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| 32nd
Annual Meeting of The Jean Piaget Society Crowne Plaza Hotel, Philadelphia, PA |
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Conference Program
The
Embodied Mind and Consciousness:
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Thursday, June 6, A.M. |
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| Overview | Thursday: AM | PM | Friday: AM | PM | Saturday: AM | PM |
8:00-4:30 Foyer
Registration (all day)
9:00-4:30 Indep A
Book Display
President's Opening Remarks - Elliot Turiel
Orienting Remarks from Meeting Organizers - Willis Overton, Ulrich Mueller
9:15-10:30 Liberty
C .... PL01
Plenary Session 1:
From brain dynamics to consciousness: How matter becomes imagination.Gerald M. Edelman, The Neurosciences Institute
Most approaches to understanding consciousness are generally concerned with the contributions of specific brain areas or groups of neurons. By contrast, in this talk, I consider what kinds of neural processes can account for key properties of conscious experience including its unity and its diversity.
To understand how these processes of brain dynamics give rise to consciousness requires a global brain theory. I shall therefore review a selectional theory called Neural Darwinism that rejects strict computer models of the brain and mind. This theory considers brain complexity to be integrated by a process called reentry. Applying measures of neural integration and complexity, together with an analysis of extensive neurological data, leads to a testable proposal–the dynamic core hypothesis–about the properties of neural substrate of consciousness. This hypothesis is built on cortical mechanisms involving reentrant signaling. Supporting evidence from MEG studies of human subjects will be presented and possible implications for developmental psychology will be considered.
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45-12:15 Liberty
C .... PL02
Plenary Session 2:
Rethinking EmotionAntonio Damasio, University of Iowa
After receiving remarkable attention from scientists during the 19th century, emotion was relatively neglected throughout this century, especially within the field of neuroscience. Recently, however, neuroscientists have begun again to advance the understanding of the neural mechanisms behind emotion.
Rather than being elusive, emotion is as much amenable to scientific study as any other aspect of behavior. Moreover, emotion is not a luxury: it is an expression of basic mechanisms of life regulation developed in evolution, and is indispensable for survival. It plays a critical role in virtually all aspects of learning, reasoning, and creativity. Somewhat surprisingly, it may play a role in the construction of consciousness.
In my talk I will review a theoretical framework which places emotion and the phenomenon that follows emotion, feeling, in an evolutionary perspective, and discuss their biological roles in homeostasis. I will also review current evidence on neural systems involved in emotion and feeling based on lesion method and functional neuroimaging data.
Thursday, June 6, P.M. |
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| Overview | Thursday: AM | PM | Friday: AM | PM | Saturday: AM | PM |
12:15-1:30 Lunch
Plenary Session 3:
The Embodiment of SelfOliver Sacks, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Oliver Sacks has written extensively on embodiment and the ways in which the whole person adapts to different neurological conditions. His presentation will continue an exploration of this theme.
2:45-3:00 Break
Paper Session 1:
Developing toleranceProfiles of reflective racial tolerance and their relationship with justifications
Rivka Witenberg, The University of Melbourne
Understanding the development of tolerance has never been more important. This paper will address two issues. The developmental nature of racial tolerance and the kind of justifications used to support tolerance. The method used in this project offers an advantage in exploring development through the use of cluster analysis which allows to identify common response profiles. Six distinct profiles emerged which indicated salient contrasts between the youngest and oldest students. On the basis of ten different kinds of justifications, scaling techniques identified two dimensions. The horizontal axis representing a fairness - diversity dimension. The vertical axis representing an empathy - reasonableness dimension.
Adolescents' conceptions of homosexuality and gender conventions in relation to their moral evaluations of the treatment of gay, lesbian and transgendered peers.
Stacey S. Horn, University of Illinois at Chicago
Larry Nucci, University of Illinois at Chicago
Jessica Rosenwein, University of Illinois at Chicago
Mary Kachiroubas, University of Illinois at ChicagoThis study investigated the influence that adolescents' conceptions of and attitudes toward homosexuality and gender conventions had on their reasoning regarding the treatment of their GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) peers. Tenth- and twelfth-grade students (N = 300) were given a self-report questionnaire assessing their attitudes about homosexuality and gender atypical peers, experiences with GLBT individuals, and their reasoning regarding the treatment of others. Preliminary analyses revealed relationships between adolescents' beliefs regarding the origins of sexual orientation, familiarity with GLBT individuals, and tolerance for GLBT individuals, as well as their reasoning regarding the treatment of others. Further, analyses revealed adolescents' reasoning was influenced by both sexual orientation and gender identity.
Children’s representations of economic inequality
Antonio Roazzi, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
An investigation was conducted with a sample of 85 subjects from different social economical statuses (SES): 30 adolescents from high SES families and 55 from low SES families (30 living with their parents and 25 living in the streets). The aim was to explore how the representation of economic inequalities develops and how that level of representation interacts with the social environment in which the child lives. What are the representations that adolescents hold of the different professional occupations practiced by several groups of people in our society, and how are such representations affected by their own family or individual income? Analysis of the resulting data pointed to the existence of a relationship between belonging to a certain social-cultural group and the cognitive aspects of how economic inequalities are represented in our society. That is, we considered that the structure of the system of super-individual activities in which the child is located plays a crucial role in the development of specific forms of social inequality representation.
Moral suggestibility in two cultures: Implications for social influence processes, moral development and culture
Herbert D. Saltzstein, City University of New York
Maria daG Dias, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil
Antonio Roazzi, Federal University of PernambucoChildren's suggestibility was studied during interviews about moral dilemmas, where the choice was between promise-keeping and truth-telling. Past results show: (a) younger children are more suggestible; (b) an initial choice of promise is more easily influenced than initial choice of truth; (c) U.S. children are more suggestible than Brazilian children. Finding (c) was attributed to cultural differences in authority relationships between teachers and children. This is supported by contrasting influence by adult and "teenage" interviewers. In US, adult interviewers had greater influence than "teenage" interviewers whereas in Brazil, the reverse tends to be true.
Paper Session 2:
Narratives, symbols, and embodimentUsing narrative symbols as a vehicle to understand reflective processing
Julia Penn Shaw, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Forty-four undergraduates and forty-four active adults (45 to 78) used ten narrative symbols they found from a children's story to play a game highlighting different aspects of their reflective processing. The game, Symbol Sort,, measured by Fischer's skill theory, evaluated the complexity (level of skill) and type (e.g., categories, rankings, chronologies, images) of reflective processing. Symbol Sort arrangements of the older group were more complex, to a statistically significant degree, than the younger group's, suggesting that educated, active older subjects reflect in a more complex way than educated, civic-minded younger subjects (p=.013).
The cultural embodiment of mind
Adrian Medina-Liberty, National University of Mexico
Andrea Trevino-Gutierrez, Universidad de las AmericasCurrently, it would be extremely rare to find someone who still denies the importance of culture or the role that other people play in cognitive development. However, the specific way in which culture operates is still a matter of dissent. We approach mind from the combined perspective of sociocultural psychology and symbolic anthropology and sustain that mind is both constituted and realized in the use of symbols. It is concluded that psychological processes–i.e., perceiving, learning, remembering–cannot be sustained by themselves; they are always symbolically embodied and they are always dependant upon the utilization of cultural resources.
"It makes me a man from the beating I took": Accounts of physical violence in the narratives of inner-city boys and girls
Marsha D. Walton, Rhodes College
Alice J. Davidson, Rhodes College
Heidi S. Kane, Rhodes CollegeInner-city 4th-6th graders from neighborhoods that differed in community violence wrote personal narratives about interpersonal conflict. The 211 stories reporting physical violence were coded for position of the author as victim, perpetrator, both, or observer. Children in the high-risk neighborhood wrote stories with more, and more severe violence than did children living with less risk. However, their stories were less likely to include explanatory attempts, reports of emotions or thoughts of self or others, or moral assessments. Gender effects mirrored Neighborhood effects, with boys’ stories similar to those of children living with higher risk. The role of narrative practice in development is discussed in light of an embodiment theory of mind.
Consulting the Oracle: Do magazines shape Brazilian teen girls' behavior and values?
Clary Milnitsky, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Camila Vidal Menegaz, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do SulThe "Capricho" (whimsicality) Magazine focuses on behavior/fashion for adolescents' implicitly relating this to sociomoral values. We discuss the pervasiveness of media in creating, validating behaviors/values that aren't intrinsic to adolescents' psychological systems, but invested on disposable fashionable objects. The content of a decade of the magazine's editorials (1990-2000) and adolescents' interviews was analyzed. The categories stemmed: sexuality, drugs, gender and norms made explicit the magazine's function in replacing more attractively educational orientations including parents. The re-signification of school is discussed. Method: Content Analysis (texts / interviews) of twenty adolescents attending two private local schools.
Moderator: Yasuji Kojima, Hokkai-gakuen University
Symposium Session 1:
Embodying Models of Human Development: Bodily, Contextual and Experiential Mediators of MeaningOrganizers:
Michael F. Mascolo, Merrimack College
Monica Cowart, Merrimack CollegeDiscussant: Alan Fogel, University of Utah
Participants in this symposium will explore ways of understanding the embodied character of human thinking and development. Many classic and current models of thinking have depicted thinking as process of manipulating symbols and internal codes in ways that seem separate and distinct from the functioning of actual human bodies in the experienced world. However, thinking, even abstract thinking, proceeds as an embodied course of activity. The structure and content of thinking in development are realized within the medium of the body-in-action; is embodied by emotion and feeling; is structured by concrete metaphors of the nature of self and world, and occurs within physical and social contexts that scaffold and direct development. Participants in this symposium will explore different ways in which (a) models of human thinking and development can incorporate the concept of embodiment as a foundational principle, as well as (b) ways in which particular sources or modes of embodiment structure and spur the development of thought. These analyses will include explorations of the ways in which the development of thought is shaped by metaphor, emotion, phenomenal experience, as well as by the support and scaffolding provided by social and physical context.
