Heinz Werner Joirdan Cole and Meghan Frost

Heinz Werner Born in 1890 Grew up in Vienna, Austria Very studious Played music – took up playing the violin when he was 7 years old After completing the Gymnasium (high school), he thought about becoming an engineer but he changed his mind and entered the University of Vienne hoping to become a composer or an music historian At the university his interests quickly broadened to philosophy and psychology This change came when he accidently went to the wrong lecture hall one day, he had thought he was attending a music class but found himself listening to a lecture on the philosophy of Kant

More about Werner… He became engrossed in the topic and soon decided to major in philosophy and psychology (two fields were still combined) Werner’s interest in music still remained Wrote his doctoral dissertation on the philosophy of aesthetic enjoyment In 1917 Werner joined the Psychological Institute at Hamburg, where he participated in a discussion about a new psychological movement, Gestalt psychology

Gestalts Gestalt psychologists argued that when we perceive things, we perceive whole forms, gestalts, which cannot be analyzed in terms of their separate elements Our experience of forms is governed by organizing forces in the central nervous system Gestalt psychologists tried to show the principles at which these forces work – 1 st principle = closure, tendency to complete patterns – 2 nd principle = perception, too see two things as the same form but in different elements

The Orthogenic Principle Development process from a relative lack of differentiation and grows to an increased state of differentiation and hierarchic integration. Hierarchic integration – higher regulating centers

Self-Object Differentiation Gradual process by which children separate themselves from their environment 3 levels: infancy, childhood and adolescence Sensorimotor-affective level = infants hardly experience an outside world apart from their own immediate actions, sensations and feelings; they only know the objects that they suck on, feel and grasp (etc.) Perceptual level = perceiving things “out there,” apart from themselves; gain a measurement of objectivity; their perceptions remain strongly bound up with their actions and feelings Conceptual level = begin to think in a very general and abstract dimension

Unity of the Senses We perceive objects as full of the same dynamic forces we feel within ourselves Physiognomic perception is based on synesthesia Synesthesia is the syncretic unity of the senses Colors or sounds invade us or envelop us or fill us up Werner believed that various senses influenced one another through general bodily feelings

Synesthete Dying I heard a fly buzz when I died; The stillness round my form Was like the stillness in the air Between the heaves of storm. The eyes beside had wrung them dry, And breaths were gathering sure For that last onset, when the king Be witnessed in his power. I willed my keepsakes, signed away What portion of me I Could make assignable, —and then There interposed a fly, With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, Between the light and me; And then the windows failed, and then could not see to see. Emily Dickinson (1830—1886)

Summarizing Critical Terms Hierarchically integrated – behaviors come under the control of higher regulating center Differentiation – occurs when a global whole separates into parts with different forms or functions Orthogenic principle – “Whenever development occurs, it proceeds from a state of relative lack of differentiation to a state of increasing differentiation and hierarchic integration Microgenesis – the developmental process that occurs each time we confront a task Microgentic mobility – to regress farther back and fully utilize both primitive and advanced forms of thinking Eidetic imagery – photographic memory Gemetric-technical – to perceive objects in terms of shape, length, hue, width and other objective, measureable properties. Onomatopoeic – sounding like what it means Physiognomic – to respond to something a certain way to indicate unity with an object; feeling, perceiving “with” it

Research Questions 1.How do the senses influence children’s choice? 2.Will children in the 2nd and 3rd grades be more indecisive as they are subjected to more stimuli? 3.Which sense (of smell, sound, feel and taste) influences children most? 4.How will the children explain their reasoning for picking the professions? 5.Will boys or girls demonstrate more physiognomic responses? 6.Will younger children respond in a more physiognomic way than older children?

Hypothesis In our opinion the two drastic controls (pictures of the professions and the pictures with the addition of the sensual appeal) will show a major contrast. With that being said, the sense we believe that will have the singular most affect on students’ decision is taste. We think synesthesia will affect more children than not. Taste is the sense that we think will appeal to most children, and we expect that the influence of the stimuli: the cookie, to cause children to select the occupation of a baker. Initially, we expect the children’s reasoning to be based on influences of parents, teachers, and friends, but after being exposed to the controlled stimuli, we expect that the explanations will incorporate sensual appeal. We believe that boys will respond in a more physiognomic way than girls because girls typically mature and develop sooner than boys. Physiognomic activity is associated with lower stages of self object-differentiation and because we are using the concept that girls mature faster than boys, it is logical that girls will be able demonstrate higher stages of self object-differentiation and therefore be less physiognomic. Keeping in mind that a child becomes more conceptual in his/her development over time, we think that older children we not be as easily influenced in the study.

