EXERCISE 49: GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY’S
PRINCIPLES OF PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION
Objectives
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Background
The
Nature of Gestalt Psychology
This
next exercise, like the previous one, is concerned with the subjective comprehension of a stimulus
object, specifically how the physical arrangement of the elements of a that
object and of surrounding stimuli affect the way consumers perceive the object.
Relevant here is the Gestalt school of
psychology, an early 20th
century approach to studying perception suggesting that people acquire meaning
from the totality of a group of
stimuli rather than from any one individual
stimulus. The Gestalt school concerns how humans arrange discrete stimuli or
bits of information into holistic
perceptions.
The underlying idea is that stimuli
are perceived as an organized whole, not as unrelated or disjointed pieces—“the
whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” The Gestalt principles (laws) of perceptual organization concern
the process whereby people categorize and organize stimulus information into
meaningful units to make sense of the stimuli.
For instance, people recognize a
familiar tune but do not ordinarily hear each distinct note or even every
musical instrument playing the song. They identify a person’s face but do not
usually pay attention to each eye, eyebrow, nostrils, etc.
This exercise examines the
Gestalt perceptual organization principles that are of most interest to
marketers—those of form (shape)
perception. These principles deal with how individual stimuli
work together to create perceptions of one or more objects. They consist of (1)
principles of grouping—how people
organize individual stimuli into groups or chunks of information, and (2) principles of context—how the
surrounding environment (context) helps determine individuals’ perceptions of
stimuli in that environment.
Principles
of Grouping
Gestalt
psychology concerns how people tend to group stimuli so that they form a
unified impression. Grouping is a
process whereby individuals are inclined to perceive stimuli as groups or chunks of information rather than as discrete bits of data. This
grouping process facilitates recognition and recall of those cues as a whole
picture. Five of these principles are similarity,
proximity, continuity, closure, and simplicity.
Similarity
The Similarity Principle. The similarity principle says that things
that are physically similar are perceived as belonging together or as forming a
whole figure (gestalt). Therefore,
“XXOO” is seen as two groups, with the XX as one group and the OO as another
group.
In
the following illustration, we tend to see alternating columns of circles and
squares, grouping all circles together into columns and chunking all squares
together into columns.
Marketing Applications of the Similarity Principle. Marketers want their customers to see their various marketing entities as belonging together in an integrated marketing program, and so they create them to be similar. The following are some examples.
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• An
advertising campaign consists of a
series of ads that are similar, typically in terms of a common theme or slogan,
presenter, graphic design elements, presentation format (e.g., drama, cartoon,
etc.), and overall “look and feel” (e.g., Absolut vodka’s playfulness with the
brand name and bottle).
• Department
stores group similar items together to facilitate the shopping process. You
would not look for scarves among the hammers and chisels.
• Sometimes
marketers want to avoid being perceived as similar to other marketers. Zipper,
a packaged shot of gelatin and alcohol, came under fire because it too closely
resembled children’s Jell-O gelatin dessert. Starbucks pulled a poster that
featured side-by-side tea drinks below the headline “Collapse into cool”
because someone complained that the image evoked New York’s Twin Towers. Some
community and law-enforcement leaders were concerned about the shape of Ice
Breakers Pacs’ thumb-size pouches and the mints’ white powder form, fearing
they could be mistaken for illicit items.
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The Proximity Principle. The proximity (contiguity) principle suggests that things that are in
close proximity to one another are perceived as belonging together or as
forming a gestalt. In your clothing
drawers you probably put things together that logically go together;
undergarments in one drawer, shirts or blouses in another, and so on. You would
not expect to find canned peas in someone’s medicine cabinet but rather in the
kitchen pantry.
As
a visual example of the principle of proximity, what you are likely to notice
in the following illustration is that this is not just a square pattern of dots
but rather is a series of rows of dots. You do so because you group together
dots that are close to one another.
Marketing Applications of the Proximity
Principle. The
basic idea in all of the following cases is to “group like with like.”
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• As a form of silent cross (suggestion) selling, stores often
feature complimentary items near each other, such as a table and chairs in a
furniture shop, or dressing a mannequin in a dress shirt, sport coat, and tie
that all nicely go together.
• Bundling similar items and selling
them all as a unit is done for the likes of vacation packages (airfare, hotel,
nightclubs, etc.), fast food “extra value” combo meals (sandwich, fries, and
drink), and telecommunications services (phone, cable TV, and Internet access
services).
