The document discusses gestalt principles of perception and figure-ground phenomena. It describes how gestalt psychologists proposed principles of grouping to explain how humans perceive organized patterns. It discusses how perceptual illusions are real phenomena and how gestalt psychology aims to explain why things appear as they do. It then discusses specific gestalt principles like continuity, similarity, proximity and closure. It provides examples of how these principles are demonstrated in art forms like cubism and pointillism. It explores the figure-ground relationship and how the same stimulus can be interpreted differently depending on what is perceived as the figure versus the ground. Specific patterns related to figure-ground phenomena like ambiguous figures and impossible figures are also examined.

1. Groupings and
Figure and Ground Phenomena
a Group II Presentation

2. On Grouping
• The Principles of grouping (or Gestalt laws of grouping) are a
set of principles in psychology, first proposed by Gestalt
psychologists to account for the observation that humans
naturally perceive objects as organized patterns and objects.
Gestalt psychologists argued that these principles exist
because the mind has an innate disposition to perceive
patterns in the stimulus based on certain rules.

3. On Grouping
• It is a psychological fact that things do not
always appear as they actually are, and that
perceptual illusions are real phenomena. The
basic problem of the psychology of
perception, then, is to explain why things
appear as they do.
“Phenomena of Perception”. Nijhoff, Martinus. Philosophic foundations of genetic
psychology and gestalt psychology. Netherlands. The Hague. 1968

4. On Grouping
• A gestalt (configuration) is to be described as a
psychological structure, being constituted out of
a set of elements and relations, and displaying a
quality not possessed by its constituents. The old
formula, to the effect “the whole is something
more than the sum of its parts”, may be stated
more as follows: The whole is something more,
as a combinatorial proportion, than the additive
aggregate of its elements.
“Phenomena of Perception”. Nijhoff, Martinus. Philosophic foundations of genetic
psychology and gestalt psychology. Netherlands. The Hague. 1968

5. Gestalt Principles
• Continuity |This law holds that points that
are connected by straight or curving lines are
seen in a way that follows the smoothest
path. Rather than seeing separate lines and
angles, lines are seen as belonging together.
• Similarity | Suggests that things similar
things tend to appear grouped together.
Grouping can occur in both visual and
auditory stimuli.
• Proximity | According to the law of
proximity, things that are near each other
seem to be grouped together.
• Closure | Things are grouped together if
they seem to complete some entity. Our
brains often ignore contradictory
information and fill in gaps in information.

6. Gestalt Perception and Art
• Cubism | In cubist artworks,
objects are broken up, analyzed,
and re-assembled in an abstracted
form—instead of depicting objects
from one viewpoint, the artist
depicts the subject from a
multitude of viewpoints to
represent the subject in a greater
context. Often the surfaces
intersect at seemingly random
angles, removing a coherent sense
of depth. The background and
object planes interpenetrate one
another to create the shallow
ambiguous space, one of cubism's
distinct characteristics.

7. Gestalt Perception and Art
• Pointillism | is a technique of
painting in which small, distinct
dots of pure color are applied in
patterns to form an image.
Georges Seurat developed the
technique in 1886, branching
from Impressionism. The term
Pointillism was first coined by
art critics in the late 1880s to
ridicule the works of these
artists, and is now used without
its earlier mocking connotation.

8. Figure and Ground
• According to Gestalt theory, one of the most
important principles organizing our perception
is the figure–ground relationship. It is an
automatic feature of the visual system in
which the focus of attention becomes the
figure and all other visual input becomes the
ground. For any given image, the same visual
stimulus can trigger multiple perspectives,
depending on what is taken to be figure and
what is taken to be ground.

9. Figure and Ground
• The Gestalt principle of figure–ground relationship is exemplified
brilliantly in the work of the Dutch artist M. C. Escher (1898–1972), who
was a master at creating ambiguous figure–ground relationships.

10. The ‘Figure-Ground’ Hypothesis
• The first step of the perceptual process is
characterized by a vague impression of
‘something there’, which passed on to the
stage of the generic object when there is a
general impression that the visual stimulus is
connected with some kind of object existing in
the field.
“The ‘Figure-Ground’ Hypothesis”. Vernon, Magdalen Dorothea, M.A., Sc.D. A further study of visual
perception. Second Edition. New York. The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press. 1954

11. The ‘Figure-Ground’ Hypothesis
• It is thus apparent that, at these stages, there
is a differentiation of one part of the field
from the rest, and that the one part which
becomes the main percept is discriminated
from what remains in the background.
“The ‘Figure-Ground’ Hypothesis”. Vernon, Magdalen Dorothea, M.A., Sc.D. A further
study of visual perception. Second Edition. New York. The Syndics of the Cambridge
University Press. 1954

12. Figure VS Ground
Figure
• Has form
• Appears solid
• Highly structured
• Has surface color
• Color is localized on its surface and is resistant to
penetration
“The ‘Figure-Ground’ Hypothesis”. Vernon, Magdalen Dorothea, M.A., Sc.D. A further
study of visual perception. Second Edition. New York. The Syndics of the Cambridge
University Press. 1954