Setting Holy Family of Nazareth Classrooms of a 2 nd and 3 rd Graders Students sat their own desks Presented the project to them from the front of the classroom Walked around the room answering questions, giving the children a better view of the pictures and passing out the material

Research Procedure 1.We asked a group of 32 students to look at 4 pictures of different professions. The pictures were of a pediatrician, a circus ringmaster, a musician, and a baker. We had the students sit in their normal classroom environment. 2. We then asked the students, “Which of the four professions would you like to be when you grow up?” 3. After hearing the student’s answers we then asked them why they had chosen that to be their profession. 4. After collecting data, we then moved on to the second experimental aspect. 5. We tested to see if the students’ answers changed based upon sensual appeal. 6. We presented the 4 different senses to them. 7. First, we started with the sense of feel by having the children touch a soft blanket. 8. Second, we had the students smell popcorn. 9. Third, the students listened to music. 10. Fourth, we provided cookies for the students to taste. 11. After each sense we asked the children which profession they would like to be when they grew up? 12. If the student’s changed their profession, we asked them to explain what made them change their mind. 13.After collecting all the necessary data, we made a conclusion based upon our observations.

Script Hello, my name is Meghan and this is Joirdan. We are doing a school project and would like your help. Is everybody okay with helping us? First we need to make sure nobody has any allergies or diet restrictions. Does anybody in this class have allergies or diet restrictions? (address any issues) Let’s get started. Please take on handout and do not flip it over. We are going to show you a series of four pictures. After you have seen all four pictures please fill out the front side of the worksheet. When you are finished, please raise your hand. We are going to wait for everyone to finish before moving to the second part of our project so please be patient. Are there any questions? (answer all questions and show pictures) Please begin filling out your sheets. (wait) Is anyone still working? Now we would like to move on to the second part of our project. We are going to show the four pictures again, but this time there will be an added feature to each picture. Are there any questions? (go through with project) Can everyone please flip over their handout and fill out the back page. Again, when you are finished please raise your hand and this time we will collect your papers. Any questions? (collect paper) Thank ya’ll for your help!

Rubric Points Distribution Students received zero points if their responses seemed completely unaffected by the presented stimuli. The students will receive one point for writing an explanation that relates to the senses. The child will receive two points if the occupation they selected changes regardless of their reasoning. The student may earn up to three points if the reason for a change in job reflects any aspect of sensual appeal created in the project. Werner This would be a situation in which no physiognomic language was present in any part of the handout returned to us (Werner, p ) In this part a child may already be drawing upon specific stimuli within their memory and this still reflects synesthesia (Crain, p. 96). Regardless of why the child changed potential occupations, a change in itself indicates that the child was moved by some factor (Werner, p.209). Certain stimuli can cause a related sensation; therefore, a child may change their mind based on a sensation that has been stimulated

Further Explanation There are three parts of the handout we scored: – Reason #1 (possible 1 or 0) – Occupation #2 (possible 0 or 2) – Reason #2 (possible 0 or 3) This scoring system would show children with synesthesia as having more points If we could reevaluate the data we would use more personal judgment on part 3 (Reason2) and give all points (0-3) based on the terminology used by the child The reason we did not do this originally is we wanted our results to be as diplomatic and scientific as possible In theory, the closer a child is to a score of 0, the further they are developmentally

Results NameAge1 st ChoiceReasoningPoints2 nd Choice PointsReasoningPointsTotal Tommy Z. 9 Baker Loves working with batter and family time 0 Ring Master 2 Likes the circus but would rather be a cop 00 Maripatri 9 Baker Likes to cook and there are many aspects 0 Baker 0 Bakers make a lot of different things 00 Lauren 0 Baker Because she likes mixing different foods 0 Baker 0 Because after making the food she might taste it 33 Sharon 9 Musician Because she likes to sing 0 Musician 0 The same reason was given 00 Hayden B. 9 Musician To make money and show it to other people 0 Baker 2 Because he would like to eat his cookies 35 Matthew A. 9 Baker Because he could cook cupcakes 0 Baker 0 Because of cookies 00 Chris G. 9 Musician So that he can be on T.V. 0 Baker 2 Because he can taste his cookies 35 Zachary 9 Musician Because he loves playing instruments 0 Musician 0 Because he likes playing instruments 00 Joshua H. 9 Musician Because he likes to play and feel the music 1 Musician 0 For the same reasons 01 Emily 9 Doctor Because she likes helping 0 Baker 2 You can make sweets and food 02 Alexia 9 Ring Because she can lead the circus and play 0 Baker 2 Because she can make money and eat her creations 35 Joseph U. 9 Baker Because he likes cooking in the kitchen 0 Baker 0 For the same reasons 00 Sophia 9 Baker Because she could save money 0 Baker 0 Because she could bake very good cookies 00 Everett 9 Musician Because he loves music and instruments 0 Baker 2 Because you get to make your own food and eat it 35 Arturo 8 Ring Master Because he wants to teach a circus 0 Baker 2 Because he can cook lots of cookies 02

