Recent Theories of Human Competence and How It Is Acquired.

66 Pages·2007·1.85 MB·English

DOCUMENT RUM
ID 275 740
TM 860 654
AUTMOR
Resaick, Laures I.
TITIS
Cogaitiee aed Instruction: Recast Theories of Human
Cempeteace sad Mow It Is Acquired.
INSTITUTION
Pittsburgh laiv., Pa. Learning Research and
Developmeat Center.
SPOWS AMC!
National last. of Iducatioa (ID), Washington, DC.
MORT MO
LMDC-lg86/6
PUB DAIS
aus 86
MOT!
66p.
PUB TTP1
Informatiee Analyses (070)
*DRS PRIM
mrol/m3 Plus Postage.
DISCRIPTORS
Association (Psychology); Cognitive Ability;
Cognitive Processes; Cognitive Psychology;
Cempeteace; Iducational Research; Ipistemology;
Instructiee; Intelligeace; Leaguage Processing;
Imaraieg Processes; Mathematics Skills;
Metacogaitioa; Problem Solving; Readiag Processes;
Research Methodology; Schemata (Cogaition); *State of
the Art Reviews; Teaching Methods
ABSTMACT
This paper outlines the current state of ksowledge
about how istellectual compnteace is acquired. Implications resulting
from recest chaages is the psychology of learsiag aad development
are
beginsiag to revitalise the sciesce of learsisg asd iastructios. Pour
broad topics illustrate the lists between isstructiosal esperimests,
fundamental research os learning amd thiskiag, aad potential
applicatioss to the sciesce of instructios: (1) understasding satural
language; (2) leer:dog to read; (3) developiag mathematical
competeace; sad (6) problem solviag, istelligence, asd leaf:deg
abilities. Major themes emergisg from research is language processing
isdicate that prior knowledge is essestial is coestructing maiming
for a new test and that the cosstructios of meaning centrally
involves inference. Two maim themes in roadie, research
are
emphasisd: (1) the active interplay betwees expectations asd the
visual stimuli of 'rioted words; asd (2) the central role of
automatic processes of word recogsitios. Special problems aris when
malysisg asthmatics as a demais of cogaitios and learning,
includiag ergs:Hsi:4 ocher:tat el:cog:a:dog persistent sad systematic
rrors, sad linking symbols sed their referents. Becest work is
problem solviag is focused os performance is information-rich
domaiss. There bas boas cessiderable effort is rocest
years to
reanalyse the coestructs of intelligesce asd aptitudes is terms of
cognitive processes asd coastructs, iscludiag motacognitive skills.
Directions for further research are suggested. (LMO)
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Reproductiess sullied by 'DRS are the best that can be made
rem the origisal document.
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COGNITION AND INSTRUCTION:
RECENT THEORIES OF HUMAN COMPETENCE
AND HOW IT IS ACQUIRED
Lauren B. Resnick
Learning Research and Development Center
University of Pittsburgh
1986
Reprinted with permission from B. L. Hammonds (Ed.) Psychology
The master lecture series
Vol. 1 (pp.
and learning:
123-187).
Copyright
American
Psychological
Association.
by
1985
this chapter was supported
Preparation of
the
Learning
b)
Research and Development Center, funded in part by the National
Institute of Education (NIE). U. S. Department of Education. The
opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the position or policy
of N1E. and no official endorsement should be inferred.
3
LAUREN B RESNICK
COGNITION AND
INSTRUCTION: RECENT
THEORIES OF
HUMAN COMPETENCE
4
123
LAUREN B RESNICK
Following receipt of her undergraduate degree from Radcliffe College,
Lauren B. Resn:,:k earned a master's in Teaching and an EdD in
Research in Instruction from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Resnick is currently a Director of tlw Learning Research and Develop-
ment Center and Professor of Psychology and Education at the Univer-
sity of Pittsburgh. She is past president of tlw Division of Educational
Psychology of the American Psychological Association (APA), and a
fellow in the APA's Divisions of Experimental Psychology, Develop-
mental Psychology, Educational Psychology, and the Experimental Anal-
ysis of Behavior. She also has served as vice president of the American
Educational Research Association's Division of Learning and Instruc-
tion, is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of
Scirice, and is a member of the National Academy of Education.
