

Learning Brain and Intelligence,

apprendimento cervello e intelligenza

Gianpaolo Pegoretti

Published by Gian Pegoretti at Smashwords

Copyright 2010 Gianpaolo Pegoretti

ISBN-13: 978-1500121204

ISBN-10: 1500121207

SUMMARY

Introduzione

4 Gianpaolo Pegoretti

Educational Neuroscience: Ripensare l'intelligenza

19 André Lemieux

Post-Formal Thought in Gerontagogy or beyond Piaget

37 Juan José Mouriño Mosquera, Claus Dieter Stobäus, Soraia Napoleão Freitas

Altas habilidades/superdotação: abordagem ao longo da vida

54 Zhongzhi Shi

Foundations of Intelligence Science

72 Andreas Demetriou

Growing for a Theory of the Developing Mind in and around the Ivory Tower

Introduzione

Il volume raccoglie alcuni saggi riguardanti il rapporto tra neuroscienze, scienze cognitive ed educazione. Fin qui niente di nuovo: l'uso dei dati neuroscientifici nell'educazione è ormai una moda da alcuni anni. Il contributo che questo volume intende dare consiste nell'esplorare le relazioni esistenti tra cervello, apprendimento e intelligenza. La nozione di intelligenza è il perno attorno a cui ruotano i diversi contributi. La finalità del volume è quella di offrire degli spunti di ricerca e di pratica educativa, che assumano proprio la capacità intellettiva, nelle sue molteplici forme, come elemento importante sia all'interno delle prassi educative, sia nella psicologia neuro-cognitiva. I singoli contributi sono stati scelti seguendo una logica internazionale: gli autori e le autrici rappresentano uno spettro geografico ampio, che include l'Italia, il Canada, il Brasile, la Cina e la parte greca di Cipro.

Ciascuno dei contributi è stato originariamente scritto in vista di una diversa pubblicazione. In particolare, "Educational Neuroscience" è la rielaborazione di un capitolo del libro "Apprendere l'Intelligenza"; "Post-Formal Thought in Gerontagogy" è stato pubblicato in Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science 2012; "Altas habilidades/superdotação" in Revista Educação Especial 2013; "Foundations of Intelligence Science" è la rielaborazione di un articolo pubblicato in International Journal of Intelligence Science 2011; "Growing for a Theory of the Developing Mind" sarebbe dovuto apparire in "The Making of an Educational Researcher".

Venezia, Giugno 2014

Gian Pegoretti

Educational Neuroscience

Ripensare l'intelligenza

Gianpaolo Pegoretti

Università Ca'Foscari di Venezia

Educazione, Mente e Cervello

Il campo di ricerca emergente su Mente, Cervello ed Educazione (MCE) ha come obiettivi quello di riunire biologia, scienze cognitive e dell'educazione per creare una solida base di ricerca in funzione della scuola e dell'istruzione [Fischer 2009]. Costruire queste fondamenta richiede un nuovo approccio che consenta di collegare la ricerca scientifica con il mondo dell'istruzione; procedendo pertanto attraverso una collaborazione a due vie nella quale insegnanti e ricercatori lavorino insieme per formulare domande significative e per trovare metodi di ricerca efficaci in modo da collegare la teoria pedagogica con la pratica educativa.

Questo campo di ricerca richiede di rinnovare le basi concettuali e formative dei professionisti della docenza. Non è sufficiente per i ricercatori raccogliere dati nelle scuole e rendere tali dati e relativi documenti di ricerca disponibili agli educatori. Questo non è un modo efficiente di creare una conoscenza scientifica che sia utile per modellare l'istruzione. Il modo tradizionale di fare ricerca educativa lascia fuori insegnanti e studenti, tuttavia essi sono potenzialmente collaboratori vitali alla formulazione di metodi di ricerca e rivestono un ruolo chiave nella scelta delle domande della ricerca stessa.

La mentalità transdisciplinare, implicata nelle proposte di MCE, richiede l'ibridamento di varie discipline. Affinché sia possibile una logica transdisciplinare, piuttosto che semplicemente interdisciplinare, è fondamentale lo sviluppo di un linguaggio comune all'interno delle diverse discipline. L'ostacolo è costituito proprio dai diversi significati che vengono attribuiti alle medesime parole nei diversi contesti disciplinari. Così che termini quali "intelligenza" assumono significati eterogenei, e hanno definizioni differenti, a seconda che siano utilizzati da neuroscienziati, da psicologi cognitivi, o da educatori.

Per porre rimedio a questa frammentazione, il presente saggio è dedicato alla costruzione di una definizione globale di "intelligenza", che tenga conto della letteratura scientifica e delle esigenze di tutte e tre le discipline rilevanti.

Ripensare la nozione di intelligenza

Per affidare alle parole di Vygotsky l'incipit di questo paragrafo: "Diventa chiaro come il funzionamento dell'intelligenza dipenda dalla struttura del pensiero. I lavori di Piaget non sono altro che la più esplicita espressione di interesse verso l'aspetto strutturale del pensiero." [1934, p 207]. Pertanto il lavoro di Piaget viene considerato importante da Vygotsky non in quanto assunto come corretto, ma perché si occupa della struttura del pensiero, e cerca di rispondere ad una domanda fondamentale per l'educazione cognitiva: come, attraverso quali operazioni, si organizzano i processi cognitivi. Tuttavia l'approccio di Piaget presenta un limite importante, infatti non rende conto del fatto che individui diversi arrivino a padroneggiare i vari stadi di sviluppo in tempi, e con un livello di efficacia, diversi (1). Visto che, quando ci si occupa di modificabilità cognitiva, si necessita di una teoria della cognizione in grado di rendere conto delle differenze individuali, oppure non si sarà mai in grado di spiegare come la modificazione avvenga, è logico cercare un nuova teoria o modello dell'attività cognitiva.

