Rational Constructivism Research Articles

Predictive Processing, Rational Constructivism, and Bayesian Models of Development: Commentary.

This is a commentary for a special issue on predictive processing and rational constructivist models of development. Mainly I use the opportunity to ask a bunch of questions about what these theoretical frameworks show us (and what they do not) and mostly where the open questions still are. To get meta for a moment, I thought these questions were the best way to maximize the value of my commentary: They have the highest probability of leading to the most uncertainty reduction for our field in the long term. Please read in thatspirit.

Play in Cognitive Development: From Rational Constructivism to Predictive Processing.

It is widely believed that play and curiosity are key ingredients as children develop models of the world. There is also an emerging consensus that children are Bayesian learners who combine their structured prior beliefs with estimations of the likelihood of new evidence to infer the most probable model of the world. An influential school of thought within developmental psychology, rational constructivism, combines these two ideas to propose that children learn intuitive theories of how the world works in part by engaging in play activities that allow them to gather new information for testing their theories. There are still, however, at least two pieces missing from rational constructivist theories of development. First, rational constructivism has so far devoted little attention to explaining why children's preferred form of learning, play, feels so fun, enjoyable, and rewarding. Rational constructivism may suggest that children are curious and like to play because reducing uncertainty and learning better theories of the causal workings of the world is enjoyable. What remains unclear, however, is why reducing uncertainty in play is interesting, fun, and joyful, while doing so in other forms of learning can be frustrating or boring. Second, rational constructivism may have overlooked how children, during play, will take control of and manipulate their environment, sometimes in an effort to create ideal niches for surprise-extraction, sometimes for developing strategies for making the world fit with their predictions. These missing elements from rational constructivism can be provided by understanding the contribution of play to development in terms of predictive processing, an influential framework in cognitive neuroscience that models many of the brain's cognitive functions as processes of model-based, probabilistic prediction.

Learning about others and learning from others: Bayesian probabilistic models of intuitive psychology and social learning.

How do infants and young children reason about other people? What inferences do they make when they learn from teachers and whom do they choose to learn from? Past research in developmental psychology has demonstrated infants' and young children's competence in making these inferences. However, the mechanisms underlying these inferences and how these mechanisms change across development are less clear. In this chapter, we review a growing body of Bayesian probabilistic models on intuitive psychology and social learning. We integrate these models with past and new empirical studies within the framework of rational constructivism. These models showed that infants and children have intuitive theories about others (agents, teachers, and informants). When given new evidence, they rationally update their beliefs about others and their beliefs about the world based on these intuitive theories. Developmental changes can be explained by advances in children's intuitive theories. Finally, we propose future directions for both empirical and modeling work in these domains.

Creativity as potentially valuable improbable constructions

We argue that creative ideas are potentially valuable improbable constructions. We arrive at this formulation of creativity after considering several problems that arise for the theories that suggest that creativity is novelty, originality, or usefulness. Our theory avoids these problems. But since we also derive our theory of creativity from the scientific commitments of a more general theory of cognitive development, a theory called rational constructivism, our theory is unique insofar as it explains creativity in both adults and children through reference to a set of computational mechanisms that have been posited on the basis of independently plausible experimental research.

Towards a rational constructivist theory of cognitive development.

This article provides a synthesis and overview of a theory of cognitive development, rational constructivism. The basic tenets of this view are as follows: (a) Initial state: Human infants begin life with a set of proto-conceptual primitives. These early representations are not in the format of a language of thought. (b) Mature state: Human adults represent the world in terms of a set of domain-specific intuitive theories. (c) Three types of mechanisms account for learning, development, and conceptual change: language and symbol learning, Bayesian inductive learning, and constructive thinking. (d) The child is an active learner, and cognitive agency is part and parcel of development. I will discuss each of these tenets, and provide an overview of the kind of empirical evidence that supports this view. This is a non-Piagetian view though it is in the spirit of constructivist theories of development; this view emphasizes the utility of formal computational models in understanding learning and developmental change. Lastly, this view also has implications for the study of philosophy of mind and epistemology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Action-based versus cognitivist perspectives on socio-cognitive development: culture, language and social experience within the two paradigms

