheet
Leave the biggest gaps between question sets. Keep each label right next to the thing it names.
Similarity
Learners see
Items sharing a colour, shape or size look like one set, even when apart.
On a worksheet
Give each colour one meaning. If colour means nothing, take it out.
Common region
Learners see
Items inside one box or shaded area look like they belong together.
On a worksheet
Box a worked example with its own steps. Never box unrelated tasks together.
Connectedness
Learners see
Items joined by a line look linked, and a line often beats a small gap.
On a worksheet
Draw a line only for a real link, such as cause to effect, and give it an arrow head.
Good continuation
Learners see
A smooth line reads as one path through a crossing.
On a worksheet
In a flow chart with a loop or a choice, break the line and label each arrow.
Figure and ground
Learners see
The strongest shape becomes the thing to look at; the rest falls back.
On a worksheet
Keep text on a plain background. A busy photo behind words fights for attention.
When cues compete. A line or a box around items often beats a small gap. If your colour groups say one thing and your spacing says another, learners have to guess, so pick one cue per relation.
Two cues on one page can pull in different directions. The Year 4 example later in this guide shows what happens when colour groups one way and the headings group another.
Gestalt Perception Evidence Study Note
Read the Gestalt perception study-note transcript
Core claim: Perception organises sensory elements into forms and objects. Relations among parts help determine what each part appears to be. The whole is best described as other than, not greater than, the sum of its parts.
Historical school: Wertheimer, Koffka and Köhler led the Berlin School. Wertheimer's apparent-motion work helped launch the movement. Phi is not a general name for every kind of apparent object motion (Steinman et al., 2000).
Grouping and selection: Proximity, similarity, good continuation and common fate describe grouping tendencies. Figure-ground organisation concerns which region appears as the shaped figure and which continues as ground. Attention, experience, task demands and rival cues can alter organisation (Wagemans et al., 2012).
Evidence status: Modern perception research retains these phenomena while testing new mechanisms and formal models. A meta-analysis found that grouping could support visual working-memory performance in laboratory tasks, with effects differing by principle and task (Li et al., 2018). This is not evidence that a page layout improves school attainment or long-term memory.
Education boundary: A display may clarify a concept when its perceptual groups match the conceptual groups. It may mislead when they conflict. Gestalt psychology therefore offers questions for analysing a visual, not a universal lesson method.
Figure-Ground Organisation
Figure-ground organisation is the perceptual separation of a shaped, bounded region from a less shaped background. The figure tends to appear more object-like and in front, while the ground seems to continue behind it. The assignment can be stable, ambiguous or reversible.
In a familiar ambiguous image, the same border can support two faces or a central vase. The border belongs perceptually to whichever region is seen as figure. This shows why the local contour alone does not settle the experience.
Size, symmetry, enclosure, contrast and past experience may influence which region becomes figure. None is an absolute rule. Figure-ground organisation also differs from grouping. Grouping asks which elements belong together, while figure-ground assignment asks which region has shape and which serves as background (Wagemans et al., 2012).
A road map gives a plain case. A dark route may stand out from pale streets. The route is then easy to pick as figure.
Reverse the contrast and the side roads may draw the eye first. The map still has the same facts. Yet the first object we notice has changed.
Text can work in the same way. Dark type on a calm field is easy to pick out. A busy image behind the words can fight for figure status.
This example concerns what comes to the front of sight. It does not by itself show what a reader will learn or recall.
Insight and Problem Restructuring
In the Gestalt tradition, insight refers to a change in how a problem is organised or represented. A blocked solution may become available when relations are seen differently. The subjective answer can feel sudden, but that feeling does not show that prior knowledge, search or gradual processing played no role.
Köhler (1925) described chimpanzees solving detour and tool-use problems and interpreted some solutions as insight. These observations were historically important because they challenged simple accounts of blind trial and error. They did not prove that human learners solve new problems without prior experience, trial or reinforcement.
Modern research describes insight as a sudden new reading of a problem that leads to an answer that was not obvious. Researchers study it through attention, word meaning and how the problem is represented (Kounios and Beeman, 2014). This does not make insight a replacement for slow, steady learning.