Resnick's primary interest is the emerging field of the cognitive
psychology of instruction, and she is playing an active role in its de-
velopment. Her major current research focuses on the learning of math-
ematics and science. She has also studied reading and other subject-
matter domains. In addition to her research efforts. Resnick is founder
and editor of Cognition and Instruction. the major new journal in the
field.
r
,
()
I 25
LAUREN B. RESNICK
COGNITION AND
INSTRUCTION: RECENT
THEORIES Of HUMAN
COMPETENCE
Introduction
My goal in this essay is to sketch the current state 01 knowledge
about how intellectual competence is acquired and to suggest
directions for future research, especially research that promises to im-
prove instruction. My task is more complex and more exciting than it
would have been 10 years ago because the psychology of learning and
development has in that time undergone a profound change. In the past
decade, a number 01 the assumptions that had guided research on
learning have been called into question, and a vigorous new "cognitive
science" has taken hold. The implications of this change for conceptions
of human mental Imictioning are vast and the possibilities for a revi-
talized science of learning and instruction are just beginning to be re-
alized.
Until 10 or IS years ago, psychologists interested in the nature and
acquisition of intellectual competence were laced with some unpalat-
able choices. One set of psychological theonesthose in the associa-
1 he research remitted lwrein was *implanted by Ilw I.earnmg Heston It and Devil
npinent renter, bolded m part as a resent( h and devektpment t enter by Ilw Nalmnal
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4
COGNITION AND INSTRUCTION
thie of the most important rlevelopments iii rognitivi science has
been the gradual construction of new ways of linking knowledge and
performance. Process theories of cognitive funchrming provide precise
statements of lum thP kinrwledge that iwople possess permits theni to
perform in certain ways on certain kinds of tasks The interest in pro-
cesses of thinight has led to the refinement of methods that trace se-
quential steps in thinking These methods include recording iiatterns
of reactirm tinies for stinnill or tasks of different crunplexity. tracking
eye movements as subjects read texts or solve visually presented prob-
lems, and using "think-aloud" protocrils in which subjects solve prrib-
lems while verbalizing what is wring thrrnigh their minds as they work
Because think-aloud mellnuls seem to share features of the long-dis-
credited introspective methods of psychology, they have evoked a cer-
tain degree of skepticism. Careful methodological work (e g., Ericsson
& Simon, 1984) has established the limits and powers of these methods.
Study of the relations between processes and content of thought
is further stimulated and strengthened by the active enagagement of
psychologists with computer scientists, especially those interested in
the study and development of artificial intelligence. Viewing the com-
puter as a metaphor for the human mind has stimulated cognitive psy-
chology, allowing for more intentional and goal-driven prricesses than
the older image of the mind as a switchboard, which was so neatly
compatible with associationist theories. However, the real power has
come not from the general metaphor, but rather froni the use of com-
piler programs as detailed simulations of human thinking and, thus, as
a way of both energizing and disciplining cognitive theory. When com-
puter programs behave as humans domaking similar mistakes,
pausing at similar points, expressing confusion over the sante issues
it is reasonable to assume that the internal processes of the human and
the computer are similar, and researchers can treat the programs' vis-
ible processes as a theory of the invisible processes of humans
Initially applied to limited forms of pnildem-solving task perfor-
mance (Newell & Sinum, 1972), conquiter sinmkition as a forni of psy-
chological theory has subsequently been extended to a wide variety (if
tasks and domains, and more recent work provides complex models of
how knowledge is structured and accessed in addition to the proce-
dures and heuristics used in manipulating it. This use of coniputer
programs as models of human tliinking has been enhanced by important
shifts within artificial intelligence itself (Helm & Schank, 1982) Artificial
intelligence researdiers, finding that truly complex forms of thinking
depend on optimally structured knowledge and heuristic rather than
exhaustive forms of searching this knowledge, are turning more and
more to studies of human intelligence to inform their efforts to !mild
intelligent machines. In this emerging fiekl of cognitive science, it is not
always easy to tell who is a iisychokanst and who is an artificial intel-
ligence specialist.
129
LAUREN B RESNICK
In additimi I() having an interest in thinking and
recognizing the
central role of structured knowledge in the process of thought, the
modern cognitive science converges with structuralist traditions
in psy-
chology in rejecting the long-held tabula raw assumptions of American
psychology in favor of what can best be called a ionstrmilmst
assump-
tion. In assi)ciationism there was no way to imagine luniwledge
entering
a human's mind except from the outside Objects could be perceived,
associations between events noted, and mental bonds gradually built.
