Not Psychology for Psychology, but open, tough, thorough, true, phenomenological empiricism: finding overt directly-observable patterns as the bases or foundations or clear beginnings of everything.
This is the way for commitment to science in Psychology, NOT making analogies, copying and "applying" apparent forms, making presumptuous models (BEFORE FINDINGS), over-generalizations, inventing new terms (e.g. "meta"-[whatever] NOR "executive [whatever"] NOR even: "social learning" * ); and, no unsupportable concepts, such as those that extend sensori-motor phenomenon TO later developments (in supposed ontogeny) JUST BY SELF-GENERATED ANALOGIES.
Again, dear followers and readers: MY apologies for adding more and more to the beginning post here, even a full hour after the original post.
Making my perpective on major cognitive developments during ontogeny MORE PALATABLE:
Seeing 'things' anew can be seeing "new things" -- and sometimes be such as that during stage shifts. (This is an Update to my Ethogram Theory Project, as well.)
The natural development of the Memories (integration, consolidation, generalization), THEN major changes are impelled, IN _THAT_ FINAL PREPARED CONTEXT, MAINLY by what literally is OR has the status of perceptual shifts: you immediately start seeing new concrete aspects of situations (new things) and/OR you see-anew concrete * aspects (THUS: new 'things' or sets of things, also 'things') in an entirely new context; _EITHER involve new gazing and looking (as the concrete manifestation in behavior patterns). (This new perception naturally results in, i.e. moves to, attending to these very (exact) new things (new or, equivalently, things in a holistically new context) and THEN new learnings going from there.) With either sort is a perceptual shift -- and it "just happens" when the organism is prepared. (So: seeing old concrete aspects anew is just as dramatic as seeing completely new elements/objects in situations, in effect. But know that seeing completely new concrete aspects is a possibility that must not be ruled out, at least in some "applications" of the new sort of "template".) These perceptual shifts ARE the inception of each new stage of cognitive development, there being at least 5 of these stages in human child development (ontogeny), and those with phases (some major current theorist/researchers say 2 major phases per stage). In any case, "the purpose" and result is new abstract thinking abilities (grounded empirically as indicated AND as they must be since adaptation to environments is the whole nature of the things). The perceptual shifts (and, they are of that nature: of perception) are the major key literal inception of each new level of abstract representation and abstract thinking abilities. It is with new abstraction abilities that each of the 5 stages is qualitatively different. AND that new level of thinking becomes common, across many and different situations/circumstances (as well as likely involving a perspective, of the Subject, that may ALSO be across times and circumstances in the first place, at first appearance (in the individual instance of "seeing" leading to understanding) -- the result of significant development of the Memories ** (much underestimated now)).
AND, the really (other) good news (nothing hard here) is that other changes involve ONLY the simple sorts of associative learning: sensitization, habituation, classical and operant conditioning (BUT, NOW, we have the proper contextS).
* FOOTNOTE: "Concrete" means directly observable and in its nature completely overt. This is the basis of what new (or anew) is "seen" and of the behavior patterns "seeing", BOTH. (The latter is often largely just shifts in sets of behavior patterns, this dramatic enough to at least seem like new behavior patterns, and possibly best conceptualized as such; the former may involve imagining contexts (real context, real enough to be in the Memories) across space and time, to make what newly seen or seen anew ( to be seen or in a greater context see-able).)
** FOOTNOTE: When one examines the definitions of the various Memories, these definitions (themselves) indicate that the Memories (the several different ones, working together) constitute basic EXPERIENCE ITSELF (integrally and always "used" as major contextualization by "working memory").
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Psychology
- Mental Processes
- Learning