Which psychological theory is related to how our environment influences our perception of visual stimuli?

Gestalt psychology is fundamentally concerned with the idea that the whole of our perceptual experience is different from the sum of its parts. This approach emphasizes how our environment shapes our perception, particularly in organizing visual stimuli. For instance, Gestalt principles such as figure-ground distinction, proximity, similarity, and continuity explain how we group visual elements and navigate our environment, leading us to perceive complex scenes in a unified manner.

This perspective contrasts with cognitive psychology, which focuses on mental processes such as memory and problem-solving, but doesn't specifically emphasize environmental influences on visual perception. Behavioral psychology studies observable behaviors and their responses to stimuli, often neglecting the internal mental processes involved in perception. Biological psychology, on the other hand, examines the physiological aspects of behavior and mental processes, such as brain function and genetics, rather than the perceptual impact of the environment itself.