On Gestalt Theory

Gestalt theory was the cognitive response to behaviourism. It serves as the foundation
of the cognitive perspective to learning. It opposes the external and mechanistic focus of
behaviourism. It is considered the mental processes and products of perception.
Likewise, it emphasizes the importance of sensory wholes and the dynamic nature of
visual perception.

On the other hand, the term gestalt means “form” or “configuration”. Psychologist Max
Wertheimer, Wohfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka studied perception and concluded that
perceivers (learners) are NOT passive, but rather active. They suggested that learners
do not just collect information as is but they actively process and restructure data in
order to understand them. This is the perceptual process. Certain factors impact on this
perceptual process. Factors like past experiences, needs, attitudes and one’s present
situation can affect their perception.

According to the gestalt psychologists, the way we form our perceptions are guided by
certain laws or principles. These laws determine what we see or make of things or
situations we meet.

Law of Proximity

It refers to how close elements are to one

another. The strongest proximity
relationships are those between
overlapping subjects, but just grouping
objects into a single area can also have a
strong proximity effect.
The opposite is also true. By putting space
between elements, you can add separation
even when their other characteristics are
the same.
Elements that are closer together will be
perceived as a coherent object The only thing differentiating the group on the
left from those on the right is the proximity of
the lines. And yet your brain interprets the image on the right as three distinct groups.

Law of Similarity
It’s human nature to group like things
together. In gestalt, similar elements are
visually grouped, regardless of their
proximity to each other. They can be (The squares here are all equally spaced and
grouped by color, shape, or size. the same size, but we automatically group
them by color, even though there’s no rhyme
Elements that look similar will be
or reason to their placement.)
perceived as part of the same form. People
link similar elements together.
Law of Closure
The idea that your brain will fill in the
missing parts of a design or image to
create a whole.
In its simplest form, the principle of
closure allows your eye to follow
something like a dotted line to its end. But
more complex applications are often seen
in logos, like that for the World Wildlife
Fund. Large chunks of the outline for the
panda are missing, but your brain has no
problem filling in the missing sections to
see the whole animal.
We tend to fill the gaps or close the figures
we perceive. We enclose a space by
(The gestalt principle of closure is
completing a contour and ignoring gaps in illustrated beautifully in the World Wildlife
the figure Fund’s panda logo. The brain completes the
white shapes, even though they’re not well
defined.)

Law of Good Continuation

The law of continuity posits that the
human eye will follow the smoothest path
when viewing lines, regardless of how the
lines were actually drawn. Individuals
have the tendency to continue contours
whenever the elements of the pattern
establish an implied direction. People tend
to draw a good continuous line.

(The eye tends to want to follow the straight

line from one end of this figure to the other,
and the curved line from the top to the
The law of symmetry and order is also bottom, even when the lines change color
known as prägnanz, the German word for
midway through.)
“good figure.” What this principle says is
that your brain will perceive ambiguous
shapes in as simple a manner as possible. Law of Symmetry and Order
The stimulus will be organized into as
good as a figure as possible. Based on our
experiences with perception, we expect
certain patterns and therefore we perceive
that expected pattern. For example, a
monochrome version of the Olympic logo
is seen as a series of overlapping circles
rather than a collection of curved lines.
Law of Figure and Ground

We tend to pay attention and perceive

things in the foreground first. A stimulus
will be perceived as separate from its
ground. Your brain will distinguish
between the objects it considers to be in
the foreground of an image (the figure, or
focal point) and the background (the area
on which the figures rest).

(In this famous illusion developed

by Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin, the
viewer is usually presented with two shape
interpretations—two faces or a vase. It’s
another excellent example of the
figure/ground principle.)

INSIGHT LEARNING

Gestalt Psychology adheres to the idea of learning taking place by discovery or insight.
In the 1920s, German psychologist Wolfgang Kohler was studying the behavior of apes.
He designed some simple experiments that led to the development of one of the first
cognitive theories of learning, which he called insight learning.
In this experiment, Kohler hung a piece of fruit just out of reach of each chimp. He then
provided the chimps with either two sticks or three boxes, then waited and watched.
Kohler noticed that after the chimps realized they could not simply reach or jump up to
retrieve the fruit, they stopped, had a seat, and thought about how they might solve the
problem. Then after a few moments, the chimps stood up and proceeded to solve the
problem.
In the first scenario, the problem was solved by placing the smaller sticks into the longer
stick to create one very long stick that could be used to knock down the hanging fruit.
In the second scenario, the chimps would solve the problem by stacking the boxes on
top of each other, which allowed them to climb up to the top of the stack of boxes and
reach the fruit.

Learning occurs in a variety of ways. Sometimes it is the result of direct observation;

other times, it is the result of experience through personal interactions with the
environment. Kohler called this newly observed type of learning insight learning. Based
on these observations, Kohler's theory of insight learning became an early argument for
the involvement of cognition, or thinking, in the process of learning.
Kohlberg proposed the view that insight follows from the characteristics of object under
consideration. His theory suggested that learning could occur when the individual perceives the
relationships of the elements before him and reorganizes these elements and comes to a greater
understanding or insight. This could happen without reinforcement, and once it occurs, no
review, training or investigation is necessary.

Life Space Theory (Kurt Lewin)

The gestalt principles not only influence perception but they also impact learning. Kurt Lewin
expounded on Gestalt Psychology though his theory- “Life Space”. He said that an individual
has inner and outer forces that affect his perceptions and learning. Inner forces include his own
motivation, attitude and feelings. Outer forces may include the attitude and behaviour of
teachers and students. All these forces interact and impact on the person’s learning.