Chapter 5 Cognitive Learning Theories,
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt
Psychology
? The founder of
Gestalt psychology:
? Max Wertheimer
(1880-1943).
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt Psychology
? before1900,studied law,philosophy.
? 1901-1904,studied psychology and philosophy at the
universities of Prague,Berlin.
? 1904,received Ph.D,at Würzburg Uni.
? 1916-1929,taught in Uni,of Berlin
? 1919,professor in Frankfurt,
? Wertheimer came to the United States in 1933,
shortly before the Nazis seized power in Germany.
? 1933–43,joined the graduate faculty of the New
School for Social Research
? Productive Thinking (1945 ) after his death.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt
Psychology
? Cofounders of G.P.
? Wolfgang Kohler
(1887-1967),
German-
American
psychologist
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt Psychology
? was born in Reval,Estonia.
? 1905-1906,attended the universities of Tübingen,
Bonn (1906-1907) and Berlin
? received his Ph.D,in 1909 for a dissertation on
psycho-acoustics.
? 1913,became director of the Anthropoid Station
through World War I.
? 1925-26,a visiting professor at Clark University
? 1934-35,William James Lecturer at Harvard
? 1935,visiting professor at the University of Chicago.
? The mentality of apes (1917)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt
Psychology
? Cofounders of G.P.
? Kurt Koffka(1886-
1941)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt Psychology
? born in Berlin,Germany,in 1886
? 1903-1908,studied philosophy and psy,at the Uni.of
Edinburgh in Scotland and Uni,of Berlin.
? 1910,went to work as assistants to Friedrich
Schumann at the Psychological Institute in Frankfurt
? 1924,went to America and worked in Connel Uni.,
Wisconsin Uni,And Smith College till his death.
? Koffka introduced it to the United States and
systematized Gestalt psychology into a coherent body
of theories,
? The Principles of Gestalt Psychology(1935)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt Psychology
? While the behavioralistic attack on the introspective
method of Wundt and Titchener in 1913,a group of
German psychologists began their attacks in 1912.
? The entire Gestalt movement started as the result of
an insight Wertheimer had while riding a train
heading for the Rhineland,It occurred to him that if
two lights blink on and off at a certain rate,they give
the observer the impression that one light is moving
back and forth.Then,he conducted a experiment in
his hotel room,and the results confirmed his idea,
He called it the phi phenomenon(the illusion of
motion or the apparent motion),
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt Psychology
? For this experiments,Gestalt psychologists
believed that although psychological
experiences result from sensory elements,
they are different from sensory elements
themselves,In other words,phenomenological
experience results from sensory experience,
but cannot be understood by analyzing the
phenomenal experience into its components,
The phenomenological experience is different
from the parts that make it up.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt Psychology
? Gestalt is the German word for configuration
or pattern,They believed that we experience
the world in meaningful wholes.The whole is
different from the sum of its parts(dissect is to
distort),For instance,you cannot get the full
impact of the Mona Lisa by looking at first one
arm and then another,then the nose,then the
mouth and then trying to put all these
experiences together.Another example is
listening to music.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.2 the experimental foundation
? It was Kohler who did the most important
work about learning between 1913 and 1917 at
the Uni.of Berlin Anthropoid Station on
Tenerife islands in Africa,His famous work is
The Mentality of Apes,
? A series of experiments conducted by Kohler:
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? An ape named
Chica using a pole
to obtain food
(from The
Mentality of Apes,
p72)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? An ape named
Grande using a
stack of boxes to
obtain food as
Sultan watches,
(from The
Mentality of Apes,
p138)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.3 Gestalt principles of learning
? ＊ Learning,to the Gestaltist,is cognitive
phenomenon,The learners,comes to see” the
solution after pondering a problem,The learner
thinks about all of the ingredients necessary to solve
a problem and put them together(cognitively)first
one way and then another until the problem is
solved,When the solution comes,it comes suddenly;
that is,the learner gains an insight into the solution
of a problem.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
?5.3 Gestalt principles of learning
?The problem can exist only in two
states:solved and unsolved.There is no
state of partial solution in between,So,
either solution is reached or it is not;
learning to Gestaltists was discontinous.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.3 Gestalt principles of learning
? ＊ learning processes,insight
? Question,Does insightful learning involve trial and
error?
? The trial and error learning is cognitive rather than
behavioral,They said that the learners run through a
number of hypothesis concerning an effective way to
solve a problem.The animal thinks about different
possible solutions until it hits on one that works,and
then it acts on that solution behaviorally,When the
correct strategy is discovered,,insight occurred.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? Question,Why did Thorndike regarded it as
trial and error?
