Why have we left Bruner in our wake . . . ? To this day I find the information processing approach, as introduced to us by Jerome Bruner, to be the most comprehensive and up-to-date perspective on cognitive development. My colleagues find it "shocking" that I do not cover Piaget as I realize many of you likely will also. But Piaget's model is static vs dynamic, and his conclusions were based on a biased and small sample that posed stages of thinking that now are clearly outdated. Bruner stressed that the reason Piaget frequently underestimated children's thinking abilities was that he posed problems with too many parts, thereby overwhelming them with too much information. Until the age of 7, sometimes called the 'age of reason,' children have no capacity for dual focusing, meaning that they only can comprehend problems that can be processed within one frame, so to speak.
I was drawn to this emphasis of Bruner's on the impact of the quantity of information as a factor in determining children's ability to reveal their comprehension of a concept. As we now know, it has been determined via information processing research studies that during the first year of life infants demonstrate a comprehension of conservation, cause-effect, subtraction and addition IF the problem contains only one to three items. As the old saying goes, KISS, at least with children under seven. I would hope to see our textbooks to begin giving Bruner some type of recognition to his role in emphasizing the use of the information processing model to obtain a superior model of cognitive development. May he rest in peace. Joan jwarmb...@oakton.edu > On Thu, 09 Jun 2016 04:56:40 -0700, Miguel Roig wrote: >>Let's see if I can beat Mike P to the punch. > > Damn! Don't you hate it when people die when you're on jury duty! ;-) > >>Talk about longevity .... >> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/09/science/jerome-s-bruner-who-shaped-understanding-of-the-young-mind-dies-at-100.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth&action=click&contentCollection=health&_r=0 >> >>I had the good fortune of being in the audience of an Inside the >>Psychologist's >>Studio interview of Bruner that was conducted at EPA or APS a couple of >>years >>ago and it's on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxn6IpAJEz8. >> >>That's my bald head on the lower hand corner of the screen at minute >>54:11 to >>54:15. > > The NY Times obit omits info that Bruner was a Research Professor of > Psychology (College/Graduate School of Arts & Science) while being a > Senior Research Fellow at the NYU School of Law; see: > http://psych.nyu.edu/bruner/ > > I did not know Bruner personally but I recognized him when I saw him. > When Bruner came to NYU in the early 1990s, he literally was all over > the place: his office was identified as 200 Mercer Street but I think > this > was where he lived (NYU has office space and classrooms at > 194 Mercer St but that is a couple of buildings south of 200 Mercer St; > here is a picture of 200 Mercer Street -- NOTE: it is the red brick > building > behind the green truck: > https://www.google.com/maps/place/%22200+mercer+street%22+%22new+york+city%22/@40.7266214,-73.9969376,3a,75y,125.72h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m4!1sCpEUEPZvpvpI83TRwQhrmA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x59d8c360824e1a39!6m1!1e1 > > During the 1990s I was hanging out in the NYU A&S psych dept (while > being full-time faculty at Yeshiva U and doing research at a joint named > NDRI) and had an office on the 8th floor of the psychology building. > I was surprised to find Bruner & Co holding a seminar of some sort > in one of the smaller classroom on the 8th floor, just a couple of doors > down from my office. They met once a week during the fall and spring > for a few years and then stopped. I didn't see Bruner in the psych dept > again and I don't know why he was apparently gone (I was doing too > much stuff already to gossip) but I think that Bruner moved over to > the School of Law full time. .Vincent Hevern (he's on Psychteacher, > not sure he's on Tips) has a page devoted to Bruner and it provides > some details of what he did/published over the years. Some might > find it useful. > > -Mike Palij > New York University > m...@nyu.edu > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: jwarm...@oakton.edu. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=49240.d374d0c18780e492c3d2e63f91752d0d&n=T&l=tips&o=48852 > or send a blank email to > leave-48852-49240.d374d0c18780e492c3d2e63f91752...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@mail-archive.com. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=48854 or send a blank email to leave-48854-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