Wallas's preparation, incubation, illumination and verification form an influential account of the creative process. They are not four validated stages of Gestalt insight learning, and Wallas did not formalise Köhler's observations. Sadler-Smith (2015) also notes that Wallas's full account had more parts than the standard four-word summary.
A simple word puzzle can make the distinction clear. A person may try the usual meaning of a clue and get stuck. A new meaning can make the answer seem clear at once.
The last step feels sharp. Even so, the person has read the clue, searched words and used past knowledge. Sudden awareness is not proof of work without a past.
The comparison with behaviourism in learning is historical rather than a classroom choice between sudden insight and reinforcement. A learner may restructure a problem while also drawing on prior practice, feedback and knowledge.
Evidence and Modern Status
Gestalt psychology still matters because grouping, contours, figure and ground, and apparent motion are still studied. Its original explanations are not a finished theory. Researchers now measure these effects more precisely and test computer, brain and probability models of them.
Part II of the centenary review describes the reach of the Gestalt legacy. It also identifies the need for conceptual and formal development (Wagemans et al., 2012). Modern researchers ask how local and global cues combine, how attention changes grouping and how prior experience affects what is seen. The subject remains, while its explanation develops.
Li et al. (2018) synthesised 43 laboratory studies with 961 participants. Perceptual grouping supported some measures of visual working memory. The effects varied by grouping principle and task. This result does not establish benefits for classroom layout, reading, motivation or long-term retention.
The Berlin School is not the only account of how the mind organises information. Modern cognitivism covers a wider family of ideas about attention, memory, knowledge and thought. Gestalt psychology is one major influence on that history, not another name for cognitive science.
Gestalt Psychology in Education
In education, Gestalt psychology is best used as a bounded lens for inspecting visual organisation. It helps a teacher ask what appears grouped, foregrounded or continuous. Whether this helps learning depends on the content, the learner's knowledge and the fit between visible and conceptual structure.
Take an evolutionary tree. Two species joined by a short line can look like the closest relatives, even when the branches show otherwise. Across three studies, lines and grouping sometimes helped and sometimes hindered learners reading the tree. The result depended on whether the visual grouping matched the biology (Novick and Fuselier, 2019). That is a finding about one kind of diagram, not a general effect on attainment.
A worksheet offers a simpler illustration. Spacing examples into two blocks will invite two groups. Matching colours may strengthen that grouping.
If the topic has three categories and the layout shows two groups, the page teaches the wrong relation before anyone reads it. So ask one question of any layout: "What does this make easiest to see, and is that true?"
Take a set of fraction cards. If all halves sit in one box, space marks them as a set. If colour marks the numerator instead, colour may pull unlike values together.
Both plans look neat. Only one may fit the point of the task. The value of the layout rests on that fit.
A flow chart poses another risk. A smooth line can imply one unbroken path. The topic may in fact have a choice or a loop.
Good continuation can then hide the key idea. The sound response is to fix the chart's logic. Adding more colour will not repair a false path.
Other evidence bases should keep their own names. Research on coordinating words and pictures belongs to multimedia learning (Mayer and Moreno, 2003). Guidance for novices, worked examples and unnecessary search belongs to cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1988).
Kirschner et al. (2006) also warn against turning insight into discovery learning with little guidance. A sudden answer still depends on knowledge that someone taught.
Lab findings about grouped dots also do not show how to build lasting working-memory performance in class. When you judge a graphic organiser, check whether position, lines and colour show the relation you are teaching. A tidy page can still be wrong.
Worked Example: A Year 4 Science Sort
A Year 4 class sorts 12 animals into mammals, birds, reptiles and fish. The first worksheet sets all 12 pictures in an even grid, puts the four headings in a row along the top, and shades the pictures by habitat: blue for water, green for land.
Learners see the colour first, so the sea animals form one group. A whale and a shark sit side by side in blue, and several learners put them in the same class. The layout has taught "lives in water" before the lesson has taught "breathes air".
The fix removes the habitat shading and gives each class its own shaded column with a heading. Learners stick each animal into a column, and colour, if used at all, marks only the class. When the teacher asks "why is the whale here?", the answer has to come from the animal's features, not from the page.