Embodied Abstractions: Metaphor as a Mediator of the Development of Conceptions of Self and Other in Psychotherapy
Michael F. Mascolo, Merrimack College
Michael Basseches, Suffolk UniversityCognition Grows Between Sensorimotor and Emotional "Surfaces" of the Developing Brain
Marc D. Lewis, University of Toronto
The Role of Cognitive Scaffolding in Embodied Explanations of Thinking
Monica Cowart, Merrimack College
Movement and Expression in the Development of Social Cognition
Shaun Gallagher, Canisius College
3:00-4:30 Constitution
.... SY02
Symposium Session 2:
The socialization of embodied action: Negotiating space, learning, and morality in child and adolescent discourseOrganizer: Ashley E. Maynard, University of Hawaii
In 1934 Marcel Mauss made the distinction that "in every culture, people know how to use their bodies." That is, every culture has standards for comportment and ways of moving associated with particular activities. In this symposium, we demonstrate the ways that children are socialized for correct movement, body position, and gesture in several domains: at home; in learning activities with older siblings; in an elementary school classroom; in an afterschool dance program; and on the playground. We look at the ways that children represent deixis and space by using gestures, the way that children negotiate morality and proper body position, and the way they represent and develop further knowledge through bodily movement. Each paper addresses some point along the developmental trajectory: from early childhood through adolescence. DeLeon describes longitudinal data of siblings negotiating domestic space. She describes the way the children use deixis, emotional displays, and discourse to learn to inhabit that space. Maynard focuses on the way that older siblings guide the bodies of younger learners in the course of teaching them everyday activities. Maynard’s data show how very young children are already aware of cultural means of representing knowledge in physical action. Isaac discusses peer socialization of "work" postures in the classroom. She describes the ways that a teacher and peer-groups co-construct and maintain norms of classroom behavior. Schick describes adults’ concomitant shaping of body position and morality in after-school dance classes. Goodwin describes how middle-school girls use embodied accounts to admonish and support particular body movements in playground games. Overall, these papers provide a glimpse into the ways that children develop an embodied sense of self, activity, and morality.
Body and domestic space in Zinacantec socialization
Lourdes de Leon, CIESAS Sureste, Chiapas, Mexico
Maya Sibling Socialization of Movement in Everyday Learning Tasks
Ashley E. Maynard, University of Hawaii
Socializing the Body to ‘Work’ during Student Workgroup Activities
Adrienne Isaac
"You Cannot Cheat the Footwork": Taking Steps Toward a Morality of Cooperation and Autonomy in a Middle School Dance Class
Laurie Schick, UCLA
Embodied Language Games
Marjorie H. Goodwin, UCLA
4:30-6:00(Declaration) .... BOD1
Board of Directors Meeting
4:30-7:00 Dinner
Discussion Session 1:
Embodiment from a biological and philosophical perspective: A discussion featuring Gerald M. Edelman, Antonio Damasio, Oliver Sacks & Mark L. Johnson. Moderated by Thomas Dalton.
8:30- Foyer
President’s Reception
Friday, June 7, A.M. |
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| Overview | Thursday: AM | PM | Friday: AM | PM | Saturday: AM | PM |
9:00-12:00
Foyer
Registration (morning only)
9:00-4:30 Indep. A
Book Display
9:00-4:30 Indep. B
Poster viewing (authors will be present 1:30-3:00)
9:00-10:30 Liberty
A .... SY03
Symposium Session 3:
Children's mathematical and scientific education. Some constructivist viewsOrganizer: Maria Lucia Faria Moro, Universidade Federal do Parana
It is relatively recent, but qualitatively significant, the increment of investigation concerning the construction of concepts, relationships, competence or cognitive functions referring directly to the learning of school contents, under different interpretations of the constructivist perspective. The symposium aims to bring to discussion some empirical results referring to aspects of the elaboration of mathematical and scientific knowledge in school learning. The first paper (Puche-Navarro & Ordonez) focuses on children's inferential functioning in problem solving, according to the mental model framework, which is considered relevant in the recognition of functional levels of scientific understanding in early childhood. The second one (Garcia-Mila et al.) analyses the relevant role of writing and note-taking in the process of strategies acquisition that occurs when pre-adolescents work on the whole cycle of scientific reasoning, from the hypothesis generation to the inferences elaboration. The third one (Orozco) investigates the role of morfosyntactic traces of verbal numerical expressions in the learning of Arabic numerical notation by elementary school children, contributing to the debate about numerical transcription from verbal speaking format to the Arabic writing format. The fourth (Moro) describes the nature and the progress of notations produced by elementary school children in tasks concerning the initial learning of additive structures on its way to the multiplicative ones. The role of the awareness process of the subject's own actions in the conceptual construction in mathematical education is highlighted. The evaluation of alternative ways to implement the reported results in school systems and in teachers training will be emphasized while discussing the theoretical contributions of the presented papers.
Inference, understanding and mental models in early childhood
Rebeca Puche-Navarro, Universidad del Valle
Oscar Ordonez, Universidad del ValleWriting and scientific reasoning. A microgenetic study to analyse their mutual interaction
Merce Garcia-Mila, Universitat de Barcelona
Nubia E. Rojo, Universitat de Barcelona
Christopher L. Andersen, Ohio State University
Eduard Marti, Universitat de Barcelona
Ana Teberosky, Universitat de Barcelona
Raquel Mayordomo, Universitat de BarcelonaSyntactic errors when learning to write numerals
Mariela Orozco, Universidad del Valle
Notations in Mathematics beginnings: equalizing and dividing quantities on the multiplication roots
Maria Lucia Faria Moro, Universidade Federal do Parana
9:00-10:30 Liberty
B .... SY04
Symposium Session 4:
Studying attachment from a stage perspectiveOrganizer: Patrice Marie Miller, Harvard Medical School
Attachment theory was proposed by Bowlby and studied by Ainsworth and many colleagues. It partly specifies developmental changes in attachment. Few of the attempts have explicitly integrated changes in attachment behavior, objects of attachment, processes by which individuals become attached, relevant caregiving behavior, and implications for psychopathology using a systematic, lifespan stage theory of development. The current symposium represents an integration of the Model of Hierarchical Complexity with Attachment theory. Although these specific papers involve infancy only, they form part of a larger theoretical integration across the lifespan.
What are the Stages of Attachment During Infancy?
Michael Lamport Commons, Harvard Medical School
How are the processes by which infants become attached influenced by stage of development?
Patrice Marie Miller, Harvard Medical School
How do patterns of caregiving vary across developmental stage?
Patrice Marie Miller, Harvard Medical School
Can we improve prediction of psychopathology by taking into account stage of development at the time of trauma?
Michael Lamport Commons, Harvard Medical School
9:00-10:30 Liberty C .... IS01
Invited Symposium 1
Locating the body: Feminist perspectives on embodiment and development.Organizer: Ellin K. Scholnick, University of Maryland
Organizer: Patricia H. Miller, University of GeorgiaEmbodiment is thought to be a remedy for the deficiencies of the Cartesian framework in which mind is divorced from body, thought from emotion, and the individual from the social context. Feminists have noted that the Cartesian framework also divorces masculine abstraction and reductionism from qualities which are stereotyped as feminine- materiality, emotionality, and situational embeddedness. A post-modern view, influenced by Foucault, deepens the concept of embodiment by postulating that cultural images, beliefs, and practices encode the body in a form that reproduces the gendered power structure of the society. Culture constrains how we dress, move, and think about our bodies. Think of the burqua that enshrouds the Afghan woman and limits her capacity to reach out and touch her environment while muffling her voice.
What are the implications of this view of embodiment for developmental psychology? Although the child undergoes dramatic bodily changes during development, the impact of the individual’s awareness of these changes and the individual’s strategies for coping with bodily change have often been neglected. These changes occur in a cultural context of images and expectations about the development of boys and girls into men and women. Ironically, we have created a disembodied context for psychological growth despite rapid physical changes that do not go unnoticed in our culture. In this panel, feminist psychologists explore two questions: Where is the body in developmental psychology? Whose body is it? We examine how cultural practices associated with gender inscribe the changing body and the way growing individuals think about it.
One obvious point of examination is adolescence when the teenager must cope with a changing appearance and the emergence of reproductive capacity. Nita McKinley examines how cultural expectations of the ideal feminine body color adolescents‚ and college students‚ self image, behavior and social relations. Jeanne Marecek analyzes the social processes that sexualize the bodies of adolescent and pre-adolescent girls and simultaneously construct sexualized bodies as vulnerable. That sense of vulnerability and danger then regulates girls‚ subjectivity and the mother-daughter relationship. The issues of embodiment also are relevant to early cognitive development because the growing mind is housed in a growing body that greatly extends the child’s capabilities. Parents praise their offspring by noting that they behave like a big girl (or boy) and children wonder when they are big enough to do certain things. Patricia Miller and Ellin Scholnick analyze current research on the child’s conception of the body and growth. They attempt to recover the body in theories of biological essentialism and in the concept of gender constancy.
Cognition in the flesh: Feminist perspectives on cognitive development
Patricia H. Miller, University of Georgia
Ellin K. Scholnick, University of MarylandSafe Conduct: Dangers, pleasures, and adolescent sexuality
Jeanne Marecek, Swarthmore College
Placing women’s body experience in developmental and cultural context
Nita McKinley, Allegheny College
9:00-10:30 Declaration
.... PP03
Paper Session 3:
Clinical issuesMetacognition and Learning Disabilities: The Influence and Interrelations of Affect, Motivation and the Self-System.
Kavita L. Seeratan, University of Toronto
Metacognition is subjected to and regulated by both cognitive and affective components. Many researchers tend to focus on certain topics that capture the cognitive aspects of understanding metacognition. But understanding the affective component (self systems, motivation) and its potential influence on both cognitive and metacognitive processes as well as the influence that these processes may in turn have on the affective system is also important. This paper aims to coordinate the relations between cognition, metacognition and affect by: considering the autonomy and then inter-relational dynamics of the different systems first generally and then in relation to learning disabilities.
Is phonological awareness an instance of consciousness?
Fernando Leal, University of Guadalajara, Mexico
Judith Suro, University of Guadalajara, MexicoAlthough dyslexia has been connected to a deficit in phonological awareness as revealed in reading acquisition, an application of the stage model of skill development to reading reveals a curious anomaly in such an explanation. The first stage of any skill acquisition is acutely conscious, so any novice reader has to become aware of phonology in order to learn how to read. Once a reader becomes more proficient, the processing of phonological information necessary for reading recedes beneath consciousness. Since dyslexics never quite achieve full automaticity, they do not suffer from a deficit, but from an excess of phonological awareness.
Implications of the Embodied Mind for Clinical Practice
Glenn E. Good, Wayne State University School of Medicine
At the dawn of the 20th century, neurologist Sigmund Freud introduced the book The Interpretation of Dreams which provided a methodology for listening to primitive "primary process" thinking, contained within adult "secondary process" conscious communications. To conceptualize what he had discovered, however, Freud had to borrow from what was available to him at the time: turn of the century neurology. In spite of major changes and developments in technique, psychoanalytic theory continues to be saddled with the baggage of these outmoded neurological concepts. This paper takes a fresh look at psychoanalysis and psychotherapy from the vantage point of neurology 100 years later. The author proposes theoretical revisions in light of the contributions of Damasio and Edelman as well as the contributions of Piaget and discusses the implications for clinical technique.
Age differences in young children’s reports of temporal information in the course of forensic interviews.