? The Gestaltists thought that,one must be
exposed to all elements of the problem,
otherwise its behavior will seem to be blink and
groping,In Thordike’s experiments,important
elements of the problem were hidden from the
animal,thus prevented insightful learning.
? Learners can experience the,Aha” experience
in insightful learning,e.g.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? Typically,one searches through a good portion of the
picture before the hidden shape is found,The
problem creates a cognitive disequilibrium from
which tension lasts until the problem is solved,
Discovering the bear restores equilibirum,relaxes the
tension,and may make one feel like saying,“Aha”.
? The characteristics of insightful learning:
? (1)the transition from presolution to solution is
hidden and complete.
? (2)performance based on a solution gained by insight
is usually smooth and free of errors.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? (3)a solution to a problem gained by insight is
retained for a considerable length of time.
? (4)a principle gained by insight is easily applied
to other problems.
? ＊ learning outcomes,Gestalt
? configuration or pattern.
? A famous experiment by Kohler:
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.3 Gestalt principles of learning
? ＊ Zeigarnik effect(蔡戈尼克效应）：
? the tendency to remember uncompleted tasks better
than completed ones,(supported by the work of Bluma
Zeigarnik),She explained the phenomenon in terms of
the motivational properties of a problem that persist
until the problem is solved,
? According to Gestaltists,when one is confronted with a
problem,a state of cognitive disequilibrium is set up
and continues until the problem is solved,Cognitive
diequilibrium has motivational properties that cause
the organism to regain the balance in its mental system,
Cognitive balance is more satisfying than cognitive
disbalance.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.3 Gestalt principles of learning
? ＊ productive thinking:Max Wertheimer
?,A nurse wakes up patients to give them sleeping pills
while she made her rounds on the night shift.”
? Rote memorization,just learns facts or rules without
truly understanding them,Such learning is rigid,
forgotten easily,and can be applied to limited
circumstances.
? Learning in accordance with Gestalt principles,is
based on an understanding of the underlying nature of
the problem,It is easily generalizable and remembered
for a long time.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.4 Evaluation of Gestalt Theory
? Contributions:
? ＊ The first important contribution is its criticism of
the molecular approaches of S-R behaviorism,Both
perception and learning were characterized by
cognitive processes that organized psychological
experience,The idea of organizational processes
have had enormous impact on the fields of learning,
perception,and psychotherapy,and they continue to
influence contemporary cognitive science.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? ＊ Gestalt psy.provided challenges that were
productive even for behavioristic researchers,
(Spence’s research on transposition)
? ＊ By drawing attention to the satisfaction
that comes from discovery or from solving
problems,Gestalt psy,Turned our attention
from extrinsic to intrinsic reinforcement,
(providing an alternative way of
conceptualizing reinforcement)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? Criticisms
? Although Gestalt psy,did offer important challenges
to behaviorism,it never attained mainstream status
in learning theory,They described learning in terms
of understanding,meaning,and organization,
concepts that were themselves all but meaningless in
the context of bahavioristic research.
?, From the writings of Kohler,Koffka,and Lewin,one would
gather that field interpretations of learning are demonstrably
superior to all others,From the experimental literature on
learning,on the other hand,one would conclude that if this
view is correct,them the most superior theories of learning
have the least influence upon research.”(Estes,1954)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.5 Educational implications of Gestalt psychology
? ＊ Stress meaningfulness and understanding,Parts must
always be related to a whole so that they have meaning
to the students,Historical names or date will have little
meaning unless they are related to current events or to
something personally important to the students.
? ＊ Give students unsolved problems because they can
create ambiguity or an organizational disbalance in the
student’s mind,Students confronted with a problem will
either seek new information or rearrange old
information until they insight into the problem,The
solution is as satisfying to the problem solver as a
hamburger is to a hungry person.(intrinsic
reinforcement)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.5 Educational implications of Gestalt
psychology
? ＊ The teacher would help students see
relationships and organize their experiences
into meaningful patterns,All aspects of the
course are divided into meaningful units,and
the units themselves must be related to an
overall concept or experience.
Questions
? 1,What are the main principles of
Gestalt Psychology?
? 2,What are the impact of Gestalt
Psychology on contemporary cognitive
psychology?
? 3,Give examples of how to use Gestalt
psychology in educational practice?