L'ipotesi, seguita dal filone di ricerca Mind Brain and Education, consiste nel fatto che basandosi sulle neuroscienze sia possibile tracciare un modello, sia pure schematico, in grado di fungere da base esplicativa delle pratiche di modificazione cognitiva. Parlando in generale, dato che nelle società contemporanee i saperi cambiano a velocità senza precedenti, è del tutto legittimo che chi si occupa di educazione e formazione stia cercando un fondamento stabile a livello cognitivo, che consenta alle persone di adattarsi ai nuovi ambienti culturali durante tutta la vita. Infatti è diventato ormai evidente come la semplice trasmissione di sapere non sia più sufficiente quale mezzo atto a rendere le persone capaci di muoversi con efficacia nella società. Un esempio di questo atteggiamento è la competenza learning to learn, del EU framework of key competencies. In sintesi l'obbiettivo educativo fondamentale è quello di migliorare le capacità cognitive in maniera generale. Tuttavia si tende ad evitare di parlare di capacità cognitiva generale, ovvero di intelligenza. Il termine intelligenza è caduto in disuso nel discorso educativo, gli si preferisce "abilità o funzioni cognitive", senza però offrire una chiara definizione delle stesse. È mia ferma opinione che reintrodurre il discorso sull'intelligenza sia necessario se si vuole essere realisti nel raggiungere gli obbiettivi educativi di flessibilità e creatività e continuo aggiornamento. Credo sia utile riabilitare la ricerca educativa sull'intelligenza che, una volta assunta la caratteristica di plasticità, diventa il modo più completo sia di rendere conto delle differenze individuali nello sviluppo e nell'apprendimento, sia di offrire indicazioni per elevare gli standard accademici attraverso i diversi campi, contesti e contenuti.

Il programma di ricerca Mind Brain and Education esige una riformulazione del concetto di intelligenza, in termini coerenti tanto con la concezione di Modificabilità Cognitiva proposta da Feuerstein [2006] quanto con le ricerche neuroscientifiche. In altre parole di riformulare una nozione di intelligenza coerente e globale, ma anche in grado di tenere conto del singolo individuo, del particolare, in modo da poter descrivere cosa avviene durante le modificazioni cognitive e cerebrali generate dall'esperienza, tanto in termini generali, quanto nei singoli casi. Di certo un'idea di intelligenza come qualcosa di fisso, monolitico ed ereditario non è di alcun uso per gli educatori. Al contrario l'immagine che sta emergendo dalle neuroscienze è di una capacità modificabile, generale ma anche molteplice e gerarchicamente organizzata. Dunque, tralasciando le definizioni di intelligenza di matrice psicometrica e piagetiana, che cosa si può affermare riguardo alla natura dell'intelligenza/capacità cognitiva generale?

Adey e Demetriou [2007] indicano la connettività come caratteristica fondamentale dell'intelligenza: connettività, ossia il relazionare informazioni, elementi e idee diverse; gli atti mentali di comparare, estrapolare, stabilire relazioni di causa-effetto, e più in generale di esplicitare qualsiasi relazione tra due cose, sono tutti espressioni di connettività. Questo ha analogie con il pensiero di Feuerstein [2006] e le funzioni cognitive di: orientamento temporale e spaziale, conservazione delle costanti, uso simultaneo di due o più fonti di informazione, capacità di cogliere l'esistenza di un problema, capacità di distinguere i dati rilevanti da quelli non rilevanti, comportamento comparativo spontaneo, ampiezza di campo mentale, bisogno di comportamento sommativo, proiezione di relazioni virtuali, bisogno di prove logiche, comportamento di interiorizzazione, comportamento di pianificazione, percezione attiva e complessa della realtà. In pratica la connettività è implicata in tutte le funzioni cognitive in fase di elaborazione e nelle funzioni cognitive in fase di input che non riflettano atti puramente sensoriali o emotivi. Gli studi sulla Working Memory [Conway et al. 2003], intesa proprio come capacità connettiva delle sinapsi, corroborano l'ipotesi che la connettività sia quella radice fondamentale di tutte le operazioni cognitive. Pertanto se essa è inefficiente, ogni processo cognitivo ne risulta compromesso. Rimane comunque che un unico fattore può giustificare solo una parte della varianza delle prestazioni cognitive di una singola persona in diversi domini. Ritornerò a breve sul discorso delle intelligenze multiple e della mancanza di prove della presunta indipendenza delle varie intelligenze; ad ogni modo, anche ipotizzando un solo fattore di base bisogna ammettere che vi siano diversi processi non dipendenti dalla connettività globale. Riprendendo il linguaggio di Chomsky [1984], chiamo "moduli" questi fattori necessari a spiegare la varianza nell'efficacia cognitiva in diversi domini di sapere, e pertanto indipendenti dalla connettività, ma le cui attività sono integrate dalla connettività stessa. Ovviamente anche il discorso sui moduli va approfondito, ma preferisco saltare in avanti ed esporre qualche ipotesi di modello del funzionamento cognitivo, in modo da dare il quadro generale, per poi tornare ad occuparmi dei particolari.

Un modello, che sia in grado di rispondere agli scopi dell'educazione, di intelligenza nell'adulto, deve rendere conto di: plasticità della capacità cognitiva generale, ossia del fatto che essa sia disponibile ad essere migliorata o peggiorata dall'esperienza; connettività e sue variazioni in diverse circostanze; natura di specifiche skills e loro plasticità; differenze individuali nell'intelligenza.

Le scienze cognitive in realtà hanno già elaborato una serie di modelli che rispondono a simili caratteristiche. Il modello di base, più volte riformulato e ibridato con altri, è l'Information Processing [Baddeley, 1990] che rappresenta la Working Memory come un sistema che implichi un controllo esecutivo centrale responsabile di dirigere le operazioni mentali in modo da processare l'informazione in base agli scopi e che, simultaneamente filtri l'informazione non rilevante. Si tratta di un modello estremamente semplice, che non sa rendere conto né di abilità specializzate, né di come agiscano le funzione esecutive. Tuttavia ha il grande merito di esporre chiaramente come il mantenimento di una serie di memorie a brevissimo termine sia alla base di ogni processo cognitivo. l'Information Processing Model è stato reinterpretato e reintegrato numerose volte, fino ad essere ibridato con gli stadi di sviluppo di Piaget [Adey e Demetriou, 2007], nel tentativo di rendere conto dello strutturarsi dell'intelligenza durante lo sviluppo.