Worked Example: A GCSE Computer Science Flow Chart
A Year 10 teacher shows a flow chart for a password check: enter a password, check it, and go back if it is wrong. On the first slide the boxes run in one straight column joined by a smooth line, and the arrow for "wrong" is thin and grey.
Good continuation makes the straight path read as the whole story. Learners trace it from top to bottom and write code with no loop. The one arrow that carries the point of the lesson is the one the layout made hardest to see.
The fix puts the check in a diamond, breaks the line there and labels both exits "Yes" and "No" in the same weight. Before explaining, the teacher asks two learners to trace what happens after a wrong password. If they go back to the start, the layout is doing its job.
What the Classroom Evidence Says About Layout
The strongest evidence on layout does not come from Gestalt research itself. It comes from studies of learning from words and pictures together, the ground covered by dual coding and multimedia learning. Those studies test the same idea in real lessons: things that belong together should look as if they belong together.
A meta-analysis of 58 comparisons with 2,426 participants found that placing related words and pictures near each other improved learning, g = 0.63 (Schroeder and Cenkci, 2018). A second review of 103 studies with 12,201 participants found that cues showing how material is organised improved retention, g = 0.53, and transfer, g = 0.33 (Schneider et al., 2018).
The gains have limits. Signals linking text and pictures helped mainly learners with little prior knowledge (Richter et al., 2016). In a classroom study with grade 8 learners, the same extra cues harmed those who already knew the topic (Richter et al., 2018). One pair of experiments found no benefit from integrating text and pictures at all (Cammeraat et al., 2020).
The evidence check below gathers these five studies and shows how far they agree.
The practical reading is modest. Put each label next to what it names, group what belongs together and cut decoration that competes. Then check the layout with learners rather than trusting how tidy it looks.
Check a Worksheet in Two Minutes
The mini app below turns this into a quick check. Choose what the page must show and the main visual cue you used, and it tells you where the layout could mislead and how to fix it.
Mini app · Build It
Check a layout before you teach
Choose what your worksheet or slide needs to show and the main visual cue you used. You get what learners will see first, where it could mislead, a quick fix and a ten-second test.
Built on Gestalt grouping cues. It flags likely readings, not certain ones, so the ten-second test with real learners is the part that counts.
Keep the printed check beside your planning, and run it again whenever you add colour or arrows to a page.
Layout and Colour: What Teachers Say
Teachers rarely use the word Gestalt, but they argue about the same thing: what a learner sees first on a board, a wall or a page. The table below sets two of their routines beside the research on layout.
How teachers use it · Layout and colour
What goes in front
Teachers on social media rarely say Gestalt, but they argue about what learners see first on a board, a wall or a page. The routine and notice columns are our summary of each post; the evidence column is the research, not the post.
| Routine, as teachers describe it | What you would notice | What the evidence says |
|---|---|---|
| Keep the board to the lesson's one idea | ||
There is a belief that cluttering your whiteboard with standards, objectives, and jargon means you are prepared to teach for that day. |
With the standards and objectives off the board, the worked problem is the strongest shape in the room, so it is what learners look at. | Across 103 studies with 12,201 participants, cues that show how material is organised improved retention, g = 0.53 (Schneider et al., 2018). No study here tests a bare board. |
| Colour-code so related parts share one colour | ||
| Display good, imperfect work with the strong parts labelled | ||
finding great (but not faultless work) + typing it up/photocopying it for display with a break down of what has been done well |
The label sits on the sentence it praises, so learners see the move itself, not just a finished piece. | Across 58 comparisons with 2,426 participants, words placed next to what they describe improved learning, g = 0.63 (Schroeder and Cenkci, 2018). This row is one teacher's account, not a trial. |
Both routines decide what goes in front. A bare board makes the problem the figure, and a label on the praised sentence puts the move itself in view. Each one is a choice about grouping and figure, even when nobody calls it that.
The posts below come from the same argument about classroom walls and boards.
Teachers in their own words · September 2026
When the room competes with the lesson
Two short posts from social media. One says clutter splits learners' attention, and one starts each writing week with a blank working wall.
Their little brains will be spending half their time deciding what to look at and half looking at what they need to see.
A blank working wall means one thing in Y6… new writing week!
