VSAR 1102 // Week 7 // Perception and Gestalt Theory

Perception the top-down way our brains organise and interpret information and place in context. All experience of environment is influenced by our cultural and social upbringing and understanding and perception allows us to understand it. Sight is the minds interpretation of the data our eyes are feeding us.

Perceptual Set is the psychological factors that determine how you perceive your environment.

Seeing is believing and believing is seeing.

Emotions and motivations can affect our perception.

Attention

“Attention is the process of selectively focusing on. On aspect of the sensory environment while ignoring other things that seem less important or less worthy of consideration. It is a means for concentrating the mind on a single object, element, or though with the goal of narrowing the number of stimuli in a complex perceptual field.” (Davis, Hunt, 2017).

As stated “Attention is only the first step toward informing, explaining, orienting, persuading, or supporting people in taking action” though he concludes that “design has to follow through on the promise of attention, to deliver on first impressions.”

We’ve previously talked about the idea of persuasion and seduction returning to Katherine McCoy Information and Persuasion (2000) “in these days of media saturation and multi-channeling, there is fierce competition for the reader’s attention, and readers have increasingly short attention spans. Seductive media can persuade a reader to pay attention, to get in bed with the message content and spend some time with it.”

• Which of the serial boxes below stands out and why?

Form Perception

Figure Ground

Figure-ground relationship is the organisation of the visual field into objects (the figures) that sand out from their surroundings (the ground).

According to Meredith Davis and Jamer Hunt in 'Getting Attention', figure-ground is “… our ability to separate elements, based on contrast, into an object and a background. A figure can be any object, person, shape, or sound. Ground is the limitless background or field on which figures sit. Our visual system interprets objects primarily in terms of their contours. Figure-ground reversal occurs when two shapes share the same edge and we switch our attention from one shape to the other, trying to separate the figure from the ground.”

Figure is any object, person, shape, or sound.

• more definite shapes
• typically smaller
• occupying the lower art of the composition (grounded)
• incorporates motion

Ground is the limitless background or field on which figures sit.

Figure-ground relates to our distinction between the one from the other, and the ability to discern the subject from the other.

While there are common traits shared in the way that all humans perceive figure-ground, our ability to perceive what is important is, to some degree, a result of social and environmental conditioning in addition to emotional connection and response.

This is particularly important for me as a motorcyclist on the road–drivers are trained to recognise other cars but are much less likely to notice or see motorcycles and cyclists because they're not trained to recognise them. This leads to the common excuse "sorry mate, I didn't see you" or SMIDSY.

Additional Concepts (Dr. Myra Thiessen)

Visual Literacy is the ability to accurately interpret visual representations in both form (what is it) and meaning (what does it mean/say). We might ask what am I looking at? What do I see? What meaning does it hold? What do I know about it and what does it mean to me? This is affected by context and environment, cultural knowledge, expectations and media.

Gestalt psychology seek to explain perceptions in terms of gestalts rather than by constituents. Gestalts are an organised whole perceived as more than its parts. Gestalt can translate into configuration. So, we impost perceptual organisation when presented with certain visual stimuli. The mind is predistposed to interpret patterns and relationship. We can use this to develop visual arguments which are unique and convincing.

Gestalt principles include:

• proximity is the relationship created when objects exist within space.
• similarity relates to the shared property of objects grouped together, such as objects of a similar colour, shape, size, etc.
• good continuation we prefer to interpret objects as a smooth continuation rather than two separate pieces, such as two lines crossing in a + being interpreted as two lines crossing rather than two V shaped pieces meeting in the middle.
• closure the interpretation of an image that interprets something closed as opposed to open.
• common fate things that appear to move together will be interpreted as a group, such as a school of fish, birds or peloton.
• relative size more likely to interpret smaller objects as playing the figure on the ground.
• surroundedness 
• orientation can dictate our desire to see depth and relationship between objects.
• symmetry assists in seeing objects as stable.
• pragnanz says that most visual stable or logical form will dictate how the object is interpreted.

Case Study

Dazzle Paint and Camouflage

Dazzle painting was implemented in World War I and continued throughout World War II as an attempt to confuse enemy ships and submarines as to the speed and heading of ships to prevent successful sinking by torpedo. Loud, lurid patterns and false bowlines and wash were incorporated. Effectiveness is contentious without solid scientific data, though the idea is interesting.

You can also attempt to use people's perception to fool them into perceiving a bunch of balloons as a battalion of tanks, or that straw sculptures were planes along a runway. These attempts at camouflage were called the ghost army.

Task: Pathos Personas

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a9dnim2p325c35j/VSAR%201102%20Week%207%20Task%20Pathos%20Personas.pdf?dl=0

• Appeal to emotion. The fit of design and suitability to a particular audience. Is it for me?

• Does the audience identify on an emotional level? Is there a feeling of familiarity, personal connection, deep understanding?
• Physical bodily response
• What range of emotions can be exploited?
• Love, hope, anger, happiness, desire, sadness, worry, apprehension, vulnerability, unease, joys fear, etc.
• What visual elements can be drawn on to appeal to emotion?
• Colour, image, sound, words, etc.

Task: Pathos

Break into small groups. Each group receives a different persona and a message that needs communicating. Use the worksheet to guide their exploration and discussion.

Personas

• Elderly and the importance of regular exercise
• Uni student and study abroad options
• Parent with children in preschool and flu shot schedules
• Middle aged professional and community to work by bicycle
• Young professionals and live exports

In small groups discuss and determine an appropriate strategy for how an appeal to pathos (emotion) might be used to identify with the audience. Record your thinking on the worksheet and prepare to present your proposal to the class in a 5-minute presentation.

• Brainstorm your understanding of the audience and the issue / message
• What goals might this persona have? Why might they care about the issue? Why might they choose to engage with it?
• What argument do you want to present? How do you want the audience to respond; what do you want them to do?
• How do you think you might relate to the audience? What emotion do you want to evoke? What will make them care?
• What techniques would you use to create the desired emotional response?
• Why do you think this is an appropriate visual strategy?

Present the following findings to the class for discussion:

• Who is your audience?
• Your observations of who you think the audience might be.
• How do they spend their time?
• What do they like/dislike?
• What might a typical day look like for them?
• Why should or do they care about this problem?
• Is there an aspect of this problem that might affect them or some part of their life?
• What message are they likely to relate to?
• How will you reach them?