Wolfgang Köhler - week 8

Wolfgang Köhler was a German psychologist and phenomenologist who contributed to Gestalt psychology (an attempt to understand the laws behind the ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions in an apparently chaotic world). It is work on chimp's problem solving that we look at this week.


Köhler was inspired to work with chimps for two main reasons. Firstly, because they are so closely related to humans in brain function and structure. Secondly, to gain knowledge of intelligent acts. He realised early on that chimps were individuals and had unique characteristics. His work focused around providing the chimps with problems that were difficult, but not impossible for the chimps to solve. 


By observing these behaviours, Köhler learned a great deal - including his hypothesis that chimps planned and learned from failures.

Your task this week is to research more about Köhler's chimps. This is a more open ended task so you can research more into the aspect of his study that you would prefer. Your comment below should include some information about Köhler, what he did, what was discovered and anything else that interests you about the study.

Some potentially useful links:

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