Max Wertheimer
Czech-born psychologist and co-founder of Gestalt psychology
Psychologist born in Prague who studied apparent motion in 1910 and published principles of perceptual organisation in 1923. With Koffka and Köhler he is counted as a founder of Gestalt psychology.
Why this person matters
Wertheimer's work on apparent movement is treated as the starting point of Gestalt psychology, and his 1923 paper on grouping gave introductory courses the proximity and similarity principles. Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Koffka took part in the experiments as subjects, so the school was a joint effort.
Main contributions
Studies of apparent motion
In 1910 at Frankfurt he tested a toy stroboscope with strips of lines and found that varying the timing produced apparent movement, now called the phi phenomenon. Köhler and Koffka served as subjects. The results appeared in his 1912 paper 'Experimentelle Studien über das Sehen von Bewegung'.
Laws of organisation in perceptual forms
His 1923 paper in Psychologische Forschung described grouping by proximity, similarity, common fate and closure. It argued that we experience larger wholes rather than separate elements, and that apprehension proceeds from the whole to its parts.
Productive thinking
He contrasted reproductive thinking, based on habit and repetition, with productive thinking that produces new solutions. The book Productive Thinking was finished in 1943 and published in 1945 after his death by his son Michael.
Context and limits
Critics have called Gestalt psychology Platonist, Kantian or holist; Abraham Luchins argues that these charges ignore its experimental work. Newer approaches in developmental psychology, cognitive science and artificial intelligence have partly superseded Gestalt ideas. The popular story of how the phi experiments began may be apocryphal. Luchins notes that Wertheimer was not a builder of grand theory, and his one book appeared after his death.
In your introductory course
Sensation and perception.Appears in the perception chapter as the source of the Gestalt grouping principles and the phi phenomenon.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 1.2. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1904
Received his PhD from the University of Würzburg under Oswald Külpe.
- 1912
Published 'Experimentelle Studien über das Sehen von Bewegung'.
- 1923
Published 'Untersuchungen zur Lehre von der Gestalt II', translated as 'Laws of Organization in Perceptual Forms'.
- 1933
Left Germany and arrived in New York on 13 September to teach at the New School for Social Research.
- 1945
Productive Thinking appeared posthumously.
Sources
- Classics in the History of Psychology (York University), Wertheimer, Laws of Organization in Perceptual Forms (1923)Original work. Text passages inspected.
- Encyclopedia.com, Wertheimer, Max (Encyclopedia of World Biography and Gale reference)Reference work. Reference article inspected.
- New World Encyclopedia, Max WertheimerReference work. Reference article inspected.