Wolfgang Köhler

Wolfgang Köhler, was one of the three founders of Gestalt Psychology, along with Max Wertheimer and Kurt Koffka. During the time of the first world war, Köhler was appointed a position as the director of an Anthropoid station on the Canary islands. This odd twist of fate served as a useful location of Köhler to conduct experiments regarding problem solving, using the chimpanzees from the base as experimental subjects. Köhler concluded, similarly to Thorndike, that animal learning can occur through trial and error; in order to reach fruit hung out of reach at the top of a cage, the chimps would try standing on a box. When this proved insufficient, they would stack two boxes. When this too proved insufficient, they would stack three, or use a stick, and so on and so forth, until by trial and error they had reached their goal. When presented with the same task a second time, the would arrive at the solution in a shorter time frame and with much fewer trials. Contrary to Thorndike however, Köhler concluded that the chimps were also capable of learning by insight, or the "ah-ha" moment. This was observed when a chimp was given a stick to short to reach the fruit hanging from the top of the cage. After try and failing for some time, the chimp would appear to give up. Then sporadically the chimp would realize that the short stick could be used to reach a longer stick outside of the cage and quickly move to retrieving the fruit. Gestalt theory was later applied as conclusions to the phenomena observed in this research. Problem solving was viewed as an attempt to clarify and/or unify parts of the whole which caused problems in the perception of the whole; a situation in which one has trouble perceiving a whole is seen as a problem, the solution is that which brings about our ability to perceive said whole.