Knowledge and Development

From an informal group of a dozen faculty and graduate students at Temple University, the Jean Piaget Society grew in seven years to 500 members who have interests in the application of genetic epistemology to their own disciplines and professions. At the outset Piaget endorsed the concept of a society which bore his name and presented a major address on equilibration at the society's first symposium in May, 1971. Had he not done so the society would no doubt have remained a small parochial group, like so many others throughout the country, interested in Piaget and his theory. With the encouragement of Genevans and the leadership of its first four presidents, Lois Macomber, Barbara Press­ eisen, Marilyn Appel, and John Mickelson, the society undertook a number of programs to collect and disseminate the results of scholarly work in genetic epistemology. Particular emphasis was placed upon applications of Piaget's theory to developmental psychology, philos­ ophy, and education. One of these programs was the publication of an annual series on the development of knowing, of which this volume is the first. In 1973, the society asked Hans Furth with the assistance of Willis Overton and Jeanette Gallagher to initiate and plan a series of yearbooks with the result that in addition to this volume, a second volume on education was commissioned, and a third one on the decalage issue was planned.

1 Chance and Dialectic in Biological Epistemology: A Critical Analysis of Jacques Monod’s Theses.- 1. Discriminative Properties.- 2. A Hereditary Linguistic Nucleus?.- 3. A Cybernetic Perspective.- 4. An Active Choice.- 5. The Role of Chance.- 6. An Ordered Series.- 7. The Role of the Environment.- 8. The Sources of Knowledge.- 9. Logical-Mathematical Experience.- 10. Phenocopies.- 11. The Problems of Innateness.- 12. A Negation of Constructivism.- 13. Monod and Meyerson.- 14. The Dialectic of Nature.- 15. Death Is Not the Inverse of Life.- 16. An Ordered System of the Whole?.- 17. Compensatory Regulations.- References.- 2 The Role of Action in the Development of Thinking.- 1. The Figurative and Operative Aspects of the Cognitive Functions.- 1.1. Proposed Classification and Statement of the Problems.- 1.2. Perceptions, Concepts, and Operations.- 1.2.1. Divergent Evolution of a Perception and a Corresponding Concept.- 1.2.2. Prefiguration of Concepts by Perception.- 1.2.3. Relation of Perception to Concept.- 1.2.4. The Gestalt Position.- 1.2.5. Perception and Thinking.- 1.3. Relations between Mental Images and Operations.- 1.3.1. Reproductive Images.- 1.3.2. Images of Operations.- 1.3.3. Conclusion.- 2. Action and the Operations of Thought.- 2.1. The Subject and the Object.- 2.2. The Development of Operations.- 2.3. Physical Experience and Logical-Mathematical Experience.- 2.3.1. Two Types of Experience.- 2.3.2. The Time Lag of Physical Knowledge.- 2.3.3. Experience and Deduction.- 2.3.4. Objections.- References.- 3 The Development of the Concepts of Chance and Probability in Children.- 1. Introduction.- 2. The Intuition of an Increasing Mixture in a Collection of Discrete Elements.- 2.1. Problem.- 2.2. Method.- 2.3. The Developmental Pattern.- 3. The Notion of a Random Distribution and of the Experimental Method.- 3.1. Problem.- 3.2. Method.- 3.3. The Developmental Pattern.- 4. Chance and Miracle in the Game of “Heads or Tails”.- 4.1. Problem.- 4.2. Method.- 4.3. The Developmental Pattern.- 5. Random Selection of Pairs.- 5.1. Problem.- 5.2. Method.- 5.3. The Developmental Pattern.- 6. The Quantification of Probabilities.- 6.1. Problem.- 6.2. Method.- 6.3. The Developmental Pattern.- 7. The Concept of Random Situations in Psychotic Children.