Microgenetic analysis of a learning task

Abstract

The present study was devised to test some aspects of developmental psychology as expressed in the writings of Heinz Werner. In particular this study attempted inquiry as to the applicability of microdevelopment or microgenesis to the learning proces, a cognitive function heretofore not viewed with respect to these theoretical principles. A review of the literautre indicated that the developmental postulates (development occurs as an unfolding process, beginning with an undifferentiated mode, followed by a mode of articulation and followed then by an integrative mode) would seem to apply to a vast sweep of phenomena relevant to the study of psychology. The principles apply to embryology, to the development of response behavior in subhuman species, to the development of human motor behavior, language, personality and to psychodiagnostics. Furthermore, Werner was impressed by the German experiments in "Aktualgenese" (the study of percept development) which indicated that the development of a percept parallels the ontogenetic developmental process. Werner coined the term "microgenesis" as an approximate translation of the German idiom and postulated that any cognitive act follows the developmental pattern. [TRUNCATED]