Heinz Werner

1
Heinz Werner

• Werner published in many areas
• Ethnopsychology
• Animal behavior
• Embryology
• Psychopathology
• Phylogenesis (biological evolution)
• Ontogenesis (development of
• individuals)
• And more
• Commonality Development

2
Werners Search

• Werner wanted one definition of development for
  all areas where it occurs

3
Werners Orthogenetic Principle

• The orthogenetic principle was intended to
  describe all developments
• Ortho direction (orthodontist)
• Genetic origins (genesis) and
• development

4
Werners Orthogenetic Principle

• Werner adopted the biological principle of
  orthogenesis as a process that governs
  psychological development over the long term.
  The idea is that the direction of development is
  towards
• Increasing differentiation and specification of
  primitive action systems that were initially
  fused in a global organization, that causes
• the emergence of action systems that are more
  differentiated and that begin segregated and
  develop to be more integrated over time, such
  that
• the more advanced systems (more differentiated,
  specified and internally integrated)
  hierarchically integrate (subordinate and
  regulate) the less developed systems.
• Langer, J. (1969). Theories of Development. New
  York Holt, Rinehart and Winston

5
Relations Between Behaviors and Organizations

• In order to interpret behaviors (0s and Xs) we
  must know what organizes them (mental
  organizations)
• 01 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5
• 1X 2X 3X 4X 5X
• 01
• 
  0 2 0 5
• 
  0 3 0 4

6
Developmental Coordinates

• Werner differentiated between behaviors and the
  organizations that organize them
• Behaviors
• Syncretic/global Discrete (differentiated)
• (fusion)
• Organizations
• Diffuse Articulated
• Rigid Flexible
• Unstable Stable

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• In humans, the only thing we can observe is their
  behaviors
• The search in cognitive development is for
  invisible mental organizations that produce those
  behaviors
• Two common assumptions about child development
• Improvement in behavior over time (from incorrect
  solutions to correct ones) indicates
  developmental progress of the mental
  organizations that underlie the behaviors
• Poor performance in an area where there had once
  been good performance indicates regression in the
  underlying mental organizations

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• At the core of these two assumptions are deeper
  meta-assumptions
• Meta-Assumption 1
• Behaviors and the mental organizations underlying
  them go hand-in-hand
• Going from incorrect to correct understandings is
  always a product of going from lower to higher
  level mental organizations
• Regression in behaviors is always a product of
  going from higher to lower mental organizations

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• Meta-Assumption 2
• We often think of mental growth as being similar
  to physical growth
• 8-year-olds are as tall as they were when they
  were 4-year-olds, and then some
• 8-year-olds can solve correctly tasks they solved
  when they were 4-year-olds, and then some

10

• I intend to show that these assumptions and
  meta-assumptions are not always correct
• Afterwards I discuss some educational
  implications that result from a different way of
  looking at these assumptions and meta-assumptions
  about the development of childrens thinking

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• The problem through which I present my ideas is
  called ratio comparisons
• Children and adults have been asked to solve
  problems of ratio comparisons
• (Piaget, Bruner, Siegler, Klahr, Karmiloff-Smith)
• In schools, tasks of the following sort are
  often given
• 4/5 gt 3/4
• lt

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• Problems with tasks of this sort
• The use of numbers here is unusual. They
  represent fractions.
• The sign / is unclear.
• Only children who have learned fractions can be
  asked such questions without the experimenter
  being laughed at.

13

• Another way to present tasks about ratio
  comparisons that are appropriate to test even
  childrens understandings of ratio comparisons
• Put sugar in water in order to create a ratio of
  sugar/water that is expressed as the sweetness of
  the water.
• gt lt
• sugar/water
  sugar/water

2
1
14

• The logic of ratios
• Direct Relation A change in the numerator
  (amount of sugar) changes the ratio (sweetness)
  directly.
• Example Adding sugar to water
• increases its sweetness. More leads to more.
• Inverse Relation A change in the denominator
  (amount of water)
• changes the ratio (sweetness)
• inversely
• Example Adding water to a sugar water
  concentration decreases the sweetness. More leads
  to less.

2
1
1
1
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• Proportions A proportional change in both the
  numerator (amount of sugar) and denominator
  (amount of water) results in the same sweetness.
• Example Putting 2 teaspoons of sugar in one
  container filled with water and 1 teaspoon of
  sugar in a second cup that has half the amount of
  water, leads to the same sweetness in both cups.

2
1
16

• Intensivity A physical property that does not
  change despite a change in its amount.
• Example We pour two cups of sugar water (that
  are the same sweetness as a third cup that
  remains untouched) into a fourth empty cup. The
  amounts of sugar and water increase but the
  intensive quantity (sweetness) remains the same.
  
• Other examples of intensivity temperature,
  density, pressure, viscosity

1
1
1
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What is the development of these ratio
comparisons?
18
Percent task solutions across age
100
90
80
70
Correct solutions
60
50
40
30

20
10
0
age
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
2
1
direct
inverse
prop.
intensivity
19
These are group data. They hide individuals
development.What patterns can be found for each
and every child, i.e., how does each child solve
each and every task?
20
Tasks
Intensivity Proportions Inverse Relations Direct Relations
-




1
1
1
1
2
1
2
1
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
21
What is the development of these patterns?
22
Percent Pattern Use By Age
Patterns
Pattern Use
Age
23
These patterns develop in the following
order1 2 3 4 5How can we describe the
developmental patterns according to Werners
orthogenetic principle?
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Intensivity Proportions Inverse Relations Direct Relations Developmental Patterns
- 1. Global
2. Initial Differentiation
3. Full Differentiation
4. Initial Coordination
5. Full Coordination
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
2
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
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• In the intensivity task, what are these solutions
  in the developmental patterns?
• Pattern 1
• Pattern 2
• Pattern 3 -
• Pattern 4 -
• Pattern 5

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Educational Implications

• We should not only look at childrens behaviors
  but also at what gives them meaning mental
  organizations
• Sometimes a drop in performance is due to
  cognitive advance in mental organizations
• Two behaviors that appear identical ( for
  intensivity) can be expressions of different
  mental organizations and, as a consequence, they
  are not identical in their meaning
• Two behaviors that appear to be different (- for
  intensivity and for direct relations) can be
  the product of identical mental organizations
  and, in this sense, they can be formally similar

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• In sum, life is complicated. Things are not
  necessarily as they appear.
• When evaluating childrens thinking, we should
  attempt to determine the mental organizations
  that underlie them
• These mental organizations give meaning to the
  behaviors