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Do you have to be right to redescribe
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Goldin-Meadow, Susan Alibali, Martha W. |
| Copyright Year | 1994 |
| Abstract | Karmiloff-Smith's developmental perspective forces us to recognize that there are many levels at which knowledge can be represented. We first offer empirical support for a distinction made on theoretical grounds between two such levels. We then argue that "redescription' onto a new level need not await success (as KarmiloffSmith proposes), and that this modification of the theory has important implications for the role redescription plays in development. One of the many insights in Karmiloff-Smith's book is that development does not stop at behavioral mastery. For example, several years after children s쳮d at balancing a wide variety of oddly shaped blocks on a narrow support, they begin to make errors on the same task. They now ignore the proprioceptive cues used so effectively years earlier and are able to balance only those blocks with weight evenly distributed around their geometric center. Is this developmental progress? Karmiloff-Smith says "yes." She argues that such changes in children's performance reflect the fact that they have begun to redescribe that knowledge. In the process of redescription, particular aspects of the "data" are highlighted (in this case, the geometric center of the block) and incorporated into a theory in action. Phenomena of this sort (and the book contains many compelling examples in a variety of domains) point to a level of representation in which certain aspects of the child's knowledge are explicitly defined. By "explicit" Karmiloff-Smith means that the information is no longer embedded in the special purpose procedures of the earlier period. This is the first step in making knowledge accessible beyond the particular task in which it was developed (level El), the first step in the process called "re- |
| Starting Page | 718 |
| Ending Page | 719 |
| Page Count | 2 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0140525x00036748 |
| Volume Number | 17 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/voices.uchicago.edu/dist/c/1286/files/2019/02/Goldin-Meadow-Alibali-1994-1nmleqf.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