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt
Psychology
? The founder of
Gestalt psychology:
? Max Wertheimer
(1880-1943).
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt Psychology
? before1900,studied law,philosophy.
? 1901-1904,studied psychology and philosophy at the
universities of Prague,Berlin.
? 1904,received Ph.D,at Würzburg Uni.
? 1916-1929,taught in Uni,of Berlin
? 1919,professor in Frankfurt,
? Wertheimer came to the United States in 1933,
shortly before the Nazis seized power in Germany.
? 1933–43,joined the graduate faculty of the New
School for Social Research
? Productive Thinking (1945 ) after his death.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt
Psychology
? Cofounders of G.P.
? Wolfgang Kohler
(1887-1967),
German-
American
psychologist
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt Psychology
? was born in Reval,Estonia.
? 1905-1906,attended the universities of Tübingen,
Bonn (1906-1907) and Berlin
? received his Ph.D,in 1909 for a dissertation on
psycho-acoustics.
? 1913,became director of the Anthropoid Station
through World War I.
? 1925-26,a visiting professor at Clark University
? 1934-35,William James Lecturer at Harvard
? 1935,visiting professor at the University of Chicago.
? The mentality of apes (1917)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt
Psychology
? Cofounders of G.P.
? Kurt Koffka(1886-
1941)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt Psychology
? born in Berlin,Germany,in 1886
? 1903-1908,studied philosophy and psy,at the Uni.of
Edinburgh in Scotland and Uni,of Berlin.
? 1910,went to work as assistants to Friedrich
Schumann at the Psychological Institute in Frankfurt
? 1924,went to America and worked in Connel Uni.,
Wisconsin Uni,And Smith College till his death.
? Koffka introduced it to the United States and
systematized Gestalt psychology into a coherent body
of theories,
? The Principles of Gestalt Psychology(1935)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt Psychology
? While the behavioralistic attack on the introspective
method of Wundt and Titchener in 1913,a group of
German psychologists began their attacks in 1912.
? The entire Gestalt movement started as the result of
an insight Wertheimer had while riding a train
heading for the Rhineland,It occurred to him that if
two lights blink on and off at a certain rate,they give
the observer the impression that one light is moving
back and forth.Then,he conducted a experiment in
his hotel room,and the results confirmed his idea,
He called it the phi phenomenon(the illusion of
motion or the apparent motion),
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt Psychology
? For this experiments,Gestalt psychologists
believed that although psychological
experiences result from sensory elements,
they are different from sensory elements
themselves,In other words,phenomenological
experience results from sensory experience,
but cannot be understood by analyzing the
phenomenal experience into its components,
The phenomenological experience is different
from the parts that make it up.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.1 About Gestalt Psychology
? Gestalt is the German word for configuration
or pattern,They believed that we experience
the world in meaningful wholes.The whole is
different from the sum of its parts(dissect is to
distort),For instance,you cannot get the full
impact of the Mona Lisa by looking at first one
arm and then another,then the nose,then the
mouth and then trying to put all these
experiences together.Another example is
listening to music.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.2 the experimental foundation
? It was Kohler who did the most important
work about learning between 1913 and 1917 at
the Uni.of Berlin Anthropoid Station on
Tenerife islands in Africa,His famous work is
The Mentality of Apes,
? A series of experiments conducted by Kohler:
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? An ape named
Chica using a pole
to obtain food
(from The
Mentality of Apes,
p72)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? An ape named
Grande using a
stack of boxes to
obtain food as
Sultan watches,
(from The
Mentality of Apes,
p138)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.3 Gestalt principles of learning
? ＊ Learning,to the Gestaltist,is cognitive
phenomenon,The learners,comes to see” the
solution after pondering a problem,The learner
thinks about all of the ingredients necessary to solve
a problem and put them together(cognitively)first
one way and then another until the problem is
solved,When the solution comes,it comes suddenly;
that is,the learner gains an insight into the solution
of a problem.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
?5.3 Gestalt principles of learning
?The problem can exist only in two
states:solved and unsolved.There is no
state of partial solution in between,So,
either solution is reached or it is not;
learning to Gestaltists was discontinous.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.3 Gestalt principles of learning
? ＊ learning processes,insight
? Question,Does insightful learning involve trial and
error?
? The trial and error learning is cognitive rather than
behavioral,They said that the learners run through a
number of hypothesis concerning an effective way to
solve a problem.The animal thinks about different
possible solutions until it hits on one that works,and
then it acts on that solution behaviorally,When the
correct strategy is discovered,,insight occurred.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? Question,Why did Thorndike regarded it as
trial and error?
