The co-ordination of perspectives: A developmental study.

Research into the co-ordination of perspectives had its beginnings with the 'three mountains experiment' -of Piaget and Inhelder (1956). The present study examined the original findings and showed two developmental factors to be implicit in the conclusions made. These were egocehtrism/socicentrism, i. e. the ability of a child to free himself from his own perception of the display, and centration/decentration, i. e. the ability of the child to, free himself from the tendency to cenirate on one object within the display. The major replication (Laurendeau and Pinard, 1970) was shown to give strong support for Piaget and lnhelder (1956). The research literature was organised into four headings grouped according to. the dominant methodology. These were:- (a) characteristics of the display (b) the introductory sequence used (c) the response procedure and (d) correlational methods. In this way it proved possible to reconcile the variety of apparently conflicting and contradictory findings of the literature. The experimental Investigations were made in the two primary areas found in Piaget and Ihelder(1956). Experiments 1 to 4 assessed the development of sociocentriam. Children of ages 4 to 6 years were shown to be able to predict accurately the view of an observer when a verbal response was required. Addition of a picture selection task, however, led to egocentric responding. In Experiments 5 had 6 co-ordination of perspectives was investigated. Three major procedural variables - verbal description, model building and picture selection - were compared for 5. 5, 8 and 10 year olds using the same display. The effect of the presence of the egocentric photograph was assessed by making it available for selection for only half of the picture selection trials. A model for the co-ordination of perspectives was developed which linked children's performance to a perceptual/ representational,distinction. The model incorporated the concept of 'failure to inhibit one's own view' (Wigl and Fishbein, 1974) within the representational solution path

Space exploration: The interstellar goal and Titan demonstration

Automated interstellar space exploration is reviewed. The Titan demonstration mission is discussed. Remote sensing and automated modeling are considered. Nuclear electric propulsion, main orbiting spacecraft, lander/rover, subsatellites, atmospheric probes, powered air vehicles, and a surface science network comprise mission component concepts. Machine, intelligence in space exploration is discussed

A Proposal for a Problem-Driven Mathematics Curriculum Framework

A framework for a problem-driven mathematics curriculum is proposed, grounded in the assumption that students learn mathematics while engaged in complex problem-solving activity. The framework is envisioned as a dynamic technologicallydriven multi-dimensional representation that can highlight the nature of the curriculum (e.g., revealing the relationship among modeling, conceptual, and procedural knowledge), can be used for programmatic, classroom and individual assessment, and can be easily revised to reflect ongoing changes in disciplinary knowledge development and important applications of mathematics. The discussion prompts ideas and questions for future development of the envisioned software needed to enact such a framework

What Archetypes of Representation Do Children between the Ages of Four and Seven Employ When Creating Route Maps of Familiar Interior Spaces?

This study investigated the symbols of representation young children choose to incorporate when they draw route maps of familiar interior spaces, based on the premise that development of map-making skills might unfold in much the same stage-like manner as the development of the ability to draw the human figure. In this investigation, children between the ages of 4 and 7 enrolled in a small independent elementary school were each asked to draw a map showing the route a person unfamiliar to the school would take to travel from the child\u27s classroom to the school gymnasium. Strategies during map-making were noted; completed maps were analyzed to identify archetypal representations of pathway, context, landmark, and figure. Statistically significant differences were found in archetypal use between the 4.5-5.0 and the 6.0-7.0 age groups, suggesting that archetypes of representation both appear and wane in a stage-like manner. The results imply further study is required to more closely identify archetypes and patterns of emergence and disappearance in the population at large. The results also suggest that offering more curricular opportunities in the earliest grades for young children to create maps may be warranted

Keeping it in three dimensions: measuring the development of mental rotation in children with the rotated colour cube test (RCCT)

This study introduces the new Rotated Colour Cube Test (RCCT) as a measure of object identification and mental rotation using single 3D colour cube images in a matching-to-sample procedure. One hundred 7- to 11-year-old children were tested with aligned or rotated cube models, distracters and targets. While different orientations of distracters made the RCCT more difficult, different colours of distracters had the opposite effect and made the RCCT easier because colour facilitated clearer discrimination between target and distracters. Ten-year-olds performed significantly better than 7- to 8-year-olds. The RCCT significantly correlated with children’s performance on the Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices Test (RCPM) presumably due to the shared multiple-choice format, but the RCCT was easier, as it did not require sequencing. Children from families with a high socio-economic status performed best on both tests, with boys outperforming girls on the more difficult RCCT test sections

