If four ink dots on a piece of paper are arranged in the form of a square,

this Gestalt (i.e., organized whole) will, of course, be perceived to be a square. Let

assume that two figures are drawn. Figure A has dots that are one inch apart. Figure

B has dots that are three inches apart. Figure A will give a stronger impression

of being a square than will Figure B.

When you look at stars in the sky and perceive constellations, it is because of

the law of proximity. The “nearness” of some stars to each other creates clusters

that we can easily imagine to be objects such as a dipper, a hunter, or a lion.

Second, similarity refers to characteristics that elements have in common.

Let’s say that the word airplane is printed on a page in a single color of ink. Imagine

that the same word is printed on a different page with its letters randomly

appearing in black, red, and green. The second word is more difficult to perceive

as a whole word, as a perceptual object, than is the first word. Similarity of the elements helps to make a perceptual object a coherent whole.

If a moth is dark gray and it lands on a tree with dark gray bark, it will be difficult

to perceive the moth at all. This is because its similarity to the bark makes it,

from a perceptual point of view, a part of the bark. However, if a light gray moth

lands on the same tree, it will be easy to pick the moth out as a figure.

Third, closure is the tendency to fill in gaps in information and make a perceptual

object into a complete whole. Imagine that an arc of 340 degrees is drawn

on a piece of paper. Although at a sensory level this is an arc, you will tend to perceive

it as a broken circle, as a coherent whole with a defect. (An unbroken circle

has 360 degrees.) A newspaper photograph made up of nothing but disconnected

dots is nonetheless perceived as a picture of people or things. Again, the principle

of closure is at work.

Fourth, common fate exists when all of the elements of a perceptual object

move or act together. (Their simultaneous activity is, in a sense, a “common

fate.”) When this happens, the perceptual object is quickly organized into a figure

and is easily discriminated from a ground. For example, a polar bear with white

fur surrounded by snow is more easily seen as a bear when it is moving than when

it is stationary. Other organizing tendencies exist; however, the ones presented

make clear the role that they appear to play in perception.

Learned Aspects of Perception: Is the Infant’s World a Buzzing, Blooming Confusion?

William James said that the infant’s world is “a buzzing, blooming, confusion.”

There are flashes of light, noises, pressure on the skin, and so forth. But do they

have any organization? Are patterns perceived? Or is there just a lot of random

sensory activity? One gets the impression from James’s comment that the infant,

at least temporarily, inhabits a chaotic psychological world. We have seen from

the exposition of the Gestalt laws that this is probably not completely correct.

Innate organizing tendencies either immediately or very quickly help the infant

to stabilize perceptions and introduce some sort of order into whatever is happening.

Nonetheless, it is important to appreciate that learning also plays a role in perception. The Gestalt laws may play a primary role, but learning certainly plays a secondary, and important, role.

Let’s say that a simple melody is played on the piano in the presence of

Tina, a two-week-old infant. Assume that Tina has had little or no experience

with hearing music. Does she now actually perceive a melody in somewhat the

same way that you perceive it? Or does she just hear a lot of disconnected

tones? You can put yourself in Tina’s position to some extent by imagining

yourself listening to the music of another country, one that uses a tonal scale

and patterns of harmony that are unfamiliar to you. When you first hear a song,