Gestalt Psychology

1. Gestalt Psychology

2. Gestaltism • Is a theory of mind and of brain influenced by the Berlin School • This theory states that the mind is hollistic with a tendency of organizing exactly what it sees into shapes and catagories • The brain looks at things as a whole and not in parts according to this theory

3. School of Thought? • The school of thought for Gestalt is simple. It is Gestalt. Gestalt is not a person or a thing, but a psychology. A theory of the mind opposite structuralism and behaviorism. Gestaltism is in a league of its own all together with nothing like it.

4. Theories leading to Gestaltism • Principle of Totality—The conscious experience must be considered globally (by taking into account all the physical and mental aspects of the individual simultaneously) because the nature of the mind demands that each component be considered as part of a system of dynamic relationships. • Principle of psychophysical isomorphism – A correlation exists between conscious experience and cerebral activity. • Based on the principles above the following methodological principles are defined: • Phenomenon experimental analysis—In relation to the Totality Principle any psychological research should take as a starting point phenomena and not be solely focused on sensory qualities. • Biotic experiment—The school of gestalt established a need to conduct real experiments that sharply contrasted with and opposed classic laboratory experiments. This signified experimenting in natural situations, developed in real conditions, in which it would be possible to reproduce, with higher fidelity, what would be habitual for a subject

5. Properties of Gestaltism • Emergence: The complex pattern formation by simpler rules • Multistability: When images pop back and forth between two interpretations • Invariance: When geometric shapes are noticed without rotation, scale, and translation • Reification: An aspect of perception