Discovery in Gestalt psychology

Gestalt psychology was an important stream in psychology from the 1920's until the late fifties in Europe, while in the US behaviorism was flourishing. In Gestalt psychology there is much emphasis on problem solving and the way knowledge for problem solving is acquired. Gestalt researchers distinguish two ways of 'thinking and learning'. One is the reproductive way of thinking in which a principle for problem solving is simply copied into memory (it is the trick that is learned), another way of learning is productive thinking in which the principle for problem solving is acquired.

Gestalt researchers put much emphasis on the value of the discovery process for acquiring productive knowledge.