Beyond Piaget/Thinking

* Pragmatic thought is when logic becomes a tool for solving real-world problems. * Inconsistencies are accepted as a part of life. * Contrasts with the adolescent world of possibilities.

* Learn the transition from dualism to relativism in college. * Probably because you are taught to think this way (Vygotsky). * Simply because you do not know which idea is better, does not mean there is no truth or that all ideas are created equal.

Schaie’s Theory * Acquisitive Stage: Childhood & Adolescence * Achieving Stage: Early Adulthood * Responsible Stage: Middle Adulthood (Executive Stage) * Reintegrative Stage: Late Adulthood

* Not a part of Piaget’s theory (Piaget was a modernist) * Relativistic vs. dualistic thinking * The idea of Postformal thought is closely aligned to the concept of postmodern thought

Has these characteristics? Contextual, Provisional Relativistic (no absolutes) Realistic, practical Open to emotions & subjective

* Traditional (modernist, premodernist) Western thinking * (European, hemisphere, Christian) * Truth is objective, universal * Absolute truth applies to everyone, everywhere (all cultures), all the time * This is the basis for science (modernism) * Also the basis for theistic religions.

* Reaction to and denial of modern thought and formal logic. * Truth is the “social construction of reality”. * Hence, truth is relative to cultures, societies, religions, etc. * People should try to embrace all variations of “truth”. All ideas are created equal.

* Premodernism, Modernism, Postmodernism: Historical changes in the Intellectual Thinking Framework among Academics and Intellectuals

* Belief in the supernatural, a spiritual reality from which life gains its meaning * Nature is God’s creation. * Human beings are sinful, but valuable and the object of God’s salvation. * The physical world is orderly and knowable. * Truth is objective and there are absolutes. * Man, society and nature are not operating autonomously, but depend upon the sovereignty of God.

* The supernatural was discounted, ignored. * Religion was replaced with reason. * The sovereignty of God was replaced with the sovereignty of human reason (operating on the data of the senses). (science) * Sought a rational religion (deism), where God created the universe and abandoned it to man. * Morality became utilitarian. * Materialism – The only reality is what we can sense.

* Things are understood by causes – effect within a closed system. * Actions are good if they make the system (society) work and evil if they do not. * (Can justify slavery, child labor, abortion, euthanasia, etc. under this system)

* Social sciences – Can apply scientific methods to study people and groups/societies. * Can construct or engineer societies and economies. Karl Marx: Communist society will have no private property, no religion, and individualism and native cultures will be suppressed. * Existentialism. There is no inherent meaning or purpose in life. There are only the orderliness of nature and logical conclusions. * Relativism – People must create their own meanings. “What’s true for you may not be true for me.” Since meanings are personal and subjective, they must all be equally valid. It becomes impolite or politically incorrect to tell anyone that you think they are wrong.

* Modernism peaked in the 20 th Century. * Postmodernism challenged its belief in linear progress, absolute truth, rational planning, standardization of knowledge, and “totalization of chaos” – the imposition of order which would be treated as objective and universally binding. * Postmodernism sought to replace it with reality as a “social construct” – where order is only provisional and varies from person to person. It embraces fragmentation and indeterminacy instead. It “affirms the chaos”.

* Societies who suffer schism of the soul commit cultural suicide. * Fall into a sense of abandon * Stop believing in morality * Succumb to escapism * Sense of drift – yield to a meaningless determinism as if their efforts do not matter * Feel guilt or self-loathing due to moral abandon * Accept almost anything with uncritical tolerance * Surrender themselves to the “melting-pot” * Are decentered – not anchored to anything * Feel anxious, irrational and helpless

* Russian psychologist * Contemporary of Piaget * Died young, short career * Recently popular in United States * Better suited to postmodern thinking

* Children develop their ways of thinking and understanding primarily through interaction with others. * Minds are shaped by culture

* Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) * Scaffolding * Private speech * Language used to plan, guide & monitor behavior

* Vital role of teaching * Assess & use the ZPD * Use more skilled peers * Monitor & encourage use of private speech * Place instruction in a meaningful context

Information Processing

* Not a single, unified theory * Compares the operation of the mind to that of a computer * Investigates: * Attention * Memory * Thinking * Metacognition: Knowledge of when and how to use strategies to think, remember, and problem-solve.

* Automaticity * No conscious effort required * Strategy Construction * Self-modification * Metacognition * Gradual change

* Rises dramatically across childhood * Young adult comparison study * 10 year olds were 1.8 times slower * 12 year olds were 1.5 times slower * 15 year olds were the same * Declines from the 40’s * Experience or biological maturation? * myelination

Does processing speed matter? * May help you think better * May help you learn faster * May be compensated for by experience * ***correlational study showed that lower IQ scores were associated with an earlier death

Habituation in Infancy * Long-lookers vs. short-lookers * Infants with brain damage do not habituate well

* Control improves with age * 10-month olds more distractible than 26 month olds * Preschoolers may watch TV for half an hour at a time * Anderson and others (1985) visual attention drastically improves in the preschool years

* Older & more socially advantaged children are more focused & less distractible * Ruff & Hobart (1996) Ability to pay attention in preschool is related to achievement, relationship & social skills * Related to school readiness * Peer rejection and aggressive behavior are related to lack of ability to control attention

* Constructed (& Reconstructed) * Guided by schemas – existing knowledge & understanding * Misinformation Effect (can be distorted)/source amnesia * Bugs Bunny study

* Implicit * Procedural * emotional, conditioned, reflexive * Explicit – (declarative) * episodic * semantic

* Most researchers - * Babies do not show explicit (conscious) memory until the second half of the first year of life. * Explicit memory improves substantially during the second year.

* No permanent long-term memory before age 3, little in pre- school (infantile amnesia). * May have to do with lack of enough development in the hippocampus and/or pre-frontal lobes

* Memory span in digits * 2 digits2-3 year olds * 5 digits 7 year olds * 6 ½ digits 13 year olds * (Related to speed of repetition)

* There are age differences in susceptibility to suggestion. * There are also individual differences (low self- concept, low support from parents). * Interview techniques can produce substantial distortions.

* Rehearsing * Organizing * Elaboration (Thinking about it) * Personal relevance * Images

* Increase strategy use with age * Fuzzy-trace theory * Using gist vs. verbatim * Affected by Knowledge base * Schema elaboration * Chase & Chi

* Ages 5-6 know that * Familiar items are easier to remember * Short lists are easier than long ones * Recognition is easier than recall * Forgetting becomes more likely over time

* At Ages 5-6, do not know that * related items are easier to remember * Gist is easier than verbatim * Inflated opinion of their memory abilities

* Working memory * Peak at 45? Decline at 57? * Processing speed?

* Young adults have better episodic memory than older ones * Among older adults, older memories are less accurate than more recent ones * Older adults take longer to retrieve semantic memory

* Implicit memory is less likely to be affected by aging * Source amnesia gets worse (source memory declines) in older adulthood * Prospective memory (remembering to do something) * Time-based poorer than event-based

* Declines in * Processing speed * Working memory * Episodic memory

* Physical declines * Anxiety & depression * Beliefs about losing memory important * Attitudes & feelings important (e.g., low self-efficacy) * Good health will reduce, but not eliminate declines