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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 10, 2025

Generating Strictly Controlled Stimuli for Figure Recognition Experiments

Generating Strictly Controlled Stimuli for Figure Recognition Experiments

Published on: March 18, 2019

Information Theory in Perception of Form: From Gestalt to Algorithmic Complexity.

Daniel Algom^1,2, Daniel Fitousi³

¹School of Psychological Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo 6997801, Israel.

Entropy (Basel, Switzerland)

|April 26, 2025

Summary

Claude Shannon's information theory influenced psychology, enabling objective definitions for concepts like figural goodness. This study links subjective attractiveness to objective pattern complexity, finding simpler patterns are perceived as more attractive.

Keywords:

algorithmic complexity gestalt information redundancy sets

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Information Theory
Mathematical Psychology

Background:

Claude Shannon's 1948 paper on information theory has had a profound, yet complex, impact on psychology.
Early applications faced difficulties, but creative solutions like Garner's theory and group theory emerged.
These advancements allowed objective definitions for subjective Gestalt concepts.

Purpose of the Study:

To provide a readable account of the application of information theory to psychology.
To explain early challenges and creative solutions in this interdisciplinary path.
To demonstrate the association between subjective figural goodness and objective pattern complexity.

Main Methods:

Review of historical developments in applying information theory to psychological perception.
Explanation of Garner's theory of sets and redundancy.
Application of mathematical group theory to define Gestalt concepts objectively.
Definition of pattern complexity in an exact mathematical sense.

Main Results:

Objective definitions were established for subjective Gestalt concepts such as figural goodness, order, randomness, and predictability.
A novel association was demonstrated between subjective impressions of figural goodness and objective pattern complexity.
Results indicate that more attractive patterns are perceived as less complex.

Conclusions:

Information theory provides a powerful framework for objectively defining and measuring psychological perceptual qualities.
Subjective aesthetic judgments (figural goodness) are mathematically linked to objective measures of pattern complexity.
Simpler patterns are associated with higher perceived attractiveness and a smaller set of similar patterns.