• Marketers are careful to associate
their product with appropriate symbols, imagery, endorsers, and other stimuli.
Having a goofy comedian dressed as a slob endorsing a stock mutual fund would
be ludicrous.
• In laying out print advertisements,
there is an axiom: “Keep things together that belong together, and keep things
apart that belong apart.” So, captions are placed near the pictures they
describe, headlines lead into subheadlines or body copy, and white space and
boxes are used to separate elements that are meant to be kept apart (such as
two different pictures).
• A
trend is for merchants such as Target to organize their wares based on usage
contexts. Items needed for a Barbecue, for instance, such as hamburger buns,
lighter fluid, and potato chips, might be all found together rather than in
separate aisles. Hertz groups its cars online not just by size but also by use,
such as “fun,” “prestige,” and “green.”
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Continuity
The Continuity
Principle. The continuity principle (law of good
continuation) holds that people categorize stimuli into smooth,
uninterrupted, continuous forms, rather than into discontinuous patterns.
Therefore, in the following illustration, we are more likely to identify lines
a-b and c-d crossing than to see a-d and c-b or a-c and d-b as continuous
figures.
Marketing
Applications of the Continuity Principle.
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• Companies with a long-running,
continuous ad campaign are better at building brand equity than those that are short-lived. Pepsi Cola has always
been for the younger generation and the young at heart. However, Coca-Cola has
had too many ad themes over the years: Quick—what is their current slogan or
theme?
• Department stores do not want sharp
breaks between departments, with radically different layouts, lighting, music,
etc. Transitions between sections should be more or less continuous.
• Exercise 47 pointed out that changes
in visual marketing elements, such as trade characters and logotypes, should
usually be made gradually because a discontinuous change would be too confusing
and disruptive for most consumers, resulting in a loss of brand equity.
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Closure
The Closure Principle. The closure (mental completion) principle states that people tend
to perceive incomplete patterns as being complete. We tend to “fill in the
blanks” based on prior experiences. A triangle with a small part of its edge
missing will still be seen as a triangle. Consider the annoyance that arises
from having a missing element or two from a collection, such as stamps,
magazines, or CDs by a particular musical group. And, soap operas keep viewers
hanging on with “cliffhanger” endings.
In
the following illustration, people are inclined to see three broken rectangles
(and a lonely shape on the far left) rather than three “girder” profiles (and a
lonely shape on the right).
Marketing
Applications of the Closure Principle.
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• Some advertisers teach consumers a
jingle or slogan through frequent repetition, and then in subsequent ads delete
part of the jingle or slogan. This requires the audience to get involved with
the message and complete it in their mind. For instance, an ad with Smokey the
Bear said, “Repeat after me, ‘Only you…’”
• Headlines phrased as questions in
print ads demand an answer, thereby encouraging audience participation.
• Marketers at times crop an object in
an ad so that it appears ambiguous, encouraging consumers to surmise what the
item is.
• Radio is called the “theatre of the
mind” because listeners must achieve closure by imagining in their mind’s eye
what is happening.
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Simplicity
The Simplicity
Principle. The simplicity principle (pragnänz)
suggests that individuals opt for relatively simple perceptions even when more
complex perceptions can be derived. That is, every stimulus pattern is seen in
such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible.
Marketing Applications of the Simplicity Principle. The law of simplicity is vital to marketing communications, where the KISS formula rules: Keep it short and sweet (or, as the military instructs, “Keep it simple, stupid!”). Simple illustrations, uncomplicated language, use of symbols for abstract concepts (e.g., a heart shape for “love”), lots of white space, and simple messages all help consumers process advertising and packaging communications.
Principles
of Context
The
principles of context consider how perception of a stimulus object is influenced
by its surroundings. Two principles of context relevant to CB are figure and ground and contrast.
Figure and Ground
The Principle of
Figure and Ground. The figure and ground (figure-ground) principle
says that people interpret a stimulus in the context of its background. They
tend to distinguish a prominent and well-defined stimulus in the foreground
(the figure) from less prominent,
indefinite stimuli in the background (the ground).
The figure becomes the focal point of attention and interest. For instance,
most people can easily pick out a familiar face in a crowd, with the
recognizable person becoming the foreground and everyone else lurking in the
background.
