How did Wertheimer apply Gestalt principles of learning to creative thinking in humans?
Wertheimer in his book applied the principles of Gestalt learning, to creative thinking in humans. It gave importance to the concept of whole, rather than elements. This theory proposes that, entirety is more important than the individual tendencies. The perception of a visual scene as a whole helps in finding order and unity, among the unrelated parts. It considers learning process as a whole, not just the external stimulus response.
Wertheimer studied the cases ranging from children, related to their problem solving abilities, to that of complex cognitive thinking of Albert Einstein. He found evidence to support the idea of perceiving problem as a whole. The approach towards problem solving should begin by perceiving the problem as a whole, and then proceeding towards the details.
He gave importance to the insight method of learning. The problem should be presented in a way, so that the individual can perceive the various parts of the problem. The learning which will follow, will involve the understanding of basic principles of the problem. Such an understanding would enable the person to apply it in other situations.
The traditional educational practices, such as rote learning and mechanical drill, render the person enable in solving variation of the problem. This occurs because these methods are based on associative learning and repetition. These techniques do not instill the ability of problem solving in varied conditions. Repetition is useful in improving mechanical process, but contributes nothing to creative thinking.