Seeing is believing . . . . whole and parts
Gestaltists believe that human experience cannot be understood if it is reduced to its component parts.
In the phi phenomenon, studying only a single light (one part) cannot explain the experience. Whole experiences create patterns or sets that are qualitatively different from any of the individual pieces.
Sugar, eggs, and cream cheese are all excellent in and of themselves, but combined into a New York cheesecake -- the result is well beyond scrambled eggs, bagels and sweetened coffee.
Kohler studied interrelationships in his work with chickens (some people never acquire an affinity for rats.)
Kohler would place two sheets of paper, each a slightly different shade of gray on the ground in front of chickens. While grain was placed on both sheets, the chickens were only allowed to eat from the darker of the two sheets.
Later, the chickens would be shown the piece of paper from which they had been fed, and an even darker sheet.
The chickens were invariably more attracted to the darker of the two sheets, even though their experience was with the lighter one.
Kohler saw this as evidence that the relationship between the two sheets was more important than either sheet individually. These experiments are referred to as Kohler's transposition experiments.
The organism structures and organizes experience.
The phi phenomenon represents a situation in which there is no inherent structure. The individual, attempting to create meaning, imposes structure -- interpreting the two flashing lights as a single light that is moving. This imposition of structure creates a whole from two independent occurrences.
The word Gestalt means structured whole and conveniently summarizes this key element.
