"The Whole is Other
than the Sum of the Parts" When the perceptual system forms a percept
or gestalt, the whole thing has a reality of its own, independent of the
parts. The Gestalt psychologist Kurt
Koffka made a famous statement about this:
"The whole is other than the sum of its parts." This statement is often translated to English
as, "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts." Koffka did not like that translation. He firmly corrected students who substituted
"greater" for "other" (Heider, 1977). "This is not a principle of
addition," he said. The statement
as originally worded was supposed to mean that the whole had an independent
existence in the perceptual system.
https://www.intropsych.com/ch04_senses/whole_is_other_than_the_sum_of_the_parts.html
1. The Gestalt movement
initially grew out of a problem that bedeviled 19th century perception theory. If all perception is composed of
"bundles" of sensory elements, as many prominent psychologists of the
time thought, what are the elements that go into the perception of space and
the perception of time? The Austrian
physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach (1838-1916) had argued that
"space-forms" and "time-forms" are separate elements unto
themselves. Thus, if I see the
geometrical form of a circle, in addition to sensing each individual element, I
sense a circular "space-form" as well; if I hear a melody, I sense an
over-all "time-form" in addition to the tone sensations of the
tune. Another Austrian philosopher,
Christian von Ehrenfels (1859-1932), extended this line of reasoning, claiming
that in addition to the sensory elements of a perceived object, there is an
extra element which, though in some sense derived from the organization of the
standard sensory elements, is an element unto itself. He called this extra element Gestalt-qualität or
"form-quality." For instance,
when one hears a melody, one hears the notes plus something in
addition to them which binds them together into a tune--the Gestalt-qualität. 2. For the Gestalt psychologists,
the true nature of relations between parts and wholes had been inverted by
earlier psychologists such as Mach and Von Ehrenfels. Max Wertheimer (1880-1943), founder of
the Gestalt school, turned their theories around, saying
"what is given me by the melody does not arise ... as a secondary process
from the sum of the pieces as such.
Instead, what takes place in each single part already depends upon what
the whole is," (1925/1938). In
other words, one hears the melody first and only then may perceptually divide
it up into notes. 3. Some of their primary
evidence for this view came from the examination of "reversible"
figures such as the Rubin vase, a figure that can be seen either as a
white vase on a black background, or black profiles of two human faces on a
white background. It was with this
radical change in orientation that Gestalt psychology
distinguished itself from the varieties of experimental phenomenology which had
gone before. Read more at https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Koffka/Perception/intro.htm Gestalt is German for shape or form.
History and high-tech merge in a new
offering from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world's largest medical
library and an arm of the National Institutes of Health. It's a novel twist on NLM's popular online
system, Turning The Pages, (https://ceb.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/books.htm), which allows you to turn the pages of a rare book
on your computer screen. Now,
users can journey back to pre-book times and "unroll the scroll" or,
more specifically, the Edwin Smith Papyrus, the world's oldest known surgical
document. The new offering is at https://ceb.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/smith/smith.html. The
Smith Papyrus was written in Egyptian hieratic script around the 17th century
BCE but probably based on material from a thousand years earlier. This collaborative online representation
features an important new translation by James P. Allen, formerly of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, and high-resolution scans lent by the scroll's
owner, the New York Academy of Medicine. "We are delighted to
collaborate with NLM in bringing the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus to a much
wider audience and the use of interactive technology will allow researchers and
the public to explore the document more deeply," said Academy President Jo
Ivey Boufford, MD. "The Smith
Papyrus is extremely important," added NLM Director Donald A.B. Lindberg,
MD, "because it showed for the first time that Egyptians had a scientific
understanding of traumatic injuries based on observable anatomy rather than
relying on magic or potions." The
text is a treatise on trauma surgery and consists of 48 cases dealing with
wounds and trauma. Each case is laid out
using a carefully prescribed formula: a
description of the injury; diagnosis; prognosis; treatment; and further
explanations of the case, which resemble footnotes. "This papyrus is unlike most other
medical papyri in that it is chiefly rational and does not usually bring the
supernatural into the explanations or treatments for injuries-for instance,
there is only one incantation," said Michael North, curator of the project
and of rare books in the Library's History of Medicine Division.
