Hayne W. Reese

Models of Development and Theories of Development

ABSTRACT Models, which originate in metaphor, exist on several levels ranging from all inclusive metaphysical models to narrowly circumscribed models of specific features of theories. Models at the more general levels form the determining logical context for models at lower levels. This categorical determinism stretches from metaphysical levels through scientific theories, to the manner in which we analyze, interpret, and make inferences from empirical evidence. Two radically different models which have had a pervasive effect upon the nature of psychology generally and developmental psychology specifically are the organismic and mechanistic world views. The history and nature of those models are discussed and the manner in which they become transformed into corrolary issues which form the metatheoretical basis for theory construction is analyzed. Theories built upon different world views are logically independent and cannot be assimilated to each other. They reflect different ways of looking at the world and, as such, are incompatible in their implications.

Conceptual Prerequisites for an Understanding of Stability-Change and Continuity-Discontinuity

Divergent understandings of the nature of development result from incompatible philosophical assumptions or world views. One perspective maintains that reality is best represented as stable and fixed, and as a consequence development or change is understood as a function of antecedent causes. A second perspective maintains that reality is best represented as active and changing, and as a consequence the course of development does not permit antecedent causal explanation. Implications for the investigation and explanation of development are discussed. A major implication of the determining influence of the two world views involves the continuity-discontinuity issue, i.e., the issue of the appearance of novelty during the course of development and the explanation of novelty. The stability perspective asserts a strict continuity in that it allows for no gaps in antecedent-consequent causal sequences. The activity and change perspective permits discontinuity.

Effects of intellectual variables, age, and gender on divergent thinking in adulthood

Divergent thinking was assessed in 400 adult women and men with tests of word association (associational ‘ uency) and alternate uses (production ‘ uency, ‘ exibility, and originality). The participants were from four age cohorts: young (17-22 years old), middle-aged (40-50), young-old (60-70), and old-old (75+). The test battery also included two intellectual “process” variables (inductive reasoning, memory span), one “dynamic resource variable” (intellectual speediness), one “structural resource variable” (vocabulary), and two moderator variables (depression, education). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that divergent thinking was significantly, linearly, positively, and moderately related to all of these variables except depression, which was not significantly related to divergent thinking. Effects of age group and gender were assessed in analyses of variance (alpha = .01). The age groups did not differ significantly in associational ‘ uency, but the middle-aged group was the best on production ‘ uency, ‘ exibility, and originality. Gender had a significant effect on only one variable: Women had higher depression scores than men.

Discrimination learning Set in Children

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the “discrimination learning set” in children. The discrimination learning set (or “learning set”) has been thoroughly investigated, and despite the use of many different experimental procedures, a standard technique for establishing a learning set can be described. The subject is made to practice numerous two-stimulus simultaneous discrimination problems, using a different pair of stimuli in each problem. In each problem, one stimulus is correct; the position of the correct stimulus is shifted to the right and left in a randomly determined order, and each response to the correct stimulus is rewarded. Some small, fixed number of trials is given on each problem, after which a new pair of stimulus objects is introduced, thereby initiating a new problem, and the fixed number of trials is given on the new problem. Improvements from problem to problem in the performance level on a given within-problem trial are used as a measure of interproblem transfer or learning-set formation.

Educational trajectory and “action orientation”: Grade and track differences

A life-span developmental perspective suggests that variations in social context will lead to differences among individuals in their “action orientations.” An action orientation is defined by an individuals values, control beliefs, goal orientation, and decision-making perspective. To investigate differences in the action orientations of adolescents embedded in different contexts, 83 sophomore and senior high school students on either a vocational training or college-preparatory trajectory participated in the study. A discriminant function analysis of action orientations showed that the action orientations of vocational training and college-preparatory students differed: College-preparatory students had a “career preparation” action orientation and vocational students had an “adult preparation” action orientation; also, sophomores may have had a “socializing” orientation. The findings are discussed in terms of the developmental tasks facing students in different grades and on different life-course trajectories.

The development of memory: life-span perspectives.

Publisher Summary Although there is no single study of memory development across the entire life-span, from infancy through old age, an extensive research has been carried out on memory in childhood and in old age. This chapter compares the data from these two age periods to show that a life-span perspective can influence the study of memory development by influencing the development of an explanatory model, the selection of specific research methodologies, and the direction of research programs. The research on the two age periods is surveyed separately, is compared, and finally the implications of the comparison are discussed focusing on the field of child development.

Rules and Rule-Governance

The major purpose of this chapter is to analyze cognitive views of rules and rule-governance, but major aspects of behavioristic views of rules and rule-governance are also analyzed. These views are analyzed herein from their own perspectives because criticizing a cognitive view for being nonbehavioristic or a behavioristic view for being noncognitive would be at best self-congratulatory and would not promote understanding of the views.

Contextualism and Developmental Psychology

Publisher Summary This chapter explicates the contextualistic world view and some of its implications for developmental psychology. It deals with developmental implications of the mechanistic and organic world views, which were the predominant world views in American developmental psychology. More recently, the contextualistic world view has gained ground, but some of the gains attributed to it have been misattributions because of misinterpretations of the view. The development of learning, memory, problem solving, and other cognitive processes is more strongly “canalized” during childhood than during adulthood and old age. That is, development in adulthood exhibits more plasticity and stronger environmental influences than in childhood. Consequently, several investigators have concluded that the contextualistic world view is more appropriate than the mechanistic and organic world views as a model or framework for understanding adult development. Contextualism is more appropriate because of its openness to change and its denial of fixity of antecedent-consequent relations, that is, its insistence on the possibility of many-to-one and one-to-many relations rather than one-to-one or even many-to-one if one-to-many is denied. For the same reasons, the contextualistic world view has also seemed more appropriate than the mechanistic and organic world views as a model or framework for understanding development across the entire life span.

Models of memory and models of development.

The creation of a model of memory development requires the merging of a memory model and a developmental model. The models to be merged must be derived from a single world view to avoid confusion. Ass

Acquired distinctiveness and equivalence of cues in young children

Abstract Kindergarten and first- and second-grade children were given acquired distinctiveness, acquired equivalence, or control pretraining, then a successive-discrimination transfer task. The acquired distinctiveness pretraining significantly facilitated performance on the transfer task, and the acquired equivalence pretraining significantly interfered with performance. The acquired distinctiveness effect persisted, and did not change in magnitude over trials; the acquired equivalence effect was significant only early in transfer. The results suggest that the basis of the effects is not rehearsal or perceptual differentiation, may be attentional or mediational, and is most likely cognitive.