Esiste, tuttavia, una difficoltà nell'integrare gli studi psicometrici sull'intelligenza con le ricerche neuroscientifiche. Infatti, anche se la comprensione delle possibili cause delle differenze individuali di intelligenza è cruciale per l'educazione cognitiva, tale comprensione è stata ritardata dalle contraddizioni tra gli studi psicometrici, che hanno sempre visto la capacità cognitiva generale come qualcosa di ereditario e stabile, e le scoperte delle neuroscienze, che hanno dimostrato come il cervello sia plastico e dunque si adatti all'ambiente modificando anche le abilità intellettive. Il fatto che il cervello si adatti reagendo alle spinte ambientali con la modificazione delle connessioni neurali sembra contraddire i risultati di una elevata ereditarietà dell'intelligenza generale. Inoltre, se le diverse abilità cognitive fossero i correlati neurali di diversi sostrati neurali, non dovrebbe esserci alcuna correlazione tra le diverse performance cognitive, ancora una volta contraddicendo tutti gli studi che hanno confermato l'esistenza di un fattore g. Infine, e soprattutto, guardando solamente ai risultati delle neuroscienze, si potrebbe concludere che l'intelligenza sia interamente determinata dalle esperienze di vita, e anche questo è in contraddizione con le ricerche sulla genetica dell'intelligenza. A causa delle ovvie difficoltà nel conciliare dei risultati così diversi, non stupisce che le neuroscienze e la psicometria non abbiano comunicato adeguatamente tra loro.

In realtà le scoperte provenienti dagli studi sull'intelligenza e dalle ricerche sul cervello possono venire integrate se si accetta che ci sono delle differenze individuali nei processi attraverso cui il cervello si adatta all'ambiente, così che il cervello di alcune persone sia più efficiente nell'adattarsi rispetto al cervello di altre. In sintesi, alcuni cervelli presentano maggiore facilità di adattarsi, e questa caratteristica avrebbe base genetica. Questo è coerente tanto con la plasticità neurale quanto con la psicometria classica. Quindi le differenze individuali nella capacità cognitiva sono riconducibili a differenze, con base genetica, nei processi di adattamento, mentre è proprio l'adattamento ad incidere sulle singole performance cognitive. Il quadro in questo modo non è tuttavia ancora completo, infatti non esistono dati che permettano di ipotizzare un diverso livello di plasticità neurale nelle varie aree cerebrali correlate con le varie abilità o conoscenze; e sembra altrettanto illegittimo giustificare la molteplicità di intelligenze riconducendola esclusivamente a cause ambientali. In altre parole non sembra plausibile che le molteplici intelligenze e abilità cognitive siano esclusivamente il risultato di diversi percorsi di vita. Al contrario: come vi sono delle differenze innate nel fattore generale della connettività, è probabile che ve ne siano anche riguardo gli aspetti specifici, di abilità legate ad un contenuto. Ovviamente le diverse esperienze incidono pesantemente sulle differenze innate nei vari moduli cognitivi (2). Pertanto, quanto sostenuto fin qui conduce a due problemi: da un lato definire come sia possibile una migliore capacità di adattamento, e dall'altro spiegare la molteplicità delle capacità cognitive.

Cominciando dalla molteplicità, è impossibile non confrontarsi con la teoria delle Intelligenze Multiple di Gardner [1983]. In proposito trovo molto interessante una ricerca condotta da Visser [2006]: Visser e colleghi hanno analizzato le otto intelligenze proposte da Gardner, mettendone alla prova l'indipendenza l'una dall'altra. Per far questo reclutarono 200 adulti in alcuni campus universitari valutandoli in un primo momento con il Wonderlic Personnel Test, come misura di intelligenza generale, ed in seguito sottoponendoli a due prove per ciascuna delle otto intelligenze: per il dominio linguistico sono stati adoperati test di vocabolario e di comprensione del testo; per quello spaziale test di pianificazione di mappe e di rotazione mentale di immagini; per l'intelligenza logico/matematica sono state usate prove di rapidità e accuratezza di calcolo e prove di ragionamento aritmetico, ossia era richiesto di individuare quale operazione si dovesse eseguire per risolvere un quesito; per l'intelligenza interpersonale hanno utilizzato un test di Cartoon Predictions volto a valutare la capacità di predire reazioni, e un test atto a evidenziare la capacità di cogliere le motivazioni personali; invece per il dominio intrapersonale è stato adoperato un questionario di autovalutazione della personalità, e un test analogo di valutazione esterna, così da confrontarne i risultati per valutare il grado di collimazione; l'intelligenza naturalistica è stata misurata attraverso una prova di categorizzazione di oggetti, richiedente di formare gruppi secondo criteri dati, e una di comprensione delle relazioni tra categorie, da esprimersi sotto forma di diagrammi; il dominio corporeo/cinestetico è stato valutato con un test di equilibrio, considerato un buon indicatore della coordinazione generale, e un test di destrezza manuale, consistente nel copiare delle linee rapidamente e correttamente; infine l'intelligenza musicale è stata misurata con delle prove di riconoscimento di eventuali differenze in brani musicali appena ascoltati, sia per quanto riguarda la scala tonale sia quella ritmica. Al termine di questo notevole sforzo di valutazione, il gruppo di Visser ha condotto un'analisi fattoriale, trovando il fattore g e misurando quanto ciascuna intelligenza vi fosse associata. I risultati confermano la classica visione psicometrica sull'intelligenza: i domini cognitivi sono tutti altamente associati ad un fattore generale. In altre parole, l'intelligenza logico/matematica e naturalistica mostrano di essere altamente g-loaded, oltre r0.70 secondo Visser, le intelligenze linguistica, spaziale e interpersonale mostrano un'associazione con g compresa tra 0.40 e 0.60, mentre le intelligenze musicale, corporeo/cinestetica e intrapersonale mostrano un g-loading inferiore a 0.20. Parallelamente i domini tipicamente cognitivi (logico/matematico, linguistico e visuo-spaziale) mostrano anche un'elevata correlazione con il test di intelligenza generale. Visser e colleghi concludono che questi risultati sono difficili da riconciliare con la teoria delle Intelligenze Multiple. In pratica, la proposta di Gardner non avrebbe basi, tuttavia risulta popolare in quanto offre agli educatori uno strumento educativo, indicando vari ambiti in cui un allievo possa essere intelligente, e coltivare queste sue doti.