Yael Orbach, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development
Michael E. Lamb, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development
Kathleen J. Sternberg, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development
Phillip W. Esplin, Private Practice, Phoenix
Heather Stewart, Salt Lake County Children’s Justice Center
Susanne Mitchell, Salt Lake County Children’s Justice CenterModerator: Yasuji Kojima, Hokkai-gakuen University
9:00-10:30 Constitution
.... PP04
Paper Session 4:
Communication and representationScheme-Scheme and Scheme-Object Relations: A Theory of Consciousness
Joe Becker, University of Illinois at Chicago
In constructivist theory, the interplay between scheme-object relations and scheme-scheme relations is central to thought. In activities using external representational media, such as painting and language, there is an interplay between the relations of elements within the medium to external referents and the intra-medium relations. This similarity suggests that consciousness arises from a sense that detects the distinction between scheme-objects relations and scheme-scheme relations. Our consciousness of existing within an external phenomenal world is our subjective experience of that detection. This perspective provides a basis for theorizing the role of language in extending our consciousness.
When do children gestures to retrieve symbols?
Elena Nicoladis, University of Alberta
The use of symbolic gestures has been shown to help adults recall words (Frick-Horbury & Guttentag, 1998). Results such as these suggest that adults have multiple pathways to their symbols. The present study focused on when children might develop similar multiple pathways. Eight preschool children between the ages of 3;6 and 4;11 were videotaped in free-play sessions. The children created longer utterances when they used iconic gestures than when they used points or no gestures at all. Further qualitative analyses suggest that children's gestures are used in a more adult-like way as they get older.
A constructivist account of the emergence of pointing in infancy.
Dagmar Pescitelli, Simon Fraser University
Infants engage in behaviors before one year of age that suggest some early social understanding. There is controversy as to whether such behaviors demonstrate that infants 'understand' others as intentional agents at this early age, or whether it is through such behaviors that infants come to understand others as intentional agents (Moore & Corkum, 1994; Tomasello, 1999). A longitudinal case study is utilized to illustrate the emergence of gestural communication in infancy. A Piagetian account is outlined that casts doubt on the claim that infants must first ‘understand’ others as intentional agents before pointing can occur.
Pictorial and Narrative Representations of Children's School Bullying Experiences
Sandra Bosacki, Brock University
Zopito Marini, Brock UniversityThis study investigates children's perceptions of school bullying as represented by both their narratives and drawings. Eight-two children (Grade 4, n=30, M = 9;7; Grade 5, n=18, M = 10;7; Grade 7, n=34, M = 11;9) from a mainly Euro-Canadian, middle SES, Ontario city completed standardized measures (self-concept, bullying/victimization, gender-role orientation, vocabulary), and participated in individual interviews that required them to complete ToM tasks and to draw and narrate stories of "someone being bullied." Findings revealed gendered themes of bullying experiences. In both modes of representation, girls referred to psychological (cognitive and emotional) bullying whereas boys focused on social and physical bullying.
Moderator: Andrea Pantoja, California State University, Chico
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45-12:00 Liberty C .... PL04
Plenary Session 4:
Reason incarnateMark L. Johnson, University of Oregon
A central problem for any theory of embodied mind is to explain how abstract conceptualization and reasoning are grounded in structures of bodily experience. Recent research in the cognitive sciences is beginning to reveal how patterns of sensorimotor experience shape our abstract thought via conceptual metaphor. This emerging view of the bodily basis of imaginative thought calls into question fundamental underlying assumptions of mainstream philosophy.
Friday, June 7, P.M. |
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| Overview | Thursday: AM | PM | Friday: AM | PM | Saturday: AM | PM |
12:00-1:30 Lunch
12:00-12:30 Liberty C .... MMTG
Members Meeting (all JPS members are encouraged to attend)
Symposium Session 5:
Experience and the Developing Brain: What do We Know? Where Do We go from Here?Organizer: Thomas C. Dalton, Cal Poly State University
Discussant: Michael Lewis, Robert Wood Johnson Medical SchoolDevelopmental scientists no longer view development, as if it could be neatly partitioned along a continuum in which the earliest events reflect largely genetic influences and the later events are shaped by environment and culture. Instead they see individual growth in terms of a reciprocal interaction of neural, behavioral and cultural events that occur throughout an individual’s lifetime. Together, these interactions contribute cumulatively over time to small but important changes in the human phenotype. There are many non-obvious ways that the early development of the brain is shaped by experience that deserve serious scrutiny. This symposium will put these issues in theoretical and empirical context that highlight promising new directions for research. The first paper examines how brain connections are formed through experience-dependent perceptual categorization. A real-world behaving device is used to show how exploratory experiences are translated into cortical interactions capable of making choices based on the initial values assigned to objects. The second paper will review recent evidence indicating that information presented redundantly and in temporal synchrony across sensory modalities selectively recruits attention and facilitates perceptual learning in animal and human infants. Implications of the salience of intersensory redundancy for early neural, perceptual and cognitive development will be discussed. The third paper will examine three aspects of spatial development. It will focus on how spatial coding systems are reweighted in the first year of life, describe the profound transition in spatial coding occurring in the second year of life, and consider how interactions with the environment may contribute to the developmental changes observed. The discussant will put these papers in the context of recent theoretical debates about consciousness and whether the brain possesses modular, dedicated structures, or supports neural functional and attention processes that develop and respond flexibly to the contingencies of early experience.
Machine Psychology: Experience-Dependent Perceptual Categorization and Learning in a Brain-Based Device
Jeff Krichmar, The Neurosciences Institute
Perceptual development and multisensory responsiveness: The role of redundancy in early development
Robert Lickliter, Florida International University
What Do You Say After You Say Interactionism? Spatial Development in the First Two Years.
Nora S. Newcombe, Temple University
Symposium Session 6:
Constraints on the development of logical reasoningOrganizer: Sylvain Moutier, CNRS
Discussant: Guy Politzer, Universite de Paris 8Recent work that has examined developmental patterns in deductive reasoning has clearly indicated that understanding how children reason involves understanding the constraints imposed by the specific characteristics of children’s cognitive architecture. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed to do this, varying from hypotheses that at least some forms of reasoning have an evolutionary basis (e.g. Cosmides) to more procedural accounts of reasoning (e.g. Johnson-Laird) that involve limitations in processing capacity. This symposium presents a series of empirical studies that examine different hypotheses about how these kinds of mechanisms can influence the development of logical reasoning.
Is Deontic Reasoning Special? A Developmental Comparison of Inferences from Causal and Social Permission Conditionals
Paul A. Klaczynski, The Pennsylvania State University
Deductive reasoning and matching-bias inhibition training : Evidence from a debiasing paradigm
Sylvain Moutier, CNRS
Are older adolescents less ‘logical’ than younger ones?: The interaction between knowledge and reasoning when accepting the premises in conditional reasoning.
Henry Markovits, Universite du Quebec a Montreal
The role of limitations in working memory on the development of reasoning
Pierre Barrouillet, Universite de Bourgogne
Invited Symposium 2:
Embodied Identity & Consciousness: Focus on the Black ExperienceOrganizer: William E. Cross, Jr. (CUNY)
Recent advances in science have revealed that "race" is useless, as a biological concept; however, race, as a social construct, is alive and well. People of color in general and black people in particular often find it necessary to develop consciousness about the meaning and social significance of their non-European physicality. In addressing their "black bodies" African Americans evidence a wide range of mindsets, and this panel samples that diversity. One paper explores the phenomenon of skin-bleaching and identity; a second shows the links between embodied consciousness, black dance and black identity; and a third summarizes the varied meaning black youth attach to their blackness. A final paper highlights the range of adult black identities, from "color-blindness" to Black Nationalism and Multiculturalism.
Identity as Coping: Adolescents' Racial Identity Challenges and Opportunities
Margaret Beale Spencer, University of Pennsylvania
In a recent longitudinal study of adolescents, body-image, self-reported skin color, and self-identification (race/ethnicity/nationality) data were collected as part of a larger effort. The assessment strategy presented the opportunity to report race/ethnicity information in both a "forced category" (i.e., similar to traditional census data collection efforts) as well as open-ended format. Surveys were obtained from low resource urban African American adolescents. The two conditions, forced-choice versus open-ended, produced divergent response patterns. Findings are framed by a theoretical orientation that integrates identity and coping processes, with physical and ethnic characteristics such as race, ethnicity and skin color.
Critical consciousness, black identity, and black dance
Rosemarie Roberts, Graduate Center CUNY
Commitments to critical consciousness objectives have been recognized in education, the arts, and dance education. This dissertation study examines how educators provoke critical consciousness within the terrain of dance. Using African-derived Black dance as the site of study, this inquiry addresses three areas across time, audiences, and encounter settings: 1) Process of educating to provoke critical consciousness; 2) Content of critical consciousness; and 3) theories of audience provocation. Case studies of three prominent, African-American, explicitly political dancers/choreographers/educators, Katherine Durham, Ronald K. Brown, and Gaulle Will Jo Collar, will be undertaken in order to examine these research questions. A multi-method approach, including interviews, observations and archival data collection, will be used in order to build the case studies.
Skin bleaching, self-hate and the construction of black identity in Jamaica
Christopher Charles, Graduate Center - CUNY
The dominant view concerning Jamaicans who bleach their skins is that they suffer from self-hate or low self-esteem. This self-hate it is argued is a result of the psychological scars of slavery that lingers in the post-colonial period. In the color-coded Jamaica where the white concept of beauty is the ideal, some people have internalized the negative views about blackness. They therefore strive to be white by bleaching their skin. The self-hate thesis is tested, by measuring the self-esteem scores of a sample of bleachers. The self-esteem scores of the bleachers are then compared to the self-esteem scores of a control group of non-bleachers. The results are then used to explore the issue of black identity in Jamaica.
Nominality, social categorization, and transcendence in black identity
William E. Cross, Jr., CUNY
There is a keen physical dimension to black "racial" identity but recent studies show that blacks vary in the degree to which physicality anchors their reference group orientation. This paper will reflect on identity variability and identity physicality.
Poster Session 1
Note: Posters will be available for viewing all day. Authors will attend from 1:30-3:00
1. Korean, Japanese, and U. S. Students' Judgments about Exclusion: Evidence for Diversity
Yoonjung Park, University of Maryland at College Park
2. Baseball or Ballet?: Korean-American Children's and Parents' Evaluations of Choice of Activity for Boys and Girls"
Jennie Lee-Kim, University of Maryland
3. Korean Children's Evaluations of Parental Gender-Specific Play Expectations
Yunhee Shin, University of Maryland at College Park
4. Children's thinking about opposition, subversion, and compliance in response to victimization
Leigh A. Shaw, University of Utah
Cecilia Wainryb, University of Utah5. A study based on Piaget in children from 9 to 14 years old about punishment in The Arabian Nights Entertainments tales.
Luana Carramillo Going, Universidade Metodista de Sao Paulo
Lino de Macedo, Universidade Sao Paulo6. Children's decision-making about features of social relationships
Heidi McGlothlin, University of Maryland, College Park
Melanie Killen, University of Maryland, College Park
Christy Edmonds, University of Maryland, College Park
Katherine Zukowski, University of Maryland, College Park7. The influence of gender and personal experience on young adults' evaluations and reasoning regarding the treatment of gender non-conventional peers.
