Bärbel Inhelder

Information Processing Tendencies in Recent Experiments in Cognitive Learning—Empirical Studies

Piaget’s theory concerns cognitive development and developmental epistemology. It is therefore not surprising that such a theory is itself constantly developing. New problems are being raised, new methods are applied to deal with these problems, and explanatory models are refined and readjusted to account for new findings. Piaget showed that cognitive development has a direction, and proceeds toward increasingly better adaptation of the knowing subject to the reality that is the object of his knowledge. Through intensive and detailed study of the acquisition of various concepts (number, weight, volume, space, time, causality, probability, and others) it was possible to determine the underlying structures of thought that allow attainment of these concepts. Subsequently, it was possible to establish a hierarchy within these structures and to hypothesize their possible filiation. These structures have been formalized in algebraic form, as grouplike structures and semilattices for the preformal stages of thought, and as lattices and groups for the formal stage. The structures are atemporal and reflect the possibilities of a total system, but to locate the formative mechanisms that can explain the transition from one stage to another, we have to go beyond such structural models. Piaget and his collaborators have become increasingly interested in dynamic models, more specifically in self-regulatory mechanisms.

GENETIC EPISTEMOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

ion.” Such abstraction takes place when the subject derives from his actions and operations certain principles that lead t o a new organization when he is confronted with a new problem. For example, at the level of concrete operations, the child is already capable of substituting one criterium for another (shifting), and of conserving the whole in whatever way it has been divided into parts (Inhelder and Piaget, 1964). This is a manifestation of what has been called “vicariance”. Subsequently, by reflexive abstraction, this concept leads t o the idea of a division of one and the same totality into all its possible parts. Through this abstraction, which is accompanied by a constructive generalization, the subject reaches the logicomathematical concept of the set of all subsets. The different links between the parts form a combinatory system, one of the most fundamental structures of formal 0perati0ns.l~ We have said that reflexive abstraction is always accompanied by constructive generalizations. Just as we have t o distinguish two kinds of abstraction, empirical abstraction bearing on objects and their properties, and reflexive abstraction bearing on the actions of the subject, two kinds of generalizations have also t o be distinguished; one simply extends an already existing concept and involves n o more than a verification of the transition from some to all. Whereas the other can indeed be called constructive, since it introduces new combinations o r operations on operations (such as combinatory systems and the set of all subsets). At a lower level an example of constructive genera l i~a t ion’~ is the following. The child is given ten sticks of different lengths correctly seriated, and is asked: Inhelder: Genetic Epistemology 337 “How many sticks are there that are bigger than this tiny one?” The child easily shows the smallest stick and correctly counts the others. Then the experimenter shows the biggest stick and asks, “And how many are smaller than this one?” The five-to-six-year-old will then count the sticks again, whereas one or two years later he will laugh and immediately answer, “Nine also, of course,” Such constructive generalization is the main mechanism of progress in mathematics, and it is striking that it should already be present in the child. The relationship between reflexive abstraction and constructive generalization is necessarily a very close one; each abstraction leads sooner or later t o constructive generalizations, and each generalization is based on reflexive abstractions.

The Development of the Concepts of Chance and Probability in Children

It is both stimulating and gratifying to see great physicists and mathematicians interested in the developmental psychology of certain basic concepts of their topic. Einstein was the first to suggest to Piaget the analysis of the relation between the concepts of speed and time in children. Now it is particularly Rosenfeld, in the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, who through his original insights as theoretician and historian of physics is giving new incentives to the Genevan research in the genetic epistemology of causality. We feel honored by this current interest in our past studies on the concept of random events in children. This research was done by Piaget and myself with a team of colleagues some time age [the complete body of research may be found in Piaget and Inhelder (1951)]. If we had to do it today with all the knowledge we have acquired on cognitive development in general, we could do so from a more sophisticated conceptual and methodological standpoint. In any case, a specialist on probability theory generated our research on random situations by asking us whether in every “normal” person (i.e., neither a scientist nor mental patient) there is an intuition of probability just as there is an intuition of primary numbers.

