Christopher Alexander

On Changing the Way People See

Ss see black and white linear patterns either as sequences (“sequentially”), or as wholes (“figurally”). The object of this study was to determine under which conditions, if any, Ss can be brought to change their perceptions from “sequential” to “figural.” (1) Ss tended to see the patterns sequentially at first, but (2) the task of searching for single patterns in disorderly arrays of many patterns forced Ss to see the single patterns figurally. (3) Other kinds of experience, expected to have the same effect, induced little change.