An important but overlooked influence in education and psychology is Gestalt psychology, which originated as a response to behaviorism. Gestalt psychology, which is related in some ways to the philosophy now known as constructivism, held the belief that people do not perceive the world as it is, rather they interpret what they see in terms of their own filters (that is, they impose order and meaning on what they perceive). Meanings (significations) are different, according to each person's individual cultural and personal experiences. While the visual system is often compared to a camera, the analogy is inaccurate because a brain does more than look at pictures. It interprets them, tries to make sense of them, and considers cause and effect. Three important figures in the Gestalt school were:

• Max Wertheimer - a founder of the Gestalt school is famous for discovery of the phi phenomenon, the experience of apparent motion when there is none. 
• Kurt Koffka -  wrote the first book on the principles of Gestalt psychology in 1935. 
• Wolfgang Kohler - developed the theory of insight and generalization of knowledge. 

Gestalt psychologists "found perception to be heavily influenced by the context or configuration of the perceived elements" (Gestalt Psychology,  Funk, 1999). Context is one of the most important concepts in teaching and learning.

A key idea presented by Gestalt psychologists is that our prior knowledge greatly influences our current perception and memory for stimuli.  Therefore, "when we remember something, we are reconstructing our perceptions of the event" (Hamilton, 1994). Max Wertheimer focused on the primary factors that determine grouping in cognitive processes:  (1) proximity, (2) similarity, (3) closure, and (4) simplicity. 

These four groups were called the laws of organization and were related to problem solving and perception. In proximity grouping, elements tend to naturally group together because of their nearness. 

• Grouping by proximity - We tend to group things together that are close together in space.

On the left, there appear to be horizontal rows, while on the right, there appear to be columns. 

• Closure - We tend to make our experience as complete as possible; tendency to see wholes.

Humans tend to enclose a space by completing a contour and ignoring gaps in the figure. Closure grouping causes us to see items grouped together if they tend to complete some entity we already know. In the figure above there are no triangles, circles, or stars, but we tend to seem them there. Items will be organized into simplicity groups according to symmetry, regularity, and smoothness. 

• Pragnanz - We tend to reduce reality to its simplest shape and impose on missing parts something not there. (Also known as the Minimum Principle - we organize experience so that it seems as simple as possible [cognitive conservation]). 

The figure above appears as a square overlapping a triangle, not a combination of several complicated shapes.

• Similarity - We tend to group things together that are similar.

There seems to be a triangle in the square. In similarity grouping, items that are similar in some respect tend to be grouped together in our minds. 

• Continuity - We impose unity on objects.

We tend to see continuation when there is none implied. 

• Figure and Ground - We tend to organize our perceptions by distinguishing between a figure and a ground. 

The above figure appears to the eye as a square inside a circle, or as a donut shaped circle with a square hole.
 

This figure below is an example of anomalous motion illusion, because although nothing is actually moving you believe that it is. This illusion was created by the Japanese psychology professor, Akiyoshi Kitaoka, Department of Psychology, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan, who has been collecting and developing geometric optical illusions. Akiyoshi warned: "Caution: This page contains some works of  'anomalous motion illusion,' which might make sensitive observers dizzy or sick. Should you feel dizzy, you had better leave this page immediately." It probably will not make you dizzy, but if you stare at it for awhile you will get the sensation of things moving around on the screen. 

There are some interesting visual exercises using Gestalt principles. The Phi phenomenon, for example, is apparent movement.  If two balls are near each other, 

and a method can be devised to cover each ball alternately with the same color background, as done with this computer program, there is a sensation of movement, as demonstrated here. This illusion is created by covering the left ball and then the right ball with a white background, which makes your brain interpret movement. Actually, it is just two red balls sitting there, as you can see above. 

These illusions are examples of how the brain imposes order on information, tries to make sense of it, but it is not "real" but an interpretation of reality. 

A property is said to be a "Gestalt quality" if it only exists in a whole, but not in its individual parts.  For example, "a tune has musical properties that its separate notes cannot have" (Roggen, Gestalt Philosophy,  1996).  So, therefore the whole tune has Gestalt qualities. 

