Question

Levon was amazed at a magician's trick in which a person in a box appeared to be sawed in half. Levon had perceived the head at one end of the box and the feet at the other end of the box, as belonging to a single person, rather than two separate people. This error in Levon's understanding illustrates the Gestalt principle of:__________

a) common fate
b) figure-ground
c) good continuation
d) proximity

Answer 1

Good continuation

Step-by-step explanation:

In psychology and Gestalt, the good continuation principle refers to the phenomenon that occurs when people tend to perceive two objects as a single object (when there is an intersection between them or something that overlaps and doesn't let them see the object fully). In other words, we tend to "fill the gap" in our minds by thinking it is only one object that we are seeing instead of two.

In this example a magician's trick involves a person in a box who appears to be sawed in half. Levon perceived the head at one end and the feet at the other end as belonging to a single person (instead of belonging to two different persons). Thus, since he is perceiving this a single object (one person) instead of two when he's not able to see the object fully, this is an example of the good continuation Gestalt principle.