Everyday in our lives, we hear or see airplanes flying overhead, so how can airplanes doing something as normal as flying be examples of the Gestalt Laws of Perception? The first way to make this happen is, instead of having just one airplane, have a group of them. As you can see in the image below, there are many ways our minds could be perceiving these airplanes. If we look closer, one can go into further detail about this phenomenon.

The first Gestalt Law of Perception is proximity. This law states that objects that are close to each other tend to be grouped together by our brains (Cherry & Gans, 2017). As you can see in the example image below, the airplanes are flying in close proximity to each other, so we perceive them as a group rather than individual airplanes.

Image depicting airplanes flying (Schenker, 2014).

The law of similarity is the second law and states that objects with characteristics that are similar to each other are grouped together by our brains (Cherry & Gans, 2017).  The airplanes show this because every single one of the airplanes are the same shape and same color, so our brains perceive them as a group, as compared to single airplanes.

Two more laws are the laws of continuity- this law says that objects that form a straight or curved line get grouped together (Cherry & Gans, 2017)- and the law of connectedness, which states that connected objects tend to be grouped together (Soegaard, 2018). These are not shown by the airplanes themselves, but by the contrails that follow them. These contrails form lines behind the planes (law of continuity), and since these lines do not touch so we see each one as a separate trail (law of connectedness).

The Gestalt Laws of Perception also have a law called the law of common fate. The law of common fate states that objects that are moving towards the same direction are perceived as a group (Schenker, 2014). In the case of the airplanes, we perceive them as a group because they are all flying in the same direction.

The final law is the law of pragnanz. This law explains that no matter what is going on in our environments, our minds tend to see the most simple explanation of the stimulus (Cherry & Gans, 2017). In the image above of the airplanes, we simply see a group of airplanes that are flying, rather than columns or rows of airplanes flying.

This image of flying airplanes is the perfect example of the Gestalt Laws of Perception. It allows us to see examples of each law and how they happen in everyday life. One can easily find this at any time during their life and use it to show someone what each and every one of these laws means.

Reference List

Cherry, K., & Gans, S. (2017, November 05). Learn the Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization. Retrieved January 24, 2018, from https://www.verywell.com/gestalt-laws-of-perceptual-organization-2795835

Schenker, M. (2014, May 22). Gestalt B2B Web Design Principles – Part 4: Common Fate. Retrieved January 24, 2018, from https://www.market8.net/b2b-web-design-and-inbound-marketing-blog/gestalt-b2b-web-design-principles-%E2%80%93-part-4-common-fate

Soegaard, M. (2018, January 3). Laws of Proximity, Uniform Connectedness, and Continuation – Gestalt Principles (2). Retrieved January 24, 2018, from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/laws-of-proximity-uniform-connectedness-and-continuation-gestalt-principles-2