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Hans-Werner Hunziker, born June 3, 1934 in St.Gallen, is a Swiss educational psychologist, scientist and author of interactive computerbased training programs for special education.

His fields of research are 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 as a factor of tension reduction in visual problem solving], he compared concepts of Guilford(Adaptive Flexibility), Luchins (Einstellung Rigidity), Thurstone (Flexibility of Closure), Adkins (Flexibility of perceptive Closure) and Richard Meili (mental Plasticity) with 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.

He authored a number of multilingual CD-ROMS for special needs education (perception training). 

Biography
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 ) 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 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. Both 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:


 * Jean-Marc (1961), now Country Management Development Leader and Coach for IBM(Switzerland), band leader of | The Soulmates
 *  Alexander (1963), Prof. Dr. oec. publ., director of studies EMBA Public Management at the Professional College, Berne.


 * Eric (1967), musician, composer, sound engineer and multimedia designer; Hintermeister-Gyger award for outstanding compositions. Member of the | Swiss Indian Orchestra

More details can be found under Weblinks.

Publications

 * Plastizität als Faktor der Spannungsüberwindung in Denkaufgaben. Eine feldtheoretisch-faktorenanalytische Untersuchung der Umstrukturierung von Problemsituationen. In: Zeitschrift für experimentelle und angewandte Psychologie. Band 11. 1964, Heft 2, zugleich: Dissertation, Bern 1963
 * Visuelle Informationsaufnahme und Intelligenz: Eine Untersuchung über die Augenfixationen beim Problemlösen. In Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Psychologie und ihre Anwendungen, 1970, 29, Nr 1/2 Summary in English: Visual perception and intelligence: an investigation of the role of eye movements in problem solving.
 * Book: (in German) Audiovisual Learning and Creative Thinking. Theory and Practical Application of Research for the Developement of Interactive Programs. Transmedia, Stäubli Verlag Zürich 1973
 * CD-ROM EAGLE EYE. 1998/2000, ISBN 978-3-7266-0047-1 (visual perception training)
 * CD-ROM SUPER OWL. 2000, ISBN 978-3-7266-0053-2 (auditory perception training)
 * CD-ROM KALKMONSTER. 2001, ISBN 978-3-7266-0062-4 (visual and auditory perception training of numbers and quantities)
 * CD-ROM EAGLE EYE JUNIOR. 2003, ISBN 978-3-7266-0046-4 (visual perception training from 4 to 10 years)
 * CD-ROM SPEEDRAT. 2005, ISBN 978-3-7266-0067-9 (training of high speed recognition of isolated letters and of over 2500 of the most frequent English words in 330 games grouped according to length and similarity)
 * CD-ROM SpassKid. 2006, ISBN 978-3-7266-0073-0 (interaktives Training von gesprochenem und geschriebenem Hochdeutsch aus dem Zusammenhang von Bildgeschichten)
 * Book: (in German) Im Auge des Lesers: foveale und periphere Wahrnehmung - vom Buchstabieren zur Lesefreude [In the eye of the reader: foveal and peripheral perception - from letter recognition to the joy of reading] Transmedia Stäubli Verlag Zürich 2006 ISBN 978-3-7266-0068-6

Weblinks

 * Curriculum

Category:Psychologists Category:Educational psychologists Category:Researchers Category:Non-fiction writers Category:Textbook writers Category:Software Category:Swiss psychologists Category:1934 births Category:Living people