1 / 36

There is More to Perception than Meets the Eye

There is More to Perception than Meets the Eye. About Gestalt Psychology. Gestalt Theory. Sees the brain as a dynamic system in which elements interact The brain organizes our perceptions

corbin
Download Presentation

There is More to Perception than Meets the Eye

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. There is More to Perception than Meets the Eye About Gestalt Psychology

  2. 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

  3. Gestalt and Body-Mind • The stimuli configurations • Activate an existing brain isomorphism • Which result in what we perceive • Mind-perceptual organization, and sensory organ-stimulus exist in parallel • This is DUALISM, and DOUBLE ASPECTISM where there is a connection, but not an influence.

  4. Some principles of perceptual organization • Perceptual constancies (size, form, brightness) • Proximity, continuity, similarity, closure, simplicity (good form), figure/ground (Look at Wertheimer's original 1923 article for examples)

  5. Proximity grouping (1)

  6. Proximity Grouping (2)

  7. Proximity grouping (3)

  8. Bias in lines organization

  9. Common fate

  10. Read the content (1)

  11. Read the content (2)

  12. Read the content (3) Images from http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~cfs/305_html/Gestalt/wertheimer2.html#

  13. Impossible figures. Why?

  14. In summary • In Gestalt, the mind is active • It creates structures that parallel sensory reality, and serve as a guide • The structure that emerges is MORE than the sum of the parts.

  15. 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)

  16. Immanuel Kant says… The mind in the process of perceiving will form or create a whole experience

  17. Perception is • An ACTIVE construction of the elements of experience • Not an automatic accumulation of these elements

  18. Franz Brentano says • Psychology ought to study the act of experiencing

  19. Ernst Mach noticed • We perceive a table as a table, even as its orientation changes • We recognize a melody in a different key

  20. Christian von Ehrenfels claimed • The mind, operating on the sensory elements creates form

  21. William James said: • Elements are artificial • The mind perceives objects as WHOLE

  22. Carl Stumf • And the phenomenologists want to use the whole of immediate experience as the basic data of study.

  23. If the mind is active • If the mind is active • And our perception organizes and transforms "what is there" • Can we really ever know "what is there"?

  24. 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

  25. 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.

  26. Meanwhile in the natural sciences • Interest in electromagnetic fields and other complex, global phenomena • All part of a "more global" Zeitgeist.

  27. The Main Players • Max Wertheimer (1880-1943) • Kurt Koffka (1886-1941) • Wolfgang Köhler (1887-1967) • Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) Field Theory • Kurt Goldstein (1878-1965)

  28. Max Wertheimer (1880-1943) • Official Gestalt founder • Discovers the PHI phenomenon • Started the journal Psychological Research (w/ Koffka, Köhler, Goldstein and Gruhle) • His best known book Productive Thinking was published in 1945 Main

  29. 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

  30. 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 Psychology • 1959 became APA President

  31. 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

  32. Kurt Goldstein (1878-1965) • A neuropsychologist (and psychiatrist) • Wrote a classic book: The Organism • In this book, he studied brain injuredpatients and the manner in which the nervous system responded both in trauma and in reconstruction: globally rather than specifically

  33. 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)

  34. 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.

  35. THE END

More Related