Man ... racing against all odds ... this feels terrible
Ok, here we go … Worldwide traveler checking in …
Ok . ok … it’s obvious we’re dressing now for comfort over looks. But, figured we better be comfortable. We shut the door and turned on the air too. Even put on our new “power” tennis. Hehhe … Maybe then as soon as we finish the first paper, we can stop by at the post office. K … k … made sure we had the newer addresses … Just four left to go. Hmm, seems like we should be stopping by at the bank too. Sr. gave us our check yesterday. Ok, so far two things to do … we got smokes and gas and clean clothes. AND, we got dinners in the freezer. All set.
Next, we need to write that magic word … ok you … lets do it! Coffee, smokes, book, half done paper, write!
Paper …
Due to genes, environment and interactions we build mental skills that mature with our experiences (Sternberg, 2003). The changes are qualitative and quantitative and seem to follow innate preferences exercised from stimulization when we are ready to learn. Some studies report that infants who can handle more are usually more intelligent, but all infants and children influence their environment through various levels of interactions; they become in synch. The application of thinking increases in sophistication, engagement, complexity, and flexibility as we age. All three sets of theories, Piaget’s, Vygotski’s, and information-processing takes these considerations into account.
Piaget specialized in concept formation and he concluded that children used logical systems to adapt to their environment (Sternberg, 2003). He thought some operated more from habits and reflexes and some developed means that were insightful and complex and showing an ability to store information representationally in symbols that could be manipulated. As we grow, we specialize in that which interests us. He thought that each child attempts to reach a balanced state of equilibrium and to aid this process, each developed schemas. Piaget introduced the concepts of assimilation where the child brought in new information to supplement the old information and accommodation where the child changed their schema’s to fit new information.
Piaget developed four stages, sensorimotor, pre-operative, concrete-operation, and formal-operation. One of the necessary learning steps in the first stage was to develop object permanence that allowed the infant/child to internally represent mental objects as thoughts. During the second stage the child begins verbalizing and through manipulation of words learns to represent objects and actions. In the third stage, the child can manipulate mentally the concrete objects that before he could only hold in his mind. Through the appearance of what he senses he can develop rules of order. During the fourth stage the child can manipulate abstract thoughts and the experiences of others.
Piaget was limited in his theorizing due to the clinical nature of his studies and his studies relied on the child’s internal maturation more than environment, Vygotski’s studies on the other hand relied more on the child’s responsiveness to his environment. Piaget also thought the developmental stages “occurred in a fixed sequence of discontinuous spurts across task domains, tasks, and contexts” (Sternberg, 2003) where Vygotski thought developmental stages were more contiguous. Piaget hadn’t developed a schema that could hold derivatives of why children appeared unable to reason inductively, or deductively.
Vygotski thought that children learn through internalizing contextual aspects of their environment that is more determined by what happens to the child in interaction more than Piaget who had theorized that the child was first filling his egocentric needs determined by states of disequilibrium. It appears to be a difference of the child’s needs compared to the environmental needs. A simple example of the difference could be given in that my four month old granddaughter cries because she is uncomfortable. From outward appearance my son responds to his new daughter often at a level of helping her to stop crying. Peace of mind and quiet are environmental needs would be emphasized as part of the infant’s learning supported by Vygotsky, where hunger cessation is supported by Piaget in an egocentric manner. The infant is taking care of self. Secondarily my son does care about the infant being dry, fed, and without gas, and in both theories the child is being cared for, but according to Vygotsky’s theories most likely the child is learning not only that crying gets one fed and changed and burped, but those things cared for seems to calm Daddy. She would not be able to separate out her experience from her fathers, which drew Vygotsky to a conclusion that children scaffold their learning experiences around the others’ care he or she is closest to.
Information-processing of skills is a third means to look at cognitive development. In this respect, psychologists are interested in “how” people practice what is needed to learn. There is no one main thread to this format of development; it is more a combination of all the cognitive therapists work who have contributed through experiments toward the processing of information on human life. The two processes of completing this work are domain general where a process is defined and developed, then checked out for accuracy against various situations, or domain specific where a process is starting from the specific and building a case, such as the difference respectively of anyalsis and synthesis. One aspect of these skills discussed was that of metamemory, which involves “understanding and control of cognitive processes” (Sternberg, 2003). Dependent on age and intellectual ability, children learn to develop better skills through the rehearsal of information and in monitoring their environment and regulating your thoughts by thinking about thoughts.
Further studies in information-processing consider quantitative and visuospatial skills and inductive reasoning. Quantitative skills reflect a process of validifying a correct response dependent on confidence level, or if confidence is low, a process of returning to memory in an attempt to complete cycles of thought, between what is known to what is unknown, but of interest. Through practice one learns to develop speed and accuracy. Spatial visualization is “our ability to orient ourselves in our surroundings and to manipulate images of objects mentally” (Sternberg, 2003). This also improves through age and variation of experiences. Encoding and decoding allow us to be more efficient and in particular gives us an advantage in relating objects to one another and through trial the processes become more automatic. Because the process of inductive reasoning leads us to more questions than it answers, we can only gauge our perception of reality according to the appearance of our theories and models. Most often, we can only rightfully say, “it seems like …” or, “it appears to be …”
In then comparing and contrasting different theories, we would suggest that it be unlikely that any one theorist such as Piaget, Vygotski, or Freud would ever hold as much market in the field of psychology, because at this point in history it is the collective weight of so many theorists that seem to show general truths. The farther back in time one goes the more distant the theorist stands from what is known compared to what may be idealized as a given truth. The similarities are that throughout time, people have thought about thinking and have tried to assert their beliefs on what is real and unreal. The difference is that the more recent studies are tested out against social groups to search for consistencies and inconsistencies of thought. To be held as a truth a thought has to be testable and as all good research proves retestable. Just as before though, psychologists can do no more than to suggest the probability of any one phenomena over and against another. Due to the variety of people that inhabit the Earth, it seems that there is a flux of information as to how we all process and learn. The few consistencies are mainly physiological such as we all need to eat, drink, eliminate, and sleep. The current trend of psychology is to tie what happens to the mind with what is happening to the brain and other bodily functions.
The similarity of all three theoretical processes is the development of the human being … in each case we become more efficient and effective as we become more complex. Our abilities and skills add and produce to our achievements. The differences lay in the continuity of our development and whether the theorist works from greater to lesser, lesser to greater, or a combination of both. It seems that we are more conscientious in recent development as to the acceptance of using both. There seems to be less argument as to rationalism versus empiricism, because it is realized that both are valid. Where Piaget theories work to achieve equilibrium, Vygotski’s theories work toward the individual’s “zone of proximal” development. In current thought, or motivational theory we might say, “We are working from within our zone” and “comfort level.” It seems the differences in theory are more a matter of are we going to study the human tree, or forest.
Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Cognitive psychology (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
End Paper …
posted by Ann Marie @ 6/17/2006 10:58:00 AM
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