Seeing and Believing: Philosophical Issues in Theory of Mind Development

All human beings understand the behaviors of others as causal results of their mental states. Philosophers call this ability folk psychology and developmental researchers call it theory of mind (ToM). My dissertation concerns how this reasoning works and how it is acquired. First, I develop and expand a theory of how folk psychology develops in childhood. This is the Perceptual Access Reasoning, or PAR theory of the Fabricius lab. Contrary to the two views dominant in the field, I argue that ToM (belief reasoning or BR) is acquired around 6 years of age after undergoing two preliminary cognitive stages, reality reasoning (RR) and perceptual access reasoning (PAR). Neither of the first two satges of ToM development involve an understanding of mental representation. Evidence for the PAR hypothesis comes from the failure of 4- and 5-year-olds on a false belief task which includes a third, irrelevant, alternative; their failure on true belief tasks; and their failure on no belief tasks. Only the PAR hypothesis can account for all the data. Chapter 2 explains the PAR hypothesis and children’s understanding of believing. Chapter 3 extends the PAR theory to children’s understanding of perception, and demonstrates that the data (mostly tasks testing Flavell’s classic 4 levels model of perception understanding and his appearance/reality distinction) support the PAR hypothesis. Second, I demonstrate how this theory can be usefully applied to solve problems in cognitive science. In Chapter 4 I explore dual systems theories of cognition (and ToM in particular). In Chapter 5 I solve the Perner-Povinelli Problem—the claim that no empirical test can decide whether subjects are using mentalist rules to pass ToM tasks, or merely using behavioral rules which require no understanding of mental representation. In Chapter 6 I use the PAR hypothesis to argue that a limited theory-theory of concepts is plausible. The PAR stage concept of KNOWING and the adult (BR) concept of KNOWING are fundamentally different because the former is non-representational. Evidence for this is that children in the PAR stage do not distinguish between knowing and guessing correctly, nor between lying and being mistakenly incorrect. The PAR child’s concept of KNOWING is inextricably linked with perceptual access and correct behavior; in other words, with the inferential rules of the PAR theory. I then defend this hypothesis against Fodor’s shareability objection. Finally, in Chapter 7, I make some specific suggestions for continuing my folk psychology research program by expanding the PAR theory and applying it to other problems in philosophy

Factors Underlying Students' Conceptions of Deep Time: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT Geologic or “deep time” is important for understanding many geologic processes. There are two aspects to deep time. First, events in Earth’s history can be placed in temporal order on an immense time scale (succession). Second, rates of geologic processes vary significantly. Thus, some events and processes require time periods (durations) that are outside a human lifetime by many orders of magnitude. Previous research has demonstrated that learners of all ages and many teachers have poor conceptions of succession and duration in deep time. The question is why. This exploratory, qualitative study investigates the viability of a model (a deep time stool) to capture the underlying factors necessary for a concept of deep time. The model posits that a concept of deep time rests upon: an understanding of succession and duration in conventional time; a robust understanding of large numbers and the proportional relationships among numbers of various magnitudes; and a learner’s geoscience content knowledge. While all three factors may not exist to the same degree in any one individual, all must be present to support a conception of deep time. Thirty-five students in the United States participated in individual task-based interviews: 12 eighth and 11 eleventh graders from a public charter school in the U.S. and 12 university students from two institutions enrolled in an introductory geoscience course. Tasks and questions probed students’ understandings of the three factors within and outside a deep time context, and the study is unique for that reason. Results indicate all three factors play an important role in how students understand deep time. While succession in conventional time proved non-problematic, duration was more difficult for participants. Some students were confused about the relationships among numbers in the thousands and millions, and others appeared to have little understanding of time periods up to 100 years. Participants had just as much difficulty dealing with the duration for events in conventional time as they did for those in deep time if the events were unfamiliar to them. Time and number share a similar spatial mapping strategy while knowledge of large numbers and geoscience content knowledge appear to provide reference points that can be used to judge the temporal order or duration of geoscience events. Implications for future research and classroom practice are discussed

Primary school pupils' perceptions of contour patterns

The aims of the research are to investigate the ways in which primary school children perceive common contour patterns and to identify some of the problems which they encounter in learning the concept of contours. Research into children's understanding of maps carried out by geographers and psychologists is reviewed. The place of contour maps in the school curriculum is examined and methods of teaching the concept of contours are described. A class of children in their final year of primary education were taught the concept of contours by building a relief model from a contour map. In the first stage of the research the pupils were tested individually on their understanding of heights and slopes, and were asked to match contour patterns with cardboard layer models. In the second stage of the research they were again tested on their understanding of heights and slopes using a new map, and were asked to match contour patterns on the map with painted plywood and plaster relief models. The questions and answers were tape recorded and the transcripts were analysed to provide both quantitative and qualitative data. It is suggested that errors made by the pupils were perceptual as well as conceptual in nature. The implications for teaching contours in the national curriculum are discussed and attention is drawn to the potential benefits of collaborative research between geographers and psychologists