This document provides an overview of visual perception as it relates to art. It defines key terms like visual, perception, and the visual system. The visual system includes physiological components involved in sight. Gestalt psychology views perception as the mind forming meaningful wholes from the environment. There are several visual perceptual skills discussed, like visual discrimination, figure-ground, closure, and memory. The document also outlines gestalt principles and assigns the reader to create drawings demonstrating these principles and discuss the importance of visual perception in design.

1. Understanding
Visual Perception
Art Visual Perception * Lecture 1
Philippine Women’s College of Davao
Wilfred Dexter G. Tañedo

2. Resource Materials
• Reference MaterialsArnheim_Rudolf_Art_and_Visual_Perception_1974.pdf
• Reference MaterialsElements and Principles of Art Activity Book.pdf
• Reference MaterialsVisual Perception melcher_cavanagh_ch19_2010.pdf

3. Visual by Definition
adjective
1.
of or relating to seeing or sight.
"visual perception"
synonyms: optical, optic, ocular, eye;
noun
1.
a picture, piece of film, or display used to illustrate or
accompany something.
synonyms: graphic, visual aid, image, illustration,
diagram, display;

4. Perception by Definition
 the way that one thinks about or understand
someone or something
 the ability to understand or notice something easily
 the way that one notices or understand something
using one of the senses

5. Perception
Perception is an active process of locating and
extracting information from the environment aided by
visible light.
There are various physiological components
involved in Visual Perception are referred to
collectively as the Visual System.
Visual System is focus of much research in Vision
Science that blends psychology, cognitive science,
neuroscience, and molecular biology, in the study of
visual perception.

6. Main Tools in Visual
Perception

7. Main Tools in Visual Perception

8. Neural Basis of Vision
• Behavior
• Physiology
• Anatomy
• Computation

9. What Do You See in the
Picture?

10. What Do You See in the
Picture?

11. Gestalt Psychology
• Tries to understand the laws of our ability to acquire and
maintain meaningful perceptions in an apparently chaotic
world.
• The central principle of gestalt psychology is that the mind
forms a global whole with self-organizing tendencies.
• This principle maintains that when the human mind
(perceptual system) forms a percept or gestalt, the whole
has a reality of its own, independent of the parts.
• "The whole is other than the sum of the parts” by Kurt Koffka
• The Founders of Gestalt Psychology: Max Wertheimer, Kurt
Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler. Created sometime in 1912.

12. Visual Perceptual Skills
• Visual Perceptual Skills involve the ability to organize
and interpret the information that is seen and give it
meaning.

13. Visual Perceptual
Processing Categories
Visual Discrimination
Visual Figure ground
Visual Closure
Visual Memory
Visual Sequential Memory
Visual Form Constancy
Visual spatial relationships

14. Visual Perceptual
Processing Categories
Visual Discrimination
is the ability to be aware
of the distinctive features
of forms including shape,
orientation, size, and
color.

15. Visual Perceptual
Processing Categories
• Visual Figure ground is
the ability to distinguish
an object from
irrelevant background
information

16. Visual Perceptual
Processing Categories
• Visual Closure is
the ability to
recognize a
complete feature
from fragmented
information.

17. Visual Perceptual
Processing Categories
Visual memory is the
ability to retain
information over an
adequate period of time.

18. Visual Perceptual
Processing Categories
Visual sequential memory is the ability to perceive and
remember a sequence of objects, letters, words, and other
symbols in the same order as originally seen.

19. Visual Perceptual
Processing Categories
Visual form constancy is the ability to recognize
objects as they change size, shape, or orientation.

20. Visual Perceptual
Processing Categories
Visual spatial skills refer to the ability to understand
directional concepts that organize external visual
space.

21. Gestalt Principles

22. Assignment
• Create 3x3 inches drawing samples of Gestalt
Principles (sketchbook)
• What is the Importance of Visual Perception in
Visual Art, specifically Design? (notebook)