neo-Piagetian Model Research Articles

Children’s representation of specialized skilled movements: The cases of snowboarding and aikido

AbstractThis article investigates children’s graphic representation of two complex motor skills, snowboarding and aikido, from the perspective of drawing flexibility research. In particular, the role of working memory capacity in the development of drawing flexibility is examined. A total of 127 children in the age range 5.7–11.9 years were shown short videos of snowboarding and aikido and were required to make drawings of them. In addition, participants were administered Goodenough’s Draw-a-man Test (that measures the ability to draw detail and proportion in the human figure) and two working memory tests (the Mr. Cucumber test and the Backward Digit Span). The snowboarding and aikido drawings were scored for 19 or 13 features, respectively, on which they could differ from the participant’s standard drawing of a person. The snowboarding and aikido scores were correlated, also controlling for age and Draw-a-man scores, indicating a common variance for drawing flexibility. The drawing flexibility scores increased with age, and were correlated with working memory capacity, also controlling for age and Draw-a-man scores. These results are consistent with a neo-Piagetian model of drawing flexibility development. Detailed analyses are also provided on children’s production of stick figures and “transparencies,” and on the relation of each single modified feature with age and working memory capacity.

Discourse analysis on understanding the differential concept of high school students in a dynamic geometry environment

This study investigated the cognitive and social processes through which high school students acquire the differential concepts through communication in a dynamic geometry environment through some cases. Additionally, we observed how a dynamic geometry environment affects these processes. To achieve this objective, eight students were recruited by using the pre-test results and divided into an experimental group and a control group. The learning environment for the two groups was designed to be the same except for jointly manipulating Geogebra on the laptop in the experimental group. Students’ discourse was analyzed using an analysis framework that applied both Piaget’s (1959) linguistic categories and Rutherford’s (2011) neo-Piagetian model. We found that the dynamic geometry environment improved communication among students and their achievement levels. In particular, graphic and dynamic representations created by dragging stimulated students’ interest and increased communication among them. Although the quality of communication was somewhat different in the discourse analysis of the two groups, each participant’s role was confirmed in the co-construction of knowledge among all cases of eight students. We expect that precise verbal information on various representations of mathematical content in the process of understanding the concepts of students could be an opportunity to prepare educational environments corresponding thereto.

A broad ethics model for mental health practice

Summary The article presents a broad ethical model in the context of psychiatric/psychological work that applies to mental health, in general. Also, it extends the five principles of the American Psychological Association (2002, 2010) ethics code by adding five new ones. The five extant ethics principles in the APA ethics code involve: beneficence/nonmaleficence; fidelity/responsibility; integrity; justice; and respect for rights/dignity. The five new ones that are suggested for addition involve: ethics as a system; ethics as science/science as ethics; ethics and law; ethics and assessment procedures (and their limits); and ethics in symptom/performance validity verification. The article undertakes discussion of the reasons why the five new ethical principles that are recommended are needed and the advantages that they would bring to any revision of extant ethical codes in the field of mental health. Together, the suite of 10 principles that has been constructed about ethics is applicable to any area of mental health. Further, the article presents a model of the growth in ethical thought according to Young (2011)’s Neo-Piagetian model, which involves Piaget's abstract formal stage, as well as an ensuing superordinate abstract stage (and it includes five substages – coordination, hierarchization, systematization, multiplication, and integration). The steps involved in the growth of ethical thought concern: contemplation of dilemmas; developing rules; leading to codes; and then principles and overarching theories. This takes place in the singular and then in the multiple (so we can speak of meta-theories, too). Aside from its applicability to individuals, the indicated sequence can be used to structure the process of institutional ethical code construction (which includes principles and perhaps a quasi – rather than a formal theory, generally). The sequence is consistent with the work of Cottone (2012) and Kitchener and Kitchener (2012), while integrating them. The present ethical model is used to help construct a revised version of the golden rule that reflects a universal moral, ethical concept, which could guide the construction both of personal ethical thought and that of institutions. This revised golden rule is quite intricate in that it considers multiple complexities, but still reflects the basic moral imperative in the original. The literature review supports the five new ethical principles for mental health that have been formulated. Specifically, it examines the literature on core values in various mental health fields, showing that there is no universal list. In addition, the article shows how the steps in the growth of ethical thought can be applied to the growth in understanding mental health therapy. Also, the article presents a broad ethical model and therapeutic model for mental health practice. This model includes the importance of overarching ethical thought throughout one's career, from student days onward, and also throughout each encounter with patients, including in assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. A section of the article examines the ethical decision-making process both from the point of view of models and the process of decision-making. Ethical decision-making is viewed as a pragmatic process in context that is informed by and structured by intuitive/emotional and deliberative/reflective reasoning processes. Overall, the article advocates for the personal responsibility that mental health professionals carry in constructing, meeting, and applying the highest ethical morals and values.

