2. Biography of Wolfgang Kohler
• Born on January 21, 1887 in Revel, Estonia.
• His family moved to Germany he was six years old
• Between 1905 and 1907, he attended the universities
of Tubingen, Bonn, Berlin.
• In 1909, Kohler received his Ph.D. under Carl Stumpf
• During the same year, he began to work at the
Psychological Institute in Frankfort-am-Main
• He was appointed director of the Anthropoid Research
Station on Tenerife in the Canary Islands
3. • Remaining on the island during W.W.I, Kohler
began to study problem solving and general
intelligence of a group of African chimpanzees.
• In 1917, he published The Mentality of
Apes which summarized the results of his insight
studies
• Upon his return to Germany, Kohler took the
position as director of the Psychological Institute
at the University of Berlin.
• During 1925-1926, he served as a visiting
professor at Clark University in the United
States.
4. • He immigrated to the United States in 1935
because of Nazi interference with his work.
• From 1935 to 1955, he was a professor of
psychology at Swarthmore College.
• In 1958, he became a research professor at
Dartmouth University until his death on June 11,
1967, in Enfield, New Hampshire United States.
• Kohler was appointed president of the American
Psychological Association in 1959.
5. In addition: Kohler is a Gestalt Theorist
From 1910 to 1913 he collaborated with
Wertheimer and Koffka, working on the
foundations of what would become known as
"Gestalt" theory.
Key Concept:
Nature is determined by the whole
6. Kohler’s Theory of Insight Learning
In the 1920s, German psychologist Wolfgang
Kohler was studying the behavior of apes. He designed
some simple experiments that led to the development of
one of the first cognitive theories of learning, which he
called insight learning.
7. Kohler’s Experiment
In his experiment, Kohler hung a piece of fruit just
out of reach of each chimp. He then provided the
chimps with either two sticks or three boxes, then
waited and watched. Kohler noticed that after the
chimps realized they could not simply reach or
jump up to retrieve the fruit, they stopped, had a
seat, and thought about how they might solve the
problem. Then after a few moments, the chimps
stood up and proceeded to solve the problem.
8. In the first scenario, placing the smaller stick into
the longer stick to create one very long stick that
could be used to knock down the hanging fruit to
solved the problem
9. In the second scenario, the chimps would solve the
problem by stacking the boxes on top of each other,
which allowed them to climb up to the top of the
stack of boxes and reach the fruit.
10. Theory of Insight Learning : Wolfgang Kohler
It is the abrupt realization of the problem’s solution.
Insight learning is not the result of trial and error,
responding to an environmental stimulus, or the
result of observing someone else attempting the
problem.
It is completely cognitive experience that requires
the ability to visualize the problem and the solution
internally- in the mind’s eye, so to speak – before
initiating a behavioral response.
