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Home→The Westburn Dictionary of Marketing→G→gestalt psychology

gestalt psychology

Definition:
The branch of psychology which holds that individuals are conscious of a perceptual field as a whole rather than the individual perceptual stimuli which comprise it. Thus we have a tendency to expect stimuli to occur together - a 'set' - and when one or more stimuli are missing from a perceptual field we fill the gap through CLOSURE. This tendency to perceive what we expect to see leads to, as well as being a consequence of SELECTIVE PERCEPTION and distortion.

Cross-References:
[closure] [selective perception] [learning]

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© Westburn Publishers Ltd 2002, The Westburn Dictionary of Marketing edited by Michael J Baker, ISBN 978-0-946433-01-8. www.themarketingdictionary.com. Entry: [Michael J. Baker],.