What is Gestalt psychology?

Gestalt psychology is a school of thought, which was proposed by a Czechoslovakian psychologist, Max Wertheimer, in the 20th century, Gestalt laws provides the grounds for the contemporary study of perception. According to the school of Gestalt psychology, the whole of a thing is bigger than its parts.

Gestalt psychology sees both human perception and human behavior as a whole. While making sense of the surrounding world, Gestalt laws emphasizes that people do not simply concentrate on each small component. Rather, people’s minds are more likely to consider visual objects as components of more intricate systems.

Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler are the co-founders of Gestalt psychology. Max Wertheimer, is also known for designing a lie-detection instrument that was used in courtrooms. Max was a student of Christian von Ehrenfels who was an Austrian philosopher. Christian von Ehrenfels was associated with the School of Brentano.

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Gestalt laws have impacted how people analyze human perception and sensation. It also improves one’s knowledge of how their cognitive processes affect how they demonstrate social behavior.

The psychologists of Gestalt laws applied theoretical frameworks that explained the psychological research s Asatrategy. The discovery of the phi phenomenon by Wertheimer one of those contributions. Alongside the perceptual phenomena discovery, some of the Gestalt psychology contributions include: (a) a distinct methodology and theoretical framework (b) a memory theory (c) a collection of perceptual principles, (d) a famous set of problem-solving based upon information, and (e) perceptual grouping laws.

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What are the principles of Gestalt psychology?

According to the Cognitive psychology principles, when people see their surrounding world, their minds make an effort for making sense of what they see. The Gestalt principles provide various ways in which their minds perceive this order.

The school of Gestalt psychology explains when and how people’s minds view a variety of visual elements as being components of a bigger whole. Following are the ten Gestalt psychology principles.

Simplicity

Simplicity indicates that when people see something for the first time, their minds try to view it in the simplest way. For instance, a person’s photo is consisting of many photos, simplicity is to see the person immediately rather than the smaller individual pictures, which are the pictures of people.

Figure-ground

Figure-ground organization demonstrates how people’s minds make an effort to assess which part of a picture is the background and which part is the subject. When implemented in design, figure-ground organization can be a useful tool to build visual interest, excitement, and tension.

Proximity

Proximity means people perceive things that are close to one another as being component of a group. According to the Gestalt Psychology principle, proximity is a useful way to develop visual perceptions and visual orders.

Wertheimer observed that quick sequences of events develop the perception of a motion illusion. For example perception of motion pictures or movies. In fact, films are a quick succession of unmoving pictures that lead to a smooth visual stimuli experience. It is also referred to as the phi phenomenon.

Similarity

According to the psychology principle of Gestalt, similar visual objects are seen with each other as one group. For instance, if there are six cats of different breeds and six dogs of different breeds, then they would be grouped together as dogs and cats.

Common fate

The principle of common fate relates with the perception of motion and moving objects. It indicates how people perceive moving things. When things are moving in the same direction they seem to be in the same group. An example of common fate is a flock of birds flying together. When many birds are flying in different directions, no one calls them a group. However, when birds are flying in the same direction they fall in the same group of birds.

Symmetry

When people see something, their minds look for examples of symmetry. Symmetry develops a feeling of order and harmony that are people’s natural desires. Mostly, people prefer symmetrical things. They feel that individuals with symmetrical bodies and faces look more beautiful. Similarly, symmetrical designs seem more harmonious.

Closure

It is a joyful psychology principle as it deals with the concept that people’s minds wish to complete what they see. Some companies use this principle in their logos for developing vibrant imagery from very little. An example of closure in logo is the FedEx logo, with a space between the X and the E to make an arrow. Once a person notices it, he can never ignore it. Closure is useful as it involves a person’s mind to fill in the gap, which usually make the logo more memorable and impressive.

Common region

According to the psychology principle of Common region items placed within the same location are considered to be together. Some examples of common region are the Facebook homepage, and the pictures of birds flying together. Common region sounds similar to the principle of proximity but it is applicable to massive groups of items.

Element connectedness

According to the principle of Element connectedness items joined via visual perceptions (e.g. a line or box) are seen as a group. An example of element connectedness is the Navigation section – navigation areas use a set of lines or boxes to separate the navigation from the remaining layout visually.

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How is language processing explained in Gestalt theory of psychology?

Gestalt language processing theory emphasizes the importance of context and perception in language acquisition. According to this theory, individuals learn language by perceiving patterns and organizing them into meaningful wholes. This process involves the use of both bottom-up and top-down processing, with the individual's existing knowledge and experiences influencing their perception and interpretation of language. Gestalt language processing theory also emphasizes the role of nonverbal communication and context in language comprehension and production.

Gestalt Language Processing (GLP) is a kind of language development that begins from a whole memorized phrase and progresses to a single word.

Mostly, a word is the basic unit of language. Cognitive psychology believes that people build language word by word to construct their meaning. For gestalt language processors, a 'chunk' of language is the basic unit of language, not a word.

For instance, gestalt language processors may consider "she'll be late" as a single chunk. Gestalt language processors would not identify the words "she," "will," "be," "late" constructing the phrase but would perceive it as a whole. One may call these 'chunks' scripts or gestalts. Some may also call this 'delayed echolalia.'

Gestalt language processing is frequently used as a regular part of language development. Every child has some gestalts, even if most children begin speaking word-by-word. For instance, "you're welcome" is processed by most people as a gestalt. They do not worry about putting "you" "are" "welcome" together — they only perceive the whole.