Ho citato questo studio perché è ben fatto, ma trovo che l'interpretazione di Visser e colleghi manchi di cogliere un punto importante: se da un lato si riscontra un fattore generale nei risultati delle prove di abilità intellettive diverse, dall'altro tale fattore non è mai in grado di giustificare l'intera varianza. Proprio questo gioco di generale/particolare è il quid di cui non si tiene dovutamente conto: non esistono intelligenze completamente indipendenti dalle altre, ma nemmeno un'unica abilità in grado di spiegare tutto. Quindi le capacità cognitive si presentano come un sistema integrato, composto da parti segregate le cui attività sono costantemente portate assieme. Con questo in mente è plausibile parlare sia di aspetto generale dell'intelligenza, che è quello connettivo che permette l'integrazione cognitiva, sia di abilità intellettive a se stanti, che hanno l'aspetto della modularità. Tuttavia il modulo non va inteso come "scatola" o "circuito chiuso", al contrario si tratta di un circuito aperto, in grado di relazionarsi con altri circuiti aperti attraverso processi di formazione di mappe neurali e di neuronal recycling [Dehaene 2009]. Presto toccherò di nuovo l'argomento dei moduli, ma prima dico qualcosa sulla capacità di adattamento del cervello.

L'idea che essere intelligenti corrisponda ad essere adattabili attraverso l'apprendimento è perfettamente coerente con le proposte di Feuerstein [2006]. Si tratta di una prospettiva già parzialmente esplorata da Dennis Garlick [2002]. Garlick nota come il livello di sviluppo intellettivo di una persona sia in funzione dell'abilità del cervello di adattarsi all'ambiente: individui dotati di maggiore plasticità neurale avranno capacità cognitive maggiormente sviluppate; al contrario, individui dotati di scarsa plasticità saranno meno in grado di formare nuovi circuiti neurali in risposta alle sollecitazioni ambientali. Garlick indica la plasticità e le sue differenze individuali come marker fisiologico dell'efficacia della capacità di adattamento, tuttavia egli manca di una prospettiva in termini funzionali (3), ovvero non considera come sorgano e come si declinino le differenze individuali in seguito all'esperienza. Concordo con Garlick nel sostenere che la plasticità cerebrale sia una condizione indispensabile per tutti i fenomeni cognitivi, e pertanto una condizione dell'intelligenza. A questo aggiungo una distinzione: la semplice quantità di plasticità non è elemento sufficiente. Se la quantità di plasticità fosse il solo fattore, allora le capacità intellettive dovrebbero essere inversamente correlate all'età. Ne seguirebbe che un adulto non potrebbe mai essere intelligente quanto un bambino. Infatti il cervello di una persona in via di sviluppo è più plastico di quello di un adulto. Ovviamente Garlick sostiene che l'intelligenza si palesa dopo l'esperienza, ossia dopo che il cervello si sia adattato ad un ambiente. Ma questa visione non deve essere intesa nel senso che, una volta adulti, le capacità cognitive non siano ulteriormente modificabili. Si ricordi infatti che il cervello di un adulto mantiene una notevole plasticità [Binder, Hirokawa 2009]. Bisogna dunque analizzare il fenomeno: cosa significa, per un cervello, essere plastico? Significa avere la capacità di creare nuove connessioni tra neuroni e gruppi di neuroni, potenziando e deprimendo sinapsi. Pertanto il punto non è tanto la quantità di modificazione a cui un cervello può arrivare, quanto l'efficacia di tale plasticità, ossia la capacità di creare connessioni in maniera da rispondere adeguatamente alle stimolazioni ambientali. Tale capacità dipende non solo dalla quantità (4), ma soprattutto dalle qualità delle connessioni sinaptiche: più le sinapsi sono in grado di mantenere un'elevata attività elettrica per un tempo prolungato, più si innescano i meccanismi di potenziamento-depressione all'interno del cervello. Parallelamente, più le sinapsi sono in grado di mantenere un'elevata attività elettrica per un tempo prolungato, migliore sarà la capacità della Working Memory, e quindi migliore sarà la performance cognitiva. Infatti la Working Memory è espressione dell'efficacia sinaptica nello scambiarsi segnali: il correlato neurale della Working Memory Capacity è l'abilità delle sinapsi di mantenere lo scambio di segnali. Dunque maggiore è la connettività neurale, più efficiente è la plasticità cerebrale. La proprietà fisiologica che consente i processi cognitivi è la medesima che conduce agli adattamenti cerebrali. Questa proprietà si palesa a livello sinaptico, come efficienza nel connettere gruppi di neuroni. Un cervello dotato di elevata connettività porterà su di se le tracce della propria attività, in forma di modificazioni che hanno elevata probabilità di risultare adattive. In ultima analisi la plasticità cerebrale agisce in funzione della connettività neurale.