How do subvocal rehearsal and general attentional resources contribute to verbal short-term memory span?

Whether rehearsal has a causal role in verbal STM has been controversial in the literature. Recent theories of working memory emphasize a role of attentional resources, but leave unclear how they contribute to verbal STM. Two experiments (with 49 and 102 adult participants, respectively) followed up previous studies with children, aiming to clarify the contributions of attentional capacity and rehearsal to verbal STM. Word length and presentation modality were manipulated. Experiment 1 focused on order errors, Experiment 2 on predicting individual differences in span from attentional capacity and articulation rate. Structural equation modeling showed clearly a major role of attentional capacity as a predictor of verbal STM span; but was inconclusive on whether rehearsal efficiency is an additional cause or a consequence of verbal STM. The effects of word length and modality on STM were replicated; a significant interaction was also found, showing a larger modality effect for long than short words, which replicates a previous finding on children. Item errors occurred more often with long words and correlated negatively with articulation rate. This set of findings seems to point to a role of rehearsal in maintaining item information. The probability of order errors per position increased linearly with list length. A revised version of a neo-Piagetian model was fit to the data of Experiment 2. That model was based on two parameters: attentional capacity (independently measured) and a free parameter representing loss of partly-activated information. The model could partly account for the results, but underestimated STM performance of the participants with smaller attentional capacity. It is concluded that modeling of verbal STM should consider individual and developmental differences in attentional capacity, rehearsal rate, and (perhaps) order representation.

A unitary Neo-Piagetian/Neo-Eriksonian model of development: Fundamental assumptions and meta-issues

The article briefly reviews a stage model of change in human development that integrates a Neo-Piagetian model and a Neo-Eriksonian model into one unitary stage model across the lifespan (as presented in Young, 2011). The model suggests a generic model of stages in change. The article explores the fundamental assumptions underlying the model as well as considering meta-issues. The article adds to the book by describing the Neo-Eriksonian stages as reflections of a social “participatory” process. It adds to the change process in development by describing it as possibly reflecting “punctuated disequilibrium.” Finally, it adds a “multiple psychodynamics” model.

A test of a neo-Piagetian model of the water-level task

A neo-Piagetian model (Pascual-Leone & Morra, 1991) of the Water-level task (WLT) predicts that WLT performance depends on three factors: physical knowledge, field independence, and M capacity. The latter is an attentional capacity construct defined in neo-Piagetian theories. The model predicts that a minimum M capacity is necessary for accurate performance on WLT items. It also predicts that M capacity mediates the relationship between field independence and physical knowledge on one side and WLT on the other. Tests of field independence and M capacity, a paper-and-pencil version of the WLT, and a set of questions on the liquid horizontality principle were administered to 337 participants, aged 5 to 13 years. Six predictions derived from the model were tested; all of them were supported by the data, with only one exception, namely, on items with sideways and capsized bottles the M capacity required for accurate performance was one unit lower than predicted. It is concluded that the results strongly support the model under consideration, but suggest an amendment to one of its details. Gender differences were also examined; a small but significant gender difference in the WLT remained when field independence, physical knowledge, and M capacity were controlled for.

On the relationship between partial occlusion drawing, M capacity and field independence

Five pairs of objects with different degrees of similarity, one partly occluded by the other, were presented to 119 children (5–8 years old) as models for drawing. Participants were also tested for M capacity and field independence. The results showed a pattern of relationships between M capacity and partial occlusion drawing, exactly consistent with the predictions derived from Morra, Angi, and Tomat's (1996) model. As predicted, field independence was also related to partial occlusion drawing. A detailed analysis of field independence scores revealed that, out of three measures (rod‐and‐frame, children's embedded figures test, and block design), only embedded figures showed a relationship with drawings that was still significant when M capacity and the other two field independence measures were partialled out. Following PascualLeone's (1989) neo‐Piagetian model of field independence, this divergence among tests was interpreted as an indication of a figurative misleading field effect in the partial occlusion drawing task.

A complete theory of human evolution of intelligence must consider stage changes

We show 13 stages of the development of tool-use and tool making during different eras in the evolution of Homo sapiens. We used the NeoPiagetian Model of Hierarchical Complexity rather than Piaget's. We distinguished the use of existing methods imitated or learned from others, from doing such a task on one's own.

A New Model of Verbal Short-Term Memory

Two experiments tested a neo-Piagetian model of verbal short-term memory and compared it with the articulatory loop model. Experiment 1 (n = 113, age range 9–11) tested word span for 2-, 3-, and 4-syllable words, with both visual and auditory presentation. Experiment 2 (with the same participants) tested recall of visually presented supraspan lists. Measures of M capacity (as conceived in Pascual-Leone's neo-Piagetian theory) and articulation rate were also used. The proposed model can account for the effects of M capacity, word length, and presentation modality. The fit of this model to the data was acceptable, and parameter estimates were consistent across experiments. Furthermore, a correlation was found between M capacity and word span which resisted partialling out of age and articulation rate.

