Gestalt Effect and Schema Theories

According to Erik Du Plessis and Millward Brown in their book " The Advertised Mind: Ground-Breaking Insights Into How Our Brains Respond To Advertising", "A Gestalt is in a way a concept, except that in some way it is a stripped-down concept. It is more like a complex trigger for a concept."- page 51. They also added that "...Gestalt effect: the whole is more that the sum of the initial components."- page 53.

I was wondering if I can apply the Wertheimer's five law of perception (the principles of perceptual organisation) for this picture advertisement and try to identified its schema. I use this picture because it draws my attention once i look at it for the first time.

The first law of perception is proximity: when the object near each other, it will be group together. As stated by Willis D. Ellis in " A Source Book of Gestalt Psychology", "...the predominant influence of what we may call The Factor of Proximity...is the first of the principles which we undertook to discover." - Ellis, Willis D.,1938, page 74. The purpose is for the eye fixation. In the picture, our eye will be more focus on the olives and automatically we group it as one.

The second law is similarity: tendency of the same object bond together. The purpose is to emphasis the message. The olives are similar with each other and thus, the message should be about the content of the olives in the product.

The third law is common fate. The purpose is to create direction and decrease tension in viewing. When I see the pac man I can imagine that it moves from left to right while eating the olives.

The forth law is pregnantz (figure or ground). Its purpose is to assort while providing the same information. The box above shows the pac man and the olives. This arrangement is drawing my attention as I look at it because I assume it as a pac man who wants to eat the dots just like in the game. I apply or use something in the reality to simplify it.

The fifth or the last law of perception is closure. The purpose is to influence perception to create fine effects. Here, it uses the pac man as the subject of the product. We know pac man always eat the dot. Thus, pac man is the representation of the product. We imagine it eat the olives. Hence, the connotation of the product is it contain more olives in it or the product have olives flavour.

" Schema Theory is another constructivist theory. In general, the theory strives to explain how knowledge is created and used by learners. According to Schema Theory, people organize everything their know into schemas, or knowledge structures." - Tracey, Diane H. and Morrow, Lesley Mandel, 2006, page 51. In the picture, I used to see it as the pac man wanted to eat the dot. That is its schema because I have use my  knowledge to resemble it as what I know to simplify or organize the picture so that I can remember it easily.

Reference:

Ellis, Willis D. 1938. A Source Book Of Gestalt Psychology. Retrieved from: http://books.google.com/books?id=T432HyCzw2oC&pg=PA71&dq=wertheimer%27s+five+law+of+perception&hl=en&ei=DPeTTNjeCYXKcc60gKQF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Plessis, Erik Du and Brown, Millward. 2005. The Advertised Mind: Ground-Breaking Insights Into Our Brains Respond To Advertising. Retrieved from: http://books.google.com/books?id=WrWisgkaZY8C&pg=PR7&dq=Gestalt+effect&hl=en&ei=Ee-TTM_AJMmXcaPtxaQF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Gestalt%20effect&f=false

Tracey, Diane H. and Morrow, Lesley Mandel. 2006. Lenses On Reading: An Introduction To Theories And Models. Retrieved from: http://books.google.com/books?id=tebt2CTsvNEC&pg=PA51&dq=Schema+theories&hl=en&ei=Qe-TTOLlGYW3cMyoxaQF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Schema%20theories&f=false