Stacey S. Horn, University of Illinois at Chicago
Anna Kurtz, University of Illinois at Chicago
Larry Nucci, University of Illinois at Chicago8. Language of the preadolescent self: Perceived self-worth and self-understanding
Sandra Leanne Bosacki, Brock University
9. Appropiation Level Evaluation for "Recovery and Signification of Cultural Practices for pre-scholars" Educative Program
Hernán Sanchez Ríos, Universidad del Valle-Cali- Colombia
Solanlly Ochoa Angrino, Universidad del Valle-Cali- Colombia10. Children's assays on care: A pilot study
Pamela A. Raya-Carlton, University of Missouri-Columbia
Yiting Chang, University of Missouri-Columbia
Thuy Do, University of Missouri-Columbia11. Colombian children's ideas about peer-conflict resolution and peace making strategies: the effects of war and violence on children's moral reasoning.
Alicia Ardila-Rey, University of Maryland
Camilo Delgado, Fundacion Universitaria San Martin12. Children's Request Strategies and the Development of Social Understanding
Denise Goldbeck, Simon Fraser University
William Turnbull, Simon Fraser University13. The sub-text of adolescent identity formation: A text analysis of adolescent interviews
Darcy Hallett, University of British Columbia
Bryan W. Sokol, University of British Columbia14. Spanish children's and adolescents' judgments about ethnic exclusion: The case of Gypsies and Africans
Ileana Enesco, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Alejandra Navarro, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
Isabel Paradela, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Carolina Callejas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Cristina Fernandez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid15. African-American Children's Emotional Competence in the Context of Sociomoral Events
Marisha L. Humphries, University of Chicago
Robert J. Jagers, Howard University16. Gender Differences in the Expression of Aggression: The Roles of Language and Aggression Target
Sharice Brown, University of Connecticut
Letitia R. Naigles, University of Connecticut17. Love as a Persisting Emotion
Sherri C. Widen, Boston College
James A. Russell, Boston College18. The pathway toward resilience in First Nations adolescents: The contribution of social perspective coordination.
Tara Flanagan, McGill University
Catherine Zygmuntowicz, McGill University
Jake Burack, McGill University
Beth Randolph, McGill University
Grace Iarocci, Simon Fraser University
Tarek Mandour, Jimmy Sandy Memorial School
Sandy Robinson, Jimmy Sandy Memorial School19. Children’s conceptions of the sources of knowledge in social and non-social domains
Charles C. Helwig, University of Toronto
Beverly Brehl, University of Utah20. Toddlers discuss gender
Ellin K. Scholnick, University of Maryland
Jodi Jacobson, University of Maryland21. The embodied imagination in childhood chronic illness
Cindy Dell Clark, Penn State Delaware County
22. Inclusion on the Basis of Gender and Race: A Personal Choice or a Moral Imperative?
Melanie Killen, University of Maryland
Jennie Lee-Kim, University of Maryland
Heidi McGlothlin, University of Maryland23. How disadvantaged Brazilian adolescents find meaning in school: A Ricoeurean analysis
Analia Kiela Ribeiro, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
Maria Lyra, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
Cynthia Lightfoot, Penn State University24. A study on the relationships among equity, justice and forgiveness reasoning.
Julio Rique, Northern Illinois University
Maria Tereza Lins-Dyer, University of Illinois at Chicago
Cleonice Camino, Federal University of Paraiba, Brazil25. Examining students’ reactions to moral dilemmas: What written responses reveal about cognitive conflict
John Tyler Binfet, Loyola Marymount University
26. Reality and Idea - reflection or selection? Two ways in which young children’s perceptual discrimination interacts with conceptual change while building water systems
Sharona T. Levy, Tel-Aviv University
1:30-3:00 Declaration
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Paper Session 5:
Classroom environmentsCreating ‘easy’ and ‘difficult’ children: How teachers’ perspectives influence children’s development in school.
Vera Maria Ramos de Vasconcellos, Universidade Federal Fluminense
Ana Carolina Monerat Fioravanti, Universidade Federal Fluminense
Suely de Almeida Batista Dessandre, Universidade Federal Fluminense
Fl·via Maria Cabral de Almeida, Universidade Federal FluminenseThis research compares teachers’ perspectives, measured by the use of the concepts ideal child, autonomy and personal freedom, of a group of 21 children at two moments of their school life: 5 to 6 years and 10 to 11 years. Nucci’s concept of Morality Development and Piaget’s notion of Moral Autonomy were used in the analysis. The results show that both groups of teachers used the concepts of autonomy and personal freedom, the first group overrating the children’s autonomy, while the second group’s descriptions agreed with the forecast of their academic performance, suggesting a causal relationship between pre-school teachers’ perceptions and children’s development.
The embodied classroom (it ain’t just information)
David W. Kritt, College of Staten Island/CUNY
Lucien T. Winegar, Susquehanna UniversityThe use of the Internet to enhance teaching and learning is examined from constructivist and co-constructivist perspectives. Intellectual habits and styles promoted by the Internet are examined. Learning in a virtual environment is contrasted with the exploration of physical objects and active, immediate interaction with others. The importance of socio-emotional aspects of learning assumes a prominent place in this critique.
The impact of teaching styles and beliefs on the integration of a preschool storytelling and story-acting practice: Implications for promoting children's narrative and pretend play development
Elizabeth Richner, Lehigh University
Ageliki Nicolopoulou, Lehigh UniversityThis study compared two preschool classrooms which employed in their curricula a regular storytelling and story-acting practice, and found that teachers' differing pedagogical beliefs and classroom styles led to significant differences in both the implementation and effects of this practice. One teacher focused on using storytelling and other activities to promote individual children's intellectual and emotional development. The other teacher conceived and structured classroom activities as arenas for peer interaction and collaboration. Findings indicated that there was greater thematic cross-fertilization between, and greater complexity of, children's social pretend play and storytelling in the second class.
How students and teacher negotiated interpretations of computer-based visual representations in a middle-school science curriculum
Marianne Wiser, Clark University
Tamer G. Amin, Clark UniversityWe seek to integrate two views of science learning -as the construction of conceptual structures and as participation in scientific practices,- by developing a multifaceted framework for studying physics learning using computer-based conceptual models. In this framework we distinguish two aspects of conceptual restructuring: understanding the computer -based models qua models and internalizing these models as the scientist's way to construe the physical world. Using a case study in which four eighth-graders learned basic thermal physics by interacting with each other, ourselves, and computer models, we argue that two different types of interaction between students and teacher (symmetric and asymmetric) support these different kinds of restructuring.
Moderator: Jeremy Carpendale, Simon Fraser University
1:30-3:00 Constitution
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Paper Session 6:
Methodological issuesDesigning educational software to improve visual-spatial ability: implications for theory, measurement, and design.
David A. Stevens, Lexia Learning Systems
Michael W. Connell, Harvard University
Paul Schwarz, Lexia Learning Systems
Roy Pardi, Harvard University
Beth Pilgrim, Lexia Learning SystemsMany classroom interventions have sought to improve students’ thinking skills. Yet only a handful has achieved measurable improvements in cognitive skill and academic performance relative to control groups. Interestingly, most of these share a common conceptual foundation -- Piaget’s theory of the construction of knowledge. Unfortunately, there are considerable obstacles that prevent these interventions from becoming widely replicable. This paper presents the results from a project that is designing educational software based on the common principles of interventions that have improved general cognitive skills. Specifically, this paper examines the suitability of educational software for promoting visual-spatial development.
Rasch Analysis and Zimbabwean Validation of the Kent Infant Development Scale
Gwen Bredendieck Fischer, Hiram College
Rasch analyses of the Kent Infant Development Scale (KIDS) normative sample (N=704) tested item and person location stability using 5 different-sized non-overlapping samples, randomly selected from the 704. Compared with the large sample, person (not item) locations were stable in smaller samples. Item locations approached convergence with the normative sample at N=200. KIDS and a parent-practices questionnaire were administered to a Zimbabwean sample. Rasch analysis (comparing samples from two countries) suggests that Zimbabwean and U.S. infants develop behaviors in different orders and ages. Individual person-by-item analyses suggest misfit items are culturally inappropriate.
Why longitudinal research is impossible for cognitive strategies and what to do instead
Jan Boom, Universiteit Utrecht
The same task cannot be used repeatedly in a longitudinal study of strategies. Remedying this problem by sophisticated designs or by Rasch scaling is not enough because every assessment is an intervention that may induce changes in strategies within days as microgenetic research has shown. My hypothesis is that strategies found in microgenetic studies for cognitive tasks display a distinct morphology in their time evolution over days that is basically isomorphic to the morphology found in cross-sectional studies over years. I will discuss plans to use recent powerful estimation procedures to fit this model to multiwave cross-sectional data.
Psychotechnologies: Electric Agents as Embodied Media
Adrian Guzman, University of Toronto
Vinicius Andrade Pereira, University of TorontoThis paper is related with answering two questions: why are necessary elements of embodied signs? how are we to proceed in electric media studies related to mind? Electric agents more specifically, topologies of signs, are appropriate envelopings for embodied media. The necessary elements of the signs of these agents are then those of embodied media as well. A experimental proposal is presented as to how proceed with such a study. This proposal includes a interdisciplinary employment of an engineering approach and a semiotics approach. It also proposes the exploration of usability spaces. A general sign for a electrical agent its outlined and discussed.
Moderator: Jean-Louis Gariepy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
3:00-3:15 Break
Paper Session 7:
Adolescent development in cultural contextsCultural influences on suicide rates among aboriginal youth
Christopher E. Lalonde, University of Victoria
The aboriginal people of Canada suffer the highest suicide rate of any identifiable cultural group in world. Previous efforts to explain this gruesome fact amount to a "deficit view" that focuses all but exclusively on socio-economic and psychological variables such as poverty, transience, substance abuse, and depression that are said to be associated with higher rates of suicide in general and to be somehow more characteristic of aboriginal persons in particular. Using population data, we demonstrate that suicide rates among aboriginal persons are better predicted by cultural and political variables that measure the extent to which aboriginal groups have been able to preserve and promote their own culture and to control their own community life.
The shaping power of environment: An exploration of the structure of psychosocial development in urban adolescents.
Sandra L. Fraley, Harvard Graduate School of Education
The constructivist approach to developmental psychology implicitly acknowledges the shaping role of environment. Still, the power of the environment to shape lives may be underplayed unless theoretical and empirical analysis is context specific. This paper integrates the theoretical work of Robert Selman and Kurt Fischer to explore the structure of urban adolescents' psychosocial development. What is the variation in psychosocial development across a sample of urban youth? Does an adolescent cohorts' psychosocial development fluctuate with changes in the urban environment, such as increases in levels of violence? Finally, how might psychosocial development relate to the construction of other developmental tasks?
