| Hans-Werner Hunziker | |
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Picture taken for the back cover of his book "Im Auge des Lesers (In the Eye of the Reader)", 2006
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| Born | 3 June 1934 St. Gallen, Switzerland |
| Died | 20 July 2011 (aged 77) Thalwil, Switzerland |
| Residence | Thalwil, Switzerland |
| Citizenship | Swiss |
| Fields | psychology |
| Alma mater | Berne U. (Switzerland) |
| Known for | Integration of behavioristic and gestalt views on perception by the concepts of peripheral and foveal vision |
Hans-Werner Hunziker, (June 3, 1934 - July 20, 2011) was a Swiss educational psychologist, scientist and author of interactive computerbased training programs for special education.
His fields of research were visual perception, auditory perception, perception training and reading.
After a year as a graduate assistant (1957/58) at Miami University Ohio Hunziker took his PhD in Psychology and Education from the University of Berne, Switzerland.
In his 1963 Dissertation Plastizität als Faktor der Spannungsüberwindung in Denkaufgaben [Flexibility of closure[1] as a factor of tension reduction in visual problem solving], he compared concepts of J. P. Guilford (Adaptive Flexibility), Abraham S.Luchins (einstellung rigidity),[2] Louis Leon Thurstone (flexibility of closure), Adkins[3] (Flexibility of perceptive closure) and Richard Meili (neuroplasticity) by a factor analysis of visual problem scores.
He integrated behavioristic and gestalt views of perception by the concepts of peripheral and foveal vision.
In 1965 he was the first psychologist to use recordings of eye movements during problem solving for investigating the relationship between visual perception and human intelligence factors.[4]
He authored a number of multilingual CD-ROMS for special needs education (perception training). [1]
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Hunziker's ancestors were farmers in the Swiss midlands and ropemakers from the Toggenburg. His father, Werner Hunziker, a customs officer, was transferred in 1939 and the family (now including his younger brother Peter [2]) moved from St.Gallen to Zürich . In the years 1940 and 1941 (World War II) his father was serving in the Swiss Army and the family moved to Einsiedeln (as they did not feel very safe in Zürich, due to some German bombs that exploded near their home).
In 1942 his father got promoted and the family moved again back to St.Gallen, where his youngest brother Christian [3] was born.
Hunziker then went to a primary school at a rural suburb of St.Gallen, called St.Georgen: first to a very friendly woman teacher and then up to grades 6 to an old-fashioned teacher who was in charge of all corporal punishments of the school.
He was very happy to escape primary school and to enter the St.Gallen High School (Kantonsschule).
In 1950 his father was promoted head of the Swiss Customs Administration in Berne and the family moved to Berne, too.
In 1952 he made some pocket money by assembling radios for a local radio dealer, together with a friend of his (Peter R. Fontana), who later became professor of nuclear physics in the USA. The two of them also coupled a tape recorder with an 8mm movie projector, scripted and produced a screenplay with members of a local youth group.
In 1953 Hunziker graduated from Berne Kirchenfeld High School and started to study Psychology at Berne University while attending the necessary training classes for a secondary school teacher diploma.
During the winter term of 1954/55 he studied at the Sorbonne, Paris, did some paintings and greatly improved his French.
In 1956 he staged a musical, performed by the local boy scouts, at the Casino (the place where Louis Armstrong had performed his first concert in Berne a year earlier). In the same year he took his B.A. in Education.
In 1957 he started his new job as a secondary school teacher in Herzogenbuchsee. A few months later he obtained a scholarship from Miami University, Ohio, where his friend Peter was studying physics. As a scholarship in the USA was something quite exceptional at the time, he got a one year's leave from teaching.
At Miami U. the scholarship was soon transferred into an employment as a graduate assistant for audiovisual aids and psychological testing for two terms (due to his prior experience in movie production and test administration). He enjoyed and took good advantage of his stay. Then he hitch-hiked through the States and Mexico before returning to Herzogenbuchsee in the fall of 1958.
This (and the following) experience was all-important for his further life.
In 1959 he fell in love with and got married to Ursula Berner (daughter of the late lawyer Hans Berner). They had together 3 sons:
More details can be found under the external links section.
Hans-Werner Hunziker in the German National Library catalogue (German)