Gestalt Laws: How We Organize What We See

Gestalt laws are rules that explain the origin of perceptions starting from stimuli. Thanks to them we can understand why we perceive things the way we do. The Gestalt laws revolve around the idea that a whole is something more than just the sum of all its parts.

These laws were established by the research psychologists of the German Gestalt school, Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Koffka. These psychologists demonstrated that the human brain organizes perceived elements in the form of configurations or wholes (Gestalt).

Thus this theory replaced the idea that sensations are the result of the simple sum of individual perceptions. As we said, a complex is something more than the simple sum of its parts.

Simplify our world

The fact that most of us interpret forms in terms of meaningful units illustrates one of the main processes of perception in action. We try to simplify the complex stimuli that the environment around us presents to us.

If we did not reduce the complex to something that is understandable to us, the world would represent an extreme challenge to be able to behave adequately. Ironically, as psychologists we have found that the process of simplifying the world requires considerable perceptual effort.

Making sense of the world through perception

Let’s see the following images:

The vast majority would say that it is an incomplete triangle.

We would say that we see four tubes in this figure.

In this figure we would claim to see a square or a rhombus between two columns.

Are these the only interpretations that can be obtained? A person might, with good reason, argue that there are three angles in the first figure, eight vertical lines in the second and a “W” above an “M” in the third.

Gestalt laws are about perceptions, they emphasize our interpretation of the individual elements of a scene as a whole or a union. This concept is supported by the assumption that a single organized subject is different and in fact greater than the sum of its elements taken individually.

Gestalt laws regarding  organization

The fundamental perceptual processes act according to a series of principles. These principles describe how we organize bits or pieces of information into meaningful units.

These processes are called Gestalt laws concerning organization. They were enunciated at the beginning of the twentieth century by a group of German psychologists who devoted themselves to the study of motifs or structures. They were able to discover principles of importance valid for visual and auditory stimuli. Below we will analyze the Gestalt laws regarding organization.

Law of closure

According to this law we tend to group what we see in terms of closed or complete figures instead of open figures. We therefore tend to ignore discontinuities and focus on the general form.

Law of proximity

We tend to group the elements that are closest to each other. As a result, in the following image, for example, we will have a tendency to see letters instead of loose dots:

Law of similarity

Let’s group similar-looking elements. This is why we see rows of identical apples, rather than columns of different figures.

Law of simplicity (or good form)

Generally the prevailing principle among the Gestalt laws is that of simplicity. When we observe a motif, we perceive it in the most essential and direct way possible.

In the following image we will have a tendency to see the hands of the clock as a Y. This is a consequence of the law of simplicity. In fact, the brain sees what is easiest to perceive.

Since the image is surrounded by other letters, we think the hands represent an extra letter to form the word TYME. The law of proximity could be fulfilled, the hands are in fact found in the middle of other letters. Or since there is no difference in colors or curved lines, we could think that it is one more letter, thus applying the principle of similarity.

Gestalt laws regarding organization are extremely important in understanding our perceptions. We organize the stimuli to make sense of them, taking into account different principles or laws. The explanation is based on the fact that the brain needs to simplify what it perceives to make it more accessible.