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CognitivePsychology ­ PSY 504
VU
Lesson 17
PATTERNRECOGNITION (continued)
GestaltTheory of Perception
Patternrecognition is constructing a newthing.
Variousprinciples determine how we segment an object intocomponents. Only afterthe
segmentationdoes perceptual patternmatching come into play.Ideas for aggregatingvarious
linesand images into segmentsare very similar to whathave been referred to as gestalt
principles of perceptual organization. Gestalt is a new concept presented by German
Psychologist in the 20th century.
In the following diagram, on the right side thereare different figures andshapes. And on theleft
sidethese shapes and figuresare arranged in bicycleshape. All infrastructures is scattered in left
sidebut on the other sidethese all are arranged in unified whole (pattern) andgiving meanings.
We see things as whole.
Howare these circlesorganized?
Somesee rows and somesee columns.
Howabout now?
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CognitivePsychology ­ PSY 504
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Number of circles remains the samebut in slightly differentshape or organization. We see it
differentlythan previous diagram. Samenumber of circles is presented in different dimensions.
Peoplesee them differently.
In all the key word is organization.
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CognitivePsychology ­ PSY 504
VU
What do you see?
What is u seeing in this picture?Some see it as a picture of young lady some see it as picture of
oldlady. How one thing is different for differentpeople? That is just because of different
perceptualorganization. The principle of gestalt is how we organizeinformation and interpretit.
Lookinto this diagram
Somelook it as it is a pattern thathas broken into twoparts. But some peopleperceive it as these
aretwo kinds of lines shortand long. Some see a boundary betweenlines.
In this diagram the line is drawn between lines. That is representing a boundary.
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CognitivePsychology ­ PSY 504
VU
In this diagram the dimension is changed through shadingand shifting of position.That is
showingthese are differentpatterns. This line andpattern is converted theconcept of onepattern
into a concept that these aretwo different patterns. And we say someone made thispattern
wrong.
Thepurpose of all thesediagrams is that how a little difference in samethings can be viewed
differently. In all diagrams parts aresame but their organization is different, this slightdifference
in organization changes our allvisual perception. A slightdifference cause hugeperceptual
difference.
Thecentral idea of gestaltprinciples is the unifiedwhole is different from thesum of its parts.
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CognitivePsychology ­ PSY 504
VU
Thesetwo diagrams are showingsame lines but with a slight difference of line. So our perceptual
systemperceives themdifferently.
We perceive four differentpatterns of circles in abovediagram. We all also see a square in the
middle of circles. Even there is no square but we perceive.
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CognitivePsychology ­ PSY 504
VU
In this diagram where we perceived a square there is exactly a square but we arealso showing
fourcircles behind the square.But in reality these arenot circles these arecurves. This is a
significantprove of Gestalt theory.Mind usually doesn't like to see things incomplete. We tend
completefigures that are incompleteand mind sees it. We don't do it consciously.
Look at this figure you areseeing black circles withgrey shading in fewcircles.
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CognitivePsychology ­ PSY 504
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But in following figure thecircles are arranged in such a way in which grey shadingmaking an
imaginaryrectangle.
In this figure the rectanglehas shaded dark. We perceivethis figure as 8 circles andone
rectangle.But in real there is onlyone complete circle that is at bottom.
Thisall means we see somethingelse our visual informationreceive incomplete informationbut
ourmind tend to completeit.
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CognitivePsychology ­ PSY 504
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In this figure we can perceive it as six pointed star. In real we are seeing an incomplete triangle
andthree dots. But we areused to see star.
In this figure of real star we can see two rectangles as well.
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