Riprendendo quanto detto sin qui e portando avanti la riflessione, è dunque possibile sostenere che: nelle tipiche batterie di test, consistenti in dieci o quindici compiti cognitivi diversi che coinvolgono un ampio spettro di contenuti, un fattore g giustifica sempre almeno un 40% della varianza totale; che ogni singolo test cognitivo mostra una notevole varianza specifica, in genere compresa tra il 20% e il 50% della varianza totale; infine che i test simili nel contenuto siano maggiormente correlati rispetto a test dotati di contenuti diversi [Deary, Penke, Johnson 2010]. Pertanto si palesa sia un aspetto intellettivo generale, sia delle aree di relativa forza o debolezza. Tutto questo ha condotto a ritenere che l'intelligenza non risieda in una singola area del cervello, piuttosto la struttura alla base delle capacità cognitive viene correttamente descritta come una small-world network (5). Questo implica da un lato l'importanza delle fibre di materia bianca, ossia gli assoni e i loro rivestimenti, che portano i potenziali elettrici da un loco ad un altro nel sistema nervoso, senza questa attività assonale la connettività cerebrale sarebbe di gran lunga inferiore. Dall'altro suggerisce che individui diversi possano raggiungere i medesimi risultati durante una performance cognitiva, ma utilizzando diversi percorsi neurali, confermando così la proprietà biologica dei tessuti nervosi di essere degenerati, come notato da Edelman [1987]. La concezione secondo cui i correlati neurali dell'intelligenza siano un network di aree cerebrali è sostenuta da studi effettuati con il metodo della lesione [Gläscher et al. 2010]. Gläscher e colleghi si sono domandati se l'intelligenza generale rifletta la performance combinata di diverse aree cerebrali coinvolte in compiti cognitivi, oppure se abbia come base un sistema specializzato che connetta tali aree. Per trovare una risposta hanno condotto uno studio di neuroimmagine su 241 pazienti con lesioni al cervello: ciascuno dei pazienti è stato valutato con il Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, e i risultati del test sono stati comparati con la natura delle aree lesionate. Sono state riscontrate associazioni statisticamente significative tra un fattore g e un network circoscritto ma distribuito nella corteccia frontale e parietale, che include fasci associativi di materia bianca. Questi risultati suggeriscono che l'intelligenza generale abbia come base le connessioni tra regioni cerebrali che integrano, attraverso processi di Working Memory, le funzioni verbali e visuospaziali. In altre parole che l'intelligenza generale abbia come correlato neurale l'efficienza della comunicazione interregionale cerebrale; il particolare riferimento alle aree verbali e visuospaziali può derivare dal tipo di test intellettivo utilizzato, che si focalizza proprio su tali aspetti dei processi cognitivi.

Questi studi corroborano la _Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory_ (P-FIT), teoria che sta diventando sempre più popolare tra i neuroscienziati, secondo la quale l'intelligenza fluida dipende dalla capacità di ciascun cervello di connettere nel modo più efficacie, ossia ampio e rapido e senza errori, un numero di aree cerebrali diverse. La P-FIT è stata proposta da Jung e Haier [2007] i quali, dopo aver revisionato 37 studi di neuroimmagine, sia dal punto di vista strutturale che funzionale, hanno notato che l'intelligenza e la capacità di ragionamento sono predette, a livello cerebrale, da variazioni in un network distribuito. Jung e Haier hanno concluso che le tecniche di neuroimmagine possano indagare la biologia dell'intelligenza, e quindi hanno proposto la P-FIT quale spiegazione parsimoniosa di numerose osservazioni empiriche che mettono in relazione differenze individuali nei punteggi dei test intellettivi con variazioni nelle strutture e nelle funzioni cerebrali. Il modello della P-FIT delucida l'interazione critica tra le associazioni corticali all'interno delle aree parietali e frontali, le quali, quando sono efficacemente connesse da strutture di materia bianca, fungono da basi neurali della capacità di ragionamento negli esseri umani e delle relative differenze individuali. Inoltre le aree cerebrali coinvolte dalla P-FIT si sovrappongono a quelle coinvolte nei processi di _Working Memory_ e relativa funzione dell'attenzione interna. Ne emerge che dal punto di vista fisiologico vi sono diversi marker biologici dell'intelligenza: fattori di plasticità e massa, di capacità sinaptica e rapidità assonale nel passaggio dei segnali, sono condizioni per la formazione della struttura cognitiva che determina il potenziale intellettivo e, in seguito all'esperienza, anche il livello attuale di intelligenza, ovvero sia il livello di adattamento nei vari campi sia la capacità di variare tale livello. Tuttavia va sottolineato che le neuroscienze possono solamente trovare i correlati neurali delle performance cognitive, pertanto trattare i risultati qui esposti a stregua di spiegazioni causali sarebbe fuorviante (6).

Da questo confronto tra ricerche provenienti dalle scienze cognitive e dalle neuroscienze emerge un modello della struttura funzionale delle capacità cognitive. Tale modello indica alcune proprietà del cervello quali correlati neurali delle funzioni intellettive.

Il modello è schematizzabile nei seguenti punti:

  1. Proprietà condizionale: plasticità

La plasticità è la proprietà biologica che offre le condizioni affinché i processi cognitivi possano esistere. Senza plasticità non vi sarebbe alcuna forma di memoria né di cambiamento a livello mentale e di comportamento. Inoltre il potenziale educativo è direttamente proporzionale alla plasticità, così che nelle prime fasi della vita, quando il cervello inizia a formare sinapsi, si è in grado di apprendere moltissimo. Il cervello umano, durante le fasi adulte della vita, continua ad essere capace di potenziamento e depressione di sinapsi, pertanto rimane caratterizzato da una tipo di plasticità meno radicale, ma che consente di riciclare i circuiti neurali esistenti. Questo permette di sfruttare gli adattamenti cerebrali precedentemente sviluppati, così da formare nuovi adattamenti in maniera più rapida, anche se meno precisa, rispetto agli adattamenti formati durante le fasi di sviluppo.

