theories
Law of Common Fate
Apr 23,2009 Scott MitchellElements with the same moving direction are perceived as a group.
Also Part of the Series
- Law of Continuity - April 23, 2009
- Law of Common Fate (This post)
- Law of Symmetry - April 23, 2009
- Law of Similarity - April 23, 2009
- Law of Proximity - April 23, 2009
- Gestalt Psychology and Laws of Perception - April 22, 2009
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Items that move together are grouped together. This organizing principle cannot be adequately illustrated in a still picture but requires animation or movies to be fully appreciated. One of the most impressive manifestations of the principle of common fate was performed by Johansson (1973a, 1975) who attached lights to joints of a black-clad actor and filmed him as he moved across a darkened room. When the actor was stationary, no pattern could be discerned in the lights. But, as soon as he walked, it was easily possible to identify the very sparse pattern as that of a moving figure.
Walking Person – Law of Common Fate from Scott Mitchell on Vimeo.
Pavlova (1992) has shown that, when children aged 3-5 years were tested with animated cartoons consisting of moving dots attached to the main joints of an invisible man and an invisible animal moving as if on a treadmill, the 3-year-olds were able to recognize the moving displays and the 5-year old’s performance was as good as adults. Static versions of the display however were not recognized. Familiarity and context must also play a part here. More recently Hunt and Halper (2007) demonstrated that interference does not affect this powerful principles (except at extremes). For example, the viewer can still make out a walking person when the “lights” are interfered with:
Even significantly:
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