The gestalt principles of perception – how do they work? How do they explain the fact that we sometimes perceive strange things, and how we can appreciate works of art? In this episode I take a close look at why people see a lot of strange things around them – including me. We’ll see images on lemon slices, on Mars, and on building tops. Why do we perceive these things?

Resources for this Podcast

• Perceptual Set Experiment: go here to do the “Man on a horse” experiment I created. You can run this experiment on your friends, or even use it for a project in class. Have fun with it and let me know if you’ve got any feedback/suggestions. NOTE: The control condition is the “condition 1″ button (random pictures which are unrelated to the man on the horse). The experimental condition is the “condition 2″ button (pictures of animals which should help the viewer more easily see the man on the horse).

Here are a few sites which further explain some of the Gestalt principles of organization:

• You can learn how psychological gestalt principles apply to web design at the Web Design for Instruction site
• And more about psychological gestalt principles from the Spokane Falls Community College Graphic Design website.
• Here’s the NASA site where you’ll find the “Face On Mars” pictures.
• Here’s a good site which describes the gestalt principles. It’s from the Interaction Design website.

Here is a slideshow of some of the images used in this episode. Roll over the bottom of the box below to see thumbnails of all the images which you can click on to examine any of the photos in more detail.

Tags: Critical Thinking, Gestalt, Popular, Teaching, Video