Si quieres avanzar, hazte con una teoría

ResumenAunque las investigaciones de Ginebra han proporcionado un analisis detallado de las estructuras cognitivas, nuestro conocimiento de los procesos cognitivos sigue siendo fragmentario. El interes se centra ahora no solo en el macro-desarrollo sino tambien en los cambios que tienen lugar en las secuencias de accion espontanea de los ninos en microformacion. Estan en marcha una serie de experimentos disenados con el fin de estudiar la conducta dirigida hacia una meta. Este articulo describe las secuencias de accion de 67 sujetos entre 4;6 y 9;5 anos en una tarea de equilibrio de bloques. No es un estudio de la comprension de una nocion especifica por parte de los ninos, sino un intento por abrir el camino a la comprension de los procesos mas generales de la conducta cognitiva. El analisis se centra en la interaccion entre las secuencias de accion de el nino y sus teorias implicitas, que el observador infiere a partir de las secuencias mas que de sus comentarios verbales. Se pone enfasis en el papel de...

Language and thought: Some remarks on Chomsky and Piaget

The author analyzes pertinent aspects of Piagets and Chomskys point of view on language and thought, indicating the similarities in their attempts to understand the underlying structures of both functions. The major difference between Chomsky and Piaget is that the latter considers all cognitive acquisitions, including language, to be the outcome of the gradual process of construction; whereas the former seems to be assuming as innate a general ability to synthesize the successive levels reached by an increasingly complex cognitive organization. Citing examples drawn from ongoing research in Geneva, the author also challenges Chomskys assertion that there exist highly innate specific capacities which account for the principles underlying the development of scientific knowledge.

Information-Processing Tendencies in Recent Experiments in Cognitive Learning

Piaget’s theory concerns cognitive development and developmental epistemology. It is therefore not surprising that such a theory is itself constantly developing. New problems are being raised, new methods are applied to deal with these problems, and explanatory models are refined and readjusted to account for new findings. Piaget has shown that cognitive development has a direction and proceeds toward better and better adaptation of the knowing subject to the reality that is the object of his knowledge. Through intensive and detailed study of the acquisition of various concepts (number, weight, volume, space, time, causality, probability, and others), it was possible to determine the underlying structures of thought that allow the attainment of these concepts. Subsequently, it was possible to establish a hierarchy within these structures and to hypothesize their possible derivation. These structures have been formalized in algebraic form as grouplike structures and semilattices for the preformal stages of thought and as lattices and groups for the formal stage. The structures are atemporal and reflect the possibilities of a total system but to apprehend the formative mechanisms that can explain the transition from one stage to another, we have to go beyond such structural models. Piaget and his collaborators have become increasingly interested in dynamic models, more specifically in self-regulatory mechanisms.

CHAPTER 6A – INFORMATION PROCESSING TENDENCIES IN RECENT EXPERIMENTS IN COGNITIVE LEARNING—EMPIRICAL STUDIES

Publisher Summary nThis chapter discusses information processing tendencies in cognitive learning—empirical studies. Piagets theory concerns cognitive development and developmental epistemology. Cognitive development has a direction. Through intensive and detailed study of the acquisition of various concepts, the underlying structures of thought that allow attainment of these concepts can be determined. From a biological viewpoint, all regulations during development go beyond the mere maintenance of equilibrium. They originate through compensation for perturbations arising either in the organism or its environment and result in new constructions. Similarly, in psychological development, incomplete systems or partial systems that conflict with one another are enlarged or integrated through regulatory mechanisms. An important aspect of such mechanisms resides in post-hoc corrections that modify action schemes. There is an interaction between the knowing subject and the objects that are to be known. Objects can only be known, in closer and closer approximation, through the activity of the subject himself.

Thought and Language

This paper, written on the half-century anniversary of Jean Piaget’s first book, The Language and Thought of the Child (French ed., 1923), does not claim to be an original contribution to this problem. Rather, our aim is to review some of the essential aspects of Piaget’s position with regard to language and cognition.