The law of similarity is a Gestalt psychology principle holding that elements within a collection of objects are perceptually grouped together when they resemble one another in a visual property such as shape, color or size, even when the individual elements are not physically close together. The effect means that a viewer confronted with a mixed array of objects will spontaneously organize the array along lines of shared appearance, mentally sorting differently shaped or colored items into separate perceived groups rather than perceiving the collection as a single undifferentiated whole.
Facts
Core ClaimWertheimer 1923 account holds that elements that resemble each other are perceptually grouped together even when they are not close in space, an effect he called the Factor of Similarity. 1 First Described Year Classification
Type of Phenomenon Sources
1. Laws of Organization in Perceptual Forms (Wertheimer, 1923)
Max Wertheimer, Classics in the History of Psychology (York University), 1923section introducing the similarity demonstrations, following the proximity series
Thus we are led to the discovery of a second principle --viz. the tendency of like parts to band together -- which we may call The Factor of Similarity.
publication note beneath the Max Wertheimer (1923) title heading
First published as Untersuchungen zur Lehre von der Gestalt II, in Psycologische Forschung, 4, 301-350.
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