Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Cognitive Perspective
Lesson 1: Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt psychology was at the forefront of the 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 products of perception.
Examine the pictures below.
Do you sense good or evil? Do you get the “optical” and the
Is there a possibility of “illusion”?
you and me together?
These are just some illustrations that “challenge” our perceptual skills.
Analysis
What was your experience in figuring out the pictures? (easy, took time, etc.) What helped
you perceived the interesting pictures. How did you go about examining the pictures? (focus on
the background, the foreground, the shape, etc.)
Abstraction/Generalization
When you looked at the pictures in the activity, your mind followed certain principles of
perception. Gestalt psychology is concerned with such principles.
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." Psychologists Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka
studied perception and concluded that perceivers (or 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 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 their perception.
One may have difficulty perceiving both the words "you" and "me" in the first picture in the
activity if one is trying to forget an ex-sweetheart who caused pain; or simply because he was
looking on the foreground and not the background.
According to the gestalt psychologists, the way we form our perceptions are guided by
certain principles or laws. These principles or laws determine what we see or make of things or
situations we meet.
Gestalt Principles
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 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 figure 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.
Based on our experiences with perception, we
"expect" certain patterns and therefore
perceive that expected pattern.
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. (Figures designed by Jenny Fultz of
Anderson University)
Insight Learning
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 the box problem, a banana is attached to the top of a chimpanzee's cage. The banana
is out of reach but can be reached by climbing on and jumping from a box. Only one of Kohler's
apes (Sultan) could solve this problem.
A much more difficult problem which involved the stacking of boxes was introduced by
Kohler. This problem required the ape to stack one box on another, and master gravitational
problems by building a stable stack. Kohler also gave the apes sticks which they used to rake food
into the cage. Sultan, Kohler's very intelligent ape. was able to master a two-stick problem by
inserting one stick into the end of the other in order to reach the food.
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.
Kohler proposed the view that insight follows from the characteristics of objects 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 occur without reinforcement, and once it occurs, no review,
training or investigation is necessary. Significantly, insight is not necessarily observable by another
person.
Gestalt Principles and the Teaching-Learning Process
The six gestalt principles not only influence perception but they also impact on learning.
Other psychologists like Kurt Lewin expounded on gestalt psychology. His theory focusing on "life
space" adhered to gestalt psychology. He said that an individual has inner and outer forces that
affect his perceptions and also his learning. Inner forces include his own motivation, attitudes and
feelings. Outer forces may include the attitude and behavior of the teacher and classmates. All
these forces interact and impact on the person's learning. Mario Polito, an Italian psychologist,
writes about the relevance of gestalt psychology to education:
Gestalt theory 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 organisation
and rearrangement of information according to needs, purposes, and meanings. It
asserts that learning is not accumulation but remodelling or insight. Autonomy and
freedom of the student is stimulated by the teacher. The time necessary for assimilation
and for cognitive and existential remodelling is respected. The contact experience
between teachers and students is given value: an authentic meeting based on sharing
ideas and affections.

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Chapter 4 - Cognitive Perspective

Lesson 1: Gestalt Psychology

Examine the pictures below.

Law of Proximity. Elements that are closer

Law of Similarity. Elements that look similar will

Law of Closure. We tend to fill the gaps or "close"

Law of Good Continuation. Individuals have the

Law of Good Pragnanz. The stimulus will be

Law of Figure/Ground. We tend to pay attention

Gestalt Principles and the Teaching-Learning Process

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