Conciseness tendency

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Concentration tendency or the law of conciseness , tendency to excellent shape ( Max Wertheimer 1922) is a central concept in Gestalt psychology .

Emergence

People repeatedly find confirmation of the assumption that this world is by no means chaotic, but that it has structure, and are rewarded when they recognize and exploit this structure. In the course of evolution, the structural expectation as an "innate teacher" ( Konrad Lorenz ) was able to firmly establish itself in our genetic makeup. The tendency of visual perception to be concise is a consequence of this structural expectation. In acoustic perception there are z. For example, in the reception of spoken language, there is also the structural expectation of grammatically meaningful sentences. However, this structural expectation does not consistently exist in the reception of works of linguistic-acoustic art, Dadaism , new poetry, etc. In the reception of music, in particular new music , similar phenomena of listening expectation or disappointing listening expectation can be observed. There are different listening expectations between the reception of new music, provided it appears in concerts or as film music in optically coherent film scenes. In the music theory of older music, the terms fallacy or the term "reasonable deception" coined by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach also refer to disappointed listening expectations.

Examples

A very impressive example of this conciseness tendency is the emphasis on contrast. This effect can also be found at higher cognitive levels. The black-and-white thinking and the argumentative figure of the dilemma (“He who is not for me is against me”) are examples of the fact that the tendency towards conciseness sharpens subdivisions. On the other hand, it ensures the leveling of small differences, the reinforcement of symmetries and the straightening of lines.

That in many cultures "clarity" and "clarity" play a crucial role in the aesthetic evaluation is of Irenaeus Eibl-Eibesfeldt attributed to this Prägnanztendenz (Eibl-Eibesfeldt / Sütternlin, 2007, p 166). And Umberto Eco (2004, p. 100) writes:

"Thomas Aquinas [demands] three things from beauty: proportion, completeness and claritas , which means clarity and luminosity."

The human striving for conciseness is exploited by advertising, as evidenced by the Mercedes star, the Opel lightning bolt, the Nike arch and many other symbols and logos.

literature

  • M. Wertheimer: Studies on the theory of the shape . In: Psychological Research, 4 (1922), 47–58. Reprint 2017 in the magazine Gestalt Theory
  • U. Eco: The Story of Beauty. Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich / Vienna 2004, ISBN 978-3446204782 .
  • I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt, C. Sütterlin: World Language Art. On the natural and art history of visual communication. Christian Brandstätter Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3850330930 .
  • EB Goldstein: Perceptual Psychology. Spectrum Academic Publishing House, Heidelberg / Berlin / Oxford 1997, ISBN 978-3827417664 .
  • K. Lorenz: The back of the mirror. Piper, Munich 1973, ISBN 978-3423012492 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Max Wertheimer, Studies on the Doctrine of Shape, Psychological Research, 4 , p. 53
  2. ^ Hugo Riemann, Musical Syntaxis, Leipzig 1877; Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, attempt on the true way of playing the piano, Berlin 1762 vol. 2, p. 330. Exemplary: Literature by the music psychologist Stefan Koelsch Literature on Gestalt theory in music
  3. ↑ Optical perception - tendency towards conciseness. (hs-fulda.de)