This concept can also apply to perceptual social events.  For example, "a concert, where the orchestra usually occupies the center of attention, with the public as a surrounding periphery" (Roggen, Gestalt Philosophy, 1996) could be perceived as a Gestalt. Roggen had an interesting description of the Web (World Wide Web) as an example of Gestalt Technology:

All modern electronic display technologies are geared to an optimal application of the Gestalt laws of perceptual organization. Gestalt psychology actually started as experiments to account for the motion we see in looking at a motion picture. The motion picture camera takes a series of snapshot "stills."  If these were moved on a screen, a blur would result. The perceived motion is only obtained through the projection of a temporal sequence of the stills on the same region of the screen. All modern media devices, television, video, computers, etc. are based upon this principle. So, from the display point of view, such devices are Gestalt devices and could as well be called "Gestalt Machines."  From this point of view, the Web is applied Gestalt science.  When delving deeper into the matter, also the logic of the Web appears to depend on the Gestalt laws . . . the Web is a Gestalt organized information process. Therefore, Gestalt science is an essential part of the scientific basis of the Web (Roggen, The Web,  1996).

Semiotics

Many Gestalt principles remain important with the emergence of postmodern theory. Charles Sanders Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure were prominent in establishing this field of study.  There are three major sign categories:

• Iconic - where the sign (icon) resembles the object it represents 

• Indexical - connected to the action it signifies (e.g., a link on a computer  )

• Symbolic - no apparent connection 

(This is a sign placed on the rear of horse-drawn wagons in Central Park and in the Amish country.)

Beyond these basic facts, the task of perceiving and interpreting visual information is managed by the brain, but it is the perception, thoughts, experiences, and attitudes of each individual that give true meaning to what is seen. So while the eye may be compared, by analogy, to a camera, it is not a camera.

Semiotics is concerned with how visual elements generate meaning, rather than the meaning that exists. The subtle but distinct feature of the theory is that a signifier and the meaning associated with it do not necessarily have a specific relationship. In fact, language and words are "visual" elements to some theorists. Meaning is encoded in signs, and signs are also words. A sign is the signifier and the signification.

The British flag is a signifier, but any feelings, emotions, ideals associated with it are unique to the individuals. In fact, enemies of Britain will have different significations. While the flag is really only cloth and some designs, it comes to represent the nation. The study of semiotics is the investigation of  the rules by which signifiers encode signified reality. Any gesture or utterance is meaningless unless it is interpreted within a particular culture. 

Semiotics is used to understand conventional meanings and to recognize signs are everywhere.  Pictures, photographs, and videotape bring us the news, but they are not merely reflections of reality, rather they structure specific views. If you have satellite TV, for example, you can see news report every night about Afghanistan and Africa, but these are rarely on American new.  Far fewer attention is given in American media to world events, but a great deal is presented on "Pop Culture." 

Communication exists as a matter of signs. Understanding signs is understanding meaning and the "meaning" of meaning itself.  This view contrasts sharply with that of the transmission view. Aristotle commented in "On Interpretation:" 

spoken words are symbols of mental experience and written words are the symbols of spoken words. Just as all men have not the same writing, so all men have not the same speech sounds, but the mental experiences, which these directly symbolize, are the same for all, as also are those things of which our experiences are the images.

Denotation and Connotation. Denotation is the physical act of light striking the eye and interpretation of image. Connotation refers to the meanings associated with what is seen, as illustrated in the following remarks of  McNeill (1996), who explains the views of Barthes:

The abbé Pierre was a Catholic priest who achieved a certain amount of  media attention in the 1950s (and in the 1980s and 1990s too) for his work with the homeless in Paris. What interests Barthes is, perversely, the abbé Pierre's clothes and, in particular, his haircut. We would expect such a man to be indifferent to fashion and to consider a certain neutrality or `état zéro' ...to be desirable. However, far from being neutral or innocent, the abbé Pierre's clothes and hairstyle send out all sorts of messages. The abbé Pierre's simple working-class `canadienne' and austere hairstyle all connote the qualities of simplicity, religious devotion and self-sacrifice. His clothes and hairstyle make a fashion statement of sorts - as much, if not more, than a Lacoste polo shirt or an Armani suit - and are rich in connotations...

The most visible example of hatred toward the United States is frequently on television in news reports showing angry crowds shouting and burning the American flag. Meanwhile, the American flag is displayed prominently on automobiles and flagpoles in the United States after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. 

