Gestalt Theory

Abstract

The Gestalt school of psychological thought originated in Germany early in the 20 th century (for a comprehensive review, see Koffka, 1935). It is best known for its theoretical and empirical contributions to understanding the organization of perceptual experience, including the nature of perceived groups, objects, parts, properties, and the relations among them, but was extended to address issues concerning problem solving Gestalt theory, ideas about perceptual organization were dominated by the Structuralist proposal, derived primarily from British Empiricist philosophy, that complex perceptions were constructed from atoms of elementary sensation and unified by associations due to spatiotemporal contiguity. Gestalt theorists rejected both atomism and associationism, arguing forcefully that perceptual experience was intrinsically holistic and organized. In addition to the theoretical ideas outlined below, Gestalt psychologists made many important empirical contributions to understanding the structure of perceptual experience, including seminal studies of perceptual grouping, figure-ground organization, frames of