Gestalt law of organization
- noun
- /ɡəˈʃtɑlt lɔː ʌv ˌɔːɡənɪˈzeɪʃən/
- Specialized
- The Gestalt law of organization helps explain why we often perceive a series of dots as a straight line.
Examples
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Designers use the Gestalt law of organization to create cohesive and visually appealing layouts.
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According to the Gestalt law of organization, our minds naturally group similar objects together.
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The Gestalt law of organization explains how we perceive shapes.
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According to the Gestalt laws of organization, we see patterns in chaos.
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According to the Gestalt law of organization, our minds naturally group similar objects together.
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Designers use the Gestalt law of organization to create cohesive and visually appealing layouts.
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The Gestalt law of organization helps explain why we often perceive a series of dots as a straight line.
Synonyms
How people group things they see into whole shapes, for example when close or similar pieces look like one object
Surface Forms
Morphology
gestalt + law + of + organization
The phrase is transparently built from its constituents: 'gestalt' (a perceptual whole) + 'law' (a principle) + 'organization' (arranging), so a learner who knows those words can infer it refers to a principle about how perceptual elements are organized into wholes. Although it is a technical psychological term, the internal semantics are compositional and thus predictable from the parts.
Etymology
Gestalt law of organization comes from the German word Gestalt, which means 'whole' or 'shape', and the word organization, which means how things are put together. Imagine many dots that your mind joins into a single line; that's why the phrase explains how we naturally 'group' separate items into one 'pattern'.