Obviously, any national flag is more than a piece of cloth, because it can evoke a range of emotions depending upon the meaning attached to it by different people. The same may be said about a Christian cross, the Star of David, the Swastika, Confederate Flag, and corporate symbols. All groups select symbols to create a sense of group identity to set them apart from others. 

Most people in the United States recognize the caution sign for school crossing, but younger people and children often have difficulty with the civil defense sign announcing a shelter from nuclear fallout, which still exist from the "Cold War" of the 1950s.

An American driving in London might be confused by this sign: 
It means the dual carriageway ends.
 

Objective reality was conceived by scientists as composed of laws that needed to be studied and understood. The speed of light, the speed of sound, the laws of  thermodynamics, and Einstein's theory of relativity (E = MC²) are examples of nature being revealed as an orderly system that can be exposed. In a rational world, words and signs "mean what they say," are clear-cut, and signify thoughts or objects with a deep meaning understood by all. Modern societies trust that signifiers are clear and meaningful, and that reality exists in the significations, or that significations reflect reality.

Postmodern critics see language and signs in terms of  expressions of power. This is revealed in binary oppositions such as male/female or industrialized/Third World and many more. Each of these couplets is imbued with meaning, with social and political codes. Rejection, exclusion, and disdain are not readily apparent in binary oppositions, according to postmodern critics, but can be revealed with deconstruction. It is the purpose of critics to deconstruct or "transgress" this hierarchy. For them, binary opposition is not a linguistic phenomenon but actually an artifact of class rule. The process of deconstruction reverses the roles to reveal the symbolism or the signifiers, the hidden or true meaning. Derrida believed that binary oppositions characterize all Western thought.

To know something is to know it by contrast with something else--by analogy, metonymy and metaphor. Examples of common expressions can show hierarchical relationships, often one of dominance and the other of inferiority in the culture, according to this theory. Top has no meaning without bottom. A hierarchical dichotomy is created as an  imposed consensus. Consider the following binary oppositions:

• normal and abnormal
• men and women
• Adam and Eve

• abnormal and normal
• women and men
• Eve and Adam

The rational modern society in America has themes that some writers call grand narratives. These are stories that the culture tells to sustain its mores, beliefs, and values. To Bathes, such narratives are myths we develop to make sense of the world. Joseph Campbell (1972) believed that all mythology in all cultures has a common source in the biology of humanity. Providing explanations of creation, values, beliefs, and rituals, myths can be easily grasped by the human mind without serious study and memorization. They were especially important when most people could not read. Examination of stories (narratives, myths) tell us about different cultures and exposes meaning.

The American grand narrative is well known to Americans and, because of television and films, it is well-known in other societies. Themes in the narrative are about truth, freedom, democracy, equality, hard work, achievement, self-reliance, individualism, and opportunity, among others. Meaning is not derived from a rational, objective, essential reality out there somewhere, but it is created, constructed, and reinforced by the dominant culture.

As a species, human beings do not simply choose to use metaphor but do it naturally, and perhaps they must in order to reason and learn. At the core of  the metaphor is recognition and categorization. This is the revelation of Gestalt psychology. It is not a question of whether to make a comparison but of which comparison to make. It is by comparison that each of us shapes his or her reality. We must compare things, because that is how our brains work. We usually do it without even thinking about it, quickly, automatically, without reflection. 

The use of metaphor promotes the transfer of understanding in one field to another based on the belief that they are similar. This is the value of analogy, borrowing a notion from one place and applying it in another. But we must be constantly aware that our analogies, constructions, and views of reality are unique and personal. A danger in making metaphors is to believe the analog is the same; for example, the brain has been compared to a computer so many times that people tend to think that it is a computer. 

Words and pictures can be and are used in metaphors. They are all full of meaning to each of us, but not all of which will be understood by others. Also, the metaphors we create may be faulty. Although real in our imagination, they may have no relationship to the way things really are or to the way other people view reality. In any case, perception is reality, but it can be dangerous.  The American plains indians wore special shirts in a "Ghost" dance ceremony, which they believed would make them invulnerable to bullets. The carbines of the soldiers were not deterred by Ghost shirts.

