Origin of Third Degree The classification of the qualities of objects by degree - heat and cold, moisture and dryness etc. -was commonplace in the middle ages.  Henry Lyte's translation of Dodoens' Niewe herball or historie of plantes, 1578 includes a description of rue:"Rue is hoate and dry in the thirde degree." Shakespeare went on to apply the degree classification to drink, in Twelfth Night, 1602: "For he s in the third degree of drinke: hee's drown'd: go looke after him.”Present Meaning “The third degree” is well-known to all US crime-fiction enthusiasts as “an intensive, possibly brutal interrogation” appearing as early as Forbes (1900)  In Masonic lodges there are three degrees of membership: Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. When a candidate receives the third degree in a Masonic lodge, he is subjected to some activities that involve an interrogation and it is more physically challenging than the first two degrees.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xjs6iTjdJc&feature=player_embeddedCHAPTER 7 – GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY IN GERMANY& THE UNITED STATESDr. Nancy AlvaradoGestalt Psychology This was the major alternative and challenge to structuralism during the early 20thcentury. Founded by the successors to the people in Chapter 6. Gestalt means “shape” or “form.” Major proponents: Max Wertheimer – developed Gestalt principles Kurt Koffka – developed laws of perception Wolfgang Kohler – worked with apes on insight Kurt Lewin – developed “Field theory”Conceptual Foundations Gestalt Psychology grew out of the perceptual theories of physicist Ernst Mach and the experimental work of Christian von Ehrenfels. Mach described properties of spatial and auditory forms (squares, circles, simple melodies). As perceptual wholes these forms have qualities that distinguish them from their elements (parts). Its form quality gives an object perceptual or psychological permanence despite changes in sensation A song sung by different voices remains the same song.Max Wertheimer (1880-1943) Wertheimer studied under Stumpf in Berlin, then Kulpe in Prague (psychology of legal testimony). Fascinated by the apparent motion of objects outside a train window, he bought a stroboscope to study “where does movement come from?” Schumann loaned him a tachistoscope and introduced him to Koffka and Kohler (students of Stumpf). Apparent motion of a white stripe from horizontal to vertical was demonstrated.Phi Phenomenon Demos http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/mot_reverse-phi/index.html http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/George_Mather/TwoStrokeFlash.htmEarly stroboscopic entertainment devicesFour Principles of Gestalt Thinking Holistic thinking – the whole is always more than the sum of its parts, called supersummativity. Phenomenological basis – analyzing the essence of phenomena is the subject matter of psychology. Methodology – lifelike experiments using small numbers of subjects. Isomorphism – psychological processes are directly related to biological (brain) processes.Tactile Phi Perceptions Benussi showed that when two points on the skin are stimulated the stimulus appears to move in an arc through space, like a flea hopping. Von Bekesy produced a tactile phi perception of a vibration jumping from knee to knee or between. Geldard & Sherrick produced a progression of jumps up the arm from wrist to elbow (like a rabbit). In all of these, the perceptual experience had a property (movement) not present in the components.Rubin’s Vase The figure emerges as a whole, not piecemeal, demonstrating that perceptions are active, lively and organized, not passive receivers of stimuli.Gestalt Principles of Perceptionproximity similaritygood continuation(good gestalt)closureGood GestaltsPoor performance on perceptual closure tests (right) has been associated with right hemisphere impairment.Generality of Gestalt Principles Closure applies to memory, not just visual stimuli. Waiters can remember checks until the bill is paid. Zeigarnik Effect -- she gave 18-22 tasks but interrupted half part-way through. Later, interrupted tasks were 90% more likely to be recalled. TV cliff-hanger episodes generate tension. Alpha the chimp filled in the missing wedge of a pie-shaped figure.  Results with other chimps produced inconsistentresults, perhaps because they were too young.Illusions and the Physical World Koffka distinguished between the geographic environment and the behavioral environment. The man in the snowstorm who crossed a lake not a plain without knowing it. His behavioral environment was plain, not lake.In both cases, the horizontal line seems shorter than the vertical one, yet they are the same lengths.Ascendancy of Gestalt Psychology Despite the turmoil in Germany after WWI, Gestalt Psychology flourished in the 1920’s. Wolfgang Kohler succeeded Carl Stumpf as director of the Berlin Psychological Institute. A decade later, the Nazi’s wrecked it. In 1933, Jewish professors, including Wertheimer, Kohler & Koffka, were expelled from the university (27 psychologists). Many were assisted in finding jobs in the USA, some at the NYC New School for Social Research (Univ. in Exile).Nazi Collaboration & Heroic Opposition Germany’s most celebrated philosopher, Heidegger, supported the Nazi’s anti-intellectualism & Hitler. Under Nazi leadership, Wundt’s lab became a folk-cell or center for ultra-nationalistic activities. Kohler (not Jewish) vigorously opposed the Nazis. He wrote the last anti-Nazi article published, mocked the Hitler salute and gave an anti-Nazi lecture. He refused to take a loyalty oath to Hitler and agitated for reinstatement of Jewish colleagues. He emigrated in 1935, going to Swarthmore.The University in Exile Wertheimer studied human thought and education at the New School for Social Research (1933). Fromm’s interviews with major scientists at the New School was lost until republished in 1997. Wertheimer wrote “Productive Thinking” (1945) recommending a Gestalt approach to teaching. He developed new methods of teaching math and thought insightful productive thinking could be cultivated in all children (not just math geniuses).Wolfgang Kohler (1887-1967) Kohler studied with Stumpf, then went to the Canary Islands (Tenerife) to study primates and was stranded there for 7