  2. Proprietà generale: connettività

La plasticità agisce attraverso la connettività. I singoli neuroni si connettono in circuiti formando sinapsi, in seguito i diversi circuiti si collegano tra loro potenziando e deprimendo le sinapsi. In tal modo il cervello costruisce delle mappe neurali che sono i correlati di tutta l'attività mentale e del comportamento. L'apprendimento adulto è espressione di cambiamenti nella forza connettiva tra gruppi di neuroni. La connettività è soggetta a differenze individuali. Essa è caratterizzata da tre proprietà: la rapidità di trasmissione dei segnali da neurone a neurone, che dipende principalmente dalla mielinizzazione degli assoni, la durata di attivazione continua della sinapsi, che dipende dalle riserve chimiche dei neuroni e della loro membrana, e la quantità di elementi che possono essere contemporaneamente mantenuti operativi nella mente, che emerge dall'interazione tra le precedenti due proprietà a livello delle aree prefrontali e fronto-parietali. L'ultima proprietà corrisponde alla Capacità della _Working Memory_ , ed è altamente correlata alle capacità di ragionamento e problem solving. La connettività può essere migliorata a livello globale sia allenandola con compiti intellettivamente impegnativi, sia attraverso l'aumento dell'interesse e della motivazione, sia a livello metacognitivo attraverso l'attenzione esecutiva, ossia tenendo operativi in mente un numero di elementi sufficientemente limitato da poter essere gestito con efficienza ed escludendo ogni altro elemento. Grazie a tali metodi la connettività globale può essere migliorata, tuttavia in misura limitata. Nessuno studio svolto con un numero di soggetti elevato, 100 o più, ha mai messo in luce un miglioramento che fosse superiore ad una deviazione standard rispetto alla media della popolazione di riferimento.

  3. Proprietà specifiche: formazione di circuiti e mappe neurali

Mentre a livello globale la connettività può essere modificata in misura limitata, a livello locale le sinapsi possono essere potenziate in maniera molto elevata e a lungo termine. Questo fenomeno consente la formazione di gruppi di neuroni collegati tra loro in maniera altamente privilegiata. Tali gruppi sono definiti circuiti neurali. Alcuni di essi si sviluppano principalmente per via di istruzioni genetiche, altri principalmente in seguito all'esperienza. Questi circuiti sono i correlati neurali di precise funzioni cognitive. Sono inoltre la sede di deficit cognitivi particolari, come ad esempio discalculia o dislessia. Essi sono i correlati neurali di quello che le scienze cognitive chiamano "moduli". Va sottolineato che non si tratta di "scatole chiuse", al contrario sono circuiti aperti, in costante comunicazione tra loro. Questa loro caratteristica li rende segregati-integrati, ossia si tratta di gruppi di neuroni funzionalmente circoscritti, ma che si attivano sempre in concertazione con altri. Essi costituiscono gli aspetti particolari dei diversi tipi di intelligenza: il concetto di intelligenze multiple si riferisce proprio al peculiare mosaico di funzioni cognitive, variamente sviluppate e che si aggregano in diversi modi, che danno origine a profili cognitivi assai specifici anche in persone dotate di simili livelli di connettività generale e di plasticità. Infatti i diversi circuiti neurali, le cui funzioni possono essere più o meno sviluppate, si dispongono in mappe neurali in seguito all'esperienza e attraverso l'aumento di forza sinaptica, e quindi di connettività locale. Le mappe neurali, correlato di skills e disposizioni, sono formate in vari modi, secondo tante combinazioni, e si compenetrano, sovrapponendosi. Di qui l'aspetto proteiforme dell'intelligenza: a livello cerebrale esistono potenzialmente diversi percorsi che producono capacità cognitive funzionalmente analoghe, oppure che conducono a strategie di adattamento alternative. I confini tra mappe neurali non sono netti, e le mappe stesse sono soggette a continue trasformazioni durante tutta la vita. Considerato tutto questo, risulta fuorviante creare un elenco preciso di intelligenze o di funzioni cognitive, infatti ogni persona esibisce ad ogni dato momento un profilo intellettivo, culturale ed emotivo unico.

L'aspetto importante di questo modello sta nell'interfaccia tra connettività generale e suoi aspetti locali: quando l'aspetto locale è molto forte le funzioni cognitive ad esso legate sono altamente efficienti, tanto da svolgere le loro operazioni in maniera automatica, mentre l'attenzione interna correlata alla connettività a livello prefrontale e fronto-parietale resta disponibile allo svolgimento di ulteriori compiti cognitivi e di monitoraggio. Questa elevata efficienza a livello di mappe neurali è possibile grazie all'esperienza, ossia dipende dai correlati neurali dell'expertise. Al contrario, quando gli aspetti locali sono carenti, tutta l'attivazione sinaptica è a carico della connettività generale, andando a saturare la capacità della _Working Memory_ , che è limitata. Nel caso di soggetti dotati di buona connettività generale, le mappe neurali vengono rapidamente ed efficientemente rafforzate per rispondere alle sfide cognitive. In soggetti dotati di minore capacità generale il percorso è più lungo e costellato da un maggior numero di errori. Una volta raggiunto grazie all'esperienza, con l'aiuto o meno di una predisposizione genetica, un buon adattamento a livello locale, anche persone che non eccellono in termini di capacità generale possono disporre di alcune abilità intellettive circoscritte assai sviluppate.

Conclusioni:

Il modello di intelligenza descritto in sintesi in questo lavoro rimarrà soltanto un gioco concettuale, a meno che non venga utilizzato da una comunità di Insegnanti-Ricercatori. Non posso fare a meno di sottolineare come le pagine che ho scritto siano attraversate da alcune tensioni: l'uso del concetto di intelligenza è diventato problematico in educazione, il tema della molteplicità delle abilità è invece mal ricevuto dalla psicometria, le neuroscienze offrono risposte che richiedono di essere conciliate con i dati della genetica del comportamento. Queste tensioni sono il risultato di una cattiva comunicazione tra le diverse discipline. Il problema è capire come i dati neuroscientifici possano essere integrati nelle teorie educative.

Sono stati indicati 4 modi principali [Willingham, Lloyd 2007]: l'osservazione diretta delle rappresentazioni cerebrali; la topicalizzazione cerebrale dei costrutti cognitivi; l'individuazione dei rapporti gerarchici tra funzioni cognitive; la riformulazione delle teorie su apprendimento e cognizione a partire dai dati neurali.

Tutte queste tecniche sono volte ad ampliare gli strumenti epistemologici delle scienze dell'educazione, e sono focalizzati su come il singolo cervello si sviluppa e modifica in seguito all'esperienza. In conclusione, qualsiasi sia il livello scientifico che abbiamo raggiunto, fintanto che le neuroscienze restano in laboratorio e le scienze dell'educazione restano nella classe, si capirà poco di come il cervello apprende e ragiona nell'hic et nunc.

