Cognitive theories of learning had their roots in gestalt psychology. During the period of time that behavioral theories were being developed, a competing and alternative group of theories was developed by gestalt psychologists. Unlike the behaviorism, Gestalt theory emphasized the importance of mental processes. In Gestalt psychology, the learner reacts to meaningful wholes. According to Gestalt psychologists learning can take place by discovery or insight. The idea of insight learning was first developed by Wolfgang Kohler in which he described experiments with apes in which the apes could use boxes and sticks as tools to solve problems. In the box problem, a banana is attached to the top a chimpanzee's cage. The banana is out of reach but can be reached by climbing upon and jumping from a box. Only one of Kohler's apes (Sultan) could solve this problem. A much more difficult problem which involved the stacking of boxes was introduced by Kohler. This problem required the ape to stack one box on another, and master gravitational problems by building a stable stack. Kohler also gave the apes sticks which they use to rake food into the cage. Sultan, Kohler's very intelligent ape was able to master a two stick problem by inserting one stick into the end of the other in order to reach the food. In each of these problems, the important aspect of learning was not reinforcement, but the coordination of thinking to create new organizations (of materials). Kohler referred to this behavior as insight or discovery learning.
Cognitive thinking and research got a boost from the launching of Sputnik (pun intended). As mentioned earlier this sparked a massively funded curriculum reform effort in the United States in science and mathematics. The emphasis of the reform was to produce students who could think like scientists through discovery and inquiry learning and active student involvement. This emphasis brought together scientists, teachers and psychologists. One of the most influential psychologists during this period in science education was Jerome Bruner, Director of the Harvard Center for Cognitive Studies.