Kurt Koffka was a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 psychologist

Psychologist

Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...

. He was born and educated in Berlin and earned his PhD there in 1909 as a student of Carl Stumpf

Carl Stumpf

Carl Stumpf was a German philosopher and psychologist.Born in Wiesentheid, he studied with Franz Brentano and Hermann Lotze...

. In addition to his studies in Berlin, Koffka also spent one year at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland where he developed his strong fluency in English, a skill that later served him well in his efforts to spread Gestalt psychology

Gestalt psychology

Gestalt psychology or gestaltism is a theory of mind and brain of the Berlin School; the operational principle of gestalt psychology is that the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies...

 beyond German borders. Koffka was already working at the University of Frankfurt

University of Frankfurt

University of Frankfurt may refer to:*Goethe University Frankfurt, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany*Viadrina European University, in Frankfurt , Germany...

 when Max Wertheimer

Max Wertheimer

- External links :* * * * *...

 arrived in 1910 and invited Koffka to participate as a subject in his research on the phi phenomenon

Phi phenomenon

The phi phenomenon is an optical illusion defined by Max Wertheimer in the Gestalt psychology in 1912, in which the persistence of vision formed a part of the base of the theory of the cinema, applied by Hugo Münsterberg in 1916....

.

Koffka left Frankfurt in 1912 to take a position at the University of Giessen

University of Giessen

The University of Giessen is officially called the Justus Liebig University Giessen after its most famous faculty member, Justus von Liebig, the founder of modern agricultural chemistry and inventor of artificial fertiliser.-History:The University of Gießen is among the oldest institutions of...

, forty miles from Frankfurt, where he remained until 1924. Putting his English fluency to the test, Koffka then traveled to the United States, where he was a visiting professor at the Cornell University from 1924 to 1925, and two years later at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

. Eventually, in 1927, he accepted a position at the Smith College

Smith College

Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...

 in Northampton, Massachusetts

Northampton, Massachusetts

The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of Northampton's central neighborhoods, was 28,549...

, where he remained until his death in 1941.

Personal life

In 1909, Koffka married Mira Klein, who was an experimental subject in Koffka's research. They remained married until 1923 when he divorced Klein and married Elisabeth Ahlgrimm who had recently finished her Ph.D at Giessen. However, they were divorced in the same year, and Koffka remarried Klein.

Theories on learning

Koffka believed that most of early learning is what he referred to as, "sensorimotor learning," which is a type of learning which occurs after a consequence. For example, a child who touches a hot stove will learn not to touch it again. Koffka also believed that a lot of learning occurs by imitation, though he argued that it is not important to understand how imitation works, but rather to acknowledge that it is a natural occurrence.
According to Koffka, the highest type of learning is ideational learning, which makes use of language. Koffka notes that an important time in children's development is when they understand that objects have names.

Works

• (1922) Perception: An Introduction to the Gestalt Theorie.
• (1924) Growth of the Mind
• (1935) Principles of Gestalt Psychology

External links

• Gestalt psychology website of the international Society for Gestalt Theory and its Applications - GTA
• Website on Gestalt psychology with biographies of Wertheimer et al.

See also

• Wolfgang Köhler
  Wolfgang Köhler
  Wolfgang Köhler was a German psychologist and phenomenologist who, like Max Wertheimer, and Kurt Koffka, contributed to the creation of Gestalt psychology.-Early life:...
  
  
• Koffka
  Koffka
  * Kurt Koffka , Jewish German psychologist* Friedrich Koffka , German jurist, writer- Koffke :* Leticia Koffke , a German photomodel...