A dynamic systems model of basic developmental mechanisms: Piaget, Vygotsky, and beyond.

A dynamic systems model is proposed on the basis of a general developmental mechanism adopted from the theories of J. Piaget and L. S. Vygotsky, more particularly a mechanism based on the concepts assimilation versus accommodation and actual development versus zone of proximal development. In the model, action and experience have a distributed effect on contents (skills, knowledge, rules, action patterns, etc.) ordered along an abstract developmental distance dimension. After a mathematical treatment of the model, an overview is given of empirical evidence on continuous and discontinuous change. The dynamic model is then applied to the classic Piagetian and the neo-Piagetian models, models of continuous and discontinuous domain-specific change, and to models of cognitive strategies, transitions, microdevelopment, and inter- and intraindividual variability.

Noncognitive factors in high-road/low-road learning: I. Modes of abstraction in adulthood

Since the termscognition andcognitive are broadly used but not clearly defined, it may be helpful to clarify what is meant bynoncognitive factors. In cognitive science, the termscognition andcognitive generally describe mental processes that are informational insofar as they carry information about the organism's own body and the material world. Thus defined, there are three sorts of noncognitive organismic factors important in adult learning:affective processes, self-developmental processes, andhardware factors (i.e., noninformational, purely organismic constraints such as mental capacity/working memory limitations, gestaltist field factors, etc.). In this series of papers, we attempt to show how these noncognitive factors interact with cognitive factors to facilitate adult learning. We outline and give reference to a dialectical constructivist (neoPiagetian) model of the psychological organism that integrates noncognitive with cognitive factors and that can serve to explicate the findings of the literature and to process/task analyze adult learning. An important aim is the integration of the findings of decline and regression from the cognitive literature with the findings regarding the increase in “self-directedness” reported by adult education theorists. This is explicated through a process-analytic account of the will, particularly as it pertains to noncognitive factors. In Part II, we continue our explication of a dialectical model of the ego and conclude with a discussion of modes of learning/instruction in adulthood.

Developmental Change in a Spatial Task of Attentional Capacity: An Essay Toward an Integration of Two Working Memory Models

The objective of this paper is to illustrate the complementarity of two lines of studies on Working Memory, the neo-Piagetian models of Pascual-Leone and Case on the one hand, and Baddeley's model, on the other. After a brief summary of each model, their similarities and differences are reviewed. An empirical longitudinal study is then presented as an illustration. Four cohorts of children, aged 5, 6, 8, and 10 years on the first assessment, were examined once a year over five years, with a short-term memory task (Mr Peanut), asking for the recall of the location of coloured spots in a clown figure. Two versions were used: a unicoloured task (Peanut-P) and a multicoloured task (Peanut-C), in which subjects had to recall both positions and colours. Three aspects of the results are emphasised. First, it was found that performances in Peanut-C increased with item complexity up to a certain level, beyond which they tended to remain stable; this stability was interpreted as reflecting the limits in processing resources which are postulated by neo-Piagetian models. Secondly, a drastic diminution in the performances was observed on the fourth year, corresponding to a change in the way of responding: The task was computerised, and subjects had to answer, using a computer mouse. It is argued that the monitoring of the mouse disrupts performances because it draws on the same limited resources as the memory task. Finally, results showed that the monitoring of the mouse interferes more with the recall of positions than with the recall of colours, as could be expected if monitoring a computer mouse represents a spatial interference task. Methodological drawbacks of the studies are also discussed, and suggestions for further research indicated.

The Importance of Motor Activity in Sensorimotor Development: A Perspective from Children with Physical Handicaps

The assumption that motor activity and physical manipulation play a central role in early development is evaluated in light of a number of studies reporting that at least some severely physically handicapped children seem to attain age-appropriate or slightly delayed levels of cognitive development. In addition, we examine the importance of motor activity in strong and weak formulations of Piagetian theory, as well as in neo-Piagetian and perceptual analytic [Mandler, 1988] theories. General methodological difficulties affecting interpretation of many studies with the physically handicapped are highlighted. The sufficiency of alternative pathways to development, using available modalities for sensory input and action, is discussed, as well as the possibility of using other people and objects instrumentally to act on the environment in the testing of hypotheses. We conclude that motor activity may be the modal means by which cognitive development normally proceeds, but that it is not a necessary contributor. This view is seen as most consistent with the perceptual analytic and neo-Piagetian models, although neither is specific enough on the issue.

