The Gestalt Approach • 327The Gestalt Approach: Problem Solving
as Representation and Restructuring
We introduced the Gestalt psychologists in Chapter 3 by describing their
laws of perceptual organization. The Gestalt psychologists were interested
not only in perception, but also in learning, problem solving, and even atti-
tudes and beliefs (Koffka, 1935). But even as they considered other areas of
psychology, they still took a perceptual approach. Problem solving, for the
Gestalt psychologists, was about (1) how people represent a problem in their
mind and (2) how solving a problem involves a reorganization or restructur-
ing of this representation.REPRESENTING A PROBLEM IN THE MIND
What does it mean to say that a problem is “represented” in the mind? One way
to answer this question is to begin with how problems are presented. Consider,
for example, a crossword puzzle (● Figure 12.1). This type of problem is repre-
sented on the page by a diagram and clues about how to fi ll in the open squares.
How this problem is represented in the mind is probably different for differ-
ent people, but it is likely to differ from how it is represented on the page. For
example, as people try to solve this problem, they may choose to represent only
a small part of the puzzle at a time. Some people might focus on fi lling in hori-
zontal words and then use these words to help determine the vertical words.
Others might pick one corner of the puzzle and search in their mind for both
verticals and horizontals that fi t together. Each of these ways of going about
solving the problem involves a different way of representing it in the mind.
One of the central ideas of the Gestalt approach is that success in solving
a problem is infl uenced by how it is represented in the person’s mind. This
idea—that the solution to a problem depends on how it is represented—is
illustrated by the problem in ● Figure 12.2. This problem, which was posed
by Gestalt psychologist Wolfgang Kohler (1929), asks us to determine the
length of the segment marked x if the radius of the circle has a length r. (A
number of problems will be posed in this chapter. The answers appear at
the end of the chapter. See Figure ● 12.25, page 356, for the answer to the
“circle” problem. For this problem, the answer is also stated in the next para-
graph, so don’t read any further if you want to try to solve it.)
One way to describe how this problem is represented on the page is “a
circle with vertical and horizontal lines that divide the circle into quarters,
with a small triangle in the upper left quadrant.” The key to solving this prob-
lem is to change the last part of the representation to “a small rectangle in the
upper left quadrant, with x being the diagonal between the corners.” Once x
is recognized as the diagonal of the rectangle, the representation can be reor-
ganized by creating the rectangle’s other diagonal (Figure 12.25). Once we
realize that this diagonal is the radius of the circle, and that both diagonals of
a rectangle are the same length, we can conclude that the length of x equals
the length of the radius, r.
What is important about this solution is that it doesn’t require math-
ematical equations. Instead, the solution is obtained by fi rst perceiving the object and
then representing it in a different way. The Gestalt psychologists called the process of
changing the problem’s representation restructuring.RESTRUCTURING AND INSIGHT
The Gestalt psychologists also introduced the idea that restructuring is associated with
insight—the sudden realization of a problem’s solution. Refl ecting this emphasis on13
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70304958 59 602134 35892210 11●FIGURE 12.1 This is a picture of how
a crossword puzzle is represented on the
page. In addition, there are clues for fi lling
in the horizontal and vertical words.Problem: If the length of the circle’s radius is r,
what is the length of line x?x●FIGURE 12.2 The circle problem. See
page 356 for the solution.Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.