Behavior: Basic Psychology of the User - Foundations for Designing User-Centered Systems - page 101

Proximity groups
the left hand dots

Similarity makes the left hand
dots belong together more

Good continuation makes the line of
dots appear to continue through the rectangle

Closure makes the circle appear whole

Surrounded by a box,
the dots look more like a group

Symmetry and equal size make the dots
look more like a group (and helps the
illustrations and captions group in this figure)

Orientation makes the dots on
the left look more like a group

Fig. 4.15 Several illustrations of the Gestalt principles of visual grouping

perception-as-registering-and-coding-sensation. They include the Constructivist,
the Ecological, and the Active Vision approaches.
In the Constructivist approach, seeing is regarded as an active process in which
our view of the world is constructed from a combination of information in the
environment and previously stored knowledge. So, what we get from our eyes is
not a 2D visual representation of the world like a photograph. Instead, the visual
system constructs a model of the world by transforming, enhancing, distorting,
seeking, and discarding information. In doing so, the visual system provides us
with a much more constant view of the world than if we were simply to ''see'' the
images produced on our retinas. So, when we move about (e.g., walk down a
street), buildings appear stationary and people appear to be approximately the
same size and shape—despite the fact that their actual relative images on the retina