STEM in Sports

Get Your Gestalt Going!

Perception psychology is not one of the first things that pops into the mind when thinking about STEM. Perception is one of those things too often taken for granted. It runs in the background 24/7/365, helping the brain make sense of the world.

Gestalt psychology emerged in the early 1900s as a discipline devoted to explaining how the brain perceives experiences by establishing a structure as a whole instead of by its parts approach through automatic grouping and associations of the individual parts. Gestalt psychology, as its own discipline, disappeared after World War II, as most of the leaders of the field were German psychologists who fled Nazi Germany and had to reestablish a new career in new countries.

The principles and ideas, however, did not disappear but seeped into other disciplines, especially those involved with visual processing and visual design. Gestalt principles are key elements in graphic design and visual marketing.

Gestalt & Sports

Around 2004, when I was still coaching high school football and tasked with our training and conditioning program and methodologies, I ran across a 1999 New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell called, The Physical Genius.

After reading about NHL hockey great Wayne Gretzky, and his unique ability to “see” scoring opportunities on the ice in real time, it got me thinking about the possibilities and the potential of developing this type of gestaltian perception in high school athletes. Small tweaks is our existing drills and the creation of new drills with the mindset of developing the pattern recognition of our players in football situations.

See the patterns, drill the response. Repeat the patterns, repeat the response. Again and again until the response is second nature.

Chunking

Psychologists use the term “chunking” to describe how we store familiar sequences, like phone numbers and passwords, in long-term memory as a single unit, or chunk. These particular sequences are stored as a unit instead of as individual parts. Think about chess masters, top-shelf neurosurgeons, and great athletes like Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, and Tony Gwynn.

These masters of their craft developed their skills through hours and hours of practice combined with visualization of their actions. They used Gestalt principles in both practice and in visualization to be prepared for any situation that might arise. That’s the physical genius.

Gestalt principles in writing? Is it even possible? Beyond the gestalt-leaning recognition of concepts formed from letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, etc., what can gestalt principles do as part of a writer’s toolbox?

Well, a breakdown of the basic Gestalt Laws might help the writer create stories where the whole shines because of the individual parts. We can also be aware of how perception works, so the good story ideas don’t get lost in the individual parts, and we don’t lose our readers.

Gestalt Laws

• Figure-Ground Perception – How the brain visually distinguishes an object from its background.
• Proximity – When objects are placed close to each other, they are perceived as a group.
• Common Fate – Objects moving in the same direction are looked at as a group.
• Similarity – When objects look similar to one another, they are perceived as a group or pattern.
• Continuity –The objects are arranged such that the eye moves from one object to another.
• Closure Principle – The eye fills in when an object is not completely enclosed or is incomplete.
• Good Gestalt – The mind looks for order and simplicity in groups of objects or images.
• Past Experience – Based on what was seen previously or repeated, the perception of the whole is saved. Chunking.

 As writers, we can train ourselves through our practice and by applying the Gestalt Laws to create satisfying stories, but that is not the only thing we can do. Reading can help develop these skills too. Look at reading as practice, like running through cones at football practice, as a way to hone our ability to see the patterns in the parts.

In writing, just as with football drills, see the patterns, drill the response. Repeat the patterns, repeat the response. Again and again until the response is second nature.

Incorporating a Gestalt mindset may not get one into the NHL Hall of Fame or become the greatest middle-grade author on Planet Earth, but it can help middle-grade authors create better and more satisfying stories.

Mike Hays has worked hard from a young age to be a well-rounded individual. A well-rounded, equal-opportunity sports enthusiast, that is. If they keep a score, he’ll either watch it, play it, or coach it. A molecular microbiologist by day, middle-grade author, sports coach, and general good citizen by night, he blogs about sports/life/training-related topics at www.coachhays.com and writer stuff at www.mikehaysbooks.com. Two of his science essays, The Science of Jurassic Park and Zombie Microbiology 101,  are included in the Putting the Science in Fiction collection from Writer’s Digest Books. He can be found roaming Bluesky under the guise of @mikehays64.bsky.social and @MikeHays64 on Instagram.

The O.O.L.F Files

This month on the Out Of Left Field (O.O.L.F.) Files, we take a deep dive into visual perception through Gestalt Principles, and a highlight reel from The Great One himself.  

What is Gestalt Psychology? Theory, Principles, & Examples via Simple Psychology

The Physical Genius. Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker, 1999

7 Gestalt Principles (Definition + Examples) via Practical Psychology

The Basics of Gestalt Theory – Lesson 1 – Graphic Design Theory

Top 10 Wayne Gretzky Moments