principles of perception, derived by the Gestalt psychologists, that describe the tendency to perceive and interpret certain configurations at the level of the whole rather than in terms of their component features. They include the laws of grouping identified by German psychologist Max Wertheimer in 1923: for example, the laws of closure, common fate, good continuation, proximity, similarity, and symmetry. Also called gestalt laws of organization. See also goodness of configuration; Prägnanz.
n. (pl.rami) 1. a branch of a blood vessel or a nerve. 2. any of the large branches of a spinal nerve after it emerges from the spinal column, notably the anteriorly directed ventral ramus and the posteriorly directed dorsal ramus. These distribute motor and sensory nerve fibers to other, smaller nerves. 3. any of the short nerve branches that arise from the ventral ramus and communicate with sympathetic ganglia (see rami communicantes).