Results Continued… Kim 8 Baker Because she likes to cook desserts 0 Musician 2 Because she likes to sing all of the time 02 Jorge 8 Ring Master Because he learned piano 0 Ring Master 0 Because he likes playing the piano 00 Josh L. 8 MusicianBecause he likes music 0 Musician 0 Because I love music 00 Savannah 8 MusicianBecause she loves instruments 0 Baker 2 Because she loves to bake 00 Josh S. 8 Baker Because he wants people to try his food 1 Musician 2 Because he could make songs about when he was young 03 William O. 8 Doctor Because he wants to help poor people 0 Baker 2 Because he could give food to the needy 02 Will 8 Baker He would like to bake him and his mom things 0 Baker 0 Because he would like to bake himself a cake 00 Thessaly 7 Baker Because she like to help my mom bake 0 Doctor 2 Because she loves to take care of babies 35 Emily 7 Baker Because she wants to bake like her mom 0 Musician 2 Because she is learning to play the piano 02 Genna 7 Baker Because you get to make birthday cakes 0 Baker 0 Because of the same reasons 00 Ivan B. 7 Doctor He would rather be involved with Tae-kwon-do 0 Doctor 2 Because he gets to do surgery 02 Tiffany 7 Baker Because she wants to make cake & cookies 0 Baker 0 Because I want to bake a cake 00 Elisabeth 7 DoctorBecause you can help people 0 Baker 2 Because you can bake cookies 02 Andrew P. 7 BakerBecause you can make food 0 Baker 0 He would only kind of like to be baker. 02 Bryce 7 Musician Because he loves to sing and play instruments 0 Doctor 2 Because he wants to help people get better and healthier 02 Ben 7 Musician Because he would get to sing for a crowd 0 Musician 0 Because of the same reasons 00 Benjamin N. N/A DoctorBecause he could cure people 0 Baker 2 Because he could taste thinks 35 NameAge1 st ChoiceReasoningPoints2 nd Choice PointsReasoningPointsTotal

Charts

Gender Comparison

Age Comparison

Percentage of Change

Limitations We think that the students that participated in our research study might have been too young. We would have liked to target kids in a slightly older age group, as they would have been more likely to be influenced by their surroundings. One issue we did not initially consider is that the food used in the project might normally be regarded as a treat and reward. To make our study better, if we were to redo it, we would want to use two foods and not necessarily have either be a dessert. The students not only experienced sensual appeal but were also influenced by one another. The results cannot be entirely accredited to the project itself but should also, take into account peer pressure. In addition to classmates, there were other distractions. There is also, a question as to whether or not all students understood the instructions or project. As pointed out earlier, there was at least one ESL student. In addition to this, we also received several questions about answering the question in the same manner. One other problem we encountered, was that there were not enough handouts for the class of third graders. We addressed this issue by asking some students to complete their work on a sheet of loose leaf paper. This may or may not have affected the results, but there was a clear difference in the length of the explanations given by those with a handout compared to those without. Like most other projects, we feel that with a larger pool of students as well as, students with a variety of different backgrounds, that our results would be more accurate and conclusive when considering a population as a whole.

Were we right? YES and no YES! =) Students were definitely affected by synesthesia, and the sense that most affected the children who participated in the study was the sense taste (although, we do admit to a question of validity). Boys did prove to be more physiognomic than girls. no =( We thought that younger students would respond in a more physiognomic way, but the exact opposite proved to be true.

NATURE vs. NURTURE Nature Nurture Werner Werner’s theories indicate that developmental stages play an important role in a child’s life. One must wait for a child to reach a “natural” stage in their life to understand things in the same way as them. A child perceives the world a certain way (in different stages) but can not be taught or forced into the next stage. With this being said, a child may have the resources (based on family and environment) to be exposed to the next stage sooner than peers the same age, and this is why Werner is closer to the middle. In support of this Werner also believes children can continue to go back and forth between stages based on nurturing aspects of his/her life.

Works Cited Crain, William. Theories of Development: Concepts and Applications. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, Dickinson, Emily. Dying. Museum of the Mind:. Heydenberk, Eric and Rob Okrzesik. The Human Brain: An Owner’s Manual – the Emotional Brain. Library Thinkquest. 31 Jul Hofstadter, Albert and Richard Kuhns, ed. Philosophies of Art and Beauty. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, Sylwester, Robert. “How Emotions Affect Learning.” Educational Leadership Oct Jul Wapner, Seymour and Heinz Werner. The Body Precept. New York: Random House, Werner, Heinz. Comparative Psychology of Mental Development. New York: International Universities Press, Inc., Werner, Heinz. Encyclopedia of Psychology Volume 8, p