Dialectics of body, gender, and sexuality: A performative model
Libby Balter Blume, University of Detroit Mercy
This theoretical paper interrogates social theories of the body, psychological gender schema theories, and feminist poststructural theories. First, I selectively review existing theories on the social construction of gender. Second, I deconstruct assumptions about agency, constructivism, and contextualism in gender research from the perspective of play and practice theories. Third, I propose a theoretical model to reconceptualize the social construction of gender around dialectical issues rather than sex/gender categories. A dialectics of gender describes multiple, transitory identifications with the cultural discourse--discursive experiences that are lived by parents and children as they continually renegotiate body, gender, and sexual identities.
Discussant: Michael Nakkula, Harvard University
Symposium Session 7:
Activity Theory and the Embodied MindOrganizer: Anna Stetsenko, CUNY Graduate Center
The traditional cognitivist notion of the mind as an information processing device located "under the skull" and separated from the world has been recently criticized from several directions. This challenge continues to exist today in disciplines as diverse as cultural-historical activity theory, feminist theory, post-modern theories, and recent branches of cognitive science. Central to these approaches is the recognition that the body should be included in the study of the mind.
The goal of this symposium is to present the activity theory (AT) notion of the mind as emerging through embodied goal-directed collaborative activities embedded in environments constituted by physical and sociocultural objects. By focusing on activity as a molar unit of analysis of human subjectivity, the role of the body in constituting mental phenomena can be ultimately construed in theoretically coherent and non-reductionist ways that avoid the pitfalls of traditional views of the mind as a disembodied and essentially individual device. Moreover, we argue that AT allows for a synthesis of recent theoretical advances made in several interdisciplinary fields vis-a-vis the idea of embodiment of the mind. The first paper addresses the issue of the embodiment of the mind within cultural-historical activity theory with an emphasis on human mind as a process that emerges in the interactions between the living beings and their environment mediated by sociocultural forms of relating to the world, and that implicates intentional, acting, and embodied agent. The second paper examines the role of the body in relation to a specific type of human activity, substance abuse, as included in larger systems of activity. The third paper focuses on the role of bodies as cultural tools in the process of self development in children in the socio-physical context of a school.
The embodied mind in its conceptualization within the cultural-historical activity theory.
Anna Stetsenko, CUNY Graduate Center
Body use (and abuse) in the activities of women recovering from addiction to drugs.
Eduardo Vianna, CUNY Graduate Center
The role of the child's body in the process of the developing self within the context of the socio-physical environment.
Dusana Podlucka, CUNY Graduate Center
Discussion Session 2:
Embodiment from a cultural and psychological perspective: A discussion focusing on Piaget's book "The Origins of Intelligence" featuring Thomas J. Csordas, Lynn S. Liben, and Esther Thelen.
3:15-4:45 Declaration
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Paper Session 8:
Cognitive development and pedagogyUnderstanding of Abstract Definitions: A case of visual-based instruction vs. traditional instruction.
Hamide Dogan, University of Texas at El Paso
Fostering cognitive skill development
David Dean, Columbia University
Deanna Kuhn, Columbia UniversityThis project focuses on several component questions underlying the use of methods for scaffolding the development of knowledge acquisition skills integral to critical and creative thinking through inquiry learning techniques. Working with inner-city middle school children, this project involved tracking that development and testing various methodologies for strengthening the use of appropriate and effective cognitive skills for critical thinking. The outcomes of this investigation should be of use to both educators and developers of instructional aids as those outcomes provide support for inquiry learning techniques and indications of how best to encourage their development.
The embodiment of the x-axis: An impediment to students’ learning of slope
Mindy Kalchman, Northwestern University
Intersubjective reciprocity as the source of reversible thought.
Gustavo Faigenbaum, University of Buenos Aires
This paper examines the analogy between norms of reciprocity that regulate exchange among individuals, and norms of reversibility that organize logical thought. Piaget first formulated this analogy in his book on Moral Judgment, and suggested that reciprocity embodied in peer interaction was central for an account of the genesis of logical reversibility. He came back to this issue in his Sociological Studies. I will discuss empirical and theoretical alternatives (sociocognitive conflict research, investigation of children's peer cultures) for exploring the implications of this analogy.
Moderator: Vera Vasconcellos, Universidade Federal Fluminense
3:15-4:45 Constitution
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Paper Session 9:
Integrating theories of cognition and reasoningModerator: David Kritt, College of Staten Island
Analysis of reasoning
Mariam Thalos, University of Utah
Descartes held that reasoning is a universal–that is to say, an all-purpose–instrument, capable of application to every kind of problem that can be faced. David Hume, by contrast, maintained that the all-purpose machine is impossible, on grounds that there can be no such thing as a rule for generalization that admits of application in all contexts in which knowledge is sought for the sake of guiding action. I shall argue there is a way to harmonize these 2 positions, by introducing distinctions that enable a finer-grained perspective on this thing called ‘reasoning.’
Developmental Metaphysics: Embodiment and the metaphor roots of Mathematics and Science
Robert Kalechofsky, Salem State College
The view that cognitive processes are embodied as metaphors in our brains is the basis for a philosophy of mathematics which sees mathematical ideas as metaphors and cognitive processes in our brains. This opposes the Platonic views of mathematicians who consider mathematical ideas as existing in some other realm. In addition, erring is viewed as a potentially creative process forming new metaphors (accommodation). Paradigms substantiating this view that metaphor and error are at the roots of knowing processes (following the ideas of Piaget and Lakoff) are sketched in the work of Einstein, Cauchy and Aristotle.
A more Darwinian version of constructivism
Joe Becker, University of Illinois at Chicago
The predominant version of constructivist theory of cognitive development is Lamarckian: the cognitive work directed towards solving a problem drives cognitive development. This derives from Piaget's emphasis on disequilibration. However, the idea that cognitive development derives from the attempt to solve a problem or overcome an impasse is challenged by two lines of argument, one empirical and the other theoretical. The paper presents a Darwinian version of constructivist theory that is not open to these challenges. In this version, new scheme-scheme coordinations arise independently of their better efficacy as instruments for coping with the empirically known world.
Development as recombination
Dimitris Papadopoulos, Free University of Berlin
Development is not a natural fact: it is neither an intrinsic feature of individual organisms nor reflects the fundamental mechanics of population systems. Conceptions of development render aspects of our reality meaningful, visible, and moreover, amenable to codification and management according to our positions in knowledge-systems and social landscapes. Thus, development is social contingent and constitutes a form of social technology. But even these theories which reject an objectivist approach to development–such as accounts on embodiment–tend to neglect the overarching consequences of the claim for sociohistorical contingency. In accordance with this I will describe some possible features of a developmental theory and practice which understands itself as an active force of individual and social change.
4:45-5:00 Break
Plenary Session 5:
Representational Development and the Embodied Mind’s EyeLynn S. Liben, The Pennsylvania State University
As living animals, in general, we come to know our real world as we move through and experience it. Our knowing is therefore based not only on what is "out there" but also on what is "inside" our skeletal, visceral, and neural bodies. But as human beings, in particular, we also come to know our real world by creating, using, and sharing representational artifacts. The concept of embodiment will be used to approach the developmentally central question of how individuals come to understand representations as diverse as maps, photographs, and paintings.
Saturday, June 8, A.M. |
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| Overview | Thursday: AM | PM | Friday: AM | PM | Saturday: AM | PM |
9:00-12:000 Foyer
Registration (morning only)
9:00-4:30 Indep. A
Book Display
9:00-4:30 Indep. B
Poster viewing (authors will be present 1:30-3:00)
9:00-10:30 Liberty A .... SY08
Symposium Session 8:
The One Miracle View of Theory of Mind: The Devil is in the DetailsOrganizer: Lynn S. Liben, The Pennsylvania State University
The "one miracle view" of theory of mind holds that at about four years of age, children suddenly achieve a representational theory of mind. The presenters in this symposium soundly reject this "off/on" view, arguing instead that developmental progressions in theory of mind are evident well beyond the age at which children first solve the false belief task. The first speaker presents data showing that between 6- and 12-years of age there is development in children's sensitivity to different types of social requests. More generally, an argument is presented that certain competencies in social interaction may be conceptualized as theory of mind in action. The second speaker addresses theory of mind through studies of understanding appearance/reality (A/R) distinctions. A conceptualization of developmentally-ordered classes of A/R tasks is offered and empirical data on children's (aged 6 and 8) and adults' success on such tasks are described. In addition, children's success on A/R tasks is examined in relation to assessments of the degree to which parents discuss alternative interpretations of graphics and interpersonal events. The third speaker addresses the puzzling state of the theory of mind literature in which it is claimed that children first achieve the insight that reality is open to multiple interpretations at age 4, or 7, or 11, or 16, or college years, and offers ways to integrate and reconcile alternative interpretations of epistemic development. Taken together, the symposium provides evidence from a variety of theory of mind traditions to show that developmental miracles occur long after children graduate from preschool.
Social Interaction as Theory of Mind in Action
Jeremy Carpendale, Simon Fraser University
Denise Goldbeck, Simon Fraser University
William Turnbull, Simon Fraser UniversityDistinguishing Appearance (4-year-old mastery) from Reality (even adults struggle)
Lynn S. Liben, The Pennsylvania State University
Lisa E. Szechter, The Pennsylvania State UniversityBeatify This: Late Arriving Miracles in the Succession of Children's Developing Theories of Mind
Michael Chandler, The University of British Columbia
9:00-10:30 Liberty
B .... SY09
Symposium Session 9:
Hands on learning: An examination of how different embodied representations influence concept learningOrganizer: Melissa Singer, University of Chicago
Discussant: Spencer Kelly, Colgate UniversityThis symposium describes four studies that demonstrate how subjectively experienced action contributes to children’s construction of conceptual knowledge. Subjectively experienced action, however, can come in many forms, levels of abstraction or representations. We ask in this symposium "Which form of embodied cognition contributes to knowledge construction?" The papers in this symposium examine four forms of embodied cognitions: (1) the most direct, sensory-motor level of action, (2) a concrete, yet indirect, representation of action (i.e., gestural representation), (3) an abstract representation of action (i.e., verbal representation) and (4) an interpersonal representation of action (gestural and verbal representations exchanged during teaching interactions). In reflecting over the entire symposium, what emerges is the notion that representations that most resemble basic sensory-motor activity may be the most influential for construction of abstract knowledge. Implications for mechanisms of cognitive change will be discussed.
Learning through doing: Performing and understanding goal-directed action in infancy
Jessica Sommerville, University of Chicago
Amanda Woodward, University of ChicagoMaking children gesture: What role does it play in thinking?