13. Figure VS Ground
Ground
• Has no form
• Is in the nature of ‘substance’
• Color is ‘filmy’ or soft and yielding
• Color is ill-defined and not definitely localized
“The ‘Figure-Ground’ Hypothesis”. Vernon, Magdalen Dorothea, M.A., Sc.D. A further
study of visual perception. Second Edition. New York. The Syndics of the Cambridge
University Press. 1954

14. Figure VS Ground
• In general, the FIGURE has ‘thing character’, is more
insistent and usually central in awareness, and is more
likely to have connected with it various meanings,
feelings, and aesthetic values; it is thus named sooner
and remembered better. Thus we see that the FIGURE is
the important and striking part of the field, and the
GROUND is the background provided by the remainder of
the field.
“The ‘Figure-Ground’ Hypothesis”. Vernon, Magdalen Dorothea, M.A., Sc.D. A
further study of visual perception. Second Edition. New York. The Syndics of
the Cambridge University Press. 1954

15. Figure VS Ground
E.G. Wever (1927) has studied the process of the arising ‘figure’ from the ‘ground’.
He describes a series of stages which occur in the gradual emergence of the
‘figure’ from the ‘ground’ as perception takes place:
1. Heterogeneity between the ‘figure’ and the ‘ground’, each of which forms a unit;
2. A minimum brightness difference between the two which gradually increases—
this stage is simultaneous with (1);
3. A region of separation which appears when (2) has reached a certain magnitude,
and eventually narrows down to become the contour;
4. Shape, however, appears before the contour is definite;
“The ‘Figure-Ground’ Hypothesis”. Vernon, Magdalen Dorothea, M.A., Sc.D. A further
study of visual perception. Second Edition. New York. The Syndics of the Cambridge
University Press. 1954

16. Figure VS Ground
According to Wever, for good ‘figure-ground’ experience,
certain further stages may occur:
5. Protrusion of the ‘figure’ out and away from the ‘ground’;
6. Definite depth localization of the ‘figure’;
7. Surface texture of the ‘figure’, filmy texture of the ‘ground’;
8. Halo around the ‘figure’—a simultaneous contrast effect.
“The ‘Figure-Ground’ Hypothesis”. Vernon, Magdalen Dorothea, M.A., Sc.D. A further
study of visual perception. Second Edition. New York. The Syndics of the Cambridge
University Press. 1954

17. Patterns | Figure and Ground Phenomenon
• Ambiguous Figures | A
picture of a subject which
the viewer may see as
either of two different
subjects or as the same
subject from either of two
different viewpoints
depending on his
interpretation of the total
configuration.

18. Patterns | Figure and Ground Phenomenon
• Alternating Figures |
Ambiguous images
which serve in the
psychology of
perception to
demonstrate the way
the mind habitually
tries to achieve a
coherent Gestalt.
These are often seen
as optical illusions.

19. Patterns | Figure and Ground Phenomenon
• Alternating Figure and
Ground |Patterns that
are achieved when the
parameters that
distinguish figure from
ground are of almost
equal prominence which
in effect produces a
duality of perception for
both figure and ground.

20. Patterns | Figure and Ground Phenomenon
• Embedded Figures | Figures that are at first obscure because of
very little dissonance between figure and ground.

21. Patterns | Figure and Ground Phenomenon
• Impossible Figures | A type of optical illusion consisting of a two-
dimensional figure which is instantly and subconsciously interpreted by
the visual system as representing a projection of a three-dimensional
object although it is not actually possible for such an object to exist (at
least not in the form interpreted by the visual system).

22. Patterns | Figure and Ground Phenomenon
• Moiré patterns | Often an undesired
artifact of images produced by
various digital imaging and computer
graphics techniques, for example
when scanning a halftone picture or
ray tracing a checkered plane. Moiré
patterns revealing complex shapes,
or sequences of symbols embedded
in one of the layers (in form of
periodically repeated compressed
shapes) are created with shape
moiré, otherwise called band moiré
patterns. One of the most important
properties of shape moiré is its ability
to magnify tiny shapes along either
one or both axes, that is, stretching.

23. Practical Application of
Figure and Ground Phenomenon
Rorschach Inkblot Test
A psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and
then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both.
Some psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality characteristics
and emotional functioning.

24. Practical Application of
Figure and Ground Phenomenon
Color Vision Testing
The Ishihara color test, which consists of a series of pictures of colored spots, is the
test most often used to diagnose red–green color deficiencies. A figure is
embedded in the picture as a number of spots in a slightly different color, and can
be seen with normal color vision, but not with a particular color defect. The full set
of tests has a variety of figure/background color combinations, and enable
diagnosis of which particular visual defect is present.

25. Practical Application of
Figure and Ground Phenomenon
Subliminal Messaging
Subliminal messaging makes use of embedded images that are usually too subtle to be notices right away.
Check out the palm trees on the far right of the image... notice anything odd about the palm leaves?