Final answer:
Gestalt psychologists argue that our brains organize images into meaningful wholes according to principles like figure-ground relationship, proximity, continuity, and closure. These principles are fundamental to understanding how we perceive patterns and shapes in the environment around us, despite the subjective nature of perception shaped by individual experiences and biases.
Step-by-step explanation:
Gestalt psychologists posit that our brains organize images into meaningful wholes, not isolated fragments, random patterns, or separate elements with no connection. This theory emerged from the work of Max Wertheimer and his colleagues in the early 20th century, who demonstrated through the use of a tachistoscope that perception is more than the sum of sensations. Gestalt principles such as the figure-ground relationship, proximity, continuity (or good continuation), and closure articulate how our brains organize sensory stimuli. The principle of proximity, for example, suggests that elements close to each other are perceived as grouped together. The law of continuity indicates we prefer continuous lines over broken ones, and closure implies we perceive complete objects instead of a series of parts. These principles help explain how we derive coherent shapes and patterns from visual information.
Despite the trials faced by Gestalt psychologists as they immigrated to the United States and the rise of competing psychological theories like behaviorism, Gestalt principles remain influential in understanding perception. Although we often trust our perceptions to reflect reality accurately, they can be influenced by perceptual hypotheses, which are shaped by personal factors such as experiences and expectations.