gestalt psychology

says that when info is missing, we "fill it in"

closure

according to lewin's theory of motivation, when individual needs are unfulfilled, _____________ occurs resulting in "tension"

disequilibrium

who came up with figure-ground perception?

edgar rubin

Gestalt psychology arise primarily in _____________ and was a movement against __________.

germany against the structuralism of wundt and titchener

says that things that have "smoothly flowing" directions tend to be perceived as a unit

good continuation

who came up with the Zeigarnik effect?

inspired by lewin but demonstrated by Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik

kurt lewis was different from his predecessors in that his emphasis was on:

motivation and goal-directed behavior

gestalt psychology evolved from the study of _______________

perception

what did Wertheimer refer to as the perceived motion?

phi phenomenon didn't like the term "apparent motion" because it implied that the motion was not really perceived (later concluded that we perceive whole, meaningful figures, not elements that somehow combine to form wholes.

insight reasoning involved a ________________

synthesis ("up - chunking to more inclusive concepts) aka a more generalized view of what you're trying to learn

insight learning was opposite of what?

thorndike's description of learning in which learning is a gradual strengthening in the relation between stimuli and response as a result of repetition and trial and error

what were koffka's main contributions?

-most responsible for introducing gestalt psych to america -distinguished between early sensorimotor learning and later developed "ideational learning" which was based on "understanding" word meanings -wrote paper in english for the Psychological Bulletin called "Perception: an introduction to gestalt theorie" -came up with principles of gestalt psychology

three people ("the big three") that are credited with finding gestalt psychology are who?

1. max wertheimer 2. kurt koffka 3. wolfgang kohler

how did Kant indirectly contribute to gestalt psychology?

Kant (the german philosophical traditions of kant, with its emphasis on how a prior perceptual and cognitive categories shape our experiences)

what are the core principles of gestalt psychology?

-the mind organizes info into "global wholes" (gestalts) -the global whole is a reality in itself (the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts" -the subject of gestalt psychology (like structuralism) is immediate conscious experience -says conscious experience was not reducible (capable of being simplified)

what did kurt lewis call the collection of forces action on a person at a given time when making a decision?

"field" or "life space" of the individual

why did gestalt psychology never "catch on" in America?

-because american psychology was first dominated by functionalism then behavioralism -with the rise of behaviorism, subjective conscious experience was considered unscientific (introspection?)

what did Lewin's find in his famous study on children frustration and regression

-children played with ordinary toys and then they were allowed to play with "cool" toys -after 15 min, the "cool" toys were replaced with ordinary toys, but the cool toys were still visible -children became upset and play behavior regressed -explanation: the cool toys had higher positive valence. not being able to play with them created frustration and stress - causing "de-differentiaion" aka regression to a simpler form of behavior

what were the principles of Gestalt psychology that koffka came up with?

-distinguished between geographical vs behavioral environment -perceptions do not "mirror" reality

what laws are in Wertheimer's "Laws of Organization in Perceptional Forms?"

-law of proximity -law of similarity -good continuation -closure

what are the two different factors that oppose behavior?

-motivational forces -environmental forces

lewin was best known for his studies on leadership. what did he find?

-played 10 year old boys in craft-making projects under three different leadership styles (authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire aka no active leadership) -under authoritarian and laissez-faire leadership, boys became submissive, aggressive, lacked initiative, had little interest in tasks, and produced poor quality projects -under democratic leadership, the group was cohesive, task-oriented, motivated, and produced better quality crafts -when democratic group was placed under authoritarian leadership, the boys quickly became like the original authoritarian group and when authoritarian group was placed under democratic group they tended to retain the authoritarian pattern CONFIRMATION OF SUPERIORITY OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT

figure-ground separation (rubin) said that visual perception is divided into what two parts?

1. figures (focus of attention, perceived as objects, have contrast boarders) 2. ground (the rest of the visual field, lack detail, margin attention, not perceived as object, appears to be behind figure) shifting of figure and ground is another example of the power of the mind to construct experience without a change in sensation

what are two concepts that kohler argued when it came to animals?

1. said animals are capable of learning relations among stimuli 2. said animals are capable of relatively rapid discovery of a solution to a problem by reasoning (insight learning) for ex. in visual discrimination, animals learn to choose the "brighter" or "larger" of two stimuli, regardless of actual brightness or size

A. the world as it is in reality B. the world as we perceive it

A. geographical environment B. behavioral environment

what is Kurt Lewis' formula for behavior?

