logologo-optometry

Principles of Gestalt Psychology

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Catalogue Number: 1393
Principles of Gestalt Psychology
Category: Book
Sub-Category: Book of historical note
Author: KOFFKA Kurt
Year Of Publication/Manufacture: 1935
Edition: 4th Impression 1955
Time Period: 1940 to 1999
Place Of Publication/Manufacture: London
Publisher/Manufacturer: Routlege and Kegan Paul Ltd
Description Of Item: Dark green cloth covers, 720 pages including index and bibliography, plus 8 pages of book titles on psychology. 112 black and white figures in text. Inscribed on front fly leaf 'B L Cole Queen's College 1956'
Historical Significance: Kurt Koffka (1886-1941) was a German psychologist. He was born and educated in Berlin and earned his PhD there in 1909 as a student of Carl Stumpf. He spent a 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 beyond German borders. Koffka was already working at the University of Frankfurt when Max Wertheimer arrived in 1910 and invited Koffka to participate as a subject in his research on the phi phenomenon. He later worked at the University of Giessen until 1924 and was a visiting professor at the Cornell University from 1924 to 1925, and two years later at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Eventually, in 1927, he accepted a position at the Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he remained until his death in 1941. Gestalt psychology or gestaltism (German: Gestalt - "essence or shape of an entities' complete form") is a theory of mind and brain positing that the operational principle of the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies. The Gestalt effect refers to the form-forming capability of our senses, particularly with respect to the visual recognition of figures and whole forms instead of just a collection of simple lines and curves. This book deals with visual organisation, figure and ground, the constancies as well as learning and memory
How Acquired: Donated by Barry L Cole
Condition: Good
Location: Archive room. East wall. Books of historical note

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