Children and their perception of food influenced by music Christy Allen Kelly Regan HEINZ WERNER

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Grew up in Vienna, Austria Very studious boy also very interested in music Stumbled across a psychology class in college and changed his major Joined Psychological Institute in Hamberg where he became involved with Gestalt psychology Kicked out by Nazis and moved to the United States Moved around and finally settled into a positition at Clark University At Clark University: his research consisted of perception, space perception, language and symbolization and clinical research using inkblot tests. “Former students remember Werner as a formal but kindly man who was extremely open-minded and had a rare ability to draw out the best in his students” (Crain, pg 95)

IMPORTANT TERMS AND IDEAS

SELF-OBJECT DIFFERENTIATION -Gradual process by which children separate themselves from their environment Sensorimotor: Infants hardly experience an outside world apart their own immediate actions, sensations and feelings. Only know the objects that they suck on, feel, and grasp No outside world apart from my immediate actions Perceptual: perceiving things out there, apart from themselves, gain a measurement of objectivity The outside world feels and thinks like me. Similar to Childhood Conceptual: begin to think in a very general and abstract dimension Aware of all other people and their point of view (that are different to mine). Adolescence and on… Development is teleological always moving towards an mature end state.

MICROGENETIC MOBILITY The ability to utilize both primitive and advanced forms of thinking. “The more creative the person, the wider his range of operations in terms of developmental level, or in other words, the greater his capacity to utilize primitive as well as advanced operations.” Microgenesis: The developmental process that occurs each time we confront a task. The brain takes a stimuli and filters it through the banks until it can accommodate it. Organisimic Orientation: We should study psychological processes as they occur within the whole, acting, feeling, striving organism. It is a holistic approach to things.

THE ORTHOGENETIC PRINCIPLE Development process from a relative lack of differentiation and grows to an increased state of differentiation and hierarchic integration Differentiation: When a global whole separates into parts with different forms or functions Hierarchic Integration: behaviors come under the control of higher regulating centers

PHYSIOGNOMIC PERCEPTION VS. GEOMETRIC-TECHNICAL PERCEPTION Geometric-Technical perception: - how we perceive an object in terms of objective, rigid, and measurable properties - More realistic and matter of fact - Everyday life Physiognomic Perception -The way in which one perceives and reacts to dynamic emotional stimuli - developmentally early ability in which there is little differentiation between perceptual, motor, and imaginal processes - No separation between personal and impersonal qualities, perceived in context of feeling and action. - Animate and expresses some inner form of life

SYNESTHESIA: UNITY OF THE SENSES -Werner believed that initially all senses flowed together in one common feeling, which is known as the sensorium commune. - This is explains the existence of synaesthetic experiences, in which sounds are simultaneously experienced as colors and colors as sounds. -One specific stimulus many arouse not only the specifically corresponding sensation, but a second sensation with the first -Color-tone synaesthesia: when the perceiving individual sees color while listening to tone - Furthermore, this exemplifies that “stimuli presented to different sensory domains influence each other and that organization of a stable and articulated perceptual world is rooted in and develops out of vital sensations”.

OUR PROJECT OVERVIEW: Guiding Questions: What influences a child’s perception? Can perception of food be completely changed by simple discoloration of the picture? Or by background music? Does a child’s preference towards the different kinds of food affect their perception of them? Does age influence the effect of synesthesia? Hypotheses: The children will perceive food differently based on the music and color. If the music is upbeat there will be a positive reaction, or if it is somber there will be a negative perception. The same applies to vivid versus sephia tone pictures. The older a child gets the more likely they are to perceive the pictures objectively with cognitive thought than be swayed by the influences on their senses

OUR SUBJECTS AND PROCEDURE: Subjects: We tested at Norton Elementary School The subjects were boys and girls from the second and third grade classes, ages 7-9 Procedure: First picture: Broccoli Second Picture: Ice Cream Third Picture: Doritos Fourth Picture: Broccoli with circus music Fifth Picture: Ice Cream with circus music Sixth Picture: Doritos with circus music Seventh Picture: Broccoli with funeral march Eight Picture: Ice Cream with funeral march Ninth Picture: Doritos with funeral march Tenth Picture: Discolored broccoli Eleventh Picture: Discolored ice cream Twelfth Picture: Discolored Doritos

RESULTS: 1: Did not respond consistent with theories in any way 2: Had one response consistent with theory 3: Had two- three responses consistent with theory 4: Responded completely consistent with theory Color – 7 yrs Color – 8 yrs Color – 9 yrs

DEVELOPMENT OF SYNESTHESIA: AGES

DEVELOPMENT OF SYNESTHESIA: GENDER

RESULT CONCLUSIONS: Children’s Age Synesthesia A majority of the participants especially the younger children’s results were influenced by the music. For example, Joshua said he did not like broccoli (gross, awful, icky) without the music, with the music (carnival music) he choose yummy, delcisious, I love it for words that describe broccoli, and for the funeral music, he choose icky, horrible, and mom makes me eat it for words that describe broccoli Children of all ages were greatly influenced by the color of the picture. Almost all the children responded negatively to the sephia toned picture.

IF REPEATED: Bigger group of kids Even number of boys and girls Even distribution of ages Simpler data collection tool Kids were sitting close together, might have influenced their responses Less complex procedure They were distracted by lunch, time constraints Wider range of ages

Nature versus Nurture NatureNurture Development cannot be prompted, one must wait until the child reaches the particular stage. He/she cannot be forced to learn or percieve the world in a certain way.