? The Gestaltists thought that,one must be
exposed to all elements of the problem,
otherwise its behavior will seem to be blink and
groping,In Thordike’s experiments,important
elements of the problem were hidden from the
animal,thus prevented insightful learning.
? Learners can experience the,Aha” experience
in insightful learning,e.g.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? Typically,one searches through a good portion of the
picture before the hidden shape is found,The
problem creates a cognitive disequilibrium from
which tension lasts until the problem is solved,
Discovering the bear restores equilibirum,relaxes the
tension,and may make one feel like saying,“Aha”.
? The characteristics of insightful learning:
? (1)the transition from presolution to solution is
hidden and complete.
? (2)performance based on a solution gained by insight
is usually smooth and free of errors.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? (3)a solution to a problem gained by insight is
retained for a considerable length of time.
? (4)a principle gained by insight is easily applied
to other problems.
? ＊ learning outcomes,Gestalt
? configuration or pattern.
? A famous experiment by Kohler:
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.3 Gestalt principles of learning
? ＊ Zeigarnik effect(蔡戈尼克效应）：
? the tendency to remember uncompleted tasks better
than completed ones,(supported by the work of Bluma
Zeigarnik),She explained the phenomenon in terms of
the motivational properties of a problem that persist
until the problem is solved,
? According to Gestaltists,when one is confronted with a
problem,a state of cognitive disequilibrium is set up
and continues until the problem is solved,Cognitive
diequilibrium has motivational properties that cause
the organism to regain the balance in its mental system,
Cognitive balance is more satisfying than cognitive
disbalance.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.3 Gestalt principles of learning
? ＊ productive thinking:Max Wertheimer
?,A nurse wakes up patients to give them sleeping pills
while she made her rounds on the night shift.”
? Rote memorization,just learns facts or rules without
truly understanding them,Such learning is rigid,
forgotten easily,and can be applied to limited
circumstances.
? Learning in accordance with Gestalt principles,is
based on an understanding of the underlying nature of
the problem,It is easily generalizable and remembered
for a long time.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.4 Evaluation of Gestalt Theory
? Contributions:
? ＊ The first important contribution is its criticism of
the molecular approaches of S-R behaviorism,Both
perception and learning were characterized by
cognitive processes that organized psychological
experience,The idea of organizational processes
have had enormous impact on the fields of learning,
perception,and psychotherapy,and they continue to
influence contemporary cognitive science.
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? ＊ Gestalt psy.provided challenges that were
productive even for behavioristic researchers,
(Spence’s research on transposition)
? ＊ By drawing attention to the satisfaction
that comes from discovery or from solving
problems,Gestalt psy,Turned our attention
from extrinsic to intrinsic reinforcement,
(providing an alternative way of
conceptualizing reinforcement)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? Criticisms
? Although Gestalt psy,did offer important challenges
to behaviorism,it never attained mainstream status
in learning theory,They described learning in terms
of understanding,meaning,and organization,
concepts that were themselves all but meaningless in
the context of bahavioristic research.
?, From the writings of Kohler,Koffka,and Lewin,one would
gather that field interpretations of learning are demonstrably
superior to all others,From the experimental literature on
learning,on the other hand,one would conclude that if this
view is correct,them the most superior theories of learning
have the least influence upon research.”(Estes,1954)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.5 Educational implications of Gestalt psychology
? ＊ Stress meaningfulness and understanding,Parts must
always be related to a whole so that they have meaning
to the students,Historical names or date will have little
meaning unless they are related to current events or to
something personally important to the students.
? ＊ Give students unsolved problems because they can
create ambiguity or an organizational disbalance in the
student’s mind,Students confronted with a problem will
either seek new information or rearrange old
information until they insight into the problem,The
solution is as satisfying to the problem solver as a
hamburger is to a hungry person.(intrinsic
reinforcement)
Chapter 5
Learning Theory of Gestalt Psychology
? 5.5 Educational implications of Gestalt
psychology
? ＊ The teacher would help students see
relationships and organize their experiences
into meaningful patterns,All aspects of the
course are divided into meaningful units,and
the units themselves must be related to an
overall concept or experience.
Questions
? 1,What are the main principles of
Gestalt Psychology?
? 2,What are the impact of Gestalt
Psychology on contemporary cognitive
psychology?
? 3,Give examples of how to use Gestalt
psychology in educational practice?
