Max Wertheimer

“ As one proceeds from A towards G or from G towards A the original grouping in each case (i.e. ab/cd in the former, /bc/de in the latter) tends to maintain itself even beyond the middle row. Then there occurs an upset and the opposite grouping becomes dominant. The constellation of Row C, for example, will be different when preceded by A and B from what it would be when preceded by G, F, E. This means that the row is a part in a sequence and the law of its arrangement is such that the constellation resulting from one form of sequence will be different from that given by some other sequence. ”

“ Sometimes a revolt against the originally dominant Factor of Proximity will occur and the shifted dots themselves thereupon constitute a new grouping whose common fate it has been to be shifted above the original row. ”

“ And the same is true even in cases where there is no stimulus continuum. I hear the melody and its accompaniment even when they are played by an old-fashioned clock where each tone is separate from the others. Or, one sees a series of discontinuous dots upon a homogeneous ground not as a sum of dots, but as figures. Even though there may here be a greater latitude of possible arrangements, the dots usually combine in some "spontaneous", "natural" articulation -- and any other arrangement, even if it can be achieved, is artificial and difficult to maintain. ”

“ In designing a pattern, for example, one has a feeling how successive parts should follow one another; one knows what a "good" continuation is, how "inner coherence" is to be achieved, etc.; one recognizes a resultant "good Gestalt" simply by its own "inner necessity". ”

“ But our examples refer only to objective factors : the presence or absence of a certain row of dots in a sequence is determined solely by objective conditions. It is objectively quite different whether a Row M is presented after Row L or after Row N ”

“ Indeed even a very "complicated" addition may promote unity of the resultant whole. "Simplicity" does not refer to the properties of individual parts ; simplicity is a property of wholes. Finally, the addition must be viewed also in terms of such characteristic "whole properties" as closure, equilibrium, and symmetry. [4]
From an inspection of Figs. 20-22 we are led to the discovery of still another principle: The Factor of Closure. If A, B, C, D are given and AB/CD constitute two self-enclosed units, then this arrangement rather than AC/BD will be apprehended. ”

“ The best case for the resulting of a figure in such a field is when in the total field a closed surface of simple form is different in colour from the remaining field. Such a surface figure is not one member of a duo (of which the total field or "ground" would be the other member) ”

“ Often arbitrary material can be arranged in arbitrary form and, after a sufficient drill, made habitual. The difficulty is, however, that many people are inclined to attribute to this principle the fundamental structure of all apprehension. The situation in Sec. VII, they would say, simply involves the prominence of habitual complexes. Straight lines, right angles, the arcs of circles, squares-all are familiar from everyday experience. ”

“ File:Laws of Organization in Perceptual Forms - Figure 6.png
In all the foregoing cases we have used a relatively large number of dots for each figure. Using fewer we find that the arrangement is not so imperatively dictated as before, and reversing the more obvious grouping is comparatively easy. Examples: (viii) - (x) .
It would be false to assume that (viii) - (x) lend themselves more readily to reversal because fewer stimulus points (dots) are involved. Such incorrect reasoning would be based upon the proposition "The more dots, the more difficult it will be to unite them into groups." ”