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P RINCIPLES OF P ERCEPTUAL O RGANISATION Our visual field is a collection of different elements, such as points, lines, and colours. However, we perceive these elements as organised wholes or complete objects. For example, we see a bicycle as a complete object, not as a collection of different parts (e.g., saddle, wheel, handle). The process of organising visual field into meaningful wholes is known as form perception. You may wonder how different parts of an objects are organised into a meaningful whole. You may also ask if there are certain factors that facilitate or inhibit this process of organisation. Several scholars have tried to answer such Fig.4.3 : Rubin’s Vase questions,butthemostwidelyacceptedanswer hasbeengivenbyagroupofresearchers,called and sky stay behind the figure and are Gestalt psychologists. Prominent among perceived as background. them are Köhler, Koffka, and Wertheimer. To test this experience, look at the Fig.4.3 Gestalt means a regular figure or a form. given below. You will see either the white part According to Gestalt psychologists, we perceive of the figure, which looks like a vase (flower different stimuli not as discrete elements, but pot), or the black part of the figure, which looks as an organised “whole” that carries a definite like two faces. form. They believe that the form of an object We distinguish figure from the ground on liesinitswhole,whichisdifferentfromthesum the basis of the following characteristics: of their parts. For example, a flower pot with a 1. Figure has a definite form, while the bunch of flowers is a whole. If the flowers are background is relatively formless. removed, the flower pot still remains a whole. 2. Figure is more organised as compared to It is the configuration of the flower pot that has its background. changed. Flower pot with flowers is one 3. Figure has a clear contour (outline), while configuration; without flowers it is another the background is contourless. configuration. 4. Figure stands out from the background, The Gestalt psychologists also indicate that while the background stays behind the our cerebral processes are always oriented figure. towards the perception of a good figure or 5. Figure appears more clear, limited, and pragnanz. That is the reason why we perceive relatively nearer, while the background everything in an organised form. The most appears relatively unclear, unlimited, and primitive organisation takes place in the form away from us. of figure-ground segregation. When we look The discussion presented above indicates at a surface, certain aspects of the surface that human beings perceive the world in clearly stand out as separate entities, whereas organised wholes rather than in discrete parts. others do not. For example, when we see words TheGestaltpsychologistshavegivenusseveral on a page, or a painting on a wall, or birds laws to explain how and why different stimuli inourvisualfieldareorganisedintomeaningful flying in the sky, the words, the painting, and the birds stand out from the background, and whole objects. Let us look at some of these are perceived as figures, while the page, wall, principles. Chapter 4 • Sensory, Attentional and Perceptual Processes 69 Reprint 2026-27