INSIGHT LEARNING

THEORY
WOLFGANG KOHLER
PREMISE
•Gaining insight is a gradual
process of exploring,
analyzing, and restructuring
perceptions until a solution
is arrived at.
•Wolfgang Kohler was born in
Reval, Estonia on January 21,
1887. He received his Ph.D. from
the University of Berlin in 1990.
He became an assistant in the
University of Frankfurt
Department of Psychology, where
he began his association with Max
Wertheimer and later Kurt Koffka.
• Kohler’s important publication were:
Gestalt psychology (1929), where he set
forth the theory of psychological
phenomena as integrated wholes
rather than isolated parts; and Die
Physicehn Gestalten in Ruhe and
Stationaren Susteand (1920) where he
cited the relationship between Gestalt
psychology and the field theory of
physics.
• Experiments with chimpanzees
•Kohler performed experiments to
determine a chimpanzee’s ability to
solve complex problems through the use
of insight. This was partly in protest
against too much study of learning
through conditioning. Although
conducted over 500 years ago, Kohler’s
experiments still serve as dramatic
illustrations of sight learning.
•The following experiment by Kohler
is typical. Sultan (name of Kohler’s
most intelligent chimpanzee) is
place in a cage, with a fruit outside
the cage, beyond arm’s reach. A
short stick is placed beside Sultan
and a longer stick outside the cage,
beside the fruit, and parallel with
the granting.
• Sultan tries to reach the fruit with the
short stick. Not succeeding, he tears
up a piece of wire that protrudes from
the netting of the cage, but that too
did not work. He looks around and
scrutinizes the whole visible area.
Then, he picks up the stick once more,
moves it towards the bar where the
longer stick lies outside the cage,
slides it towards him, and grabs it
with his other hand.
•He holds the two sticks
together and tries to
understand their
relationship.
•He discovers that one stick can
be thrust with the larger stick.
With the joined sticks, he pulls
the fruit towards him and
grasps it.
•From the moment that Sultan
saw the long stick, his
procedure formed once
consecutive whole. In another
experiment showing insight,
Sultan was able to reach out
the hanging bananas by
stacking three boxes on top of
each other.
•Sultan saw the
relationship of the boxes
in achieving his goal
(Getting bananas). This
was a single, continuous,
and definite course
towards the objective.
•In the experiments, Sultan
appeared to grasp the
problem’s inner relationship
through insight, i.e., solving
the problem not by trial-and-
error but by perceiving the
relationships essential to the
solution.
• Analysis of the experiment. It is
certain that Sultan did not make any
chance movements during the
experimental situation. This would
have brought about a solution that
is not genuine. Sultan was seldom
seen to attempt anything that may
be considered accidental in relation
to the situation.
•As long as his efforts were
directed to the object, all
distinguishable stages of his
behavior appeared as attempts
to a solution, one of which
appears as the product of
accidentally arrayed parts. This
was true especially with the
successful solution.
•There were periods of perplexity
or quiet. Just like in real cases,
solutions do not appear in a
disorder of blind impulses,
independently, and by mere
chance. Solutions come about by
abstract thinking and continuous
smooth action by the onlooker.
Criteria of Insight
• How can we distinguish insightful
learning from behavior that is not? For
Kohler, a criterion of insight is the
appearance of a complete solution to
the whole layout of the field. Only
behavior which appears intelligent from
the start with appropriate action and
proceeds in a single, continuous and
definite course of action is insightful
learning.
•Insight Learning is when one
can gauge more or less the
immediate effects of initial
acts based on past events or
experiences. Learners see with
their own eyes the
organization of the various
elements comprising the
situation.
•The whole perspective
becomes vivid enough for the
learner to attempt to put the
mental picture into action
until he or she successful. This
departs from mere trial-and-
error learning behavior, as
there is conscious effort to
think.
 The process of insight
learning:
•Surveying relevant conditions of
the presented stimulus and seeking
their relationship
•Determining the “instrumental
value” of a tool, an object or
information, as a means of solving
a problem or achieving a goal
•“Eureka” experience (Aha!)