Sara Broaders, University of Chicago
Susan Goldin-Meadow, University of ChicagoLevels of Embodiment and learning: "Do as I do not what I say"
R. Breckinridge Church, Northeastern Illinois University
Saba Ayman-Nolley, Northeastern Illinois University
Elizabeth Gordon, Northeastern Illinois UniversityGesture as Embodied Cognition: Looking at one-on-one math tutorials
Melissa Singer, University of Chicago
Susan Goldin-Meadow, University of Chicago
9:00-10:30 Liberty
C .... SY10
Symposium Session 10:
Perspectives on embodied consciousness across the life spanOrganizer: Andrea Pantoja, California State University, Chico
Organizer: Maria Lyra, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil
Discussant: Chris Sinha, University of Southern Denmark, OdenseThe increasing appearance of the term 'embodiment' within contemporary academic discourse has given rise to a multiplicity of theoretical perspectives on the discussion of the body and psychological functions. For some, embodied experience is interpreted from a linguistic model of meaning, and thus body experiences are conceived of as secondary to verbal praxis. Another perspective on embodiment includes cognitive science tradition where the body is regarded as an object, or a container, where psychological experience takes place. The focus tends to be on the consequences of having a particular body structure within a given environment. A third perspective on embodiment conceives the body as subject (instead of secondary object), emphasizing the phenomenology of the embodied experience, that is, of interactions and exchanges occurring within the field of bodily existence. Although these approaches appear to concur on the primacy of the organism-environment relationship, they differ on their respective views on the role of the body in this relationship. The four papers that compose this symposium aim to illustrate various perspectives on embodiment. Rooted on the phenomenological philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Vedeler discusses the bodily origin of intentionality as emerging out of early social interactions. Lyra discusses the concepts of 'immediacy of feelings' and 'mediated sign functioning', proposing a dialogical movement that integrates these two aspects of human functioning. Seitz discusses how bodily movement is an important component of many cognitive skills (e.g., music improvisation and early metaphoric abilities in children), focusing on how dance-instruction might enhance spatial-temporal reasoning abilities in children. Finally, Fogel proposes the concept of participatory memory as the embodied experience of re-living the past, describing conditions under which adults may access embodied participatory memories of infancy.
The bodily origin of intentionality
Dankert Vedeler, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Immediacy and mediacy of human functioning
Maria C.D.P. de Lyra, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil
Dance instruction and spatial-temporal reasoning abilities
Jay A. Seitz, City University of New York
Remembering infancy: Accessing our earliest experiences
Alan Fogel, University of Utah
9:00-10:30 Declaration
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Paper Session 10:
Issues for education and educatorsLearning to understand the world with young mathematicians and scientists eyes on Piaget's constructivism
Judit Kerekes, College of Staten Island/CUNY
The impact of skill theory and microdevelopment in designing science curricula
Marc Schwartz, Harvard Graduate School of Education
This article argues for a new framework for curriculum development based on two relevant models from cognitive psychology. I use skill theory (Fischer, 1980), a neo-Piagetian model of development, and Perceptual Control Theory (Powers, 1973), a cognitive model for understanding behavior, as theoretical underpinnings for this new framework. The two-week science module, shaped by this framework, supported meaningful and significant growth in understanding. When compared with two more familiar strategies used in middle school science, I found that both failed to support any significant growth in understanding.
Mentoring teachers: The embodied mind in situated professional development
Sybillyn Jennings, The Sage Colleges
Karen Swan, The University at Albany
Ellen Meier, Columbia University
Margaret Cintorino, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Lester Rubenfeld, Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteThis paper examines the process ten mentors engaged in as they worked side-by-side with 175 teachers in 14 schools, with the goal of helping teachers integrate learning technologies into instruction. We describe how mentors made sense of the task, how they negotiated their roles, drawing on varied experiences to recruit teachers' interest in using technology, and adjusting their goals to fit the school culture. We also describe how the teacher-learners participated in the process. Through the mentors' and teachers' eyes, we can see clearly the social foundations of learning on which the development of cognitive skill depends.
Moderator: Jeanette McCarthy Gallagher, Lehigh University
9:00-10:30 Constitution
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Paper Session 11:
Metatheory and metaconsciousnessJames and Piaget: Two Varieties of Religious Experience
Michel Ferrari, University of Toronto
For James, personal life is transformed through religious experiences. Thus we can have the ‘Will to Believe’ in a transcendent God. By contrast, Piaget considers the notion of a transcendent God a more primitive form of thought, both historically and psychologically. Piaget’s views on religion transmute or shade into issues of moral reasoning from the 1930’s onwards, and seems typical of scientists today. But as James (1902) says, it is the deep emotional peace and security of absolute faith–and its real power to inform personal lives–that remains a "live issue" for psychological and developmental science.
Genetic epistemology of experimenter’s agency
Gerardo Hernandez, Cinvestav-smtc
Ricardo Quintero, Cinvestav
Luis Mauricio Rodriguez, Ciecas-IPNRationalists and empiricist have justified quite differently the role of experimentation in science, however, in both cases the experiment played the simple role of confirming or refuting theoretical ideas. Since Haking reevaluated the role of experiment in science, several philosophers have seen an active experimenter in designing and performing experiments. In this view, the experiment is not just a questioning of nature, but an inquiry about what we can do with nature. We present a way by which genetic epistemology throws some light into the mechanism that leads manipulation in experiments into scientific theories.
Metaconsciousness: A new look at Metacognition and its Embodiment
Michel Ferrari, University of Toronto
Georges A. Potworowski, University of Toronto
Frank Marra, University of Toronto
Robin E. Sacks, University of TorontoMetacognition (knowledge about and control of one’s own cognition) has been discussed for decades, but early explanations were essentially information processing accounts of monitoring and control. How does recent work on consciousness and self-awareness add to our understanding of metacognition and how it is embodied? We suggest that integrating consciousness and metacognition generates a paradox between levels of consciousness and levels of control that a new model proposed here can resolve.
Discussant: TBA
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45-12:00 Liberty
C .... PL06
Plenary Session 6:
Embodiment and the SacredThomas J. Csordas, Case Western Reserve University
William James based his famous study of religion on the most acute and extreme spiritual moments of religious geniuses, seeking the essence of religious experiences in those "which are most one-sided, exaggerated, and intense." The reverse strategy of seeking the minimal criterion of religious experience, the phenomological kernel that is the origin of religious symbol and sentiment, can be just as productive. This kernel may be the sense of otherness first articulated by phenomenologists of religion. Contemporary theorizing on otherness - alterity - helps to clarify that it is grounded in embodiment. Insofar as this embodied otherness is part of the structure of being-in-the-world, it makes religion possible and perhaps even necessary.
Saturday, June 8, P.M. |
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| Overview | Thursday: AM | PM | Friday: AM | PM | Saturday: AM | PM |
12:00-1:30 Lunch
12:00-1:30 Congress ... BOD2 Board of Directors Meeting
Symposium Session 11:
Cognitive and Biological Factors in Social ReasoningOrganizer: Henry Markovits, Universite du Quebec a Montreal
Discussant: Paul Klaczynski, Pennsylvania State UniversityThe study of reasoning has often been limited to logical or scientific domains. However, since the work of Cheng & Holyoak, Cosmides and others, there has been growing attention paid to the kinds of inferences made in social domains. This symposium presents research that examines both cognitive and evolutionary approaches to social reasoning. The first presentation looks at children's feelings about contract violation while taking into account the factor of power derived from developmental research (adult vs. peer) and biological relatedness, derived from evolutionary theories. First and fourth graders were asked about the feelings of guilt (violator) and anger (victim) and their intensity. The second presentation examines competition for use of a single toy among groups of same-sex peers. Two developmental patterns for regulating competition were detected. The first was an overall tendency towards greater equality. The second involved increasing differentiation of behavior according to context. The third presentation looks at intuitive predictions and judgments under uncertainty. The specific hypothesis was made that systematic judgmental biases appear to be due to an executive-inhibition failure in working memory. This hypothesis was tested using an experimental procedure in which 60 adults were trained to inhibit the classical conjunction bias on a frequency judgment task derived from Kahneman and Tversky. Results suggest that subjects traditionally labeled as "irrational" with respect to the classical rules of inductive reasoning are in fact "inefficient inhibitors". The final presentation examines children's and adolescents judgments about sharing behavior as a function of biological relatedness, quality of relationship, value of the shared resource and gender. Results are analyzed in terms of one of the key concepts in evolutionary approaches to behavioral ecology, that of a conditional strategy. Judgments were consistent with use of a conditional strategy that included all of the above factors across all ages.
Guilt and anger in contract violation: The effect of different relationships
Monika Keller, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Clark Barrett, University of California at Los Angeles
Masanori Takezawa, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Szymon Wichary, Jagellonian UniversityThe development of contextual rules for regulating peer competition for resources
Joyce Benenson, McGill University
Judgment under uncertainty and conjunction-fallacy inhibition training
Sylvain Moutier, CNRS - CEA - Universités de Caen & Paris 5
The development of mental models of conditional strategies for sharing
Henry Markovits, Université du Québec a Montréal
Symposium Session 12:
The role of representation in children's mathematicsOrganizer: Peter Bryant, Oxford University
Organizer: Terezinha Nunes, Oxford Brookes UniversityThe theme of the symposium is that children's solutions to mathematical problems strongly depend on the way that they represent these problems. We shall argue that children are more successful in understanding and solving mathematical problems if they can represent these problems in ways that are based on familiar schemas of action. The presentations by Bryant and Nunes and by Squire will make the claim that children's understanding of multiplication is based initially on one-to-many correspondence, while their understanding of division is based on sharing. Problems that children can represent in ways that fit with these schemas are quite easy for them to solve. Methods of instruction that encourage these representations are effective. Falcao and Coelho's presentation will demonstrate that that methods of teaching additive reasoning and aspects of algebra are also crucially affected by the ways in which known and unknown quantities are represented. The presentation by Nunes and Borba will deal with negative numbers, and will show how children can solve hitherto difficult negative numbers problems when they understand the need to represent positive and negative numbers differently. These results and conclusions are relevant to educational issues as well as to the theories about the development of mathematical understanding.
Ratios and fractions in children's learning of intensive quantities
Peter Bryant, University of Oxford
Terezinha Nunes, Oxford Brookes UniversityRepresentation, additive structures and algebraic activity among pre-school and second graders in elementary school
Jorge Tarcisio da Rocha Falcao, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
Ana Coelho Vieira Selva, Universidade Federal de PernambucoChildren's representation of division problems
Sarah B. Squire, University of Oxford
The effect of systems of signs on children's reasoning about negative numbers
Terezinha Nunes, Oxford Brookes University
Rute Borba, Oxford Brookes University
Invited Symposium 3: Embodiment of Meaning
Everyone is invited to the presentation of the Jean Piaget Society Life-Time Achievement Awards to Harry Beilin and Irving Sigel (Willis Overton presiding).