- 8. Conclusions.- 4 Review of Piagetian Infancy Research: Object Concept Development.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Introduction to Research on Object Concepts.- 3. Studies of Infants under Six Months of Age.- 4. Studies of Later Infancy.- 4.1. Search in One Location.- 4.2. Search in Two or More Locations.- 4.3. Do Infants Really Search and for What?.- 5. Other Developments.- 6. Conclusion.- References.- 5 Social Cognition: A Selective Review of Current Research.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Person Perception.- 3. Role Taking, Social Decentering, and Egocentricity.- 3.1. General Methodological Issues and the Relation between Social Role Taking and Mental and Chronological Age.- 3.2. Decentering in and out of Social Situations.- 3.3. Role Taking and Social Competence.- 4. Empathic Understanding.- 4.1. The Anticipation and Identification of Affective Cues.- 4.2. Feeling for or with Others versus Knowledge of Others’ Feelings.- 4.3. Empathy and Role Taking.- 5. Conclusion.- References.- 6 Memory from a Cognitive-Developmental Perspective: A Theoretical and Empirical Review.- 1. Overview.- 2. The Operative Approach to Memory: Theory and Research.- 2.1. Theoretical Foundations.- 2.1.1. Acquisition of Knowledge.- 2.1.2. The Storage and Retrieval of Knowledge.- 2.2. Genevan Research on Memory.- 2.2.1. The Research Paradigm.- 2.2.2. Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Data.- 2.3. Summary.- 3. An Empirical and Methodological Review.- 3.1. Introduction.- 3.2. Long-Term Memory Improvements: Operative and Nonoperative Explanations.- 3.2.1. Effects of Repeated Testing.- 3.2.2. Attention to Relevant Attributes of Stimuli.- 3.2.3. Evaluating Long-Term Regressions.- 3.2.4. Short-Term Changes in Memory.- 3.2.5. Memory for Arbitrary Stimuli.- 3.2.6. Memory for Operatively Primitive Stimuli.- 3.2.7. Summary.- 3.3. The Relation between Operative Level and Memory Performance.- 3.3.1. Cross-Sectional Evidence.- 3.3.2. Within-Subject Analyses: Short-Term and Longitudinal Data.- 3.3.3. Conclusions.- 3.4. Summary.- 4. Loci of Operative Effects on Memory.- 4.1. Perception of the Stimulus.- 4.2. Memory Fixation.- 4.3. Memory Retrieval.- 4.4. Memory Retention.- 4.5. Are These Mnemonic Effects?.- 4.6. Summary.- 5. The Operative Approach in the Context of Other Mnemonic Theories.- 5.1. Introduction.- 5.2. Alternative Approaches to Memory.- 5.2.1. Associationism.- 5.2.2. Gestalt Psychology.- 5.2.3. Contemporary Approaches to Organization in Memory.- 5.2.4. Psychoanalytic Approach.- 5.2.5. Information Processing.- 5.2.6. Bartlett.- 5.2.7. Neisser.- 5.2.8. Dialectic Approach.- 5.2.9. Contextualism, Constructive Theory, and Assimilation Theory.- 5.3. Summary.- 6. Conclusions.- References.- 7 Logical Concept Attainment during the Aging Years: Issues in the Neo-Piagetian Research Literature.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Investigations of Piagetian Concept Performances during the Aging Years.- 2.1. Infralogical Abilities in the Elderly.- 2.2. Logical Abilities in the Elderly.- 2.2.1. Concrete Operations Abilities.- 2.2.2. Formal Operational Abilities.- 2.3. Studies of Animistic and Egocentric Thought.- 2.3.1. Animism.- 2.3.2. Egocentrism.- 2.4. Training Logical Operations in Old Age.- 3. Discussion.- 3.1. Factors Which May Influence the Performance of Aged Individuals.- 3.1.1. Neurological Intactness and Piagetian Task Performance.- 3.1.2. Social-Interaction Factors and the Role of Institutionalization.- 3.1.3. The Role of Formal Educational Factors.- 3.1.4. The Relationship of Logical-Concept Proficiency to Other Intelligence Measures.- 3.2. Methodological Issues.- 4. Conclusions.- References.