We are bombarded by visual stimuli every day. In order to make sense out of what we see, the mind consolidates similar items into groups to simpliy input. Gestalt is concerned with how these groups are formed and what effect they have on perception. For example, when you see a chassis, windows, doors, a hood, trunk, wheels, etc. driving down the road, you register those components as a car. Kurt Koffka, a proponent of the Gestalt Theory, famously stated that “The whole is other than the sum of its parts.” Often the quote gets mistranslated to “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” All those parts that make the car are objects of their own that are built together to make a whole car, making it other than the sum of its parts. Gestalt explores the relationships that wholes and their parts have with each other, and how it affects perception.
Items that share visual characteristics such as size, shape color, texture, or value will be seen as belonging together in the viewer's mind. The more commonality that individual elements have, the greater sense of cohesion. An element can be emphasized if it’s dissimilar, referred to as an anomaly.
When the eye is drawn along a path, line, or curve. We prefer to see a continuous figure rather than separate lines. For example, the plus sign (+) is typically interpreted as two lines crossing rather than four lines meeting in the center. Continuation can take place going through an object, or be imparted by a line of sorts.
Imaginary lines called vectors or shapes called counterforms are generated by the mind to complete shapes that have missing information. Our perception fills in the visual gap, allowing for closure.
When objects, even if they are different, are placed in a group, the objects in that group will be seen as belonging together. The collective presence of the set of elements becomes more meaningful than their presence as separate elements.
We separate whole figures from their backgrounds based on a number of variables, such as color, contrast, size, etc. Everything that is not figure is ground. Sometimes the relationship is hard to distinguish, so one must clearly differentiate between the two to focus attention.
Elements of objects tend to be perceptually grouped together if they form a pattern that is regular, simple, and orderly. As individuals see the world they eliminate complexity so reality can be observed in its most simple form.
Humans perceive visual elements that move in the same speed and/or direction as parts of a single stimulus. A common example of this is a flock of birds. If elements, even dissimilar, are moving in the same direction, they’ll be perceived as being related.
People can generally relate to the same thing in the same region because of past experience. We can see a black rectangle with red, yellow, and green circles and infer that it’s a traffic light. Another example is how white is associated with innocence and black as death.