Gestalt TheoristsMax Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka

Gestalt Psychology developed as a reaction against structuralism. Gestalt Psychologists believed that human beings and other animals perceive the external world as an organized pattern, not as individual sensations. For example, a film consists of thousands of individual still pictures, but we see what looks like smooth, continuous movement. Gestalt is a German term which means pattern, form or shape. It also means unified or meaningful whole which was to be the focus of older philosophical study instead. Its central ideas are wholeness, interdependence, contexts and the field; compare an engine to the collection of parts that make it up. The whole is different from the sum of its parts. It also maintains that the human eye sees objects in tier entirety before perceiving their individual parts. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts Gestalt principles are restricted to perception. For example, if your experience something that doesnt quite make sense to you, you will tend to remember it as having meaning that may not have been there. An example is your dream. Watch yourself the next time you tell someone a dream and see if you dont notice yourself modifying the dream a little to force it to make sense! Learning was something the Gestalt psychologists were particularly interested in. one thing they noticed right away is that we often learn, not the literal thing in front of us, but the relations between them.

The Gestalt psychologists tend to emphasize cognitive processes in the study of learning. They stressed that true understanding occurs only through the reorganization of ideas and perceptions, not through memorization and conditioning. It had its roots in a number of older philosophers and psychologists:

1. Ernst Mach He pointed out that all science is based on experience. When natural scientists observe and record natural events, they do so through sensory experiences. He also introduced the concepts of space forms and time forms. Space form- we see a square whether it is large or small, red or blue, in outline or Technicolor. Time form- a melody is recognizable no matter what key or tone is used.

2. Christian Von Ehrenfels He is the actual originator of the term Gestalt as the Gestalt psychologists were to use it. He wrote the book called On Gestalt Qualities. One of his students was Max Wertheimer. According to him, a melody or a musical chord is still easily recognized when shifted up or down into another key even though every note is different (transposition). Music consists of organized wholes that are almost disembodied from specific physical tones.

3. Oswald Kulpe He was a student of G.E Muller at Gottingen and received his doctorate at Leipzig. He served as Wundts assistant for many years. He did most of his work while at the University of Wurzburg, between 1894-1909. He aimed to developed scientific psychology that would include complex phenomena such as thinking, judging, remembering and doubting (Wundt believed that such phenomena were beyond the reach of experimental methods). He is best known for his idea of Imageless Thought. Contrary to Wundtians, he showed that some mental activities, such as judgments and doubts could occur without images. The pieces of the psyche that Wundt postulatedsensations, images, and feelingswere apparently not enough to explain all of what went on. He also refused the idea that thought must have images. He found out, together with Bryan, that when subjects were shown a series of numbers or letters they were better at remembering what they had been told to pay attention to.

The big three in Gestalt psychology Max Wertheimer He born in Prague on April 5, 1980 and his father was a teacher and a director at a commercial school. Max studied law for more than two years, but decided to preferred philosophy. He has his doctoral degree (Summa Cum Laude).

He became interested in the perceptions he experienced on a train. He bought a stroboscope- a spinning drum with slots to look through the pictures on the inside, sort of a primitive movie machine. He is the founder of Gestalt Psychology. Max Wertheimers discovery of the phi phenomenon gave rise to the influential school of Gestalt psychology. In the latter part of his life, he directed much of his attention to the problem of learning. This research resulted in a book, called Productive Thinking. One of his greatest contributions is the Apparent Movement or Phi-phenomenon. According to him, it happens when we see one image move from one place to another, when physically there is no movement. The greatest impact of this discovery can be seen in its application in the movie camera. When a movie is being played on a cinema screen, it is actually the phi-phenomenon which is working. He explained this phi-phenomenon as being due to a tendency on the part of human mind to fill in the gaps. Max Wertheimer also tried to discover what is creative thinking or problem-solving thinking and how it takes place. He said we should avoid a piecemeal approach, not let our biases affect our thinking and should not blindly follow our habits. We should ensure that we are able to concentrate on discovering new rather that analyzing new form the already existing point of views. That is how we can become productive, creative thinkers. Max Wertheimer used gestalt principles in his book Productive Thinking towards education. He contrasted productive thinking form rote learning, for later was without understanding, rigid easily forgotten and could be applied in a limited fashion to other situations. When learner uses problem-solving, he learns with understanding using gestalt principles learning is flexible, remembered for a long time and can be applied to various other situations

(transfer of training). To generate productive thinking, students should arrange and rearrange the problem in many ways until the solution emerges based on understanding. He considered thinking to happen in two ways: Productive thinking which involves solving a problem with insight. This is a quick insightful, unplanned response to situations and environmental interaction; and Reproductive thinking which is solving a problem with various experiences and what is already known.