Note

  1. Shayer [2003] ha condotto uno studio su scolari di età dai 10 ai 16 anni, concludendo che, anche tenendo come valido il modello di sviluppo piagetiano, lo stadio di sviluppo mentale raggiunto da studenti della medesima età anagrafica risulta estremamente variabile.

  2. In effetti gli aspetti modulari dell'intelligenza sono maggiormente soggetti agli effetti della plasticità neurale indotta dall'esperienza, rispetto a quanto lo sia la connettività sinaptica globale.

  3. Funzionale è qui inteso riferendosi al ruolo biologico che le differenze a livello di plasticità svolgono in relazione all'adattamento.

  4. Si è stabilito che il cervello umano sia abbondantemente plastico. La ridondanza è una delle sue caratteristiche: la morte neuronale è un fenomeno del tutto funzionale proprio per via della grande abbondanza di connessioni. Nel caso questa risorsa biologica di plasticità venga meno, ad esempio a causa di lesioni o di età molto avanzata, allora l'aspetto quantitativo diventa assai rilevante ai fini della capacità di adattamento.

  5. La small-world network è un tipo di grafo matematico dove la maggior parte dei nodi non sono vicini l'uno all'altro, ma la maggior parte dei nodi possono essere raggiunti a partire da qualsiasi altro nodo attraverso un numero molto basso di passaggi. L'attività neurale che funge da correlato neurale della WM presenta le caratteristiche di una small-world network tra neuroni.

  6. Tanto che le differenze cerebrali alla base delle differenze individuali di performance cognitiva sono soggette alla plasticità neurale: cambiano in seguito all'esperienza.

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Post-Formal Thought in Gerontagogy

or beyond Piaget

André Lemieux

Department of Education and Pedagogy,

University of Quebec at Montreal

Jean Piaget, one of the most influential theorists in developmental psychology, assumed that formal thought, character-ized by the development of an individual's logical capacities, was the last stage of adult thinking. In this article, we re-view how the brain evolved, describing its main structures, and examining each cerebral hemisphere's specific func-tions. Evidence is also provided for the production of new neurons and new connections between them, forcing a revi-sion of old theories about the decline of intellectual functions in the elderly. We then consider Jones' theories X and Y, and the different definitions of intelligence (fluid vs. crystallized, and qualitative vs. quantitative), and how these per- spectives have influenced the way we see intelligence. Evidence supporting the addition of another stage, named post- formal thought, is examined in the context of gerontagogy. Dialectical thought characterizes this stage, and developing wisdom is its main goal. We examine the two basic principles of dialectical thought, namely the principle of contradic-tion and the principle of relativity of everything. It is suggested that the learning of wisdom should be the focus of fu-ture university programs to educate the elderly.

1. Introduction

Piaget sees in the associative tradition an overly exclu-sive mechanistic nature and in the Gestalt tradition, an overly exclusive nativist aspect. He tries to explain how knowledge accumulates through a fresh questioning of existing relationships between biological structures and cognitive structures; he thus finds himself halfway be-tween these two poles. His research is deemed epidemi-ological because it critically analyzes fundamental proc-esses in knowledge acquisition. It is also deemed genetic because it attempts to demonstrate the progressive de-velopment of intelligence through descriptions of the ways in which cognitive structures emerge [1].

Jean Piaget's genetic epistemology is still one of the predominant theories in contemporary psychology. Yet, we must ask ourselves whether intellectual development ends with the development of an individual's logical ab-ilities. From this perspective, according to Cohen, we can "hope to elaborate an exhaustive theory on psychological evolution (as) ... still according to him, theories that em-phasize learning hold little interest" [2].

"If Piaget's assertion that formal thought constitutes the crowning achievement of human ontogeny is accepted ... a pessimistic view of adulthood becomes a logical neces-sity" [3]. "Neuroscientists have clearly shown that... Brain scans of adolescents show they are far from ma-turity and that they experience major structural changes well beyond puberty" [4]. Yet, in our paper, we will see that our brain is triune and, contrary to popular belief, does not lose its flexibility with age. It is capable of learning throughout the life-span. However, with theories X and Y, Jones shows how we came to believe in the decline of intelligence. Then, we discuss the theory of quantitative and qualitative intelligence. We define qua- litative intelligence and examine styles of fluid and crys-tallized thinking. Last, we consider post-formal thinking, which allows intellectual thought to continue developing in old age, even beyond formal thinking.

In conclusion, we will see that the development of learning in the elderly person is not only possible but also essential and beneficial to maintain efficient cogni-tive functions throughout the life-span. "At the age when strength decreases, we cease to train people despite their desire to continue to take care of themselves ... Educa-tion that ceases at a certain age fails in its fundamental goals" [5].

2. Evolutionary Perspective of the Brain

Many elders withdraw from society because they are left with isolation as the only possibility. However, in the future, society will allow seniors to develop a "joie de vivre" and a sense of accomplishment. This will become possible to the extent that society acknowledges that the elderly person is not inevitably headed towards senility but is rather as capable of intellectual activity as other members of society.

Already in 1991, MacLean observed that:

"Some pundits would claim that in the past, when there was a relatively short life expectancy, we were vic-timized by young people who believed they had to do or die before the age of forty or fifty. Hence, with current life expectancy, if aging might bring the learning experi-ence and wisdom for more meaningful survival of hu-manity and the rest of earthly life, there would exist an urgent need to proceed with all haste to learn how the brain could better protect itself and cleanse itself of inju-rious substances. Such knowledge might prove to be a crucial next step in evolution [6]".

Nonetheless, for more than a century, psychology has given little or no consideration to the evolutionary per-spective on brain development. Yet, psychology has bi-ology as a substratum and it is based on evolutionary theory. Consequently, psychology is said to consider the evolution of the human mind as the adaptive phenome-non of problem solving for problems encountered by the first human beings. Psychology uses this concept of the "Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness (EAA)" [7] in an effort to explain the evolution of the general me-chanisms behind human intelligence and learning. Mac-Lean is the most original of the advocates of this evolu-tionary psychology which questions the standard social science model of the nature of the mind.

