When we are able to view an image in more than one meaningful interpretation (see image below) by either shifting our attention or directed by someone else we have experienced a perceptual phenomenon called Multistability. Multistability is another key Gestalt principle. Have you ever noticed that face that randomly emerged from that complex pattern on the wall? Well if you did then you have experienced the law of emergence. The underlying principles of Gestalt psychologyĮmergence is a key Gestalt principle that talks about the perceptual experience where some meaningful element emerges from a scene without any conscious effort or understanding. This makes it mandatory for designers to have an understanding of these underlying principles so that they can design the digital experience in a more relative manner and solve user’s problems in a much more effective way. These laws are applicable to everything, from our day to day activities to our digital experience. Gestalt Psychology tries to unravel that common ground by defining some basic principles that govern our sense of perception. In other words, humans are governed by some basic laws of perception that make us perceive this world in a unified manner. Humans share some common principles when it comes to our sense of perception. This led the founding fathers of Gestalt Psychology to propose when it comes to human perception ‘ the whole is different then the sum of its parts’. Max Wertheimer along with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler came up with Gestalt psychology when they realised that they can’t explain a perception where something is present one moment and absent the next in terms of Structuralism ‘sensations’ idea. Structuralism gave rise to Gestalt Psychology A theory of mind that describes human perception according to the ways in which visual information is brought together to form a whole, meaningful objects from individual visual elements. These sensations can be looked at as individual dots in a pointillist portrait (image below) which makes no sense while looked at individually but when looked together we form a meaningful image I.e a human face. ![]() Structuralism states that to generate a perception we need to put together the unconscious combination of elements called ‘sensations’ in a human mind. Structuralism tried to understand a human mind by breaking it into components and learning the way they are pieced together to generate a complex experience, as well as how they are related to physical and visible events. Wundt’s thoughts laid the founding stones for the concept of Structuralism. Wundt believed that psychology should focus on the human’s subjective interpretation of this world and should analyse human consciousness under controlled conditions to get a better understanding of the functioning of a human mind. Wilhelm Wundt (Aug 3 1, 1920) is regarded as the founding father of experimental psychology. They must have existed from the times we learned to use our visual apparatus consciously. We are not the first ones who have asked these questions. But how do we recognise something? Is there any logic to it? Are there any laws or principles that govern our visual perception? Do these laws apply to our modern gadgets too? Is there any science behind web design? We will try to find answers to these questions via this article. That’s why the things we interact with daily, we get better at using them. ![]() The more that ‘something’ comes in front of us, the more concrete the mental pattern for that thing becomes in our mind i.e we learn to recognise it instantly. After making a successful match, we ‘recognise’ it. When we see something we try to make sense of it by verifying it with our already existing mental patterns in our memory. To make sense of this world we interact with it, most importantly we observe it. From a microorganism who couldn’t see anything to an evolved human being, we have come a long way. ![]() Our visual perception is the greatest gift of human evolution that took thousands of years to come to its full glory. To an extent that we can’t even imagine ourselves without it anymore. From our ancestors always on a lookout for the predators to us checking the road twice before crossing it, we heavily rely on our visual apparatus to survive in this world. Since time immemorial humans have relied on their tools of perception to survive in this mortal world.
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