Not to forget, a script (gestalt) may have a different meaning than what it literally says. "Will you be late?" may have a meaning "I'm not late!" because the child mostly hears this question when someone is late. One may see gestalt language processors as experts of the metaphor. They understand the link between the two scenarios and process the language from one situation to the other.

Within the Gestalt language processors the language development occurs in the predictable stages. These stages finally result in flexible, original language. In 1983, Dr. Barry Prizant mentioned these stages in his publication. Later in the 2012, Marge Blanc wrote a book about gestalt language development in which she summarized these stages in a framework referred to as Natural Language Acquisition (NLA).

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What are the stages of Gestalt Language Development?

Following are the stages of Gestalt language development.

Stage 1. Delayed Echolalia

At Delayed Echolalia stage, children script full gestalts, while using intonationally defined strings of language or/ and a single word gestalts that may or may not be comprehensible and hold a precise meaning. Children take these scripts from books, media or people. Here, one may identify children in the initial stages of gestalt language development. For example: Child: “This story has a fairy at the end!”

Stage 2. Trimming down or Mix and Match Stage (Partial Gestalts)

At Trimming down stage, children mitigate larger gestalts of Stage 1 into smaller chunks. Children also mix and match chunks/parts of gestalts into partially-unique utterances. It is also the stage at which a child can “trim down” a larger gestalt. For instance: 'This story has a fairy at the end’ to 'There is a fairy in the end!’

Stage 3. Single and Two - Word Combinations

At stage 3, a child breaks down scripts into one-word units or/and make new combinations of the noun. This stage occurs when a child is eventually able to recognize words as single units of meaning and start to use self-created language. At this stage, word order or grammar are not a matter of concern. For example: Child: 'Fairy’ (one-word noun), 'Kind fairy’ (noun + adjective combination), 'fairy bedsheet’ (noun+noun combination).

Stages 4 – 6. New Phrases or Sentences with simple Grammar, Complex and More Advanced Grammar

At stages 4 - 6, a child puts single-word units together to create their novel sentences or phrases. Children at Stage 4 use simple grammar. Children at stages 5-6, start using complex and advanced grammar. For example: 'The fairy helped the poor child’ (Stage 4) ‘The fairy can’t get disappeared’ (Stage 5), 'Shouldn’t she have gone back to the fairyland by now?’ (Stage 6).

Some children may communicate using a combination of these stages and some children talk in one stage nearly every time they communicate. For making home plans or setting objectives for therapy, it is essential to find out at which stage a child is using the NLA (Natural Language Acquisition) framework.

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What is the difference between Structuralism and Gestalt theory?

Structuralism perceives the mind as the interaction of different components of the mind and seeks to assess these parts. In simple words, all of a person’s experiences create his consciousness. On the other hand, Gestalt psychology states that the mind is independent of the components, it works as a whole.

Structuralism and Gestalt theory are two different approaches to understanding the mind.  This means that the mind cannot be understood by breaking it down into its individual components, but rather by studying the complete experience. While Structuralism focuses on the parts that make up the whole, Gestalt theory focuses on the whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Visual perceptions are a key aspect of Gestalt theory. In contrast to Structuralism, which breaks down visual perception into its individual components, Gestalt theory emphasizes the importance of the overall visual experience.

According to Gestalt theory, our brains organize visual information into patterns and wholes, rather than simply perceiving individual elements. This approach to visual perception has been influential in fields such as art, design, and psychology. By studying the ways in which our brains organize visual information, we can gain a deeper understanding of how we perceive the world around us.

Perceptual organization is a key concept in Gestalt theory. It refers to the way in which our brains automatically organize visual information into meaningful patterns and wholes. This process occurs without conscious effort, and allows us to quickly and efficiently make sense of the world around us.

According to Gestalt theory, perceptual organization is based on a set of fundamental principles, such as proximity, similarity, and closure. By studying these principles, we can gain insights into how our brains create meaning from visual information, and how we can use this knowledge to improve our understanding of art, design, and other visual disciplines.

Why was Gestalt theory criticized?

Criticism of Gestalt theory led to the subsequent decline of Gestalt theory during the mid 20^th century. It was largely believed that this theory was too descriptive. Also, it was criticized because it failed to distinguish between thought and perception. These shortcomings resulted in increasing dissatisfaction with Gestalt psychology in the middle of 1900s, and led to its subsequent decline. 

The decline of Gestalt theory paved the way for the rise of cognitive psychology, which focused on mental processes such as memory, perception, and problem-solving. Unlike Gestalt theory, cognitive psychology aimed to explain behavior in terms of internal mental processes. This shift in focus led to greater scientific rigor and experimental testing of hypotheses, which ultimately led to a better understanding of human cognition and perception. While Gestalt theory may have fallen out of favor, its ideas and principles continue to influence fields such as design and visual arts.

One reason why Gestalt theory was criticized was its lack of attention to perceptual phenomena that could not be easily explained by the principles of figure-ground, proximity, similarity, and closure. For example, Gestalt theory struggled to account for illusions such as the Müller-Lyer illusion, in which two lines of the same length appear to be different lengths due to the addition of arrowheads.

Critics argued that Gestalt theory was too focused on the whole and did not adequately account for the role of context and individual differences in perception. This led to the development of alternative theories that sought to explain these perceptual phenomena in more detail, ultimately leading to a greater understanding of the complexities of human perception.

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