B = f(P,E) b = behavior P = presonal factors such as personality, needs, goals, and beliefs E= the environment as the person perceives it (koffka's behavioral environment) -P AND E COMPRISE THE LIFE SPACE -everything outside of the life space was called the "foreign hull"; irrelevant to behavior at that moment

gestalt psychology started with who and with what?

Max Wertheimer - he looked at a common perceptual phenomenon from a new perspective (apparent motion)

origins of gestalt psychology were often traced to a paper published by:

Wertheimer paper on "apparent motion"

when a choice must be made between two desirable goals

approach-approach conflict

when a single goal has both desirable and undesirable aspects

approach-avoidance

when a choice must be made between two undesirable goals

avoidance-avoidance conflicts

according to lewin's theory of motivation, what is the definition of "frustration?"

blocking of goal-directed behavior

what was lewin's breakthrough on his research in developmental psychology?

he described how problem solving in older children becomes more complex (differentiation) as they begin to perceive the problem as a whole basically, though as age increase produces differentiation, Lewin pointed out that under stress, a temporary shift in the opposite direction (dedifferentiation) could occur

wertheimer believed that ____________ ____________ permits the whole to command or dominate over the parts

insight reasoning only by perceiving the whole can "insight" into the true nature of conceptual problems and relationships be realized

teaching designed to make students think about a concept as a whole rather than rote memorization of the parts

insight reasoning (reproductive thinking)

kohler thought the ability to perceive stimuli was a mark of what?

intelligence 1. box-stacking experiment 2. two-stick experiment

(precursor to gestalt psych) who said the mind constitutes experience through the application of innate rules?

kant

what was the argument between kohler and thorndike?

kohler: insight learning thorndike: trial and error thorndike: learning is a gradual strengthening in relationship btwn stimuli and response as result of repetition and trial and error kohler criticized thorndike for creating an artificial learning environment devoid of critical perceptions of relations among stimuli ("field") that were necessary to perceive the problem as a whole by contrast, insight learning requires an environment where perception of the entire "field" is possible so that much relations can be perceived

came up with "field theory" or "topological psychology" main idea is that understanding behavior requires consideration of the totality of all the forces acting on a person

kurt lewis

who adopted and expanded gestalt ideas into areas of motivation, emotion, personality development and social psychology

kurt lewis

says that the closer two things are the more likely they are to be perceived as a unity

law of proximity

says that similar things are more likely to be perceived as a unit

law of similarity

law that says when a stimuli configuration is ambiguous, the nervous system organizes the stimuli into the "simplest whole" that most reasonably reflects reality

law of simplicity

gestalt psychology was also known for its development of:

laws of perception of form

(precursor to gestalt psych) who said perception of "space-forms" such as "squareness" ? squareness is entirely defined by the relation between lines; it can't be further reduced

mach

in a darkened room, two adjacent small lights are flashed on and off in sequence. if the interval between the flashing of the two lights is just right, the perception is not of two lights, each flashing on and then off, but of a single light that moves repeatedly from side to side. thus, two separate sensory events occur, two flashing lights, but the perception is that of a single continuous event, one light moving.

phenomenon of apparent motion

in what publishing did wertheimer argue that thinking was inhibited by an educational system based on rote learning and rule memorization?

productive thinking

according to lewin's theory of motivation, when individual needs are fulfilled a person is in a state of:

psychological equilibrium

contrasted with the analytical approach of productive thinking (insight reasoning etc), there is a approach to learning which involves "down - chunking" to details, which is called:

reproductive thinking also by wertheimer

when lewin studied worker productivity, what did he find?

that democratic style (workers setting goals, group meetings) improved productivity

says that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks

the Zeigarnik effect says that a task that has already been started establishes a task-specific tension, which improves cognitive accessibility of the relevant contents. this tension is relieved upon completion of the task. in the case of task interruption, the reduction of tension is being impeded.. through continuous tension the content is easier accessible and it can be easily remembered RELIABILITY OF THIS EFFECT HAS FAILED TO BE REPLICATED

t/f - although much of gestalt psychology focused on perception, the gestalt psychologists saw their system as a general theory of psychology applicable to thinking, problem solving, and learning

true

effect that says increased recall of information that stands out in some manner from other to-be-learned information

von restorff effect ex. when 3 digit number is embedded in a series of nonsense syllables, the number would almost always be recalled better than the syllables

who came up with insight reasoning?

wertheimer said that solutions to problems occur when individuals can view the entire problem field and rearrange the elements of the problem into a new and meaningful figuration. solutions have a perceptual quality to them and they occur quickly, once the components have been reconfigured