The first post names the cost in plain words: every item that competes for the eye takes attention from the one that matters. Before you add anything to a board, slide or wall, ask what it will pull learners' eyes away from.
What Gestalt Psychology Is Not
Gestalt psychology is not Gestalt therapy, a learning style, a creativity programme or a teaching method. It is also unrelated to Gestalt Language Processing and Natural Language Acquisition. Sharing a word does not mean sharing evidence. Each of these later ideas has its own claims to test.
Gestalt Therapy
Gestalt therapy is a later psychotherapeutic approach. Its name and some language about the whole do not make it the same research programme as the Berlin School. Evidence about perceptual grouping cannot be transferred to claims about therapy, and therapy outcomes cannot validate classical theories of visual organisation.
Gestalt Language Processing and Natural Language Acquisition
GLP and NLA are later proposals about language development and intervention. Hutchins et al. (2024) question their conceptual foundations, classification criteria and claimed binary split between gestalt and analytic processing. Echolalia alone does not establish a GLP category.
A systematic review found no intervention-effectiveness studies of GLP or NLA (Bryant et al., 2025). This does not prove ineffectiveness. It does rule out presenting stage-based routines as established practice. Support for autistic learners in schools should rest on individual communication needs and appropriate professional evidence, not authority borrowed from Gestalt perception.
Limitations of Gestalt Psychology
The early Gestalt psychologists found effects that have lasted, but they often described them in broad terms rather than explaining how they work. Some principles overlap, compete or change strength with context. Researchers still ask how grouping is worked out, when it needs attention and how learning changes what we see.
First, a named principle may describe the result better than it explains the process. Saying that elements group by similarity does not by itself specify which feature matters, how cues are weighted or what happens when similarity conflicts with proximity.
Second, the usual list leaves things out. Uniform connectedness and other later ideas show that perception cannot be reduced to five poster rules. The same image can also be seen in more than one stable way.
Third, lab displays and school materials ask different questions. A reliable effect with dots, lines or moving shapes is not a tested teaching method. A claim about teaching needs a study with real learners, real content, a fair comparison and a real outcome.
Finally, the historical language of wholes should not replace analysis of parts. Good accounts must explain both local features and larger organisation. The live issue is not whether wholes or parts always come first, but how information at several levels interacts.
These limits do not make the early work empty. They set the next test. A strong account should say what will group, when it will group and what could stop it.
It should also tell rival accounts apart. A broad label for a pattern is a start, not the end of the work.
Try the ten-second test on your next worksheet. Before you explain anything, ask two learners which parts go together and what comes first. If their answer does not match your plan, change the layout, then teach. To see where this school sits beside behaviourism, cognitivism and the rest, use the wider map of learning theories for teachers.
Frequently Asked Questions
The answers below cover the definition, the founders, the main principles, insight and where the science stands now. They also restate the limits that matter in school: Gestalt psychology gives good questions about how a page is seen, not a guaranteed way to teach.
Who founded Gestalt psychology?
Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler are the central founders of the Berlin School. Wertheimer's 1912 apparent-motion work is usually treated as the movement's starting point. Earlier thinkers influenced the school, but “Gestalt” is not the surname of a single founder.
What is the main idea of Gestalt psychology?
Perception is organised. A part is experienced through its relations within a larger configuration, so rearranging the parts can change what they appear to be. The historical claim is better stated as the whole being other than the sum of its parts, not greater than it.
What are the main Gestalt principles?
The best known are proximity, similarity, good continuation, common fate and closure. Figure and ground is another major topic. The list is not final, and the cues can compete. Later research added ideas such as uniform connectedness.
How can teachers use Gestalt psychology in the classroom?
Use it to check layouts. Ask what a worksheet or slide makes easiest to see as grouped, linked or in front, and whether that matches the topic. Put labels next to what they name, give each colour one meaning and break flow-chart lines at every choice. Then ask two learners what goes together before you explain.
Is Gestalt psychology the same as Gestalt therapy?
No. Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy developed later, in the 1950s, by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and colleagues. It borrowed the name and some of the language, not the research. Findings about how people see patterns say nothing about therapy outcomes, and therapy outcomes say nothing about perception.
Is Gestalt psychology still accepted?