Contemporary research on mindreading or theory of mind has resulted in three major findings: (1) There is a difference in the age of passing of the elicited-response false belief task and its spontaneous–response version; 15-month-olds pass the latter while the former is passed only by 4-year-olds (in the West). (2) Linguistic and social factors influence the development of the ability to mindread in many ways. (3) There are cultures with folk psychologies significantly different from the Western one, and children from such cultures tend to show different timetables of mindreading development. The traditional accounts of the data are nativism, rational constructivism, and two-systems theory. In this paper, we offer criticism of these traditional cognitivist accounts and explore an alternative, action-based framework. We argue that even though they all seem to explain the above empirical data, there are other, theoretical reasons why their explanations are untenable. Specifically, we discuss the problem of foundationalism and the related problem of innateness. Finally, we explore an alternative, action-based framework that avoids these theoretical limitations and offer an interpretation of the empirical data from that perspective.

How finance is governed: reconnecting cultural and political economy

ABSTRACTAlthough cultural economy scholarship has highlighted the inherently speculative character of economic action and argued that regulation is often imbricated with (rather than independent from) the speculative logics of economic life, it has stopped short of pursuing the implications for the problematics that have traditionally occupied political economists. To pursue such an analysis, this paper suggests a reframing of the theme of performativity in terms of Luhmann’s understanding of self-reference, arguing that this provides a useful window on the connection between speculation and governance. It then develops these insights by reconsidering Minsky’s work, arguing that in terms of his postfoundationalist sensibilities he may be closer to being a ‘cultural economist’ than a ‘political economist’ and that this deeply shaped his understanding of financial authority and central banking. The paper also argues that, by connecting these insights to Hayek’s critique of rational constructivism, we may get a clearer perspective on the specifically ‘neoliberal’ character of contemporary finance and its governance. In this way, it develops a perspective on political economy questions of public authority and statehood that is informed by the concerns of cultural economy.

The Epistemology of Rational Constructivism

Rational constructivism is one of the leading theories in developmental psychology. But it is not a purely psychological theory: rational constructivism also makes a number of substantial epistemological claims about both the nature of human rationality and several normative principles that fall squarely into the ambit of epistemology. The aim of this paper is to clarify and defend both theses and several other epistemological claims, as they represent the essential epistemological dimensions of rational constructivism.

Excommunicating the past? Narrativism and rational constructivism in the historiography of the Holocaust

This article revisits Hayden White’s claims about historical representation and interpretation as they apply to the historiography of the Holocaust. It engages with the recent work of three theorists of history, all of whom are to a greater or lesser extent indebted to White: Kalle Pihlainen, Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen, and Paul A. Roth. In particular, I examine Kuukkanen’s ‘post-narrativist philosophy of historiography’, which regards history as constructed – there is no truth in terms of correspondence – but at the same time as a rational enterprise, thus disallowing interpretations that do not conform to established and shared disciplinary rules. Kuukkanen looks to the historiography of World War I for his examples, while here I turn to the Holocaust as a powerful test case for theory of history. The article concludes that ‘rational constructivism’ leaves the problem of adjudicating between competing narratives which meet the criteria to be considered as ‘rationally constructed’ unanswered and argues that this state of affairs – which means the permanent impossibility of closure – should be approved of rather than worried about.

Strategic interaction and social construction in foreign policy analysis: The Helsinki Strategy revisited

ABSTRACTThe Helsinki Strategy has provided a popular case for accounts of foreign policy change. However, certain overlooked aspects have allowed for the emergence of an empirical puzzle. The conception and adoption of the Helsinki Strategy as well as the Greek decision not to pursue a joint application to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the delimitation of the continental shelf in 2004 is revisited in this study. The latter decision is puzzling to the extent that Greece insisted to include a reference to the ICJ in the Helsinki Summit Conclusions as means of border dispute settlement for European Union (EU) applicants. An explanatory framework which synthesizes rational choice and constructivism and links EU level processes to domestic strategic interactions to explain policy change is constructed and applied to provide a coherent, comprehensive and theoretically valuable account of Greek foreign policy towards Turkey from 1999 to 2004.

