Gestalt Principles

Gurpreet

What are the Gestalt Principles?

Gestalt is a psychological term which means ‘unified whole’. It was

discovered by the German psychologists in the 1920’s and refers

to the visual perceptions. There are four cues in the Gestalt Principle; closure,

proximity, similarity and figure-ground. Gestalt principles refer to how humans

try to group visual elements.

Closure

Closure is the tendency to fill up or close up gaps in a visual image to

see a whole image. If enough of the shape is indicated, humans perceive

the whole image by filling in the missing information.

In each of these pictures, we are closing up the black and white gaps to view an entire

image.

Proximity

Proximity refers to the nearness between objects. Humans perceive parts of a visual image which are positioned close as belonging in a

group.

In the first image, we have to differentiate between the fingers and the pebbles because of the proximity between them. Whereas the second image, they are unevenly spread out

so there is no entire image we can view.

Similarity

Similarity is the tendency to perceive parts of a visual image that have

similar features. We usually perceive them as a group or a pattern.

Though none of the shapes in this

picture are joined, we perceive the

image as a whole group of patterns to see an image. Here we see the head of

an eagle surrounded by triangular spokes

representing the sun.

Figure-Ground

Figure-ground is when something stands out against a different

background. It is out perceptual tendency to separate whole figures

from their backgrounds depending on the variability of the background, e.g.

its colour, shape, size etc.Here we see either a circle, or a

larger or smaller square. Depending on which one we pay more attention too, we will see

that image as our figure and the other as our ground.