Unit 4: Constructivism and Cognitive Psychology from Universidad Europea

Constructivism and Cognitive Psychology

Constructivism - Digital Block 3

Piaget and Genetic Epistemology

Jean William Fritz Piaget (1896-1980). He was a tenured professor at the University of Geneva and Paris.

Piaget studied how 'intelligence' is developed in children, hypotetisizing that our genetic base would 'pre-dispose' us to a specific type of intelligence.

In 1955 he created the first centre for the study of genetic epistemology, known as the 'Piaget factory' Through his research he developed the theory of genetic epistemology: the study of the genesis and development of inteligence, thought and cognitive structures based on our genetics.4.1. Piaget and genetic epistemology

Through his research he developed the theory of genetic epistemology: the study of the genesis and development of inteligence, thought and cognitive structures based on our genetics.

According to his theory, inteligence is something pre-disposed to develop by our genes but is only developed through our interaction with the environment.

Thoughts are developed because we 'build' or 'construct' our reality through our interaction with the environment. (Constructivism).

Your genes + Your environment & lifestyle YOU!4.1. Piaget and genetic epistemology

He spent 38 years of his life studying the development of children, and hypothesised that there would be 4 stages that are genetically decided.

• Sensorimotor stage. (0 to 2 year).
• Preoperational stage. (3 to 6 years).
• Concrete operations stage (7 to 11 years).
• Formal operation stage (12 - death).4.1. Piaget and genetic epistemology

Sensorimotor Stage

Perceptual and motor abilities are developed in this stage, experiencing through our senses.

According to Piaget, around month 8 our 'object permanence' emerges.4.1. Piaget and genetic epistemology

Preoperational Stage

the beginning of the ability to use symbols, and therefore inner representation, appears.

This stage is characterized (suppousedly) with egocentrism. And we still don't have a conservation awereness.4.2. Vygotsky and historical-cultural epistemology.

Vygotsky and Historical-Cultural Epistemology

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (1886-1934).

Russian psychologist who made enormous contributions in the field of language and thought adquisition.

To Vygotsky, contrary to Piaget, the acquisition of language and thought, and the development of children, wouldn't be genetically predisposed but rather it's developed in the environment.

His work was influenced by observing European children (Democratic environment) and Russian children (Communist environment).4.2. Vygotsky and historical-cultural epistemology.

Vygotsky defended that it is our culture and the history of our environment that decides what 'phases' we go through when developing.

Using Piaget's theory as a base, he hypothesized the 'Zone of proximal development'(ZPD)

ZDP: the difference between what someone can do without or with help. The environment would decide whether or not a child develops.

Can't do even if guided Can do if guided Can do independently Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology Overview

Based on both Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories, a large number of psychologist decided to start paying more attention to 'mental' operations.

Basically, what's going on 'under our skin' and how does it develop.

And thanks to the 'IdiXts' of Tolman and Hull, this could be studied scientifically.

A ABC X 1+2=3 B ..Ue Universidad Europea

Factors Precipitating Cognitive Psychology

• Logic positivism or neopositivism: a new current in epistemology that broadened the object of study of psychology to include non-tangible, non-external factors (but using scientific methodology).
• Resurfacing of the study of perception in the 50's.
• Need of studying superior cognitive processes.
• Criticism on the comparisons between human and animal mind. Mediational behaviorism (neobehaviorism. P. e. Tolman, Hull) advance to Cognitive Psychology conceptualizing thought as something that could be studied through behaviour.

Cognitive Psychology Definition

" Psychology as the objective science of the mind ▪

• Deals with the process of knowing and its result (knowledge).
• Takes activity (conscious or unconscious) as its object, both from a public and private perspective.
• Cognitive processes: perception, thought, memory and attention.
• Hypothetic-deductive method.

Main Principles of Cognitive Psychology

• The human being cannot be understood without taking its inner mental constructions into account. We are autonomous, regulated by our own purposes.
• The subjects build (construct) their own knowledge from their mind structures and cognitive processes.
• The subject does not interact necessarily with the real world, but with a subjective representation of reality. The way in which information is perceived and stored is determinant.
• Relatively simple symbolic operations such as codifying, comparing, locating, or storing, can be considered as evidence of human intelligence and our ability to create knowledge.
• The functioning of mental processes can be understood without resorting to physiology (functionalist dualism): we cannot comprehend the mind if we limit ourselves to the study of the physiology of the brain.

Human Mind-Computer Analogy

• Analogy human mind-computer.
• The human being as an information processor, an active subject that ellaborates on the information (captures it, ellaborates on it, stores it, uses it ... ). Our processing capability is limited due to limitations in the structure of psychic functions.
• The human mind could be simulated through computers. In this way, we can create a computer program that successfully seemed human, its architecture and functioning could serve to draw conclusions that could be applied to the human mind, even if the hardware is different.
• There is a difference between the input (information or stimulation that reaches the subject) and the output (the reaction of the organism). Between them, as an explanation, would be the software that processes the information.

Short-Term Memory and its Capacity

G. Miller (1920-2012)

" "The magical number": 7+/- 2 " Information could be processed in groups of 7 stimuli (+/- 2). " This limitation could be cheated using "chunks" or clusters of information. THE MAGICAL NUMBER 7±2

Signal Detection Theory and Filter Model

D. Broadbent (1926-1993)

He studied attention, why we perceive some aspects but not others.

He used experiments in which participants heard different words through each earphone (divided attention tasks) to then check what they remembered best (noise VS signall Signal detection theory).

There is always a certain "background noise"; the subject needs to fell the background noise apart from the "noise+signal" combo.

Dichotic Listening Task Ignored inputs Attended inputs The horses galloped across the field ... President Lincoln often read by the light of the fire ... Speech output Headphones President Lincoln often read by the light of the fire ...

Broadbent's Filter Model Details

D. Broadbent (1926-1993)

Our attention span is limited, we have a sensory channel, a short-term storage and a selective filter.

Stimuli will be detected or not depending on their physical characteristics, but also on variables like expectations, motivation or even previous instructions.

More recent models have posited that there is also a semantic processing, which is to say that the meaning of what we hear will influence the degree to which we can detect information, as will relevance and experience.

Broadbent's Filter Model Diagram

Broadbent's Filter Model Bottleneck Inputs Attended Message Selective Filter Sensory Store Based on physical properties (e.g., pitch, loudness) Unattended Message ÎÎ Higher Level Processing Working Memory (Unattended message is completely blocked at this stage

Artificial Intelligence: Modules and Networks

Artificial Intelligence

" Intends to design computer systems that reproduce human thought systems.

▪ Simon and Newell, while creating a computer program that could play chess, developed the General Problem Solver (GPS), not to be confused with the Global Positioning System.

▪ The program worked with "formalized microcosmos" with parameters within which problems could be solved.

▪ It ultimate goal was to create systems that were intelligent and with the ability to adapt.

▪ This would include, according to Simon, "describing which additional mechanisms of processing are needed to simulate evolutive change".

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