Resource panacea? Or just another day in the developmental forest

A variety of resource and nonresource constructs relevant to cognitive development are described. An introduction to, and evaluation of, four resource-based neo-Piagetian models follows. Alternative models are then described. We conclude that the literature is rich in data and constructs, but that the link between them is frustratingly vague. Formal modeling, either computer- or mathematically based, seems to be the only way to establish this link.

Schooling and the development of central conceptual structures: An example from the domain of children's narrative

A neo-Piagetian model is presented, and used as a framework for interpreting the developmental changes that take place in children's narrative compositions, between 4 and 10 years of age. An instructional program is then described, which is aimed at producing an increase in the developmental level of children's narratives. The program is shown to have an impact not just on the level of stories children generate, but on the extent of their story-recall as well, and on their level of understanding of a wide variety of social interactions. It is suggested: (a) that the reason for the broad transfer is that the program led to the development of a central conceptual structure; and (b) that the method that was used in designing the problem may serve as a model for designing similar programs in other content domains, where the development of such structures is considered a worthwhile objective.

Age and ability effects on test scores reflecting M-capacity, learning and cognitive style

Eight- and ten-year-old children of low and average ability were given four tests, one of which was developed by Pascual-Leone (1970) as a relatively pure measure of mental capacity (M-capacity) as conceived in his neo-Piagetian model. The remaining tests confounded knowledge base and cognitive style (field dependence/independence) with M-capacity to varying degrees. Age and ability effects were found, but were invariant over tests. This contradicts Globerson’s (1983) predictions for the hierarchy of tests used. Possible reasons for an apparent discrepancy between Globerson’s results and those of the present study are discussed.

The Influence of Cognitive Conflict on Religious Thinking in Fifth and Sixth Grade Children

This study assessed the impact of an experimental cognitive conflict religious education curriculum on fifth and sixth grade children in Sunday School classes of four Oregon United Methodist Churches. Following deductions from the neo-Piagetian model, the research question became one of determining whether or not the systematic inducement of cognitive conflict into an educational program could accelerate concreteto-abstract movement in childrens' religious thinking. Criterion measures were provided by scores on the two summed scales (Religious Thinking Total Concrete and Religious Thinking Total Abstract) on Peatling's Thinking About the Bible instrument. Analysis of covariance, applied separately to the two scales, revealed a significant interaction effect of program by grade for both scales. Further analysis with t-tests was undertaken to assess the degree of significance between experimental and control group fifth and sixth graders. For fifth graders, no significant differences were revealed on either scale; for sixth graders, significant differences were revealed on both scales. These findings suggest that the use of cognitive conflict in religious education instructional materials may effectively stimulate decreased concrete and increased abstract religious thinking at the sixth grade level.

Age differences in integration of components of a motor task.

To study effects of practice on the ability of 6-, 11-, and 18-yr.-old Ss to integrate the components of the Rho task 3 groups of 50 boys performed 30 consecutive trials. (a) With practice all age groups improved in total movement time; (b) 11-yr.-old Ss attained the 18-yr.-olds' level of performance in both components, initial differences existing only the linear component; (c) relative to the 18-yr.-old Ss, the 6-yr.-olds achieved proportionally less improvement in the linear component; (d) unlike 11- and 18-yr.-old Ss, the 6-yr.-olds evidenced increasing specificity of task components across trials. Unlike the two older age groups, the 6-yr.-old Ss were unable to achieve a high degree of integration of task components. The findings were discussed in light of Pascual-Leone's neo-Piagetian model of learning and development.

Training and Generalization of Conservation in Disadvantaged Black Teenagers: A Neo-Piagetian Approach

An attempt to train conservation of area, weight, and volume to a group of 16 nonconserving black teenagers (ages 14.5 yr. to 17.8 yr.) is reported. A standard pretest-posttest control group design was employed. The neo-Piagetian model of intellectual development proposed by Pascual-Leone formed the basis for training procedures. Significant training effect was demonstrated for area and weight conservation ( p < .01), however, volume proved to be harder to train. No significant differences were found between experimental and control groups on volume task posttests. The effects of training did not significantly generalize to a conservation of length task. Over-all pre- to posttest gains in conservation were shown ( p < .001) for both experimental and control groups. The very fluid and changeable nature of Ss' logical versus non-logical-perceptual responses suggested a rapid shift between right and left hemisphere brain activity when confronted with the conservation tasks.

Learning and development: a neo-Piagetian interpretation.

A kindergarten program aimed at the development of conceptual skills was analyzed within the framework of the neo-Piaget-model proposed by PASCUAL-LEONE in 1970. On the basis of theanalysis, it was predicted that experimental kindergarten children would perform at the same level as regular grade-IV children on a verbal classification task, and at the same level as regular grade-II children on a gestural classification task. The success of the predictions was interpreted as evidence that the neo-Piagetian model can provide a conceptual link between PIAGET’s developmental theory and GAGNÉ’s learning theory.