The development of objective time: The integration of logical and cultural conceptual systems.
Item
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Title
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The development of objective time: The integration of logical and cultural conceptual systems.
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Identifier
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AAI9304644
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identifier
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9304644
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Creator
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Carbery, Maureen.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Katherine Nelson
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Date
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1992
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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 | Education, Educational Psychology | Anthropology, Cultural
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Abstract
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Objective duration, a "unique and homogenous time scale" has been considered within a system of Newtonian relationships: a Piagetian construction achieved through the integrations of concrete operational logic. But objective duration is also a cultural construction: a conventional reference system created through socio-historical patterns of cultural evolution. Cultural duration can be represented, functionally defined, and developmentally mediated by psychological tools, such as clocks. Psychological tools extend social interaction in concept development beyond the interpersonal to the sociocultural level. The impact of a psychological tool of a clock on the demonstration of a concept of objective duration was investigated in an extension of the standard duration comparison paradigm. The judgement and justification of relative duration by 5-, 6- and 7-year-old children was compared with the clock and without the clock across 3 types of duration tasksets: successive, activity and linear. The results indicated that overall, performance with the clock significantly improved over performance without the clock across the 3 types of duration, for both the judgement and justification responses. In the successive and activity duration tasksets, there were significant differences in group performance for both categories of responses. A significant group by condition interaction in the linear duration taskset reflected a pattern of performance suggested in the other tasksets. The 5-year-old group significantly increased performance with the clock, but the 6-year-old group generally utilized the clock the most effectively. The 7-year-old group, despite initially higher performance without the clock, did not increase performance proportionately with the use of the clock. The results were discussed in terms of the functions of psychological tools, as an operationalization of cultural conceptual systems, in the development of objective duration. It was proposed that valid theories of knowledge development must integrate logical and cultural conceptual systems.
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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.
