Heinz WernerWerner published in many areas:

•Ethnopsychology•Animal behavior•Embryology•Psychopathology•Phylogenesis (biological evolution)•Ontogenesis (development of individuals)•And more

Commonality: Development

Werner’s Search

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

Werner’s Orthogenetic Principle

The orthogenetic principle was intended to describe all developments

Ortho = direction (orthodontist) Genetic = origins (genesis) and

development

Werner’s 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:

1. Increasing differentiation and specification of primitive action systems that were initially fused in a global organization, that causes

2. the emergence of action systems that are more differentiated and that begin segregated and develop to be more integrated over time, such that

3. 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

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

Developmental Coordinates Werner differentiated between behaviors and the organizations that

organize them

Behaviors

Syncretic/global Discrete (differentiated)(fusion)

Organizations

Diffuse ArticulatedRigid FlexibleUnstable Stable

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

1. Improvement in behavior over time (from incorrect solutions to correct ones) indicates developmental progress of the mental organizations that underlie the behaviors

2. Poor performance in an area where there had once been good performance indicates regression in the underlying mental organizations

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

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

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 children’s thinking

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 > 3/4

<

Problems with tasks of this sort:

1. The use of numbers here is unusual. They represent fractions.

2. The sign “/” is unclear.

3. Only children who have learned fractions can be asked such questions without the experimenter being laughed at.

Another way to present tasks about ratio comparisons that are appropriate to test even children’s 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.

=>

<

sugar/water sugar/water

2 1

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

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.

21

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

What is the development of

these ratio comparisons?

2 1

age

Percent task solutions across age

0102030405060708090

100 %

Co

rre

ct

so

luti

on

s

direct inverse prop. intensivity

1 1 2 1 1 1 1

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?

Tasks

Direct Relations

Inverse Relations

ProportionsIntensivity

-

+ +

+ +

+

+ +

+ + + +

-

- -

- - -

- -

11 22 11 111

What is the development of

these patterns?

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

12345

Age

% P

atte

rn U

se

Percent Pattern Use By Age

Patterns

These patterns develop in the following order:

1 2 3 4 5

How can we describe the developmental patterns according to Werner’s orthogenetic principle?

Developmental

Patterns

Direct Relations

Inverse

RelationsProportionsIntensivity

1. Global -

+ +

2. Initial Differentiation + +

3. Full Differentiation +

4. Initial Coordination + +

5. Full Coordination + + + +

-

- -

- - -

- -

11 22 11 111

In the intensivity task, what are these solutions in the developmental

patterns?Pattern 1 +Pattern 2 +Pattern 3 -Pattern 4 -Pattern 5 +

Educational Implications We should not only look at children’s 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

In sum, life is complicated. Things are not necessarily as they appear.

When evaluating children’s thinking, we should attempt to determine the mental organizations that underlie them

These mental organizations give meaning to the behaviors