What approach to perception emphasizes built-in principles of organization that can override past experiences?

The Gestalt approach to perception focuses on how individuals perceive patterns and wholes rather than just collections of parts. This psychological perspective posits that our brains have inherent mechanisms that guide our perception based on specific organizational principles, such as similarity, proximity, and closure. These principles can often override previous experiences or learned knowledge, suggesting that our perceptions are not merely a product of past encounters but also of innate systems that help us make sense of visual stimuli in a holistic manner.

For example, when looking at a complex arrangement of shapes, the Gestalt principles may lead us to perceive a unified figure rather than disjointed segments. This perspective emphasizes the innate features of perception, capturing how we naturally group elements together in a coherent way.

Other approaches, like the behaviorist and cognitive approaches, focus more on learned experiences and cognitive processes, respectively, while the psychophysical approach emphasizes the relationship between physical stimuli and sensory perception without the same emphasis on built-in organizational principles.