Koffka

Kurt Koffka - 1886 - 1941

Sensorimotor learning, imitation and ideational learning an early exponent of Gestalt psychology. He opposed studying behavior by reducing it to independent parts, which, when recombined, were supposed to equal the whole. Koffka did original studies in the perception of movement, in problems of seeing, and in the ways that behavior patterns develop in early years. The Gestalt Theorie was developed out of the study of perception. The term //perception// was a term that refered to something that is not merely imagined, or "thought ouf", but actually experienced such as a desk, or the sound of traffic outside a window. The term Gestalt is a German word which refers to how things are put together. The popular theories of the day focused on separate perceptions such as Attention, Association, and Sensation but Koffka suggested that humans see objects as a "whole" rather than as a grouping of separate objects and parts. He proposed in 1922 that infants cannot distinguish between objects but view everything as one big picture and only as they grow do they eventually recognize separate objects. In the same way, adults perceive an impression from an environment first and then gradually pickup on the various objects within, and still without noticing the individual details of the various objects and elements.

He rejected the assumption that "veridical perception" did not have to be explained. Up until that time, it was thought that objects were fixed and (for example) lines that were 3 inches long ALWAYS looked longer than 2 inch lines. Koffka showed that this is not always the case with the famous Ponzo and Muller-Lyer illusions.

Koffka always started out with the question "Why do things look as they do"? Context is very important. Theories and theoretical systems must incorporate all the facts into a rationale whole. He criticized those who ignored facts that did not fit into their theroies.

//Gestalt -// essence or shape of an entity's complete form. Another way to describe it is that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts". But an even better way is to say that "the qualities of the whole have additional qualities that the parts do not have.

IIII or M The M still have 4 lines but takes on an additional quality that the 4 lines( IIII ) do not have on their own.

It is said that Gestalt Theory started off the Cognitive School of Learning. By studying the way the brain imposes pattern on the perceived world, Gestart Theory moved toward problem solving learning.

Another famous Gestalt image is the Face/Vase which demonstrates the phenomenon of figure vs background. For learning today, it is important to note that Gestalt focuses on **wholes** and to problem solving as a part of learning. It also takes into account the "knack" element which is a sort of cognitive **insight**. Where it may take a long while to "get it" when learning a task, but once it "clicks" in your mind, you don't forget what was learned. A classic example is learning to ride a bike.



Gestalt experiements focus mainly on the problem solving ability of animals. Check out Betty the crow: media type="youtube" key="TtmLVP0HvDg" height="315" width="420"

Links to other Theoriests: (more to come)


 * Dewey** - Dewey speaks a lot about learning through imitation and from watching older members of a group perform tasks which relates to problem solving learning and learning in context of an experience as a whole instead of learning separate tasks apart from the **whole** experience.


 * Bandura Cadre:** Bandura points to imitation as being a guide for future actions which links to Koffka as Koffka was concerned with context and the "why" behind the action. Bandura pointed out that who you observed and learned from will influence how you learn and act in later occurances.


 * Jerome Bruner** - Aside from the psycology link that Bruner shares with Koffka, Bruner also was interested in perception as opposed to reality. His experiments demonstrated that what the mind expects can alter the reality for a person which is similar to the visual tricks where identical lines can look unidentical based on the context of their surroundings.He was very much concerned with context as Koffka was.


 * Robert Gagne** - Gagne's link to Koffka has to do with seeing the **wholes**. Just as Koffka was interested in the **whole** experience, Gagne thought that a **whole** task must be analyzed and the tasks and skills needed for accomplishment are identified which produces a map of instruction. This is a sort of backward engineering of learning. Rather than learning individual skills first and then putting them together for use, the final task is used to devise what skills will be learned.


 * Jean Lave** - Situated learning has a connection to Koffka as it too is concerned with context learning and not just separate skills (also much like Gagne).


 * Maria Montessori -** Student centered learning. Her school encourages learning thru observation of the environment and others. This "learning in context" style correlates to Koffka's theory of the whole experience as having more qualities than the individual skills have by themselves.


 * Carl Rogers** - The connection here is that Rogers was concerned with the environment of learning and therefore the context of the learning experinece.