Wolfgang Köhler's experimental study of chimpanzee problem-solving — demonstrating that apes solve problems through insight rather than trial-and-error, challenging behaviorist assumptions.
Insight learning: Köhler's chimpanzees (especially Sultan) solved novel problems — using sticks as tools to reach bananas, stacking boxes — in a sudden, complete reorganization of the perceptual field rather than incremental trial-and-error. This challenged Thorndike's behaviorist account of animal learning as mere reinforcement. Gestalt perception applied to problem-solving: problems are solved when the whole configuration is restructured.
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