In Mythologies, Barthes (1984) says that nothing can be taken for granted. All symbols and signs should be questioned to discover true meaning. Barthes questions the obvious. But people are satisfied with inferences. If a conclusion seems to fit the available facts, other possibilities are not considered or are disregarded.  People are satisfied with incomplete reasoning, and there is the suggestion that humans conserve cognitive energy whenever they can and avoid thinking. One's current understanding biases how new information is interpreted. Context creates meaning. Context biases a viewpoint automatically. Johnson (1995) said: 

Once a filter is installed in the brain, it bends everything we see. Gazing out on the jungle, a Darwinist sees the beauty of natural selection...A structuralist imagines instead a multidimensional fitness landscape...Like all of us, both are faced with never knowing the extent to which the patterns they see are out in the world or imposed by the prisms of our nervous systems.

Context is important. Context frames meaning.

Can you see two faces?  Can use you see a vase?  Your visual system alternates between a vase or two faces. 

In the famous Necker Cube illusion, the two-dimensional box shifts orientations. Stare at it awhile and notice the sensation of movement, although you know it does not move. A similar sensation occurs with the drawing on the right.

                 d

Now, try to count the black dots in this one:

Stare at the bluish dot for awhile without moving your eyes or your head. The dot will gradually fade. For some people, the dot fades more rapidly if they stare at the edge of the square. As soon as you move your head or eyes, notice that the blue reappears. 

Let's consider one more illusion that is interesting for a couple of reasons, one of which is the cultural difference that can be found.  If you have Real Player or Windows Media installed, click on trapezoid illusion*, then return. You may have to run it a couple of times to get the effect. 

Watch the rotating window. Notice that the window seems to swing back and forth. It is really going in a full circle.  From past experience, your brain assumes that all windows are rectangular and that the shorter edge is always the edge farthest away. But the rotating window in front of you  is actually a trapezoid. When the shorter edge of this trapezoidal window moves closer to you, your brain tricks you into seeing it as being closer. You brain accepts that the window is not rotating in the opposite direction. The window therefore appears to swing back and forth.

This experiment was tried with an African tribe that lived in a remote area.  They had no rectangular buildings, lived in circular huts, and their huts were arranged in circles.  They did not see the window go back and forth, rather they saw it make the full circle.  They and you see the same thing, but you see it differently. 

Cyberspace, Simulation and Hyperreality

In 1984, a science fiction writer, William Gibson, published a book called Neuromancer.  He used the term term "cyberspace" that has come to mean the on-line world of computer networks. Communication, information, games, and a variety of social contacts are possible on the Internet or in cyberspace.  The existence of cyberspace as a "real" place in the minds of people has caused the online world to exist as a parallel world.

Recent developments in digital technology have created such "realistic" images that it may be conceived, at some time in the future, that artificial people will be able to function in a digital environment with nearly undetectable differences from actual people.  It may be possible to create screen actors who will play any part and perform any role, rather than real people memorizing lines and performing in front of a camera.  Stretching the imagination a bit more, it may be possible in the future for such "actors" to be controlled by artificial intelligence to such an extent that we could interact with them as if they are "real" people. So-called "real time rendering" has already made significant strides in creating realistic images that seem to have near life-like textures and expressions. Using 3D animation techniques with powerful software, fully "animatable" bodies are now constructed in cyberspace.

In online activities of "real" people today, many have more than one identity and some interact by having a avatar or iconic representation in the digital environment.  Young people pretend to be older, women pretend to be men, and vice versa, and a considerable amount of fantasy unfolds in such Internet interactions.

Digital technology has already reached a level at which it is possible to "fake" photographs of people, several steps beyond air brushing.  People who have never met can be morphed into a picture that shows them embracing.  Such developments undermine our predominant assumptions about what is real. When the telegraph was first used, people had a sensation of "being in two places at once."  Perhaps some people on the Internet also have that sensation, as well as being different personalities. The very concepts of identity, space, time, and presence are altered. Perhaps this is what Baudrillard (1983) described, signs as simulacra:

The real is produced from miniaturised units, from matrices, memory banks and command models - and with these  it can be reproduced an indefinite number of times. It no longer has to be rational, since it  is no longer measured against some ideal or negative instance. It is nothing more than operational. In fact, since it is no longer enveloped by an imaginary, it is no longer real at all. It is hyperreal, the product of an irradiating synthesis of combinatory models in a hyperspace without atmosphere.