Wolfgang Kohler He was born on January 21, 1887 in Estonia. He received his PhD in the University of Berlin. He wrote the books Mentality of Apes and Gestalt Psychology. He questioned Thorndikes conclusion that his animals learned mechanically through the selection of rewards and punishment (Hothersall, 1995). Kohler attempted to prove that animals arrive at a solution through insight rather that trial and error. His first experiments with dogs and cats involved food being placed on the other side of a barrier. The dogs and cats went right towards the food instead of moving away from the goal to circumvent the barrier like chimps that were presented with this situation. He used four chimps in his experiments, Chica, Grande, Konsul and Sultan. He described three properties of insight learning: first, insight learning is based on the animal perceiving the solution to the problem. Second, insight learning is not dependent on rewards. Third, once a problem has been solved, it is easier to solve a similar problem.

Wolfgang Kohlers Insight Theory of Learning suggested that learning could occur by sudden comprehension as opposed to gradual understanding. This could occur without reinforcement and once it occurs, no review, training or investigations are necessary. Significantly, insight is not necessarily observable by another person. For human learning, he stated that we should teach children to discover relationships by giving them all data or simply have them rote learn in a piecemeal fashion. There should be an emphasis on self-discovery. Gestaltists have emphasized the problem solving aspect of behaviorspreading before the learner all the aspects of the situation- all the data which he will use to find a solution to the problem. According to him, there is a built-in satisfaction in problem solving alone.

Kurt Koffka He was an American psychologist but was born in Germany. Before setting permanently in the United States in 1928 as a professor at Smith, he taught at University of Wisconsin. His book Growth of the Mind was considered responsible for awakening much interest in Gestalt concepts. Koffkas concept of Field Theory was an important concept of Gestalt school. He distinguished between the geographical field and the field of experience. Geographical field is the actual environment while the field of experience is the mindset of the observer. Humans react to the field of experience and not to the geographical field. In his views, an individual tends to ignore the geographical field in face of the field of experience which dominates his understanding or perceptions.

Koffka believed that a lot of learning occurs by imitation, though he argued that it is not important to understand how imitation works, but rather to acknowledge that it is a natural occurrence. His book The Growth of the Mind is an attempt to apply the evidence supporting the gestalt point of view to the field of developmental psychology. In it, Koffka argued that the infants first experience is an organized wholes of relatively vague and undifferentiated figures perceived against a still less differentiated ground, rather that the blooming, buzzing confusion of William James classic formulation. This book did a great deal to shift the emphasis in educational theory and practice from rote learning to insight and understanding. In his bo ok Principles of the Gestalt Psychology, he used the Gestalt point of view to bring together the large amount of work done by members of the gestalt group and their students, as well as work like Kurt Lewins, which took much of its original orientation form gestalt principles and further extended the range of application of gestalt theory. However, the books greatest contribution is the treatment of the topics of perception, on the hand and of learning and memory, on the other.

Gestalt Laws These are the organizing principles in perception. Law of Pragnanz Pragnanz is German for pregnant. This law states that we are innately driven to experience things in as good a gestalt as possible.

Law of Closure It says that, if something is missing in an otherwise complete figure, we will tend to add it.

Law of similarity It states that we will tend to group similar items together, to see them as forming a gestalt, within larger form. Law of Proximity It says that things that are close together as sees as belonging together. Law of Symmetry It states that the mind perceives objects as being symmetrically forming around a center point.

Law of Continuity It states that elements of objects tend to be perceptually grouped together and therefore integrated into perceptual wholes if they aligned together with an object.

Sources Books: Tulio, D.T. Vega, V.A Foundations of Education, Second Edition, 2010 Psychological, Sociological and Anthropological Foundations of Education, 2004 Internet sources: http://www.zeepedia.com/read.php?gestalt_psychology_max_wertheimer_similarity_proximity_ closure_history_and_systems_of_psychology&b=90&c=22 http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/gestalt.html http://nicefun.net/learning-theory-of-gestalt-vt2659.html