THE STRUCTURE AND PROCESS OF INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT*

Abstract

In the present article, a theory of intellectual development is summarized which attempts to integrate the general structural approach pioneered by Piaget, with the more recent ‘process’ oriented approaches proposed by information processing theorists on the one hand, and by Pascual‐Leone (in his M‐Operator theory) on the other. The resultant theory is one which proposes that children's control structures progress through four general stages in the course of their development, with three recursive substages being identifiable at each. Transition to a new stage of development occurs as a result of the hierarchical integration of two qualitatively distinct control structures, each one of which was assembled and consolidated towards the end of the previous stage. By contrast, progress within a stage occurs as a result of the step‐wise attention to, and non‐hierarchical integration of, an increasing number of similar elements, each one of which was assembled towards the beginning of the new stage. The variable that determines the maximum rate at which within‐stage progress can take place is the size of the child's working memory, which is seen as growing in response to both maturational and experiential variables. A similar process is seen as determining the timing of across‐stage transitions; however, this process is as yet less well articulated. Several different sorts of empirical evidence have been gathered so far, to support the overall structure of the theory. After this evidence is described and illustrated, the article concludes with a summary of the theory in postulate form.