Purposive Behaviorism, Gestalt Psychology and Contemporary Cognitive Perspectives

latent learning

unobservable learning

purposive behaviorism

behavior has purpose, in that it’s aimed at attaining one’s goals (end result)

cognitive maps

learning where different parts of the environment are situated in relation to one another

gestalt psychology

emphasized the importance of organizational processes in perception, learning and problem-solving

phi phenomenon

the analysis and description of this optical illusion by Max Wertheimer is the origin of Gestalt Psychology

Gestalt

german word for “structured whole”

People are predisposed to organized experiences, and do so in predictable ways

Examples:

• law of proximity

• law of closure

• law of Pragnanz

law of proximity

when people tend to perceive as a unit those things that are close together in space

law of similarity

when people tend to perceive as a unit those things that physically resemble one another

law of closure

when people tend to fill in missing pieces to form a complete picture

law of Pragnanz (Kurt Koffka)

people always organize their experience as simply, concisely, symetrically and completely as possible

Information Processing Theory

how people perceive the stimuli around them, how they “put” what they’ve perceived in their memories, how they “find wahat they learned when they need to use it, and how they use what they’ve learned to tackle new tasks and problems

Constructivism

learning is more so constructing knowledge rather than it is directly acquiring it from the world

Individual Constructivism

process of construction occuring individually within each learner

Examples: Law of proximity/similarity and formation of cognitive maps

Social Constructivism

encompasses theories that focus on how people work together to create new knowledge

Examples: forming a study group

Contextual Theories

idea that people’s thinking and learning are inextricably intertwined with their physical bodies or with their immediate physical, social, and cultural environments

Theories of embodiment

addresses the ways in which people’s brains function in close connection with rest of their bodies and with certain concrete objects in their physical surroundings

Example: learning to ride a bike and playing sports

Theories of Distributed Cognition

focus on how people often think and perform more effectively when they can take advantage of physical objects or cultural creations, or even when they can think and discuss ideas with other people

Example: using GPS or maps and doing groupworks