There is More to Perception than Meets the EyeAbout Gestalt Psychology

Gestalt Theory

Sees the brain as a dynamic system in which elements interact

The brain organizes our perceptions It does so by creating a kind of “map”

(isomorphism), which is a good --though not perfect-- guide to the outside world

Gestalt and Body-Mind

The stimuli configurationsActivate an existing brain isomorphismWhich result in what we perceiveMind-perceptual organization, and

sensory organ-stimulus exist in parallelThis is DUALISM, and DOUBLE

ASPECTISM where there is a connection, but not an influence.

Some principles of perceptual

organizationPerceptual constancies (size, form,

brightness)Proximity, continuity, similarity,

closure, simplicity (good form), figure/ground

(Look at Wertheimer's original 1923 article for examples)

Proximity grouping (1)

Proximity Grouping (2)

Proximity grouping (3)

Bias in lines organization

Common fate

Read the content (1)

Read the content (2)

Read the content (3)

Images from http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~cfs/305_html/Gestalt/wertheimer2.html#

Impossible figures. Why?

In summary

In Gestalt, the mind is activeIt creates structures that parallel

sensory reality, and serve as a guide

The structure that emerges is MORE than the sum of the parts.

Forerunners of Gestalt Psychology

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)Franz Brentano (1838-1917)Ernst Mach (1838-1916)Christian von Ehrenfels (1859-1932)William James (1842-1910)Carl Stumf (1848-1936)

Immanuel Kant says…

in the process of perceiving will

Perception is

An ACTIVE construction of the elements of experience

Not an automatic accumulation of these elements

Franz Brentano says

Psychology ought to study

Ernst Mach noticed

We perceive a table as a table, even as its orientation changes

We recognize a melody in a different key

Christian von Ehrenfels claimed

The mind, operating on the sensory elements

William James said:

Elements are artificialThe mind perceives objects as

WHOLE

Carl Stumf

And the phenomenologists want to use the whole of immediate experience as the basic data of study.

If the mind is active

If the mind is activeAnd our perception organizes and

transforms "what is there"Can we really ever know "what is

there"?

If we cannot know "what is there"

How do we approximate it?By "bracketing" (I.e. setting aside) the

question of the existence of the object itself (because that cannot be solved)

And using the method of "systematic variations" to get a wide sample of experience

More about phenomenology

At http://www.husserlpage.com/Note: Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)

is the official founder of the phenomenology movement as a philosophical movement.

Meanwhile in the natural sciences

Interest in electromagnetic fields and other complex, global phenomena

All part of a "more global" Zeitgeist.

The Main Players

Max Wertheimer (1880-1943)Kurt Koffka (1886-1941)Wolfgang Köhler (1887-1967)Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) Field

TheoryKurt Goldstein (1878-1965)

Max Wertheimer (1880-1943)

Official Gestalt founderDiscovers the PHI phenomenonStarted the journal Psychological

Research (w/ Koffka, Köhler, Goldstein and Gruhle)

His best known book Productive Thinking was published in 1945

Main

Kurt Koffka (1886-1941)

Wrote the first article about Gestalt psychology in the Psychological Bulletin (1922)

Published The Growth of the Mind (1921)

Published Principles of Gestalt Psychology

Main

Wolfgang Köhler (1887-1967)

Known for his chimpanzee research, and especially the notion of insight learning in problem solving. He wrote The Mentality of the Apes (1917)

In 1929, published Gestalt Psychology1959 became APA President

Köhler (2)

He was in Germany when Hitler came to power and was the ONLY non Jewish academic psychologist who opposed the Nazi regime publicly and protested the dismissal of Jewish professors from academia. He left Germany in 1935.

Main

Kurt Goldstein (1878-1965)

A neuropsychologist (and psychiatrist)Wrote a classic book: The Organism In this book, he studied brain injured

patients and the manner in which the nervous system responded both in trauma and in reconstruction: globally rather than specifically

Field Theory: Kurt Lewin (1890-1947)

A person’s psychological activities occur within a life space field.

Within the life space are all present, past, or future events that may affect us.

Various elements have + or - valences, on the basis of which movements and/or conflicts occur

Unfinished tasks create tension (Zeigarnik effect)

Group Dynamics

Kurt Lewin originated the concept of Group Dynamics.

Famous study of leadership styles among groups of boys.

The “Research Center for Group Dynamics” which he started at MIT is still active today at the University of Michigan.

THE END