A study of Heinz Werner By Trisha Peters and Meg Kewell The Study of Outside Effects on Human Senses and Physiognomic Perception A study of Heinz Werner By Trisha Peters and Meg Kewell

Who is Heinz Werner? Crain Was born in Vienna, Austria in 1890 Growing up, he was always very studious After completing the Gymnasium, he entered the University of Vienna, where his interest grew to philosophy and psychology His interest in music remained, and he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the psychology of aesthetic enjoyment In 1917, he joined the Psychological Institute at Hamburg where he took part in many discussions on Gestalt Psychology In 1926, he published his first edition of Comparative Psychology of Mental Development (his 2nd edition was in 1948) In 1933 he was dismissed from Hamburg by the Nazis for being Jewish and during this time he did a great amount of research on developmentally delayed and brain injured children He ended up at Clark University as a professor of Psychology and Education, and was known there for drawing out the best in his students Crain

His Theory Crain Werner. Unity of Senses Werner believed that development “proceeds from a state of relative lack of differentiation to a state of increasing differentiation and hierarchic integration.” Self-Object Differentiation: Sensorimotor: infants hardly experience an outside world apart from their own immediate actions, sensations, and feelings Perceptual: children perceive things “out there” apart from themselves and gain measure of objectivity, but perceptions still strongly bound up with their actions and feelings Conceptual: thinking in general and abstract dimensions without reference to our personal feelings about it Development directs itself toward mature end-states and naturally progress toward abstract, conceptual modes of thought Microgenesis is “based on the assumption that activity patterns, percepts, and thoughts, are not merely products but processes that, whether they take seconds, or hours, or days, unfold in terms of developmental sequence.” Indicated how cognitive processes (in children and adults) continually emerge from sensory experiences Crain Werner. Unity of Senses

His Theory Werner. Unity of Senses Physiognomic Perception: to perceive things as animate and even though they are actually lifeless, seem to express some inner form of life We perceive stimuli physiognomically when we react to their dynamic, emotional expressive qualities Colors can be looked at physiognomically (looking at red and thinking of characteristics such as red, burning, energetic) Children’s reactions are at first directed toward dynamic properties, and as they grow older, they become more static Chromasthesia: “refers to color hearing and to the synaesthesia experience of color in perceptions ordinarily devoid of it, as in experience of number, letters and so on.” Synesthesia: the unity of senses; it exists in everyone, or at least can be induced in everyone under certain conditions One specific stimulus may arouse not only the specifically corresponding sensation, but a second sensation united with the first Werner. Unity of Senses

Our Project and Purpose Does listening to different music while looking at a certain picture affect how that person will see the picture in regards to color and emotion? Does having a different smell while looking at a certain picture affect how that person will see the picture in regards to color and emotion? Which one, out of children or young adults’, visual senses are affected more by outside sounds and smells?

Hypothesis We propose that the participants will display signs of synesthesia and physiognomic perception through chromesthesia in looking at the pictures with different music and different smells. We also believe that children will be more susceptible to this unity of the senses than will adults, based on Werner’s research.

The Participants We tested 3rd graders at a small private school and college age students, both in Irving, TX We tested 5 boys and 4 girls for each age group For 3rd grade, students were listed as A1, A2, etc… for girls and B1, B2, etc... for boys College students were X1, X2, etc... For girls and Y1, Y2, etc... For boys Before each procedure, we asked the students if they were willing to take part in our experiment and had them sign our assent form.

Procedure For both groups, we showed two different pictures, separate from one another, and played three different songs, accompanied by 2 different smells and one with no smell While the music played, the students had about a minute and a half to fill out the questionnaire which asked, what emotions they felt and what colors they thought about, both having a word bank Then we asked them to write at least a sentence to describe what they thought was happening in the picture

Research Questionnaire Student Number: ___________________ Grade_____________ When looking at this picture, what emotions do you feel? Circle all that apply: Happy Loud Sad Scared Playful Anxious Comfortable Weird Urgent Confused Angry Intense Excited Silly Uncomfortable   Now, what colors are you thinking of? Circle all that apply: Red Blue Green Yellow Brown Pink Orange Purple White Black

3rd Grade College/ Young Adults

3rd Grade College/ Young Adults

3rd Grade College/ Young Adults

3rd Grade College/ Young Adults

3rd grade College/ Young Adults

3rd grade College/ Young Adults

Conclusions Our Hypothesis was proven correct. As the participants looked at the pictures, they displayed signs of synesthesia, as they connected the music with what they saw emotionally; chromasthesia, in how the music evoked certain colors; and physiognomic perception, as certain students gave the pictures more animate and dynamic qualities “It is through the indirect route of general bodily feelings that the phenomena of sound, color, touch, taste, and odor can exert reciprocal influences, because they develop out of a common primitive level[…]” based on the whole prior to any separation into discrete sense modalities.” In regards to smell, this did not affect the participants and definitely could have been taken out of the research. The only smell that seemed to affect them was the Tuna, because some liked it and some did not. In comparing the young adults vs. the children, we could not determine who was affected more, because our participants seemed to be affected in the same way and the same amount. “But in our technologically advanced society, in which so many of us have lost our sensitivity to the natural world, Werner showed where this sensitivity is to be found.” Crain. 111 Werner. Comparative Psychology of Mental Development

Limitations If we were to do this research again, we would test more students all together, or at least more students from other age groups We would take out the smell aspect, because it did seem to have any affect on the study We would have the 3rd graders separated more- boys could hear music and hear us talking Separate the college boys because they were joking around a lot Also, we would have taken out some of the emotions

Works Cited Werner, H., Barten, S. S., & Franklin, M. B. (1978). Unity of the Senses. In Developmental processes: Heinz Werner's selected writings (Vol. 1, General Theory and Perceptual Experience, pp. 153-167). New York: International Universities Press. Werner, H. (1948). Comparative Psychology of Mental Development. New York: International Universities Press. Valsiner, J. (2005). Heinz Werner and developmental science. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Crain, W. C. (1980). Theories of development: Concepts and applications. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.