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Visual Perception in Psychology

According to Gestalt Psychology, people perceive the whole of something even if it is not there. The Gestalt’s Law of Organization states that people have seven factors that help to group what is seen into patterns or groups: Common Fate, Similarity, Proximity, Closure, Symmetry, Continuity, and Past Experience.

The Law of Common fate says that objects are led along the smoothest path. People follow the trend of motion as the lines/dots flow.

The Law of Similarity refers to the grouping of images or objects that are similar to each other in some aspect. This could be due to shade, colour, size, shape, or other qualities you could distinguish.

The Law of Proximity states that our minds like to group based on how close objects are to each other. We may see 42 objects in a group, but we can also perceive three groups of two lines with seven objects in each line.

The Law of Closure is the idea that we as humans still see a full picture even if there are gaps within that picture. There could be gaps or parts missing from a section of a shape, but we would still perceive the shape as whole.

The Law of Symmetry refers to a person's preference to see symmetry around a central point. An example would be when we use parentheses in writing. We tend to perceive all of the words in the parentheses as one section instead of individual words within the parentheses.

The Law of Continuity tells us that objects are grouped together by their elements and then perceived as a whole. This usually happens when we see overlapping objects.We will see the overlapping objects with no interruptions.

The Law of Past Experience refers to the tendency humans have to categorize objects according to past experiences under certain circumstances. If two objects are usually perceived together or within close proximity of each other the Law of Past Experience is usually seen.

Auditory

Studies pertaining to Audition started to increase in number towards the latter end of the nineteenth century. During this time, many laboratories in the United States began to create new models, diagrams, and instruments that all pertained to the ear.

There is a branch of Cognitive Psychology dedicated strictly to Audition. They call it Auditory Cognitive Psychology. The main point is to understand why humans are able to use sound in thinking outside of actually saying it.

Relating to Auditory Cognitive Psychology is Psychoacoustics. Psychoacoustics is more pointed to people interested in music. Haptics, a word used to refer to both taction and kinesthesia, has many parallels with psychoacoustics. Most research around these two are focused on the instrument, the listener, and the player of the instrument.

Gustatory

There is a rare phenomenon when it comes to the Gustatory sense. It is called Lexical-Gustatory Synesthesia. This is when people can “taste” words. . They have reported having flavor sensations they aren’t actually eating. When they read words, hear words, or even imagine words. They have reported not only simple flavors, but textures, complex flavors, and temperatures as well.

Olfactory

Causes of Olfactory dysfunction can be caused by age, exposure to toxic chemicals, viral infections, epilepsy, some sort of neurodegenerative disease, head trauma, or as a result of another disorder.

Those who were born without a sense of smell or have a damaged sense of smell usually complain about 1, or more, of 3 things. Our olfactory sense is also used as a warning against bad food. If the sense of smell is damaged or not there, it can lead to a person contracting food poisoning more often. Not having a sense of smell can also lead to damaged relationships or insecurities within the relationships because of the inability for the person to not smell body odor. Lastly, smell influences how food and drink taste. When the olfactory sense is damaged, the satisfaction from eating and drinking is not as prominent. As studies in olfaction have continued, there has been a link to its dysfunction or degeneration and early signs of Alzheimers and sporadic Parkinson’s disease. Many patients don’t notice the decline in smell before being tested. In Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimers, an olfactory deficit is present in 85 to 90% of the early onset cases. There is evidence that the decline of this sense can precede the Alzheimers or Parkinson’s Disease by a couple years. Although the deficit is present in these two diseases, as well as others, it is important to make note that the severity or magnitude vary with every disease. This has brought to light some suggestions that olfactory testing could be used in some cases to aid in differentiating many of the neurodegenerative diseases.