Post-Piaget theories

Later theories of intellectual development, influenced by Piaget, have taken several courses. One has been to expand on Piaget by suggesting a possible fifth, adult, period of development, such as problem finding. A second course has been to suggest quite different periods of development from those suggested by Piaget. A third course has been to accept that intellectual development occurs through the periods Piaget proposed, but to hold that the cognitive bases of development differ from those recognized by him. Some of these theories emphasize the importance of memory capacity. For example, it has been shown that children's difficulties in solving transitive inference problems (such as: If A is greater than B, B is greater than C, and D is less than C, which is the greatest?) result primarily from memory limitations rather than reasoning limitations, as argued by Piaget. A fourth course has been to focus on the role of knowledge in development. Some investigators argue that much of what has been attributed to reasoning and problem-solving ability in intellectual development is actually better attributed to the increasing knowledge base of a child. Although the above approaches are diverse, they are all related as alternative responses to Piaget.

The environmental viewpoint

The views of intellectual development described above all emphasize the importance of the organism in intellectual development. But an alternative viewpoint emphasizes the importance of the environmental context and, particularly, the social environment. This view is related to the cognitive-contextual theories discussed above. Championed originally by L.S. Vygotsky, a Soviet psychologist, this viewpoint suggests that intellectual development may be largely influenced by a child's interactions with others: A child sees others thinking and acting in certain ways and then internalizes and models what is seen. An Israeli psychologist, Reuven Feuerstein, has elaborated upon this point of view, suggesting that the key to intellectual development is what he calls mediated learning experience. The parent mediates, or interprets, the environment for the child, and it is largely through this mediation that the child learns to understand and interpret the world.

Contents of this article:

Introduction
Cognitive-contextual theories and biologic theories
Hemispheric studies
Development of intelligence
Post-Piaget theories and the environmental viewpoint
Measuring intelligence
The distribution of IQ scores and the malleability of intelligence