ANDREAS DEMETRIOUUNIVERSITY OF NICOSIA, CYPRUS

Integrating Developmental, Psychometric, and Cognitive Theories of Intellect

Three themes in this talk

Current state of knowledge in the developing mind science.

A model of the developing mind and related learning experiments. Emphasis on g.

A developmental cognitive science based agenda for learning: What to focus on!

Significant progress but the field is still fragmented, conceptually and methodologically.

1. COGNITIVE SCIENCES ON THE MIND

FIELDS OF PSYCHOLOGY STUDYING THE MIND

PSYCHOLOGY OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGYDEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE

The psychometric tradition: Successes and failures

Psychology of individual differences succeeded to uncover dimensions of individual differences and develop methods and tools for measuring intelligence (IQ). However, it failed to account for inter-individual variability (GUILDFORD, THURSTONE, GARDNER) and specify cognitive and developmental processes.

All attempts to enhance intelligence failed, despite Flynn-type changes in intelligence.

The cognitive tradition: Successes and failures

Cognitive psychology succeeded to uncover mechanisms of learning and thinking. However, it failed in using these mechanisms for learning environments appropriate for real children. It led to shallow approaches about conceptual change focusing on surface content characteristics rather underlying thought mechanisms. Nowadays this approach survive in disguise (epistemic cognition, model teaching).

The developmental tradition: Successes and failures

Developmental psychology succeeded to uncover developmental changes in cognition. However, it failed to specify learning and processing mechanisms in development and explain individual differences in development.

Too much attention to individual construction, ignoring subject matter priorities.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MINDTHE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MINDINDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN ARCHITECTURE AND DEVELOPMENTTHE ARCHITECTURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGEEDUCATION, LEARNING AND TEACHING

WE NEED AN INTEGRATED THEORY FOR …

The research and model following was developed to accommodate all of these concerns:

Demetriou, A., Spanoudis, G., & Shayer, M. (2014). Inference, reconceptualization, insight, and efficiency along intellectual growth: A general theory. Enfance, 46, 196-221.

Demetriou, A., Spanoudis, G., & Shayer, M. (submitted). Developing mind-developing brain.

Demetriou, A., Spanoudis, G., & Shayer, M. (submitted). Nailing the mind’s ghost.

A comprehensive model

General intelligence in psychometric theory

Spearman’s G: One giant general intelligence—rest is noice.

Carroll’s 3-stratum theory: Both G and broad abilities are present.

CONCEPTIONS OF G

Psychometric g Cognitive Science LOT

Developmental This model

Eduction of relations and correlates: relational thought abstracting (i) relations between objects or events based on their similarities and (ii) relations between relations based on the reduction of similarities into rules and higher-order principles relating these rules

Compositionality (words, concepts, rules, etc.), Recursiveness, Hierarchical organization, Generativity. Abduction of relations.

Intelligence is assimilation and accommodation of action (actual or mental) and their increasing equilibration into reversible and necessary structures of mental operations. ?

The structure of the mind

Direction of development

Core capacities (speed, span, control

Cognizance system (builds model of all other aspects of the mind; maps lower order structures on to each other

Specialized capacity spheres (spatial, verbal, social, numerical, etc.)

The general architecture of the human mind

DOMAINS

Essentials and categories

Space and time

Numbers and quantities

Interactions and causes

Agents and persons

Language

INFERENCEInductionDeductionAbduction

REPRESENTATIONAL

CAPACITY

WM, STSS

COGNIZANCE

Self-monitoring

Self-representation

Self-regulation

Reflection and

recursion

Episodic integration

Mental

modelsProblem solving

Executive control

Self-awareness

Conceptual change

Meta-representation

Structural relations between attention control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory, mediating reference factors and G

G

1. 1.00 2. .99 3. .93

4. 1.00 5. 80 6. .93 7. .97 8. 1.00

Att con

Flex

WM

Reference Factor

1. Inference

2. Quantitative

3. Causal

4. spatial

5. Cognizance

6. Vocabulary

7. Syntax

8. Semantics

1. -.62 2. -.62 3. -.66 4. -.61 5. -52 6. -55 7. -62 8. - 61

1. -.42 2. -.41 3. -.44 4. -.41 5. -36 6. -43 7. -43 8. - 41

1. .67 2. .43 3. .60 4. .43 5. .34 6. .43 7. .44 8. .43

Direct relations between G, executive processes, and cognizance

Model at total sample (9-15 yrs., first value in columns) and three age phases (99-11, 11-13, and 13-15 yrs.). About 80% of g variance accounted for by EF & Cog. Contribution of attention control and shifting decreases and WM and cognizance increases with age.