The
classic illustration of the figure-ground principle is the following ambiguous
or reversible picture—the part that
is the figure and the portion that is the ground can be reversed, resulting in
two very different interpretations of the stimuli.
Is
the figure a white vase (or goblet, or birdbath) on a black background, or is
it two silhouetted human profiles on a white background? The answer depends on
the individual’s perceptual (mental) set—what
a person expects to perceive or is used to perceiving. Most Americans see the
two faces rather than a goblet or birdbath since the former is more familiar in
their culture.
Marketing
Applications of the Figure-Ground Principle. It
is important to make sure that the most important stimuli, such as the product
and selling theme, stand out as the figure and do not fade to the background!
Unfortunately, the product and message can get lost in the shuffle when ads use
potentially irrelevant sources of borrowed
interest to grab consumers’ attention, such as entertainment, celebrities,
humor, and sex.
The
following are several attention-getting devices that can cause a stimulus to be
perceived front and center. Each one makes a stimulus more salient (noticeable).
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• Size.
Important is relative size—the size
of the stimulus in relation to its surroundings. Products, packages, brand
names, and other important ad elements should be relatively large.
• Movement.
People are attracted to anything in motion, such as interactive
point-of-purchase displays, blinking lights and moving fixtures on outdoor ads,
and animated banner ads.
• Color.
Colors, especially bright ones, attract attention. Web sites often use bright
colors but sometimes overdo it with too many bright colors, making the site
difficult to read.
• Isolation.
An object that is separated from other surrounding objects (as by white space
in a print ad) is more likely to be noticed.
• Shapes.
Unusual shapes stand out. An advertising model with distorted body proportions
(as in a fun house mirror) would attract the eye.
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Contrast
The Contrast Principle. The contrast principle says that a stimulus that stands out from its
surroundings is more likely to be noticed. To be readily discerned, a sound
must be much softer or louder, a color brighter or paler, or an object larger
or smaller than others near it.
Marketing
Applications of the Contrast Principle. Marketers
must “differentiate or die!” Sellers should create unique brand names (not
“Acme” or “Ajax”), packaging styles (Janitor In A Drum), and advertisements
(scent strips and pop-ups were once novel but are no more).
In-Class Applications
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a.
Relative Size and Context. Are the ovals in the centers of these two squares the
same size? Guess first and then see if you are right by measuring them with a
ruler.
0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
b. Continuity and context. What is the second symbol in
each line? How do you interpret it differently in each case due to the need for
continuity and the surrounding environment?
A /3
C D
12
/3 14 15
c. Relative Brightness. Which of the two
gray squares is darker?
d. Negative After-Image. Stare at the center dot in the middle of the
circle for at least twenty seconds. Then
shift your gaze to a white surface…what do you see?
e. Proximity. How do you view each of the four following patterns (columns,
rows, etc.)?
O O O O O o
o o o
o O O O O O o
o o o
o
O O O O O O O o o
o o o
O O O O O o
o o o
o O O
O o o
o o o
O O O O O O O o o
o o o
O O O O O o
o o o
o O O O O O o
o o o
o
f. Closure & Continuity.
Describe what you see in the following five patterns.
* *
* *
* *
* *
g. Similarity. How would you describe the following patterns?
+ = = = = = +
= + = = = + = * *
* * * *
= = + = + = = * *
* * * *
= = = + = = = * *
* * * *
= = + = + = = *
* * *
* *
= + = = = + = * *
* * * *
+ = = = = = +
h. Linear Perspective. Which of the two lines is longer, the top or
bottom?
i. Figure & Ground. Which part of the picture do you notice first?
j. Relative Height. Does the vertical line appear longer, shorter, or
equal to the horizontal line?
a. Visit www.magiceye.com/index.htm. Can you see the hidden 3-D
image? Hint: Focus your eyes beyond the image and be patient. Click on the
illustration to see what is behind it. For more Magic Eye fun, enter the site
and browse the image of the week’s (and past weeks’) winners. Which Gestalt
principle does Magic Eye bring to life?
b. Can we see everything before us? While we favor complete
images versus incomplete images, we do not actually see a complete image when
it is not there… or do we? See how our brains actually live out the closure principle at
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/blindspot1.html.
<<FIGURES 49.1 THROUGH 49.5 ABOUT
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Written Applications
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