Law of Pragnanz

Law of Pragnanz ??

▷The word pragnanz is a German term meaning “good figure.” Here, good means symmetrical, simple, and regular.

▷Based on Gestalt Psychology:
▫The whole is more than the sum of its parts. (We look things as a whole firstly. Whole has a different meaning from sum of its parts.)
▫Based upon this belief, Gestalt psychologists developed a set of principles to explain perceptual organization, or how smaller objects are grouped to form larger ones. These principles are often referred to as the “laws of perceptual organization.”


▷the Law of Pragnanz is one of the five Gestalts Laws of Perceptual Organization:
▫Law of Similarity
▫Law of Proximity
▫Law of Continuity
▫Law of Closure
▫Law of Pragnanz

▷the Law of Pragnanz states that Individuals organize their experience as simply, concisely, symmetrically, and completely as possible. (objects in the environment are seen in a way that makes as simple as possible.) This law is also known as the Law of Simplicity.

▫ Learning follows the law of Pragnanz: People perceive and remember things more simple than they are. e.g. We say “round” to an apple, a head, sun, earth, a watch, etc… but they are not exactly round, or their shapes are more complex than just a “round.”

▫ Problem solving involves restructuring and insight . Kohler (1925) suggested that problem solving involves mentally combining and recombining various elements of a problem until a structure that solves the problem is achieved.

▷Examples:

-The 1st image on the top of the Page:
We see the image as a series of circles rather than as many much more complicated shapes

-The 2nd image on the top of the Page:
The figure appears to the eye as a square overlapping triangle, not a combination of several complicated shapes.