Theories of Cognitive Development: David Feldman

Marcelo Valderrey

24 Jun, 2024 03:22 PM

To seriously study creativity, it is useful to know something about the first scientific efforts to define and explain it, attributable to psychology.

1. Step 1: Small doses...visuals!

   The idiosyncrasies, concepts and language of mechanical engineering are somewhat distant from the psychological approach and it is easy for the reader to lose the thread of the explanations by becoming entangled with its specific terminology and its forms of expression.

   For this reason, I have preferred to extract small fragments of the theories of creativity and make an effort to create my own graphic image for them.

   My graphics involve the risk of biasing and/or distorting the original ideas, which also exists when trying to paraphrase them, but it brings the will to understand them and translate them into engineering language in the hope of bringing both approaches closer together.

   To this end, I have relied on research works that compile and summarize these theories. In particular, the work of authors Busse & Mansfield that appears in the quotes in the next step of the tutorial.

2. Step 2: Theories of Cognitive Development: David Feldman

   Busse & Mansfield (pp. 50-51) cite the theory of David Feldman (The devolopmental approach: universal to unique, 1974) and his starting point in constructivism through the theory of Jean Piaget, with which he observed similarities between its four stages of cognitive development and creativity at all its levels.

   To illustrate it, three related images were created, which begin with Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development. The brain is shown as a mesh that varies at each stage due to restructuring that refines it in certain parts to the detriment of others (as in face recognition in children, which first works the same for humans and animals, but then specializes in faces. humans and loses definition for other species).

   Piaget's Learning Theory is then illustrated, highlighting the sequence of assimilation, accommodation and balance of knowledge, and the evolution of the balance between the subject's own schemas and the environment in the different stages.

   Finally, and supported by such stages and balance of schemes, Feldman's Theory of Cognitive Development is represented, which compares them with the levels of creativity.

   
   

   References:

   • Busse, T. V., & Mansfield, R. S. (1984). Teorías del proceso creador: revisión y perspectiva. (©. 2.-2. reservados, Ed.) Studies in Psychology = Estudios de Psicología, nº 18 (traducido del Journal of Creative Behavior, num. 2, vol. 14, 91-103, 1980), 47-57. Recuperado el 18 de diciembre de 2020, de https://dialnet.unirioja.es/ejemplar/7049
   • Feldman, D. (1974). The devolopmental approach: universal to unique. En S. Rosner, & L. E. Abt (eds.), Essays in creativity. Croton-on-Hudson, Nueva York: North River Press.
   • Triglia, A. (2020). Las 4 etapas del desarrollo cognitivo de Jean Piaget. Recuperado el 30 de diciembre de 2020, de Psicología y Mente: https://psicologiaymente.com/desarrollo/etapas-desarrollo-cognitivo-jean-piaget

   
   

3. Step 3: My graphic interpretation

   Theory of Cognitive Development: Jean Piaget

   

   
   

   Note. Jean Piaget's four stages of cognitive development. Source: the texts cited in this representation were extracted from the article by Adrián Triglia (The 4 stages of cognitive development by Jean Piaget, 2020). Author's illustration.

   
   

   Texts of the figure in Spanish, translated:

   SENSIOMOTOR Stage

   I understand that what I perceived still exists, although it is not there now (permanence).

   I satisfy my own needs with objects and people. There is what I see, touch, taste, smell, hear. I experiment and play with everything.

   
   

   PREOPERATIONAL STAGE

   I can now put myself in other people's shoes.

   I can act and play following fictional roles and use symbolic objects.

   My egocentrism still makes it difficult to access abstract thoughts and reflections.

   I do not manipulate information following logic to draw conclusions.

   I use “magical thinking” based on simple and arbitrary associations.

   
   

   CONCRETE OPERATIONS Stage

   I begin to use logic to reach valid conclusions, although

    from premises related to concrete and not abstract situations.

   For example, I am able to infer that the amount of liquid contained in a container does not depend on its shape, but rather I understand that it retains its volume.

   I manage to define more complex categories to classify aspects of reality. My way of thinking has stopped being markedly egocentric.

   
   

   FORMAL OPERATIONS Stage

   I can use logic to reach abstract conclusions that are not tied to concrete cases from my own experience.

   Now I can “think about thinking” and use hypothetical deductive reasoning.

   
   

   Learning Theory: Jean Piaget

   

   
   

   Note. Assimilation and accommodation balanced by equilibration that, in turn, changes with the stages of cognitive development based on the subject's schemas and the stimuli of the environment, then on the schemas themselves and finally becomes a dynamic integration of different schemas , according to Bertrand Regader (The Learning Theory of Jean Piaget, 2020). Source: illustration by the author.

   
   

   Texts of the figure in Spanish, translated:

   Assimilation / Accommodation / Balance

   Balance between the subject's schemas and environmental stimuli

   Balance between the person's own schemes

   Balance by hierarchical integration of different schemes

   
   

   
   

   Theory of Cognitive Development: David Feldman (1974)

   

   
   

   Note. Feldman raises an analogy between the Piagetian stages of development and the different levels of creativity, considering them as a special case of intellectual development. Source: illustration by the author.

   
   

   Texts of the figure in Spanish, translated:

   Intellectual Progress and Level of Creativity

   Surprised reaction to the solution

   The solution once obtained seems obvious

   Feeling of being dragged towards the solution

   Irreversible solution once achieved

   
   

   
   

   Reference: all texts and images in this tutorial were extracted from the doctoral thesis cited below,

   
   

   • Valderrey, M.E. (2021), “Catalizadores Creativos en Ingeniería Conceptual: Evaluación de Habilidades Visuales y Verbales para Diseño Mecánico”. Propuesta de tesis doctoral, UNINI-México.

4. Step 4: Links

   This tutorial comes from:

   Humanistic Theories: Carl Rogers

   and continues in:

   Composite Theories: Jacques Hadamard