Its effects on perception are still studied, and its place in history is secure. But classical Gestalt theory is not accepted as a complete modern account of perception or the brain. Researchers have revised its ideas and now test more precise models.
Does Gestalt psychology prove that whole-first teaching works?
No. Perceptual organisation can make a relation easier or harder to interpret, but this does not prove a universal whole-first method. Learning also depends on prior knowledge, explanation, practice and task design. Any claim about attainment or retention needs direct educational evidence.
Is Gestalt Language Processing part of Gestalt psychology?
No. GLP and NLA are later language proposals, not branches of Berlin School perceptual psychology. Their shared label does not create an evidence link. Current critical and systematic reviews also identify major conceptual and intervention-evidence gaps.
Further Reading
These readings cover the founding account of grouping, the modern review, current insight research and one study of diagrams in biology. They lead into the evidence, not a list of classroom resources.
- Wertheimer (1923), the founding grouping account.
- Wagemans et al. (2012), the modern grouping and figure-ground review.
- Kounios and Beeman (2014), the modern insight review.
- Novick and Fuselier (2019), the evolutionary-tree interpretation studies.
References
The sources below are the works cited in this article. They separate historical evidence, modern perceptual and insight research, educational studies, and the GLP/NLA boundary. DOI and catalogue links lead to the corresponding publication records.
- Bryant, L., et al. (2025). Systematic review of interventions based on Gestalt Language Processing and Natural Language Acquisition. Current Developmental Disorders Reports.
- Cammeraat, S., Rop, G., and de Koning, B. B. (2020). The influence of spatial distance and signaling on the split-attention effect. Computers in Human Behavior, 105, 106203.
- Greenwood, J. D. (2020). On two foundational principles of the Berlin School of Gestalt psychology. Review of General Psychology.
- Hutchins, T. L., Knox, S. E., and Fletcher, E. C. (2024). Natural language acquisition and Gestalt Language Processing: A critical analysis of their application to autism and speech language therapy. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments.
- Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., and Clark, R. E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work. Educational Psychologist.
- Köhler, W. (1925). The Mentality of Apes.
- Kounios, J., and Beeman, M. (2014). The cognitive neuroscience of insight. Annual Review of Psychology.
- Li, J., Qian, J., and Liang, F. (2018). Evidence for the beneficial effect of perceptual grouping on visual working memory. Scientific Reports.
- Mayer, R. E., and Moreno, R. (2003). Nine ways to reduce cognitive load in multimedia learning. Educational Psychologist.
- Novick, L. R., and Fuselier, L. C. (2019). Perception and conception in understanding evolutionary trees. Cognition.
- Palmer, S. E., and Rock, I. (1994). Rethinking perceptual organization: The role of uniform connectedness. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.
- Richter, J., Scheiter, K., and Eitel, A. (2016). Signaling text-picture relations in multimedia learning: A comprehensive meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 17, 19-36.
- Richter, J., Scheiter, K., and Eitel, A. (2018). Signaling text-picture relations in multimedia learning: The influence of prior knowledge. Journal of Educational Psychology, 110(4), 544-560.
- Sadler-Smith, E. (2015). Wallas' four-stage model of the creative process. Creativity Research Journal.
- Schneider, S., Beege, M., Nebel, S., and Rey, G. D. (2018). A meta-analysis of how signaling affects learning with media. Educational Research Review, 23, 1-24.
- Schroeder, N. L., and Cenkci, A. T. (2018). Spatial contiguity and spatial split-attention effects in multimedia learning environments: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 30(3), 679-701.
- Steinman, R. M., Pizlo, Z., and Pizlo, F. J. (2000). Phi is not beta, and why Wertheimer's discovery launched the Gestalt revolution. Vision Research.
- Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science.
- Wagemans, J., et al. (2012). A century of Gestalt psychology in visual perception: I. Perceptual grouping and figure-ground organization. Psychological Bulletin.
- Wagemans, J., et al. (2012). A century of Gestalt psychology in visual perception: II. Conceptual and theoretical foundations. Psychological Bulletin.
- Wertheimer, M. (1923). Untersuchungen zur Lehre von der Gestalt. II. Psychologische Forschung.
