Gestalt Psychology and Batman

I became frustrated with my psych assignment this evening and decided to make a realistic attempt at including Batman to spice things up. Luckily, this was fairly easy, because the question asked me to describe six, specific principles of Gestalt psychology and give a "personal example" of each one. I'm not Bill Finger, but for me Batman counts as a personal example. What follows is the paper I submitted.

(If you came here following a text-specific search string, Hi Mrs Bengough! I put my paper online. That's not against the rules, right?)

Gestalt psychology is the study of the way we perceive the environment around us. Founder Max Wertheimer argued that perception is conceptually driven, organized along consistent rules that allow us to see the whole image, rather than simply a collection of pieces. Gestalt psychology introduced many of the basic principles of perception, including: the Figure/Ground principle, the Law of Similarity, the Law of Closure, the use of Relative Size in depth perception, Perceptual Constancy, and the Law of Prägnanz.
The Figure/Ground principle is the brain's ability to automatically separate various elements of an image into main and auxiliary parts. The figure typically has a defined shape, and holds some significant degree of perceptual meaning apart from the background. On the iconic cover of the classic comic book Detective Comics #27, (the first appearance of Batman,) the caped figure swinging through the air is clearly the focus, distinct from the buildings and even from the larger figures in the foreground. Although there are several characters pictured in the image, the uniqueness of Batman's costume signifies him as the main subject of this scene.
Another axiom of Gestalt psychology visible in the Detective Comics #27 cover is the Law of Similarity. This law presupposes objects of similar size and shape are part of a whole. The buildings in the background are all perceived as part of the contiguous cityscape, not as individual structures. In a related instance, the Law of Closure lets the brain fill in the missing pieces from an image to form complete shapes, even when part of the shape is obscured. The law of closure allows the viewer to recognize the objects as buildings in spite of the figures in the foreground occluding various lines, angles, and intersections that would clearly define the structure.
Detective Comics #27 also contains a clear example of the depth-perception principle of relative size. When objects are assumed to be similar, the larger object is perceived as the closer one. (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2012) Although the drawing of Batman is physically much smaller than the drawing of the two men in the foreground, the mind presupposes that all these men are roughly the same size and therefore Batman must be further away than the two thugs. This is also readily apparent in the disparity between the size of the hats worn by the two men in the foreground and the hat dropped by the man being carried by Batman in the background.
The various hats also provide a solid example of the idea of perceptual constancy. This is Gestalt psychology's name for our ability to perceive objects as unchanging, despite dramatic variations in sensory input. The three hats are different colors, sizes, and viewed from different angles, but there is no question that all three hats are of the same type. Perceptual constancy also applies to the figure of Batman himself. As viewers are naturally familiar with the human body, it is no stretch to assume Batman has feet, even though they are not visible on this particular cover.
The Law of Prägnanz is what allows us to separate the comic's title from the action scene below. The mind automatically constructs the simplest, most reasonable interpretation of a given scene. While it is theoretically possible Batman is swinging in front of a giant "Detective Comics" banner surrounded by floating letters and numbers, the law of Prägnanz suggests that the comic's title, while part of the overall image, is separate from the costumed figures and buildings below.
Each of these Gestalt principles describes a way the brain organizes and analyzes information. Without this series of basic rules, the visual processing center would be constantly bombarded by a deluge of unintelligible sensory signals. It is only through this carefully codified series of careful assumptions that I am able to enjoy Batman!