The Development of Thought: Equilibration of Cognitive Structures

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The effect of an unfolding case study on critical thinking, knowledge acquisition, and handoff communication in baccalaureate nursing students

We investigated the role that entropy measures, discriminative cues, and symbolic knowledge play for rhesus monkeys in the acquisition of the concepts of same and different for use in a computerized relational matching-to-sample (RMTS) task. After repeatedly failing to perceive relations between pairs of stimuli in a two-choice discrimination paradigm, monkeys rapidly learned to discriminate between 8-element arrays. Subsequent tests with smaller arrays, however, suggest that, although important for the initial acquisition of the concept, entropy is not a variable on which monkeys are dependent. Not only do monkeys choose a corresponding relational pair in the presence of a cue, but they also choose the cue itself in the presence of the relational pair--in essence, labeling those relations. Subsequent failure in the judgment of relations-between-relations, however, suggests that perhaps a qualitatively different cognitive component exists that prevents monkeys from behaving analogically. Keywords: CONCEPT LEARNING, SAME/DIFFERENT, ANALOGICAL REASONING, MONKEYS, MACACA MULATTA 2 This chapter previously published as: Flemming, T. M., Beran, M. J., & Washburn, D. A. (2007). Disconnect in concept learning by rhesus monkeys: Judgment of relations and relationsbetween-relations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 33, 55-63.

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https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1071&context=psych_diss

An Analogical Paradox for Nonhuman Primates: Bridging the Perceptual-Conceptual Gap

The present paper advocates for the use of phenomenology in the study of the self, presenting the findings from a phenomenological study on the participants’ engagement with challenges to the self brought about by their experience studying postmodern thought. Accordingly, the present study utilised Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to investigate the influence of postmodernism on the self, beliefs, and values. Seven participants took part in semi-structured interviews, in which four themes and 14 subthemes were identified in response to postmodernism: ‘ambivalence’; ‘uncertainty’; ‘responses to uncertainty’; and ‘self as an exception’. These findings were both consistent and inconsistent with criticisms of postmodernism, as participants expressed a sense of postmodernism as destabilising, however, the need for action and stability frequently led participants to respond with the strengthening of their beliefs, or an unwillingness to refute them. The experiences and responses of participants to postmodernism challenge the view that postmodern thinking has a negative influence upon individuals and their beliefs and demonstrate the efficacy of phenomenological approaches in understanding experiences of the self, particularly where they encounter challenges and complexity.

Postmodern Thought and the Self: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

This thesis is, in large part, the story of the author’s transformation from a teacher/researcher who studies others to one who studies himself. It is a story that unfolds against the backdrop of his experiences as a teacher, student, and researcher conducting qualitative research into issues of education in Louisiana and Mexico during the three-year period from the spring of 2001 to the spring of 2004—a tumultuous time in American history by any measure. At the heart of this thesis lies the decision to adopt a research approach that is more personal and open-ended than purposeful and intentional. It is an approach that employs narrative as a means of identifying issues for further exploration. The end result is that the researcher himself, as much as anything or anyone else, is the subject of the research. Each of the five chapters of the thesis is divided into two parts: the first narrative, the second critical. The critical portion of each chapter addresses an issue that has arisen, directly or indirectly, in the accompanying narrative. The following issues are considered: relations between the United States and Mexico, the paradoxes of non-traditional research of the type presented by the thesis, current trends in education reform, public political discourse in the aftermath of 9/11, and the role of the teacher in loco parentis. Pertinent issues from post-colonial studies, including neo-colonialism, binarism, the Other/other, and othering, are addressed throughout. The paper closes with a discussion of professional self-formation wherein insights from all of the preceding chapters are brought to bear on a consideration of the teacher as a figure that has been marginalized, or othered. 

The Development of Thought: Equilibration of Cognitive Structures

Citations

Vår bättre framtid

The effect of an unfolding case study on critical thinking, knowledge acquisition, and handoff communication in baccalaureate nursing students

An Analogical Paradox for Nonhuman Primates: Bridging the Perceptual-Conceptual Gap

Postmodern Thought and the Self: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Gringo and teacher: a study of professional self-formation through cross-cultural research

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