Control of attention (36%) Shifting (18%) Working memory (19%)

Cognizance (7%)

On top of all this

Gf (inductive & deductive reasoning) (19%)

Deliberated search, alignment, and abstraction

Translation into domain-specific “mental languages” (e.g., deductive mental models or logics, sorting or class rules, arithmetic rules, mental rotation, moral rules or deception rules, etc.).

g variance accounted for by EFs What is left?

CONCEPTIONS OF G

Psychometric g Cognitive Science LOT

Developmental Abstraction, Alignment, Cognizance (AACog)

Eduction(abstraction) of relations and correlates (alignment): relational thought abstracting (i) relations between objects or events based on their similarities and (ii) relations between relations based on the reduction of similarities into higher-order principles relating rules (cognizance,

Compositionality (words, concepts, rules, etc.) (alignment), Recursiveness(flexibility), Hierarchical organization (abstraction), Generativity (cognizance, metarepresentation)

Intelligence is assimilation (abstraction) and accommodation (alignment) of action (actual or mental) and their increasing equilibration into reversible and necessary structures of mental operations that may be intentionally activated (cognizance).

Control of attentional focus, binding of information (alignment) according to requirements, on-line evaluation for adjustments needed (cognizance). Induction present in abstractions of stimulus-representation similarity or representation-action compatibility. Conditional reasoning in affirmation of the expected and shifting (and, and, … conjuction), denial (negation), and choice (disjunction). Deductive reasoning lies in their integration into truth-like tables (metarepresentation).

There are three processes underlying the coordinating functionABSTRACTION: A probabilistic inference mechanism sampling over statistical regularities in the environment.ALIGNMENT: A relational mechanism mapping representations onto each other according to current understanding needs, based on similarity and semantic relevance.COGNIZANCE: Awareness and metarepresentation (i.e., representation of representations) of mental content or processes.

THE CORE OF INTELLECT (MECHANISMS OF MENTAL FUNCTIONING AND DEVELOPMENT)

RECONCEPTUALIZATION AND INSIGHT

0-1: Episodic representations and action blocks

1-2: Alignment of episodic representations

AGENTIAL INSIGHT: I CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

3-4: Realistic mental representations, functioning “en block”

5-6: Alignment of realistic mental representations

REPRESENTATIONAL INSIGHT: I CAN IMAGINE THE WORLD

7-8: Rule-based representations

9-11: Alignment of rule-based representations

INFERENTIAL INSIGHT: I CAN REASON ABOUT THE WORLD

12-13: Principle-based representations

14-17: Alignment of principle-based representations

FORMALITY INSIGHT: I CAN INTERPRET THE WORLD

Development of Executive control, cognizance, and reasoning

AGE Executive Control Cognizance Reasoning

1-2: episodic representations

Perception initiated represented goals, e.g. insert objects in same-shape holes.

Face recognitionExplicit awareness of stimuli and actions, implicit awareness of mental states

Extrapolation of episodic sequences mimicking implication: e.g., Dad came, mom is coming too.

2-4: Emerging realistic mental representations

Automation of self-initiated action episode: Girl bathing her dol. Instruction-based goal: Bring dad’s shoes.

Awareness of perceptual origins of knowledge, awareness of one’s own performance

Translation of representational ensembles into reasoning sequences: Uncle’s car is outside, so he is in.

4-6: Integration of realistic representations

Control of attentional focus: Shifting between actions according to instructions activating a represented plan.

Explicit awareness of representations, ToM

Pragmatic reasoning: You said I can play outside if I eat my food; I ate my food; I go to play outside.

Development of Executive control, cognizance, and reasoning

AGE Executive Control Cognizance Reasoning

6-8: Emerging rule-based representations

Rule-based action plans, such as turn-taking in games. Self-addressed instructions

Explicit awareness of representation/actions relations, Implicit self-evaluation rules

Scheme-based reasoning, modus ponens, conjunction, disjunction: There is a dog and a tiger; there is a dog, so there is a tiger.

8-11: Integration of rules into rule-based systems

Conceptual fluency in shifting across conceptual systems (recall fruits, then animals) or story making based on prompt words (animal, forest, hungry).

Explicit awareness of mental processes, 2nd-order ToM, logical necessity

Symmetric conditional reasoning (MT-MT): If there is an apple there is a pear; there is an apple, there is a pear; there is not a pear, there is not an apple.

