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Documents of Gestalt psychology
Documents of Gestalt PsFc~o~o~-. Berkeley, Calif. Pp. 352.
HESLE, 51. (rd.) ( 1961). Lniversit!
of California Press:
MOsT of these twenty-one papers were published since 1950, and they were chosen to indicate recent thinking and findings “, , . in the fields of social psychology, motivation, and art, in addition to new developments in the exploration of the cognitive processes, for which Gestalt psychology used fo be best kmxrn” (italics mine). ,.
. . * in human psychology, we simply must use terms which-if I may’ use this expression - ‘sound human’ “. Thus Kohler re-emphasizes, in the introductory selection. the Gestn/r This sets a tone far from the perceptual research upon concern with human esperience. which Gestalt psychology is founded, but there are nevertheless some chapters of genuine interest to vision scientists: WALLACH, H.: “Brightness constancy and the nature of achromatic colors”; WALL.-\CH, H. and O’CONNELL, D. N.: “The kinetic depth effect’.; K~WLER, W. and ADAMS, P. A.: “Perception and attention”; WALLXCH. H,: “Some considerations concerning the relation between perception and cognition”; and ASCH, S. E.: “Perceptual conditions of association”. Though the papers may be relatively recent, it might be considered by some to be of relevance that the names of ail senior authors are well known and even venerable. One might glean from this that younger workers are perhaps being attracted elsewhere. This, in fact, is true of the whole book. The most important essay is K~HLER’S 1958 attempt to reply to the new challenge in brain physiology (“The present situation in brain physiology”-pp. 97-106). This paper reads as unconvincingly today as when first pLlb~ished. For brain physiology, simplistic Gestalt volume~onductor theory now seems only a little less anachronistic than does strict Pavlovian conditioning. To assert that “most probably, the sources of perceptual currents are activated synapses in the cortex” assumes the existence of currents yet to be shown. Nerve-nets, graded neural cortical functioning and feedback circuitry may resemble these older concepts, but they have transcended them. For example, Kiihler suggests that “time is spatially represented in the brain just as it is in the geological strata on the surface of the earth”, a point which some may feel to be in exact conflict with present cortical neurology which much prefers to map perceptual space into cortical time rather than rice versa. Nevertheless, the fact is that the principles of peripheral nerve function, i.e. those of the retina, however much we may elucidate them, cannot be applied to the striate cortical or to the more central associative or reticular neural function. fn this criticism Gestalt physiological psychology is entirely correct. But this is not a new point, though it clearly needs reiteration, for it can be found in its essence in Wertheimer’s classical study of 1912. Nevertheless, neurophysiologists with to come to grips with Gestalt concepts trace and electrotonus, and it is of value The strong “earthy” Gestalt interpretation is perhaps the major recent work in this
orientations other than the Gestalt have yet really of interaction, organization, satiation, coherence, to have these ideas placed again into the limelight. of visual attention (K~HLER and ADAMS, op. cit.) field, and it also warrants close examination.
The book thus serves as a very w-orthy modern companion to Ellis’ Source Book; but if this is Gestalt psychofogy today why is it so marked by the absence of younger converts, and, at least in visual perception, one must ask what has happened to its sophjsticated experimentat vigour?
HESLE, 51. (rd.) ( 1961). Lniversit!
of California Press:
MOsT of these twenty-one papers were published since 1950, and they were chosen to indicate recent thinking and findings “, , . in the fields of social psychology, motivation, and art, in addition to new developments in the exploration of the cognitive processes, for which Gestalt psychology used fo be best kmxrn” (italics mine). ,.
. . * in human psychology, we simply must use terms which-if I may’ use this expression - ‘sound human’ “. Thus Kohler re-emphasizes, in the introductory selection. the Gestn/r This sets a tone far from the perceptual research upon concern with human esperience. which Gestalt psychology is founded, but there are nevertheless some chapters of genuine interest to vision scientists: WALLACH, H.: “Brightness constancy and the nature of achromatic colors”; WALL.-\CH, H. and O’CONNELL, D. N.: “The kinetic depth effect’.; K~WLER, W. and ADAMS, P. A.: “Perception and attention”; WALLXCH. H,: “Some considerations concerning the relation between perception and cognition”; and ASCH, S. E.: “Perceptual conditions of association”. Though the papers may be relatively recent, it might be considered by some to be of relevance that the names of ail senior authors are well known and even venerable. One might glean from this that younger workers are perhaps being attracted elsewhere. This, in fact, is true of the whole book. The most important essay is K~HLER’S 1958 attempt to reply to the new challenge in brain physiology (“The present situation in brain physiology”-pp. 97-106). This paper reads as unconvincingly today as when first pLlb~ished. For brain physiology, simplistic Gestalt volume~onductor theory now seems only a little less anachronistic than does strict Pavlovian conditioning. To assert that “most probably, the sources of perceptual currents are activated synapses in the cortex” assumes the existence of currents yet to be shown. Nerve-nets, graded neural cortical functioning and feedback circuitry may resemble these older concepts, but they have transcended them. For example, Kiihler suggests that “time is spatially represented in the brain just as it is in the geological strata on the surface of the earth”, a point which some may feel to be in exact conflict with present cortical neurology which much prefers to map perceptual space into cortical time rather than rice versa. Nevertheless, the fact is that the principles of peripheral nerve function, i.e. those of the retina, however much we may elucidate them, cannot be applied to the striate cortical or to the more central associative or reticular neural function. fn this criticism Gestalt physiological psychology is entirely correct. But this is not a new point, though it clearly needs reiteration, for it can be found in its essence in Wertheimer’s classical study of 1912. Nevertheless, neurophysiologists with to come to grips with Gestalt concepts trace and electrotonus, and it is of value The strong “earthy” Gestalt interpretation is perhaps the major recent work in this
orientations other than the Gestalt have yet really of interaction, organization, satiation, coherence, to have these ideas placed again into the limelight. of visual attention (K~HLER and ADAMS, op. cit.) field, and it also warrants close examination.
The book thus serves as a very w-orthy modern companion to Ellis’ Source Book; but if this is Gestalt psychofogy today why is it so marked by the absence of younger converts, and, at least in visual perception, one must ask what has happened to its sophjsticated experimentat vigour?