He presented a group of children with the following diagram:


The initial attempts to determine the area were largely met with failure:


This initial diagram he term as a ‘regular’ form because it’s area could quickly be determine from the formulaic approach: to draw a perpendicular line from the top left corner down to the base and apply the equation for the area of a rectangle (area = base x height).


He then, presented them with a different, irregular form:


The irregularity of the form presented itself as an outlier to the standard shape and therefore could not be categorized, and the rules could not be applied.


For Wertheimer, understanding a problem holistically was essential to deriving the solution. By cutting out the same irregular parallelogram and handing one to each of the children, they were quickly able to collectively arrive at the answer by self-organizing and analyzing the problem together.


Though the example may seem naïve to the extreme, a number of important points arise: reductionism often can be an impediment when presented with irregular or novel problems, collective or group thinking can expedite converging on a solution, and visual thinking aides in the holistic understanding of a given problem or challenge.


Vol. 2 Issue 5 | 11


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