These bonds were, it was assumed although often
not directly dis-
cussed, direct reflections of the external information
to which one was
exposed To learn was to build up more and inure of these records
and
to make them more quickly accessible. But to learn was not to
construct
new associations and relationships through purely mental activity.
Today's cognitive science, by contrast, gives
a central place to
organizing structures and thus provides the terms in which
theories of
how individuals build new relationships can be developed.
Knowledge
is no longer viewed as a reflection of what has been given
from the
outside, it is a personal construction in which the individual
imposes
meaning by r,,lating bits of knowledge and experience to
some organ-
izing schemata. This constructivist view in cognitive science is
not iden-
tical to Piagetian constructivism, but it is close enough
in spirit that
psychologists who a decade ago could find little ground for
serious
debate can now successfully respond to and build
upon each others'
work. One result has been a rejoining of forces by certain
groups of
developmental and experimental psychologists who had for
some de-
cades diverged in their interests.
I will illustrate and elaborate all of these trends and the
research
methods on which they are based iH the course of this chapter.
I will
also stress another important characteristic of recent
cognitive re-
searchthat is the extent to which it is kith relevant
to and driven by
questions concerning instruction and ne deliberate modification
of
human competence. Partly because cognitive scientists
are seeking
complex and "ecologically valid" domains of human
intellectual func-
tioning in which to develop their theories, and partly because
of a drive
toward socially relevant applications of their work, cognitive
psychol-
ogists are devoting substantial effort to research
on the kinds of tasks
that are studied in school or other educational institutions.
Both the nature of competence in such domains and its
acquisition
are increasingly central questions in today's research. Instructional
ex-
periments, when conducted so as to reveal details of the learning
pro-
cess, are a valuable tool in research on processes of acquisition, and
these experiments further lighten the links between fundamental
re-
search on learning and thinking and potential applications
to a science
of instniction To illustrate all of this, I will build
my chapter around
four broad topics: understanding written and spoken language;
learning
to read; developing mathematical competence; and the
nature of
problem solving, intelligence, and learning abilities. These
are all do-
130
COGNITION AND INSTRUCTION
mains in which the convergence ()I basic and applied research on
human cognition is highly evidmil and in which many of the niediod-
()logical foods and theoretical issues of current «igninve soma e can
be displayed.
Understanding Natural Language
I will Imus first on how people understand that most complex of Iminan
intellectual productions, language Tlus ipiestion lids captured the at-
tention of some of the world's best psychologists, linguists, and cow-
inner scientists over the last
I 5 years, and the result ol their work is a
rich body of knowledge and theory about how people understand what
they read or what other people tell them
Contrary to certain older views, cognitive scientists now agree that
the process ol understanding language is i nit one of abiairbing and
recording what is written or said Rather, in this process the message
is used to build up a representation in one's numd of the siliudion to
winch the message refers This representation is sinnillaneously selec-
tive and elaborative with respect to the message
II does not emit tly
match Ilw message. Rather, sonw things that the message says are left
out, aml sonie other inkirniation that the message left out is put in The
mental representation is elaborated by the reader or listener to include
things not staled explicitly but necessary lo make sense of the message
Infornialion that the receiver construes as not being crucial lo the
meaning is left old of the receiver's mental representation This process
ol constructing representations based oil messages highlights a cenInd
feature 01 natural language understamling. Except m special mann-
slam es, it is not the message itself that is represented, but its reference.
People use language to refer lo something external to the language
itself, and the processes 01 langth,ge interpretation are all aimed at
mulerslanding that external situ:11km. Kin AvIedge of linguistic conven-
tions as SUCII, Willie crucial to the process 01 Understanding, is mirmally
employed to aid understanding of the reference situation rather than
as all end in itself.
Tlw processes by which Ilw referential meaning of a message is
constructed by a reader or listener have been a central concern of
cognitive scientists interested in natural language understanding. Two
niaior !limes emerge Innn this mirk First, prior kiumledge is essential
in constructing meaning kir a iiew text. Secinid, the constructuni of
meaning is one that centrally nmilyes inference.
The Role of Muir Knowledge in Constructing Representations
Schemata it; Language Processing
An example from a now classic experiment in cognitive psychology is
the best way to demonstrate the importance ol prior knowledge in
1 0
3