Understanding how we "chunk" visual elements

When we read, we use similarity and proximity to mentally organize or chunk…the contents of a page.…What is similarity?…Similarity is a psychological principle.…Basically we read things that look alike as belonging together.…For example, if I were to ask you to sort these elements into two piles, you…would probably put the dots together and the lines together, because even when…the dots and lines were mixed in, we see the dots as belonging together and the…lines as belonging together, as forming two groups.…

When we read we use similarity to mentally organize the contents on a page.…We also use proximity to mentally organize the contents of a page.…Proximity is another psychological principle.…We read things that are close to each other as belonging together.…For example, if we separate the dots and lines like so, we began to see two…groups of dots and two groups of lines.…As typographers we can use the principles of similarity and proximity to…organize or chunk text on the page.…

In fact, we need similarity and proximity to create hierarchy.…