Kurt Koffka (1886–1941), one of the founders of Gestalt psychology,
said that the great question of perception is: ―Why do things look the way they do? At first the question seems almost silly. We are tempted to answer, ―Because things are they way they are. It would seem that tall things look tall because they are tall. And distant things look distant because they are distant. On the other hand, why does the Moon look larger just above the horizon than it does when it‘s overhead? It hasn‘t gotten any bigger, or any closer.
said that the great question of perception is: ―Why do things look the way they do? At first the question seems almost silly. We are tempted to answer, ―Because things are they way they are. It would seem that tall things look tall because they are tall. And distant things look distant because they are distant. On the other hand, why does the Moon look larger just above the horizon than it does when it‘s overhead? It hasn‘t gotten any bigger, or any closer.
Koffka‘s question does not have to be limited to the sense of vision. The same question could be adapted to the other senses. Sensation is the raw data of experience. Perception, on the other hand, is the organization and the meaning we give to primitive information. It can be said with some that we use sensory information to create a psychological world. Returning to Koffka, he said that there is a distinction between the geographical world and the psychological world. The geographical world is the actual world ―out there, the world as defined and described by physics. The psychological world is the world ―in here, the world as experienced by the subject. Although common sense usually says it‘s the so-called ―real world or physical world that determines our behavior, it can be argued that common sense isn‘t sufficiently analytical. Reflection suggests that we behave in terms of what we perceive to be true, not necessarily in terms of what is actually true.
Max Wertheimer, the father of Gestalt psychology, proposed a set of supplemental inborn organizing tendencies, or Gestalt laws. (The Gestalt laws are also traditionally called innate tendencies, which simply means ―inborn. The words innate and inborn can be used interchangeably.)
First, proximity refers to the nearness of the elements that make up a perception. 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.
Second, similarity refers to characteristics that elements have in common. Let‘s say that the word airplgua 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.
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 simultguaous 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.
(Sumber: Catatan Reading Text for English for Psychology of Student)
Tag :
Psikologi dan BK
0 Komentar untuk "The Gestalt Laws"