Malou C.

Elevera

CTP
 Gestalt psychology was at the forefront of
cognitive psychology. It served as the
foundation of the cognitive perspective to
learning. It opposed the external and
mechanistic focus of behaviorism. It
considered the mental processes and product
of perception.
These are just some illustrations that “challenge” our
perceptual skills.
Gestalt theory was the initial cognitive response
to behaviorism. It emphasized the importance of
sensory wholes and the dynamic nature of visual
perception. The term gestalt, means “form” or
“configuration.” Psychologist, Max Wertheimer,
Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka studied
perception and concluded that perceivers (or
learners) were not passive, but rather active.
Max Wertheimer
 April 15, 1880, Prague, Czech. — d. Oct. 12, 1943, New
Rochelle, N.Y., U.S.) A German psychologist he taught at
the Universities of Frankfurt and Berlin (1916 – 29)
before immigrating to the U.S. to teach at the New
School for Social Research (1933 – 43). With Wolfgang
Köhler and Kurt Koffka (1886 – 1941), he was
instrumental in establishing Gestalt psychology.
Wolfgang Kohler
 Wolfgang Köhler, who would become one of the leaders
in the development of Gestalt psychology, was born into
a German family on 21 January 1887 in Reval, Estonia.
Beginning in 1910 Köhler joined Kurt Koffka at the
Psychological Institute in Frankfurt as subjects for Max
Wertheimer’s experiments, which became known as the
phi phenomenon.
Kurt Koffka (1886-1941),
 German-American psychologist, born in Berlin and
educated at the University of Berlin. With Wolfgang
Köhler and Max Wertheimer, he did pioneer work in the
studies that led to the development of GESTALT
PSYCHOLOGY. Koffka continued his research on
perception, publishing such major works as The Growth
of the Mind (1924) and The Principles of Gestalt
Psychology (1935).
Kurt Lewin
Born in Prussia to a middle-class Jewish family, Kurt Lewin
moved to Berlin at age 15 to attend the Gymnasium.
Influenced by Gestalt psychology, Lewin developed a theory
that emphasized the importance of individual personalities,
interpersonal conflict, and situational variables. Lewin's
Field Theory proposed that behavior is the result of the
individual and the environment. This theory had a major
impact on social psychology, supporting the notion that our
individual traits and the environment interact to cause
behavior.
 They suggested that learners do not just collect
information as is but they actively process and
restructure data in order to understand it. 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 his perception.
 According to the gestalt psychologist, the way we
form our perceptions are guided by certain
principle of laws. These principles or laws
determine what we see or make of things or
situation we meet.
 Law of Proximity. Elements that are closer together
will be perceived as a coherent object. On the left,
there appears to be three columns, while on the
right, there appears to be three horizontal rows.
When objects we are perceiving are near each other,
we perceive them as belonging together.
 Law of Similarity. Elements that look similar will be perceived
as a part of the same form. There seems to be a triangle in
the square. We link similar elements together.

 Law of closure. We tend to fill the gaps or “close” the figures

we perceive. We enclose a space by completing a contour and
ignoring gaps in the figure.
 Law of Good Continuation. 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.

 Law of Good Pragnanz. The stimulus will be organized into as

good a figures as possible. In this example, good refers to
symmetry, simplicity and regularity. The figure is perceived as
a square overlapping a triangle, not a combination of several
complicated shapes.
 Law of Figure/Ground. We tend to pay attention and
perceive things in the foreground first. A stimulus
will be perceived as separate from its ground.
 Gestalt psychology adheres to the idea of learning
taking place by discovery or insight. The idea of
insight learning was first developed by Wolfgang
Kohler in which he described experiments with
apes where the apes could use boxes and sticks as
tools to solve problems.
 In each of these problems, the important aspect
of learning was not reinforcement, but the
coordination of thinking to create new
organizations (of materials). Kohler referred to this
behavior as insight or discovery learning.
Sultan the
Ape
 Kohler proposed the view that insight follows from
characteristics of objects under consideration. This
theory suggested that learning could occur when
the individual perceives the relationship of the
elements before him and reorganizes these
elements and comes to a greater understanding or
insight.
 Significantly, insight is not necessarily observable
by another person.
 The six gestalt principles not only influence
perception but they also impact on learning.
 Kurt Lewin expounded on gestalt psychology,
he said that an individual has inner and outer
forces that affect his perception and also his
learning.
 Mario Polito, an Italian psychologist writes
about the relevance of gestalt psychology to
education.
 Gestalt is focused on the experience of contact that occurs
in the here and now. It considers with interest the life space of
teachers as well as students. It takes interest in the complexity of
experience, without neglecting anything, but accepting and
amplifying all that emerges. It stimulates learning as experience
and the experience as a source of learning. It appreciates the
affections and meaning that we attribute to what we learn.
Knowledge is conceived as a continuous organization and
rearrangement of information according to needs, purposes and
meanings. It asserts that learning is not accumulation, but
remodeling or insight. Autonomy and freedom of the student is
stimulated by the teacher. The time necessary for assimilation
and for cognitive and existential remodeling is respected. The
contact experience between teachers and students is given value:
an authentic meeting based on sharing ideas and affections.
 Information processing is a cognitive
theoretical framework that focuses on how
knowledge enters and is stored and retrieved
from our memory. It was one of the significant
cognitive theories in the last century and it
has strong implications on the teaching-
learning process.
Information Processing Theory
Relating how the mind and computer woks is a
powerful analogy. The term used in information
processing theory (IPT) extends this analogy. In fact,
those who program and design computers aim to make
computer solve problems through processes similar to
that of the human mind.
Cognitive psychologist believed that cognitive
processes influenced the nature of what is learned.
They considered learning as largely an internal process,
not an external behavior change (as behaviorist
theorist thought).
 They looked into how we receive, perceive, store and retrieve
information. They believed that how a person thinks about
and interprets what s/he receives shapes what he/she will
learn. All these notions comprise what is called the
information processing theory.
 IPT describes how the learner receives information (stimuli)
from the environment through the senses and what takes
place in between determines whether the information will
continue to pass through the sensory register, then the short
term memory and the long term memory. Certain factors
would also determine whether the information will be
retrieved or “remembered” when the learner needs it.
 We first consider the types of knowledge that the learner may
receive.
 General vs. Specific. This involves whether the knowledge is
useful in may tasks, or only in one.
 Declarative. This refers to factual knowledge. They relate to
the nature of how things are. They may be in the form of a
word or an image. Examples are your name, address, a
nursery rhyme or even the face of your crush.
 Procedural. This includes knowledge on how to do things.
Examples include making a lesson plan, baking a cake or
getting the least common denominator.
 Episodic. This includes memories of life events, like your high
school graduation.
 Conditional. This is about “knowing when and why” to apply
declarative or procedural strategies.