Towards the most prägnant Gestalt: Leveling and sharpening as contextually dependent adaptive strategies.

Gestalt psychologists posited that we always organize our visual input in the best way possible under the given conditions. Both weakening or removing unnecessary details (i.e., leveling) and exaggerating distinctive features (i.e., sharpening) can contribute to achieving a better organization. When...

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Publicado en:Memory & Cognition Vol. 53; no. 1; pp. 150 - 175
Autores principales: Van Geert, Eline, Frérart, Liesse, Wagemans, Johan
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Jan2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Towards the most prägnant Gestalt: Leveling and sharpening as contextually dependent adaptive strategies.
      aug:
        au:
          Van Geert, Eline
          Frérart, Liesse
          Wagemans, Johan
        affil:
          https://ror.org/05f950310 Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Department of Brain and Cognition, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102 - box 3711, BE-3000, Leuven, Belgium
          https://ror.org/05f950310 Research Group of Quantitative Psychology and Individual Differences, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
      su:
        Psychological adaptation
        Psychology
        Attention
        Cognition
        Conceptual models
        Research funding
        Drawing
        Descriptive statistics
        Theory
        Visual perception
      sug:
        subj:
          Psychological adaptation
          Psychology
          Attention
          Cognition
          Conceptual models
          Research funding
          Drawing
          Descriptive statistics
          Theory
          Visual perception
      keyword:
        Bias
        Complication
        Gestalt psychology
        Simplification
        Bias
        Complication
        Gestalt psychology
        Simplification
      ab: Gestalt psychologists posited that we always organize our visual input in the best way possible under the given conditions. Both weakening or removing unnecessary details (i.e., leveling) and exaggerating distinctive features (i.e., sharpening) can contribute to achieving a better organization. When is a feature leveled or sharpened, however? We investigated whether the importance of a feature for discrimination among alternatives influences which organizational tendency occurs. Participants were simultaneously presented with four figures composed of simple geometrical shapes, and asked to reconstruct one of these figures in such a way that another participant would be able to recognize it among the alternatives. The four figures differed either qualitatively or only quantitatively (i.e., far or close context). Regarding quantitative differences, two feature dimensions were varied, with one manifesting a wider range of variability across the alternatives than the other. In case of a smaller variability range, the target figure was either at the extreme of the range or had an in-between value. As expected, the results indicated that sharpening occurred more often for the feature with an extreme value, for the feature exhibiting more variability, and for the features of figures presented in the close context, than for the feature with a non-extreme value, exhibiting less variability, or in the far context. In line with Metzger's (1941) definition of prägnant Gestalts, the essence of a Gestalt is context-dependent, and this will influence whether leveling or sharpening of a feature will lead to the best organization in the specific context.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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