The Legacy of Gestalt Psychology Author(s): Irvin Rock and Stephen Palmer Source: Scientific American , Vol. 263, No. 6 (DECEMBER 1990), pp. 84-91 Published by: Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/24997014 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Scientific American This content downloaded from 149.31.128.226 on Tue, 12 Feb 2019 16:18:23 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Legacy of Gestalt Psychology Since its inception early in this century, Gestalt theory has made significant contributions to the study of perception, learning and social psychology. These contributions remain influential today by Irvin Rock and Stephen Palmer ike many important movements in u.S., where some of their students re­ mind. Their view has been described as science, Gestalt psychology was main active. The Gestaltists contribut­ "mental chemistry" because it assumes L born of a revolt against the in­ ed more to the study of perception that perceptions can be analyzed com­ tellectual establishment of its time. To­ than to other areas of psychology-Ge­ ponent by component, much as mole­ day several concepts that Gestalt the­ staltis German for "pattern" or "shape," cules can be broken down into atoms. orists proposed early in this century although "configuration" comes closer The Gestaltists attacked this theo­ have been incorporated into modern to its intended meaning-but they also ry. What people perceived, they held, is understanding of perception, learning made important advances in education, not merely a sum or sequence of sen­ and thought-indeed into our very lan­ learning, thinking and social psycholo­ sations but the whole configuration of guage and culture. Many people have gy. Some of their ideas have not sur­ which they are part. The location or heard the phrase "the whole Gestalt" vived, but others continue to influence size of a square's image can be altered or have seen pictures that demonstrate the work of modem psychologists. so that entirely different retinal sen­ Gestalt principles, such as the one that sations are produced, yet the percep­ looks now like a vase, now like two estalt psychology was launched tion is still that of a square. How else profiles face to face. But few outside of in 1912 when Wertheimer, then could people experience the same mel­ academic psychology know what the Gat the Institute of Psychology in ody when it is transposed in key? All movement was about or what has hap­ Frankfurt am Main, published a paper the corresponding pitches are now dif­ pened to the ideas on which it was on a visual illusion called apparent mo­ ferent, yet only a few musicians with based. tion. Apparent motion is the percep­ perfect pitch would notice any change. Gestalt psychology started in Ger­ tion of movement that results from Gestalt theorists maintained that the many, but after the rise of Nazism its viewing a rapid sequence of stationary parts of a square-or the tones of a founders-Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang images, as in the movies [see illustra­ melody-interact with one another and Kohler and Kurt Koffka-moved to the tion on page 86]. This phenomenon in­ in so doing produce a perceived whole dicated to Wertheimer that the percep­ that is distinct from the sum of its tion of the whole (movement) was radi­ parts. Shape and melody are examples cally different from the perception of of what they called emergent proper­ IRVIN ROCK and STEPHEN PALMER, its components (static images). ties: overall qualities of an experience both at the University of California, The idea that the whole is differ­ that are not inherent in its compo­ Berkeley, collaborate on studies of visual ent from the sum of its parts-the cen­ nents. Emergent properties are not perception. Despite their different back­ tral tenet of Gestalt psychology-chal­ unique to mental phenomena, howev­ grounds, they share an interest in many lenged the then prevailing theory of er. The properties of table salt, for in­ phenomena uncovered by Gestalt psy­ Structuralism. In particular, the Ge­ stance, are very different from those chologists. Rock received his training at the New School for Social Research un­ staltists rejected elementarism, a basic of its constituents, sodium (a corrosive der students of the founding fathers of Structuralist assumption that complex metal) and chlorine (a poisonous gas). Gestalt, including Solomon Asch, Hans perceptions could be understood by Even the characteristics of a society are Wallach, Mary Henle and Martin Scheer­ identifying the elementary parts of distinct from those of the individuals er. He completed his Ph.D. there in experience. Structuralists believed a who compose it. 1952. Palmer was trained at the Univer­ trained observer could break down the Emergent quality illustrates one sity of California, San Diego, in the more fundamental elements of perception meaning of the Gestalt concept of orga­ modern tradition of information pro­ cessing, under the guidance of Donald into primitive sensations, such as the nization. The Gestaltists also believed Norman and David Rumelhart. His doc­ points that make a square or the par­ organization was necessary to explain toral dissertation, completed in 1975, ticular pitches in a melody. They main­ why human beings see the world as attempted to investigate Gestalt ideas in tained that a square was just the ex­ terms of information processing. Rock perience of a particular set of points NATURAL CAMOUFLAGE shows how and Palmer are currently pursuing sev­ stimulating the retina; a melody was eral research projects that extend and the laws of grouping, such as similarity, just the experience of a sequence of revise Gestalt theories of perceptual proximity and connectedness, can con­ distinct tones that became associat­ grouping and frame of reference. ceal animals. The ponies cannot easily ed with one another in the listener's be distinguished from the background. 84 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN December 1990 © 1990 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC This content downloaded from 149.31.128.226 on Tue, 12 Feb 2019 16:18:23 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms composed of distinct objects. They ganizes parts into wholes based on laws that describe the conditions under pointed out that because the retinal im­ laws of grouping. Elements tend to be which a region would tend to be seen age is nothing but an array of vary­ grouped perceptually if they are close as figure rather than as ground. ing intensities and frequencies of light, together, similar to one another, form The Gestaltists further discovered the rays coming from different parts of a closed contour or move in the same that certain structures determine a the same object have no more affini­ direction [see illustration on page 89]. frame of reference with respect to ty for one another than those cOming Most often these laws lead to an accu­ which other objects are perceived. from two different objects. It follows rate representation of the objects in a Many people have reported experienc­ that the ability to perceive objects­ scene, but they can also lead to inaccu­ ing an instance of this phenomenon, such as stones, trees and houses­ rate ones, as in the case of camouflage. called induced motion, when a neigh­ must be an organization achieved by Another important aspect of organi­ boring train slowly pulls out of the the nervous system. The realization zation, called figure-ground perception, station, producing the impression that that the perception of separate ob­ was discovered in 192 1 by Danish psy­ one's own train has begun to move in jects was not achieved solely by the chologist Edgar Rubin. Rubin pointed the opposite direction, although it is "picture" focused on the retina was out that even if all the parts of a con­ actually stationary. Another example of one of the Gestaltists' most important nected region are grouped together this phenomenon occurs when an ob­ contributions. properly, it can be interpreted either as server is inside a tilted room. The walls To explain how perceptions of indi­ an object (figure) or as the surface be­ of the room define the vertical and hor­ vidual objects are formed, Wertheim­ hind it (ground) [see lower illustration izontal axes of the frame, causing a er proposed that the visual system or- on page 81]. He formulated a set of chandelier to look strangely askew and SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN December 1990 85 © 1990 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC This content downloaded from 149.31.128.226 on Tue, 12 Feb 2019 16:18:23 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms the observer's own body to feel tilted, rent flowed through brain tissue. They despite the fact that both are perfectly held that stimuli created electric fields aligned with gravity. In each case, the in the brain that interacted with one visual system takes a large, surround­ another and converged toward a state ing structure to define the perceptu­ of minimum energy. Kohler, who was al standard-stillness or uprightness­ well versed in the physics of the day, and construes other objects, including argued that the brain was only one one's self, in terms of these standards.