Interpretation and structured learning.
Item
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Title
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Interpretation and structured learning.
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Identifier
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AAI8820869
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identifier
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8820869
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Creator
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Hawkins, Jan.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Joseph Glick
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Date
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1988
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Developmental
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Abstract
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An interpretationist perspective is used to developmentally explore how task characteristics and people's interpretations affect the kinds of structured relationships that are learned. The framework for the work is based on three components: knowers constitute the objects of their knowledge; circumstances of engagement affect the construction of knowledge; the notion of multiple rationalities or organizing structures is a way to coordinate the general and the circumstantial through variation in systems of significance. Two experiments were conducted. The same variants of materials and instructions were used in the two studies to orient subjects (7-8 year-olds, 11-12 year-olds, adults) to either formal/analytic or social/thematic organizing structures in the tasks. In the first, implicit learning, study subjects of all ages tacitly learned different structural relationships based on their orientation and interpretive contribution to the task. Subjects with a formal orientation to the task learned a different type of complex rule system that generated a set of exemplars than did subjects with a thematic orientation. There were no developmental differences. The second, concept learning, study examined whether the same variants of organizing structure similarly affected performance in a different kind of task, and whether the pattern of responses might provide evidence about the kinds of processes underlying implicit learning. Results indicated that the efficiency of performance and strategies used by subjects in explicitly searching for concepts differed as a function of the formal/analytic and social/thematic organizing structures. The developmental differences found in the study indicate that this kind of conscious strategic search does not account for implicit learning. The studies suggest the importance of considering the interpretative framework for understanding the structured learning that takes place in different situations.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
