Information-Processing Tendencies in Recent Experiments in Cognitive Learning

Abstract

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.