Organizer: Irving Sigel, Educational Testing Service
The central theme of the presentations by Sigel and Shafrir address two facets of meaning making that is embodied in the developing individual. The first facet of the discussion by Sigel deals with meaning-making, and its significance for the development of representational competence. Representational competence refers to knowing that instances such as words, pictures, or mathematical notations can have equivalent meaning in spite of the difference in appearance; in effect, analogous to the Piagetian concept of conservation. The second facet will be a presentation by Shafrir on the meaning equivalence paradigm instantiated in a formal procedure to assess representational competence. The application of this tool to assess representational competence across knowledge domains will be demonstrated.
Embodiment of Meaning: A Developmental Model
Irving Sigel, Educational Testing Service
Meaning Equivalence: A novel assessment methodology for deep comprehension in any content area
Uri Shafrir, University of Toronto
Poster Session 2
Note: Posters will be available for viewing all day. Authors will attend from 1:30-3:00
1. Theory of mind: Is training contagious?
Anne-Marie Melot, University Paris 5
Angeard Nathalie, University Paris 52. Metacognitive activity and reading disability: Domain or task specific skill.
Kavita L. Seeratan, University of Toronto/OISE
3. Schizophrenic Thought Disorder in developmental perspective: Disturbance in generative processes of pre-linguistic meaning?
Mette Vaever, University of Copenhagen
Josef Parnas. University of Copenhagen4. The developmental relations among perspective taking skills, language development, and cognitive flexibility in toddlers
Ulrich Mueller, Pennsylvania State University
Philip D. Zelazo, University of Toronto
Douglas Frye, University of Pennsylvania
Dana Lieberman, University of Toronto5. The epistemological meaning of scientific instruments
Luis Mauricio Rodriguez, Ciecas, IPN
Gerardo Hernandez, Cinvestav, IPN
Ricardo Quintero, Cinvestav, IPN6. The concepts of success and failure embodied
Caren Rawlins, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
7. Can young children use their pointing gestures as a private tool for regulating their thought processes?
Begoña Delgado Egido, UNED
Encarnación Sarriá Sánchez, UNED
Juan Carlos Gómez., University of St. Andrews8. Training Many-to-One Reasoning in Young Children
Catherine Sophian, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Samara Madrid, University of Hawaii at Manoa9. Pretending and Planning in Children with Autism
Lisa Gilotty, Children's National Medical Center
Linda J. Brandt, The George Washington University
Virginia S. Hornbeck, The George Washington University10. Does wisdom increase with age?
Helena Maria d`Orey Marchand, Universidade de Lisboa
11. Why fluctuations? Dynamic systems, emotions and developmental transitions
Tom Hollenstein, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
12. The sophistication of structural knowledge through concept sorting tasks
Hiroshi Maeda, International Christian University
13. Children's miscomprehensions of language used to represent body and mind
Jay G Hook, Harvard Law School
14. Embodied number and 'Fu': A diachronic analysis of number representation in the Oksapmin of Papua New Guinea
Geoffrey B. Saxe, University of California, Berkeley
Jody Esmonde, University of California, Berkeley
Clifton Mcintosh, University of California, Berkeley15. Gesture as a window on children's beginning understanding of false belief
Stephanie M. Carlson, University of Washington
Caron Cosser, University of Washington
Margaret Lemke, University of Washington
Antoinette Wong, University of Washington16. Are any nonhuman animals self-conscious?
Mildred Funk, Roosevelt University
17. Relating language and theory of mind: The case of bilingual children
Christopher T. Fennell, University of British Columbia
Julie Belanger, University of British Columbia18. Self-Continuity in Personal Projects
Monika Brandstätter, University of Victoria
Christopher E. Lalonde, University of Victoria19. Inferring a robot’s false belief by young children - A preliminary report
Shoji Itakura, Kyoto University, & ATR Media Information Science Laboratory
Takayoshi Kotani, Kyoto Univerity
Hiraku Ishida, Kyoto Univerity
Takayuki Kanda, ATR Media Information Science Laboratory
Hiroshi Ishiguro, Wakayama University, & ATR Media Information Science Laboratory20. Conceptual Perspective-Taking and its Associations with Visual Perspective-Taking Performance
Alberto G. Sorongon, The George Washington University
Eugene Abravanel, The George Washington University21. Developing Social Roles through Pretend Play: A case study of a child with autism
Amelia Rishworth, Clark University
Penelope G. Vinden, Clark University22. Acquiring an understanding of design: Evidence from 'functional fixedness' problems with novel objects.
Tim P German, University of California, Santa Barbara
Margaret Anne Defeyter, University of Essex23. The varieties of being post-formal: Proposal of a meta-structure.
Gabriel Bukobza Ophir, Harvard Graduate School of Education
24. The effect of Cognitive-Visuo Training on Autistic Spectrum Children
Tyish Hall, Vision and Conceptual Development Center
Matt Hiller, Vision and Conceptual Development Center
Stacey Kleckner, Vision and Conceptual Development Center
Harry Wachs, Vision and Conceptual Development Center
Swithin David, Vision and Conceptual Development Center25. Learning to Draw Recognizable Graphic Representations During Mother-Child Interactions
Gregory S. Braswell, University of California, Santa Cruz
Maureen Callanan, University of California, Santa Cruz26. Changes in children's figure drawing following kinesthetic experience
Lynda A. Kapsch, Georgia State University
Ann Cale Kruger, Georgia State University27. Young children’s understanding of temporal expressions: the case of simultaneity
Barbara Schmiedtova, Max-Planck-Institute for Psycholinguistics
Petra Gretsch, Max-Planck-Institute for Psycholinguistics28. Drawing: The effects of media on spatial representation
Frank Gallo, University of Massachusetts at Boston
Claire Golomb, University of Massachusetts at Boston
Alessandra Barosso, Northeastern University29. Children's developing awareness of the functions of verbal irony
Eva Filippova, University of Toronto
1:30-3:00 Declaration
.... PP12
Paper Session 12:
Embodied mind in Piagetian perspectiveThe role of movement in perception, memory, mental imagery and intelligence according to Piaget considered as a paradigm for a Piagetian theory of the embodiment of mind
Jacques Voneche, Archives Jean Piaget
This paper attempts to show how Piaget anticipated present theories of cognitive processes and how his views have been confirmed by recent discoveries in perception, memory, mental imagery and intelligence. In addition, the paper offers, on the basis of Piaget’s specific findings and explanations, a general theory of the body as a mediator between the mind and the world and a new approach to the mind-body problem.
Platonic themes in Piaget's "Mission of the Idea"
Mark Schernwetter, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Plato’s ‘Socratic Method’ seeks to acquire universal knowledge by separating the rational ideas of the mind from the emotions and desires of the body. I examine how a Platonic orientation is expressed in Piaget’s early prose work, ’The Mission of the Idea’ (1915), which was written when Piaget was only nineteen years old. I consider how the Platonic interests in Piaget’s artful prose anticipate his move away from the issues he explored as an adolescent. I study how he transforms his emotionally imbued forms of expression into a scientific clinical method that identifies universal structures of thought underlying cognitive content.
Piaget's stages revisited (and somewhat revised)
David Henry Feldman, Tufts University
Although much criticized, Piaget's stages formed the backbone of his theory. In this paper, the basic form of the stages is preserved, but some of the most challenging problems have been addressed. Possible solutions to problems such as decalage, structures as a whole, the failure of many to reach formal operations, novelty and how it is possible, and the "immaculate transition" are borrowed from NeoPiagetian, Piagetian, Nonuniversal and Dynamic systems theories. This version of the stages approaches the vision of an "embodied mind" that Piaget tried (but did not altogether succeed) to express.
Discussant: Gustavo Faigenbaum, University of Buenos Aires
1:30-3:00 Constitution
.... PP13
Paper Session 13:
Biobehavioral systems theoryIssues of establishment, consolidation, and reorganization in biobehavioral adaptation
Jean-Louis Gariepy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Experiments with mouse lines selectively bred for high and low aggression are presented to provide empirical evidence that development is dynamic and continuous. Instead of identifying antecedent factors predictive of individual differences at some pre-defined endpoint, these studies captured contemporaneous factors of maintenance, consolidation, and reorganization in established biobehavioral patterns. Results have relevance for understanding how, in evolution and development, innovative accommodations arise out of systemic organizations that otherwise favor conservation and continuity in biobehavioral adaptation.
Anomalous self-experience in schizophrenia, intermodal integration, and cortical connectivity
Pierre Bovet, University Department of Adult Psychiatry, Lausanne
Josef Parnas. University of Copenhagen
Pascal Vianin, Research Center of Psychiatric Neuroscience, Lausanne
Giorgio Innocenti, Karolinska InstitutetPre-schizophrenic patients express subtle anomalies of self-experience, which might be indicative of deficient capacities of intermodal integration during infancy and childhood. Intermodal integration involves probably synchronous firing of spatially distributed neuronal assemblies. This "binding by synchrony" depends on precise geometry of cortico-cortical connections. We suggest that the neurodevelopmentally determined vulnerability to schizophrenia would be reflected at the anatomical level by abnormal cortico-cortical connectivity, at the neuropsychological level by deficient intra- and intermodal integration, and at the clinical level by premorbid features suggestive of developmental anomalies in multiple domains, including the development of sense of Self.
Systemic Theory and Learning Disabilities: A Reexamination of the Construct that Created "Disabled" Learners
Betsey Grobecker, Independent Consultant
From a systemic perspective of life, structures of organizing activity (self-regulating, self-amplifying, and self-organizing nonlinear feedback loops of neural activity) evolve through multiple interacting processes within and between evolving systems. Structural networks that lack expansion in form are characterized as hierarchical organizations that have a low degree of structural plasticity. This decreased degree of internal order (or complexity) will not generate the degree of instability in the total system necessary to form a higher-order autopoietic system from lower-order autopoietic systems at the expected time. As a result, learning "differences" are manifested.
Moderator: Clary Milnitsky, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Discussant: Marc Lewis, University of Toronto
3:00-3:15 Break
Symposium Session 13:
Epistemology in Action: Naturalism, Infancy, and RoboticsOrganizer: Timothy P. Racine, Simon Fraser University
Those who subscribe to a constructivist epistemology assume that thought originates in action. In this symposium, we argue that: (a) social interaction is critical for the development of knowledge; and, (b) an action-based (constructivist) epistemology can provide a more adequate account of the emergence of knowledge forms. We believe that the dependence of development upon activity has far reaching consequences, which we take to include the avoidance of some of the problems inherent in a naive empiricism or nativism. In order to anchor the symposium theme, Kitchener begins by arguing that although naturalistic and normative epistemology have traditionally been seen as incompatible due to the distinction between fact and norm, Piaget's genetic epistemology, which is rooted in social interaction, can bridge the divide between the normative and the naturalistic. In order to critique contemporary theories of social understanding, Racine then draws upon Wittgenstein to analyze the grammar of intention. In contradistinction to those who would argue that joint attention requires the development of an understanding of intentional mental states, Racine argues it is problematic to assume that such states can exist and uses this to justify an action-based account of development. Carpendale and Mueller then evaluate contemporary approaches to pointing in infancy by examining the epistemological frameworks from which these accounts begin. They critique approaches that are based on an individualist framework and suggest that a relational framework, drawing on Baldwin, Piaget, and Vygotsky, is more fruitful. Finally, Davies and Racine argue that disembodied approaches to artificial intelligence suffer as a result of not considering the developing agent in their models. Although they commend embodied behavior-based approaches for emphasizing the role of social interaction in the development of knowledge, they critique and reinterpret the use of modular models of social development in such programmes.
