Kohler’s

Kohlers’s Insight Theory

The learning theory named as “Learning by Insight” is the contribution of Gestalt Psychologists, Gestalt Psychology began with the work of German Psychologists who were studying the nature of perception. Wertheimer is generally considered to be the Gestalt Psychology’s founding father. Wertheimer, Kohler, Koffka and Lewin-all four of these men, originally German, eventually settled in America-are the leaders of what is historically Gestalt Psychology.

“Gestalt” is a German noun for which there is no English word equivalent so the term was carried over in English Psychological literature.  The nearest English translation of Gestalt is ‘configuration’ or more simply ‘an organized whole’  in contrast to be collection or parts.  Gestalt psychologists consider the process of learning as a gestalt-an organized whole.  A thing cannot be understood by the study of its constituent parts but only by the study of it as a totality-is a basic idea behind this theory.

Gestalt Psychology used the term ‘insight’ to describe the perception of the whole situation by the learner and of his intelligence in responding to the proper relationships.  Kohler, first of all, used this term (insight) to describe the learning of his apes.  Kohler conducted many experiments on chimpanzees and brought out a book.  ‘Mentality of Apes’ in 1925 which was the result of his experiments, conducted during the period 1913-17 on the canary Island.  These experiments, show learning by insight.  Some of them are given below :

• In one experiment, Kohler put a chimpanzee Sultan inside a cage and a banana was hung from the roof of the cage. A box was placed inside the cage.  The chimpanzee tried to reach the banana by jumping but could not succeed.  Suddenly, he got an idea and used the stick as a jumping platform by placing it just below the hanging banana.
• In other experiment, Kohler made this problem more difficult. Now it required two or three boxes to reach the banana.  Moreover, the placing of one box over the other required different specific arrangements.
• In a morecomplicated experiment, banana was placed outside the cage of the chimpanzee.  Two sticks, one larger than the other, were placed inside the cage.  One was hollow at one end so that the other stick could be thrust into it to form a longer stick.  The banana was so kept that it could not be picked up by one of the sticks. The chimpanzee first tried these sticks one after the other but failed.  Suddenly, he got a bright idea.  The animal joined the two sticks together and reached the banana.  In these experiments, Kohler used many different chimpanzees.  Sultan, who was the most intelligent of Kohler’s chimpanzees, could solve all the problems.  Other chimpanzees could solve the problems only when they saw Sultan solving them.

With such experiments, Kohler concluded that in the solution of problems, his apes did not resort to blind trial and error mechanism.  They solved their problems intelligently.  Kohler used the term ‘Insight’ to describe the learning of his apes.

Insight involves the following criteria

• The situation as a whole is perceived by the learner.
• The learner tries to see and judge the relationship between various factors involved in the situation.
• As a result, the learner is helped in the sudden grasping of the solution of the problem.

Therefore, learning according to them is re-structuring the field of perception through insight.  As a whole, insight depends upon the following factors.

• Experience
• Intelligence
• Learning Situation
• Initial Efforts
• Repetition and Generalization

Educational Implication of the Theory of Insightful Learning :

This theory brings the following important facts into limelight :

1. The whole is greater than the parts and, therefore, the situation should be viewed as a whole.
2. The use of blind fumbling and mechanical trial and error should be minimized. The learner should try to see relevant relationships and act intelligently.
3. The purpose or motive plays the central role in the learning process.

Based on the appeal of this theory, teachers are required to pay attention to the following aspects.

1. Subject matter (learning material) should be presented in Gestalt form. While teaching the topic, parts of a flowering plant or flower, it should not be started by presenting the different parts. Initially the plant or flower as a whole should be presented before them and later on the parts should be emphasized.
2. The greater contribution of the insight theory of learning is that it has made learning an intelligent task requiring mental abilities instead of blind fumbling and automatic responses to specific stimuli.