PSYC85H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Christian Von Ehrenfels, Ernst Mach, Max Wertheimer
History of Psychology
July 11th 2016
Chapter Ten:
• Gestalt: (German = form or configuration)
o Stresses the importance of tendencies toward good form.
o Believe bottom-up processes, such as introspection and behaviorism, are doomed to failure.
o A response to Wudt’s eleetis.
o Believes psychology should look at meaningful, intact experiences since the whole is greater than and gives meaning
to the parts.
o Argues the brain is a dynamic configuration of forces that transforms sensory information.
o Organized brain activity dominates our perceptions, not the stimuli that enter into that activity.
• Max Wertheimer (1880-1943)
o Dissertation topic concerned the use of the word association method for the detection of complexes.
o Research interests lead to the founding of Gestalt psychology.
o Rejected the existence of Gestalt qualities superimposed on sensations.
o Skillful at using demonstrations to illustrate that we perceive things holistically.
▪ Demonstration: a simple, easily observed phenomenon, usually requiring only minimal apparatus that has
the effect for almost everyone.
➢ Phi phenomenon: apparent motion.
⧫ Two lights can be turned on alternately by means of the switch and each light casts a
different shadow on the screen.
⧫ At the ate of alteatio, a patiipat does’t see two shadows, but one moving back
and forth,
⧫ Wetheie isisted that the epeiee of appaet otio does’t ilude a
inferences.
⧫ Costitutes eidee that peeptio is’t just a op of a stiulus.
⧫ When things look like they are moving and they actuall ae’t.
o Miiu piiple: e do’t peeie hat is atuall i the eteal old so uh as e ted to ogaize ou
experience so that it is as simple as possible.
▪ E.g., i the Phi pheoeo, e’e ot akig ifeees aout oeet; e ae experiencing it as
movement.
o Laws of perceptual organization
▪ Gestalt laws of organization: the basic ways in which we organize our experience as simply and coherently as
possible.
➢ Law of proximity: we tend to group things together that are close together in space.
➢ Law of similarity: we tend to group things together that resemble one another.
➢ Principle of good continuation: we tend to see lines inn the most simplistic ways.
➢ Principle of closure: we tend to see closed lines as whole shapes instead of a group of lines that
meet; we tend to make our experience as complete as possible.
▪ Figure and ground: basic principle of perceptual organization.
▪ In order for perception to occur, it must be organized into something that stands out and to which we pay
attention (the figure) displayed against a background to which we tend not to pay attention.
o Productive Thinking (1959): pointed out that improper teaching methods lead to rote memorization of solutions that
are not transferred well to new situations, whereas good teaching methods lead to a deep understanding of the
structure of a problem.
• Precursors of Gestalt psychology
o Christian von Ehrenfels (1859-1932)
▪ Suggested that experiences should be understood as composed of individual sensations, plus a Gestalt
quality that provided the form of experience as a whole.
▪ Qualities of epeiee a’t e eplaied as a oiatio of eleeta sesatios.
o Immanuel Kant:
▪ Argued against the associationist notion that our experience was derived from events in the external world
and that our experience was a construction, not mirror image, of external events.
▪ Believed that we impose cause-and-effect relationships on the world, rather than observing them in the
world.
▪ Argued that the mind adds structure to our conscious experience that seso stiulatio does’t poide.
o Ernst Mach: a physicist that studied:
▪ Space forms: we see a square as a square whether it is large, small, red, or blue.
▪ Time forms: we hear a melody as recognizable even if we alter the key in such a way that none of the notes
are the same.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Stresses the importance of tendencies toward good form. Believe bottom-up processes, such as introspection and behaviorism, are doomed to failure: a response to wu(cid:374)dt"s ele(cid:373)e(cid:374)tis(cid:373). Research interests lead to the founding of gestalt psychology. Rejected the existence of gestalt qualities superimposed on sensations. Skillful at using demonstrations to illustrate that we perceive things holistically. Demonstration: a simple, easily observed phenomenon, usually requiring only minimal apparatus that has the effect for almost everyone. Two lights can be turned on alternately by means of the switch and each light casts a different shadow on the screen. At the (cid:396)ate of alte(cid:396)atio(cid:374), a pa(cid:396)ti(cid:272)ipa(cid:374)t does(cid:374)"t see two shadows, but one moving back and forth, We(cid:396)thei(cid:373)e(cid:396) i(cid:374)sisted that the e(cid:454)pe(cid:396)ie(cid:374)(cid:272)e of appa(cid:396)e(cid:374)t (cid:373)otio(cid:374) does(cid:374)"t i(cid:374)(cid:272)lude a(cid:374)(cid:455) inferences. Co(cid:374)stitutes e(cid:448)ide(cid:374)(cid:272)e that pe(cid:396)(cid:272)eptio(cid:374) is(cid:374)"t just a (cid:272)op(cid:455) of a sti(cid:373)ulus. E. g. , i(cid:374) the phi phe(cid:374)o(cid:373)e(cid:374)o(cid:374), (cid:449)e"(cid:396)e (cid:374)ot (cid:373)aki(cid:374)g i(cid:374)fe(cid:396)e(cid:374)(cid:272)es a(cid:271)out (cid:373)o(cid:448)e(cid:373)e(cid:374)t; (cid:449)e a(cid:396)e experiencing it as movement.