"The technical challenges of digitally transforming and making this scroll
available on a personal computer were enormous," said George Thoma, PhD,
chief of the Communications Engineering Branch at NLM's Lister Hill
Center. Thoma led the Library's
technical efforts and team. "The
memory requirements were immense, so we had to come up with ways to manage the
memory for home use. We created the
illusion of rolling and unrolling by superimposing the frame by frame animation
of the rolled section of the scroll on the large image of the entire
papyrus." In addition, creative
animation techniques, dealing with bend modifying and lattice deformation, were
necessary in order for the scroll to unroll and flip over correctly. Also, to
explore the graceful, two-color calligraphy, a "zoom" mode offers a
roving magnifying window, the design for which came with its own
complexity. "As far as I know, we
may be the only Library in the world that has mastered the computation and
technology to create an easily usable virtual scroll for a personal
computer user," Dr. Thoma added.
The British Library created Turning
The Pages, but NLM has collaborated with that institution to create
its own version. There are now six
books, in addition to the scroll, in the online version. Two touch-screen versions are also on view at
the National Library of Medicine, on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. See graphics at https://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/turn_page_egyptian.html
The rubber hand illusion works like this: seat a volunteer with her forearms resting on
a table and her right hand hidden in a box that’s open at both ends. Align a lifelike rubber hand with her
right shoulder, where her real hand would be. Using a paintbrush, stroke
the right index finger of the rubber hand and, simultaneously and in sync, her
real right index finger. Tell her to
carefully watch the rubber finger being stroked. Ask her
where her right index finger is. (To
reduce the risk of lying or cheating, have her close her eyes and use her left
hand to point to it.) In all likelihood,
within 15 seconds or so her answer will drift toward the rubber hand, as she
feels that her own hand has melted away and the fake hand has become hers. Seeing only the rubber hand being stroked,
she’ll feel as if her own is. Even
odder, the temperature of the real hand usually drops—as if the brain, which
controls body temperature, no longer considers it part of the body. When visual information (seeing the rubber
hand being stroked) conflicts with tactile information (feeling but not
seeing one’s own hand being stroked), the brain trusts what it sees over what
it feels. Sharon Begley https://www.statnews.com/2016/10/20/brain-rubber-hand-illusion/
A 2008 animal rights law introduced in Switzerland makes it illegal to own just one guinea pig at a
time. The law was part of a legislative
push to grant “social rights” to pets that tend to get lonely. Guinea pigs, for example, are herd animals,
so having at least one furry companion to share a cage with should supposedly
boost their quality of life. Because
it’s unlikely that two guinea pigs will die at the exact same time, pet owners
can find themselves in a legally sticky situation when one of their animals
passes away. Fortunately, there are
now rent-a-guinea pig
services in the country that provide partners to live with lonesome guinea pigs
for the remainder of their lives. There
are other pets in Switzerland that are forbidden from living in isolation. Goldfish are also required to have at least
one tank-mate and parrots must either live or have the opportunity to socialize
with other birds on a regular basis. And
though most cats may seem like solitary creatures to their owners, their social
wellbeing is also protected in Switzerland; the law doesn’t go so far as to say
that pet owners must have more than one cat, just that single cats should be
able to see other cats when prowling outside or staring though a window.
"Fast fashion” is a term used by fashion retailers
to describe inexpensive designs that move quickly from the catwalk to stores to
meet new trends. As a result of this
trend, the tradition of introducing new fashion lines on a seasonal basis is
being challenged. Today, it is not
uncommon for fast-fashion retailers to introduce new products multiple times in
a single week to stay on-trend. From the perspective of retailers, fast fashion is
advantageous because the constant introduction of new products encourages
customers to make frequent visits to stores. Collections are often based on designs seen at
the spring and autumn Fashion Week events. Fast fashion enables mainstream consumers to
purchase trendy clothing at an affordable price. The speed at which fast fashion moves tends to
help retailers avoid markdowns, which cut into margins. Despite the advantages for customers, fast
fashion has also been criticized on the grounds that it encourages a
“throw-away” attitude via the built-in obsolescence of its products. Some contend that such disposable fashion
contributes to pollution, poor workmanship and poor working conditions in
developing countries. The trend has also
been criticized on intellectual
property grounds, with some designers alleging that their designs have
been illegally mass-produced by retailers.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fast-fashion.asp See also Fast fashion: Inside the fight to end the silence on waste bat https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44968561
Harry Bright and Jakob Anser are authors of such books as That's
a Fact Jack! A New Collection of Utterly Useless Information, WTF
(science), and 201 Weird True Facts WTF
(Psychology), and Are You Kidding Me?
Are the authors using pseudonyms?
Is it one author, using bright anser as a pun? See artwork of Tang Yau Hoong who illustrated
WTF (psychology) at https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/negative-space-art-illustrations-tang-yau-hoong/
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1955
September 19, 2018
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