Holding the European Parliament responsible: policy shift in the Data Retention Directive from consultation to codecision

An increase in the European Parliament's (EP) powers is generally equated with more democratic and legitimate law-making. However, analysis of the Data Retention Directive – negotiated by means of both consultation and codecision – suggests that although the EP has been empowered under codecision its capacity to translate citizens' demands into democratic and transparent outputs has been reduced. Against expectations, the EP did not use its new veto powers in the data retention case to maximize its policy preferences because the content of these preferences did not fit with the wider need to be seen as a ‘responsible’ legislator. An institutionalist approach drawing upon rational choice and constructivism helps to explain this seemingly anomalous outcome in the highly politicized Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ).

Infants Are Rational Constructivist Learners

What is the nature of human learning, and what insights can be gained from understanding early learning in infants and young children? This is an important question for understanding the human mind, the origins of knowledge, scientific reasoning, and how to best structure our educational environment. In this article, we argue for a new approach to cognitive development: rational constructivism. This view characterizes the child as a rational constructive learner, and it sees early learning as rational, statistical, and inferential. Empirical evidence for this approach has been accumulating rapidly, and a set of domain-general statistical and inferential mechanisms have been uncovered to explain why infants and young children learn so fast and so well.

Rational constructivism, statistical inference, and core cognition

AbstractI make two points in this commentary on Carey (2009). First, it may be too soon to conclude that core cognition is innate. Recent advances in computational cognitive science and developmental psychology suggest possible mechanisms for developing inductive biases. Second, there is another possible answer to Fodor's challenge – if concepts are merely mental tokens, then cognitive scientists should spend their time on developing a theory of belief fixation instead.

Rational constructivism: A new way to bridge rationalism and empiricism

AbstractRecent work in rational probabilistic modeling suggests that a kind of propositional reasoning is ubiquitous in cognition and especially in cognitive development. However, there is no reason to believe that this type of computation is necessarily conscious or resource-intensive.

Rational Choice and Progress in the Study of Ethnic Conflict: A Review Essay

Through an analysis of eight recent books and a number of articles and papers, this article evaluates recent progress in the study of ethnic conflict, including large scale conflicts and episodic riots. Four main approaches have been applied to the study of ethnic conflict: rational choice, constructivism, essentialism, and structuralism (or realism). This evaluation of recent work includes that rational choice has been the least successful of the approaches; its focus on individuals' pursuit of (mainly) material benefits makes it difficult to recognize or to admit the explanatory power of nationalist feelings that do not depend on the prospect of material benefits. Constructivism has been the most influential approach over the past few decades but until recently has suffered from methodological weaknesses that have hindered testing. Essentialism has been out favor for as long as constructivism has been in, but recent methodological improvements have produced strong work that has resurrected this approach. Structuralism is the youngest approach; it is still immature but has already yielded important new insights. Some eclectic approaches are emerging that combine strengths of the latter three approaches; it remains to be seen whether comparable eclecticism will combine rational choice with one or more of the others. Daniel L. Byman, Keeping the Peace: Lasting Solutions to Ethnic Conflicts (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002). Donald L. Horowitz, The Deadly Ethnic Riot(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001). Stuart J. Kaufman, Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001). Roger D. Petersen, Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Monica Duffy Toft, The Geography of Ethnic Violence: Identity, Interests, and the Indivisibility of Territory(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003). Ashutosh Varshney, Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002). Barbara F. Walter, Committing to Peace: The Successful Settlement of Civil Wars(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001). Steven I. Wilkinson, Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). Chaim Kaufmann is associate professor of international relations at Lehigh University.