Concepts of Gestalt Psychology

Wertheimer (1980) found in “in the psychology of thinking or in

‘Volkerpsychologie’ rather than in perception” (p. 13).
Productive thinking: Productive thinking has been found to be the one that
results in new, innovative, and breakthrough idea
centering and recentering
Reproductive thinking: Reproductive thinking, on the other hand is
concerned with repetition, conditioning, usual drills, and routine affairs
Focus should primarily be on the solving the problem as a whole rather
than taking them as parts
Learning:
 Kohler
 Transposition also known as transfer of learning

 The recognition and understanding of the relationship and transfer of that

knowledge from one event to another is called as transposition and was also
demonstrated with various species tested under varying conditions (Brennen &
Houde, 2017).

 Insight learning: immediate and clear learning or understanding that takes place without overt
trial-and-error testing
• Köhler demonstrated through his studies with animals
that they often solve problems by visualizing a complete
situation and then restructuring various parts of it to
attain a desired goal/solve a problem.
• For instance, a banana was suspended by a string above
the head of a chimpanzee. He had to obtain the banana.
Jumping was eliminated as the suspended banana was
higher than a typical jump of a chimpanzee.
• There were boxes lying on the ground in the vicinity and
through them the chimpanzee could find a solution to the
problem (Morgan, King, Weisz, & Schopler, 2006).
• The situation was restricted by the chimpanzee by
arranging the boxes, one on top of another to a point
where he could reach the banana.
• One of the Köhler’s chimpanzees named Grande could
also achieve a four-story structure of boxes.
In another experiment with a chimpanzee named Sultan (considered to be one
of the most intelligent chimpanzees) there were two bamboo sticks that were
kept in the cage with Sultan, neither of the sticks was long enough to reach the
banana kept outside the cage.
However, the sticks were made in a way that they could be joined together
and would fit each other very well.
When Sultan tried reaching the banana with the help of either of the two
sticks, he remained unsuccessful.
Thus, he started playing with the sticks and during the play by chance he was
able to join both the sticks together.
Suddenly he was found running towards the banana with the now joined
(longer) stick and thus he got the banana.
The now-longer stick gave him insight to solve the problem and learning
occurred as on the following day, Sultan could solve the problem without any
needless angling.
Köhler (1925) stated the criterion for insight, “the appearance of a complete
solution with reference to the whole layout of the field”.
Four behavioural indices of
insightful learning
Sudden transition from helplessness to mastery
Quickness and smoothness in performance after grasping
of principles
Readiness to transfer the solution to similar problems
involving the same principle
Memory
Memory has been understood as a dynamic process by the Gestalt
psychologists in which trace undergoes various changes due to time
lapse.
In an experiment conducted by Wulff (1922) it was demonstrated how
changes in memory traces took place in accordance with the principles
of perceptual organization. The subjects were presented with simple but
irregular geometrical figures for a period of five seconds only. They were
then asked to draw the figures they had seen after an interval of thirty
seconds, twenty-four hours and one week. It was found that the subjects
happened to sharpen the figures, making it appear in good Gestalt.
Furthersupport was also found (Gibson, 1929; Bartlett, 1932; Allport &
Postman, 1947) for the same, stating that further reproduction of
previously seen figure may result in distortion but it is in the direction of
good form.
Criticism
Gestalt psychology has been heavily criticized for being too dependent upon theory and
lacking sufficient concrete evidences to support it (Marx & Cronan-Hillix, 1987).
The physiological assumption related to isomorphism has also been criticized.
The experiments and studies conducted by them have been considered poorly
controlled, non-quantitative, and ill-designed (Singh, 2011)
Some have also raised questions stating that unnecessary cues were provided to the
subjects affecting their problem-solving ability and thus, unknowingly impacting the
results.
Its impact in the field of perception of certainly provided a new perspective to the theory of
perception.