11-13: Emerging principle-based representations

Inferential relevance mastery program: Life-plans, such as study choices for university.

Explicit awareness of mental processes; implicit self-evaluation principles

Intuitive grasp of fallacies: If there is an apple there is a pear; there is a pear; I cannot know if there is an apple.

14-16: Integrated i i l

Life-plans, such as study f

Self-representation f

Complete conditional

Can we reduce to simpler processes?

Can we reduce the cycles of AACog development toindividual differences in fundamental

processing possibilities, such as speed? Or the state of representational and

knowledge handling processes such as attention and working memory?

Relations between speed and intelligence

Sheppard & Vernon (2008), showed, based on the metaanalysis of 172, involving 53,542 individuals, that speed is significantly related to the main dimensions of general intelligence, such as general, fluid, and crystallized intelligence

Relations between WM, attention and intelligence

Schweizer and Moosbrugger (2004) showed that both WM and attention are related to intelligence, although the strength of the relation varies as a function of the processes used in intelligence. Performance on the Raven is more highly related to WM (panel A) and performance on a test requiring trail making is more related to attention (panel B)

Gf as a function of working memory level (i.e., low, 0-2; medium, 2-5; high, 5-7).

Cognitive performance accords with what is expected from age rather than from WM level.

Changes in mental processing, representational capacity and inference

Reaction times decrease because processing becomes increasingly faster

Working memory capacity expands, handling increasingly more information

Executive control becomes increasingly more focused, flexible, and efficient and reasoning becomes increasingly abstract

Cycles of speed-Gf and WM-Gf relations

Cycles in speed, working memory, reasoning relations

Reasoning is predicted by speed at the first phase of each cycle (at 6-8 years and 11-13 yrs) and by working memory at the second phase (4-6 years, 8-10 years, and 13-16 yrs). At the beginning of cycles speed is a better index because thought in terms of the new mental units is automated and expands fast over different contents. Later, when networks of representations are built, WM is a better index because alignment of representations requires and facilitates WM.

Differentiation and de-differentiation as a function of g and age

Reasoning (Raven) and speed differentiate at the end of the cycle

Inferential awareness and WM de-differentiate throughout the cycle

DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCES IN DIFFERENT THEORIES

AGE PIAGET CASE FISCHER

0-2 Sensorimotor Sensorimotor Sensorimotor

2-4 Early preoperationalprelogical

Early inter-relational

Single representations

5-6 Late preoperationalIntutive

Late inter-relational Representational mappings

7-8 Early concretereversibility, logic

Early dimensional Systems of representations

9-10 Late concretecomplex conservations

Late dimensional Single abstractions

11-13 Early formalCombinatorial, possible

Early vectorial Mappings of abstractions

14-20 Late formalConditional reasoning

Late vectorial Systems of abstractions

The role of speed and WM in Gf change

At the beginning of cycles processing speed increases because the new mental unit compresses the time requirements of mental processing.

Command of the new representational unit improves at the beginning of cycles and thinking in terms of it proliferates fast to new content.

Later in the cycle, when relations between representations are worked out, WM is a better index because inter-linking of representations both requires and facilitates WM.

Specifying the causal factor of Gf development

Neither speed nor WM are the causes of change or individual differences.

Cognizance is the causal reconceptualization factor.

Insight is the spot-light of consciousness, reflection its processing mechanism, and inference its integration-validation tool. WM is an index of the breadth and resolution of these processes.

The mediating role of cognizance in development

Abstraction and alignment processes develop step-by-step. Transition to each next cycle is possible after attaining a minimum of awareness about the mental functions and representations of the current cycle. This awareness offers the core for the construction of the mental unit of the next cycle.

AWAREperc Speed

-.46 -.22 -.38

AWAREinfer

Gf

.89

.63

.63

-.73 -.60 -.46

-.33 -.14 -.35

.29

.29

.41

-.05 -.12 -.12

Control

WM

Age

.58 .67 .18

Training attention

Attention or WMC may be trained but transfer to higher level processes such as gf and reasoning, is questionable, if any.

Does it really transfer to intelligence?

Melby-Lervag & Hulme (2013) and Shipstead et al. (2012), based on a large number of studies, concluded that gains in attention and working memory do not transfer intelligence. Transfer, when found, comes from the fact that attention and working memory training training included basic intelligence processes, such as relational thought, abstraction, and awareness.

