Verbal Field in Gestalt Psychology

Abstract

The role speech plays in cognition has long been an important topic among psychologists and philosophers. Köhler and Koffka, representatives of the Gestalt school, presented a unique method with field theory. The field theory in Gestalt psychology, namely behavioral field theory, breaks through the duality between agents and their behavioral environment, providing a new way to explain behavior. However, unlike sense data, speech does not appear in the sensory field, which generally be regarded as an important part of the behavioral field. Humans’ behavioral field is constituted not only of the sensory field but also of the verbal field. This paper discusses how the verbal field influences cognition and behavior. With verbal field theory, we know what is meant by "limited liberty" of humans in Koffka’s theory of volition. We will see that although humans have voluntary actions, humans have not been liberated from the domination of the field.