Genetic Epistemology: Normative Epistemology vs. Naturalistic Epistemology
Richard F. Kitchener, Colorado State University
Intention, Mental States and Development
Timothy P. Racine, Simon Fraser University
The Point of the Point: The Development of Pointing in Infancy
Jeremy I. M. Carpendale, Simon Fraser University
Ulrich Mueller, Pennsylvania State UniversityComing to Terms with the Application of Developmental Theory to Artificial Intelligence
A. Rhian Davies, Simon Fraser University
Timothy P. Racine, Simon Fraser University
Paper Session 14:
Theory of mindThe metaphorical bases of children's Theories of Mind
Bayta L. Maring, University of Oregon
Marjorie Taylor, University of OregonSome philosophers propose that humans understand all abstract concepts by mapping them onto concrete objects via metaphor. This paper focuses on how theory of mind development might consist of shifts in conceptual metaphors for the mind. Between the ages of five and seven children begin to understand that beliefs are not passively received but actively constructed. We proposed that this development represents a change from using a MIND AS CONTAINER metaphor to using a MIND AS HOMUNCULUS metaphor. Results from our first study show that five-year-olds understand MIND AS CONTAINER metaphors significantly better than MIND AS HOMUNCULUS metaphors.
Epistemological recursion: Epistemic development regarding institutional facts versus brute facts
Darcy Hallett, University of British Columbia
Michael J. Chandler, University of British ColumbiaRecent research has suggested that epistemological development is actually a recursive process that young persons, typically in the teenage ages, apply to matters of 'social' or 'institutional' facts before they make the same allowance for matters of 'hard' or 'brute' facts, which usually an achievement of the college years. To further investigate these findings, a sample of university students and high school students were given a semi-structured interview designed to include both matters of institutional and brute fact. Results suggest that young persons do treat knowledge of differing epistemic content in significantly different ways.
Chinese and American children's developing understanding of knowledge
David Liu, University of Michigan
Henry M. Wellman, University of Michigan
Twila Tardif, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Kitty Fong Yau Fung, Chinese University of Hong KongKnowing about knowing is a universally important cognitive task. Development of an understanding of knowledge may differ for knowing-that and knowing-how and for Chinese and American children. We asked Chinese and American children to judge their own and others' states of knowledge. We found that this understanding's development demonstrates not only the influence of common developmental trends (e.g., understanding knowing-that before knowing-how) but also the impact of different cultural emphases (e.g., conceptions of one's own verses others' procedural knowledge in Chinese and American children).
What happens in your head when you think?: Theory of the mind.
Jose de Vincenzo, National Louis University
Marilei D. Leme, Universidade de Santo Amaro
Isabela Sousa, Osvaldo Cruz Foundation
Judith Lanni-Ruggeri, National Louis UniversityA sample of 283 children from Brazil and the United States, ranging in age from 7 to 12 years, responded graphically and verbally to the question "What happens in your head when you think?" Analysis of the data suggests gender, developmental, and cultural differences. A sample of their productions will be included in the presentation.
Moderator: Analia Kiela Ribeiro, Federal University of Pernambuco
Invited Symposium 4:
Perspectives on the early development of consciousness.Organizer: Philip D. Zelazo, University of Toronto
This symposium brings together researchers who are addressing the development of consciousness in various ways and in various contexts, and asks them to do 3 things: (1) provide a working definition of consciousness (or working definitions); (2) discuss how (and why) they make inferences about consciousness on the basis of behavioral data; and (3) compare their perspectives to those of the other participants.
The developing self and development.
Michael Lewis, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
The development of the self–a mental construct–occurs around the middle of the second year of life and serves to organize the child's cognitive, social, and emotional life. By using this mental construct consciousness or the knowledge of one's existence–the integration of most domains of knowledge is possible.
Levels of consciousness in childhood
Philip D. Zelazo, University of Toronto
In this talk, I will review the main points of the Levels of Consciousness model (e.g., Zelazo, 1999; Zelazo & Zelazo, 1998). These include: (1) a characterization of the key features of neonatal consciousness, (2) the suggestion that by assuming a particular characterization of neonatal consciousness and combining it with the functional process of recursion, one can trace the development of consciousness through several levels, and (3) a discussion of how these levels explain age-related abulic dissociations between "knowing" and "doing," as well as other developmental phenomena. Indeed, it is argued that we must introduce the notion of multiple levels of consciousness to explain these important phenomena. Failure to take a developmental approach has led to reliance on unitary (non-conscious vs. conscious), or at most binary (non-conscious vs. [conscious vs. self-conscious]), notions of consciousness.
Consciousness and Intentional Relations: A Developmental Perspective
John Barresi, Dalhousie University
Chris Moore, Dalhousie UniversityInfants have consciousness in the primary sense of intentional awareness of objects. But they do not have consciousness in the secondary sense of being reflectively aware of their own consciousness. We present a three-stage account of the development of reflective consciousness: Toward the end of the first year, infants become reflectively aware of shared intentional activity with others, and by the end of the second year, distinguish their own intentional activities, from those of others. But, it is not until the end of the third year, that toddlers become aware of conscious mental states as such, thus becoming reflectively self-conscious.
3:15-4:45 Declaration
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Paper Session 15:
Math and science educationAn instrumental approach to mathematical concepts learning: A case study on geometry
Alex Sandro Gomes, Centro de Informitica, UFPE
Our aim is to achieve the mathematical knowledge construction that emerges to individual activities with artifacts. The concept of instrument - defined by Mounoud and extended by Rabardel seems not to be adequate. We redefined instrument, substituting the original scheme with one defined by Vergnaud, including an knowledge elements to the model. We proposed geometric problems to be solved with rule and compass and with CABRI GÈomËtre software. We observed 10 pupils, from 11 to 13 years old. As results, different artifacts promoted different subsets of mathematical knowledge. Materials define different learning possibilities.
Learning to see mathematics: The role of visual representations in negotiating mathematical meanings in first grade.
Lucia M. Flevares, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Michelle Perry, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignLearning mathematics in school entails the acquisition of mathematical forms of representation and communication. In the present study we observed first-grade lessons and focused on the negotiations of mathematical meanings through visual and verbal means. The negotiations occurred through discussions of students’ errors, disagreements, confusion, and corrections of mathematical representations. Teachers and students used a variety of representational forms to express mathematical meanings, and their use of these forms increased following the occurrence of a student’s error, confusion, disagreement or correction. Teachers’ actions often drew attention to specific features of a visual representation to support students’ representational understanding.
Functional relationships between conceptual and procedural knowledge: The role of knowledge characteristics
Hsin-mei Liao, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
This research investigated the role of knowledge characteristics in determining the functional relationship between conceptual and procedural knowledge. 35 and 36 children between age 2.5 and 3.5 participated in the first and the second study, respectively. Each was interviewed with tasks that measured conceptual competencies in cardinality, addition, and subtraction and computational competence in addition and subtraction. The results indicate that the functional relationship may be different when the scopes of the conceptual and procedural knowledge change. Furthermore, a prerequisite relation is more likely when the conceptual and procedural dyads are from two distant hierarchies of the knowledge structure.
Casting an anchor before floating off–the shift from simple to complex reasoning
Sharona T. Levy, Tel-Aviv University
This study explores children’s learning while gaining practice in building operating water pipe systems. In the talk, the focus will be on the processes through which reasoning increases complexity in service of a higher coherence with system behavior. Kindergarten children constructed four different hierarchically controlled water systems, based on increasingly complex combinations of three physical relations. It was found that learning of complex phenomena progressed through a unification of reasoning by increasing consistency before releasing this consistency in order to explore additional dimensions and finally integrate the various dimensions into a single framework.
Moderator: Carolyn Hildebrandt, University of Northern Iowa
3:15-4:45 Constitution
.... PP16
Paper Session 16:
Embodiment, creativity, and phenomenologyEmbodiment as phenomenological concept
Gabriela Rizo, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
Alexandra Tsallis, Universidade do Estado do Rio de JaneiroThe Merleau-Ponty phenomenology is discussed in psychology, anthropology and other disciplines. In this paper we argue about the concept of embodiment proposed by Csordas and the articulation with psychology. This concept is based on the human vision as a being-in-the-world and on the conception of body as a social inscription, both being fruitful dimensions for psychology. The concept of embodiment is intended to serve, in some way, as a device of analysis of the social phenomena and as creative way out in order to overcome the mind-body dualism and the priority of the reason.
Music as Embodied Cognition
Jeanne Bamberger, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Children's earliest invented notations for rhythm initially embody their actions in continuous scribbles; interrupting these action paths, notations become bounded, structural gestures, then measured, classified, discrete objects. This is taken as a process of selectively interrupting the passage of actions/events unfolding through time to make distinctions, classify, and name. I argue that insight subsequently occurs when boundaries of conformant distinctions are made permeable: performing musicians, for example, embodying composers' "ideas," animate distinctions held by static symbols, shaping and re-shaping contiguous events into structural gestures in response to unique context, thus expressively projecting feeling and meaning.
Creativity and the Biology of Technology: From spider webs and beaver dams to knowledge engineers and computerized Bach.
Iris Stammberger, Tufts University
All forms of creativity are related. From spider webs, beaver dams and ant farms to knowledge engineers and computerized Bach, all forms of creativity result from the algorithmic process of evolutionary change by which biological organisms differ in the way they extend their minds into the environment creating technology - a prosthesis by which they change their ability to act in the world. In this paper, after showing how findings in creativity research find unifying theoretical ground in cognitive naturalism - the perspective that the mind is embodied lived experience arising in the context of evolutionary history -, I argue for an agenda for the study of creativity as the study of the biology of technology.
Discussant: Peter Pufall, Smith College
4:45-5:00 Break
Plenary Session 7:
Developmental Origins of the Embodied MindEsther Thelen, Indiana University
An embodied cognition arises from bodily interactions with the world and is continually meshed with them. I take a developmental view and reaffirm Piaget's fundamental message that cognition is built from the sensorimotor activities of infants. But I also suggest that skill is not only abstract thinking, but the also the ability to act, and to move rapidly and seamlessly between these two states. I use the argument of continuity between levels and time scales to suggest that dynamics is the appropriate language for a nested and coupled mind and body. Studies of infants and toddlers illustrate how bodily memories are a part of all cognition.
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