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I knew but I don’t know that I knew.
October 16, 2020 • Sufia Fadzliana

I knew but I don’t know that I knew.

There is some time that we look at something, we knew what it is. If we look at the picture I attached (The book of Peter and the Wolf, which I took from Pinterest). Basically, we knew that in the picture, the brown thing is the wolf, while the snow background pictured like a boy shape is Peter. 

It is intriguing to note that this fact that we know this kind of thing exactly has its own definition and terms that have been researched by psychologists. 

To begin with, Gestalt Psychology is actually one type of psychology search in history founded by Wertheimer. He came up with the theory of sensation and perception. Therefore the sensation is referring to our basic senses that we can feel by sensory receptors namely vision, hearing (audition), smelling (olfactory), taste (gustation), and touch (somatosensation). 

However, perception is the process of cognition that includes “Bottom-up” processing and “Top-down” processing. Where the Bottom-up processing is the process of tiny elements were combined to produce a larger item. On the other hand, Top-down processing is a process that includes knowledges, experiences, expectations, motivations, and thoughts. 

Nevertheless, the Gestalt principles are the examples of Bottom-up Processing, and was divided into 6 parts which are:

1. Proximity.

The Gestalt Law of Proximity - Learning the Basic Elements and Principles  of Graphic Design | Gestalt laws, Design basics, Elements and principles
 Do you see a bunch of dots, 6×6 or 3 bunch of 2×6 dots emerged together?

 2.  Similarity. 

UI Design in Practice: Gestalt Principles | UXMISFIT.COM
Do you see similar patterns of colour, or a similar pattern of shapes?

3. Common Fate

Using Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization in UI Design | by Nick Babich  | UX Planet
Common fate is when things that have the same speed and in the same direction, we would expect it is in the same group.

4. Closure

Gestalt Principles and UX Design. I'm sure most of you have seen at least…  | by Deniz Cesur | We Know Users Blog | Medium
Do you really see only Pacman shapes or do you see a star at the center of the figure?

5. Continuation

Gestalt Principles of Perception | Introduction to Psychology
This one we tend to see it is like a fan swirling than seeing it like from edge to edge. 

6. Figure-ground relationship

7 Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception: Cognitive Psychology for UX |  UserTesting Blog
What did you see here? 

Among all, in my opinion, the most common part is the figure-ground relationship (absolutely the one in the picture) 

The more you read the more you get. 
I suggest you watch this video on Youtube to know more about Gestalt Psychology and basically rephrasing my words in depth. 

I would love to write more, and wait for my next!

Komen