Cognitive Perspective: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.

Introduction

GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY

Gestalt Principles

Insight Learning

Lifespan (Lewin)

Law of Proximity Inner Forces

Outer Forces Law of Good Continuation

Law of Closure

Law of Figure/Ground

Law of Good Pragnanz

Is there a possibility of "you" and "me"together?

Do you get the “optical” and the “illusion”?

Do you sense good or evil?

Gestalt Theory was the initial cognitive response to behaviorism. It emphasizes the importance of sensory

wholes and the dynamic nature of visual perception. The term gestalt, means " form " or "configuration. "

Psychologist, Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler studied perception and concluded that learners were 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 his perception.

According to 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 situation we meet.

1. Law of proximity Elements that are closer together will be perceived as a coherent object. When objects we are perceiving are near to each other , we perceive them as belonging together.

Gestalt Principles

3. Law of Closure We tend to fill the gaps or "close " the figures we perceived. We enclosed a space by completing a contour and ignoring gaps.

2. Law of Similarity Elements that look similar will be perceived as part of the same form. We link similar elements together.

4. 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.

5. Law of Good PragnanzThe stimulus will be organized into as a

good figure as possible . Based on our experiences with perception, we "expect" certain patterns and therefore perceived that expected pattern.

6.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.

Insight Learning Gestalt psychology adheres the 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.

In each of the problems, the important aspects 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. His theory suggested that learning could occur when individual perceived the relationships of the elements before him an 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 necessary. Significantly , insight is not necessarily observable by another person.

Gestalt Principles and the Teaching -Learning Process

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Psychologist Kurt Lewin, on his theory 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 the classmates . All of these forces interact and impact on the person's learning.

Mario Polito an Italian psychologist writes aboutthe relevance of gestalt psychology to education.

• Gestalt focuses on the experiences of here and now.• it considers with interest the life space of teachers as well as

students.• It stimulates learning as experience and experience as a source of

learning. • It appreciates affections and meaning that we attribute to what we

learn.• Knowledge is conceive as a continuous organization and

arrangement of information according to needs, purposes, and meanings.

• It asserts that learning is not accumulation but remodeling or insight.

• Autonony and freedom of the student is assimulated by the teacher.• The contact experience between the teachers and the students is

given value: an authentic meeting based on sharing ideas and affections.

Presented by:Jacklyn Chlo D. Senatin BEED II-B