Abstract
Molenaar’s manifesto on psychology as idiographic science (Molenaar, 2004) brought the times series perspective firmly to the attention of developmental scientists. The rich intraindividual variation in complex developmental processes requires the study of these processes at the level of the individual. Yet, the idiographic approach is all but easy in practical research. One major limitation is the collection of short interval times series of high quality data on developmental processes. In this paper, we present a novel measurement approach to this problem. We developed an online practice and monitoring system which is now used by thousands of Dutch primary school children on a daily or weekly basis, providing a new window on cognitive development. We will introduce the origin of this new instrument, called Math Garden, explain its setup, and present and discuss ways to analyze children’s individual developmental pathways.
Highlights
The human cognitive system, and especially its development in the first 10 years, is inconceivably complex
The idiographic approach is essential in uncovering the rich dynamics of cognitive development
This is important for fundamental research, and of practical relevance, especially in the educational context
Summary
The human cognitive system, and especially its development in the first 10 years, is inconceivably complex. One common element in the study of the dynamic complex systems is the focus on high quality and highly frequent measurements Such data, collected within an individual, are required to study individual development in detail and to answer fundamental questions on cognitive development and learning [2,3]. The darker line, representing the group’s average performance at each point in time, suggests a more continuous developmental process Such between subject data would have been collected in a typical cross-sectional study. Over the last 10 years we developed a new system meeting both scientific and educational objectives, that solves these problems With this system, the main application being Math Garden (in Dutch: Rekentuin) [6,7] we have collected high-frequency time series of thousands of subjects over multiple years in many scholastic and cognitive domains.
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