Training reasoning: Know and model the mental processes/relations

9 and 11 years old children. Differentiate between every-day and logical

meaning of propositions. Differentiate between logical arguments (MP, MT,

AC, DA). Understand logical contradiction. Construct mental models for each argument. Grasp logical necessity and sufficiency. FIG instructed on all; LIG instructed on skills 2 & 4.

Logical and metalogical learning

Twice as many children in full instruction mastered the fallacies (improvement from 20% to 62%) as compared to the limited instruction, moving from the concepts to the principles cycle.

Awareness of similarities and differences between arguments improved significantly in full but not in limited instruction.

Profit from learning in reasoning and awareness was related to WM in full but not in the limited instruction.

Speed and Gf not related to change in any group.

Specifying the role of mental functions in logical and metalogical change

Deductive reasoning change was highly affected by training (.51) and it was related to its initial condition (.42), attention control (-.18), Gf (.16), and pure inference (.22). Awareness change was related to training (.23) but also highly to attention control (-.68), pure inference (.60), Gf (.32) and cognitive flexibility (.15).

Training mathematics: Grasp relations, reflect on them, integrate and automate!

11 years old

Conceptualize problems and specify mathematical relations

Build problem specific problem solving strategies

Explicitly meta-represent problem structures and processes and their associations.

Learning transferred to general intelligence

Training generalized to working memory and Gf itself.

Change in WM was mediated by change in Gf and change in Gf was mediated by the state of WM.

Control group Experimental group ________________________ ___________________________________________ Ability Cont/

Speed WM Gf Gf ch Cont/

Speed WM Gf WM ch Gf ch Intercept

T1T2: χ2 (238)=276.19, p=.05, CFI=1.0, RMSEA=.05 WM -.35* -.18 .08 Gf -- .36* -- -- .25* -.20 Change Control/Speed

-.45* -- -.71*/.28

-.08 -.06 -.10*/-.01

WM -- -.83* -- -- -- .53* -- -- .82* .65* Gf -- 1.0* -- .16 -.64* .67* Maths .38* Deduct .11* Analog .18* Scient .07* Spatial .06 T1T3: , χ2 (235)=287.26, p=.01, CFI=.99, RMSEA=.06 WM -.32 -.29* .09*/-11* Gf -.27 .18 -- .37* -.19 Change Control/Speed

-.22 -.13 -.51* --/1.0* -- -.10 -.11*/-.08*

WM -.94* .30 -- -.91* .54* .65* Gf -- -.93 .29* -.40* .20* Maths .19* Deduct .13* Analog .04 Scient .10 Spatial .02

3. Principles for education

The model above generates three principles about education: Focus on the main causal transition mechanism:

cognizance. Build awareness about the cycle’s representational unit and how units may be aligned.

Train the cycle-specific inferential processes, highlighting their logical and metalogical specificities through related mental models.

Give practice to auxiliary processes, such as information search (attention), representation and storage (WM), and mental scanning (flexibility).

Grasp the bull by the horns

InferenceCognizance

AttentionWorking memory

Mind training in the episodic cycle

focus-respondLook at this,

take it

Repeat actions 1, 2, …

Hold two objects,Sense the weight

Find the similaritiesInsert object in

same-shape hole

Mind training in the representational cycle

Focus-choose-respond

Match sound-action

Recall digits, words

Know your representations,

object-word-pictureToM

Induce relationsPragmatic deals

Mind training in the rule-based cycle

scan-select-search-shift

Re-organize, Re-chunck,

reduce, recode

Know relations between representations,

associations, necessity

Rule-based inference (MP, MT)

analogical relations

Mind training in the principle-based cycle

Inferential relevance mastery: evaluate

conceptual spaces for truth and validity.

Different strategiesDifferen

t learning

Know relations between rules, represent logical

relations

Principle-based inference (fallacies)

suppositional stance, epistemological relativity

Intelligence is a 3-dimensional universe

Dimension 1: Intelligence is responsible to give meaning

to the world and handle change in it sensibly and adaptively. Abstracting, aligning and relating, and

inferring and reasoning are the basic meaning-making processes

Intelligence is a 3-dimensional universe

Dimension 2: Intelligence is a developmental process:

Meaning-making is accomplished under the representational, inferential, and processing constraints of the current phase. Inventing means to minimize developmental

constraints is an integral component of intelligence.

Intelligence is a 3-dimensional universe

Dimension 3: Developmental and individual differences are

the two aspects of the same coin. Individual differences at any phase emerge from differences in representational and processing

possibilities related to underlying brain structures differences in event-related knowledge and

evaluation sensitivities that would grasp what is needed and flexibly adjust available representations and processes.

THANK YOU