2.1. The Triune Brain

Paul MacLean [8] suggests one of the most fascinating tools for understanding the brain. He alleges that the shape of the brain can only be understood through the human evolutionary theory that brought it to life. He presents the most holistic way to conceive of the brain structure in relation to its historical evolution in describ-ing the brain as "triune", comprised of three distinct brains corresponding to three evolutionary phases that the human race has undergone throughout its history, notably.

2.1.1. A "Reptilian" Brain

A "reptilian" brain (developed two hundred million years ago), the most ancient, which ensures the organism's vital functions by controlling the heart rate, breathing, body temperature, balance, etc. It includes the brainstem and the cerebellum, the essential components of a rep-tile's brain. It is reliable but it tends to be rather rigid and compulsive. We thus find in this neuro-vegetative center the primary functions, as well as the instinctual Freudian id in its entirety.

2.1.2. A "Limbic" Brain

A "limbic" brain (developed one hundred million years ago) that appeared with the first mammals, capable of remembering pleasant or unpleasant behaviours, which in turn is responsible for what we call emotions. It is pri-marily comprised of the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the hypothalamus. It is the seat of our often unconscious value judgments, which exert an important influence on our behaviour. In this brain, we find an acquired superior instructive-emotional set, the adaptor and modulator of the reptilian brain's instinct. This would be where the Freudian ego lies.

2.1.3. A "Neocortex"

A "neocortex" (developed half a million years ago), which gained importance in primates and culminated in humans with two large cerebral hemispheres, which have become increasingly critical. It is because of these hemispheres that language, abstract thought, imagination, and con-science were able to develop. The neocortex is flexible and has quasi-infinite learning capacities. It is also be-cause of the neocortex that humans conceptualize culture. This layer developed in the hominid branch from which human beings appeared. The neocortex plays a very im-portant role in humans' reflective intellectual and emo-tional activities. It is in this part of the brain that we could locate, if necessary, the Freudian superego. This neocortex is the part of the brain whose functioning neu-rosurgeons understand the best, as it is the easiest part of the brain's anatomy to access, both surgically and ex-perimentally.

Yet, these three brain structures do not function inde-pendently and they have created numerous connections through which they can influence each other. For exam-ple, the nervous pathways from the limbic system to the cortex are particularly developed. The cerebral struc-tures' co-evolution in mammals is worth exploring.

2.2. The Neocortex's Two Hemispheres

From a histological perspective, the human brain is com-prised of two hemispheres. One of the main characteris-tics of these two hemispheres is their antagonism. Each is specialized in its own thinking style and has faculties that are peculiar to it. "Today, we have tremendous evidence attesting that the human brain has become specialized and that each of this organ's two halves is responsible for a thinking style that is quite distinct [9]."

2.2.1. The Left Hemisphere

The left hemisphere of the brain is associated with logic, language, and analytical thinking. It excels when it comes to naming and categorizing things, as well as in everything regarding symbolic abstraction, speech, read-ing, writing, and arithmetic. The thinking style is linear; everything is placed sequentially following a given order. This thinking style is typically developed through educa-tion, with an emphasis on literature and mathematics. The left hemisphere controls the right part of the body. "Many experiments on normal subjects would also sug-gest that the left hemisphere is the main agent for every-thing concerning language development [10]."

2.2.2. The Right Hemisphere

As for the right hemisphere, it functions in an integrative manner and excels at everything that is visual, spatial, perceptual and intuitive. The thinking style is non-linear and non-sequential, and processing is very fast. The right hemisphere analyzes things comprehensively and deter-mines the spatial relations between diverse parts of a whole very quickly. This part of the brain does not deal with sorting things into diverse categories pre-established by laws. On the contrary, it seems to indulge in complex-ity, ambiguity, and paradoxes. As such, it is difficult to describe this thinking style due to its complexity, its rapid processing of information and its non-verbal nature. The right hemisphere of the brain is associated with crea-tivity.

"Some researchers believe the primary and secondary thinking processes belong to different brain hemispheres, that is that the right hemisphere is responsible for pri-mary creative thought, whereas the left hemisphere con-trols logical secondary reasoning [11]."

The hemispheres are interconnected by nervous cells called neurons, which form an extremely complex net-work. At birth, the brain has billions of neurons that have developed at a rate of 250,000 every second during the embryonic stage of the human fetus. However, beginning at age 25, the number of neurons decreases considerably, at the rate of 100,000 every day. Not so long ago, it was believed that neurons did not multiply and disappeared forever despite the fact that R. Santiago y Cajal [12] had already demonstrated that glial cells had the capacity to reproduce through mitosis alone. Yet, recent research on neural plasticity [13] and the findings of Professor Lledo's team at the Pasteur Institute and at the CRNS in Paris [14] unequivocally conclude that neurons in the human brain can multiply.

Better still, the production of new neurons shows the human brain's capacity for self-repair. Yet, even in old age, new neurons emerge in certain brain areas. Using these newly formed neurons, it might be possible to dis-cover new approaches to treating neurodegenerative dis-eases such as Parkinson's disease.

Yet, one of the main factors preventing the develop-ment of educational programs in gerontagogy is the be-lief that the elderly are unable to acquire significant learning because of their neurons' considerable decline. Science refutes this myth and forces us to rethink theo-ries on intellectual ageing.

3. Intelligence and Brain

3.1. Jones' Theories X and Y

Sidney Jones [15] was one of the first researchers to challenge the belief that the elderly are unable to learn following the decline of their intellectual capacities. He analyzed different perspectives on the physical degenera-tion of the brain in ageing in an article published by the Beth Johnson Foundation Publications of Great Britain, following a Keele University conference on the liberation of the elderly which brought together leading British re- searchers.

3.1.1. Theory X

This theory presents one of the most pessimistic degen-erative views of intellectual capacities and their effects on learning for the elderly.

"According to received wisdom the physiological sub-strates of these psychological phenomena are principally: the progressive loss of brain cells throughout our lives, a loss which is irreplaceable; and the degeneration of the cells which are retained. This commonly conceived syn-drome of creeping and irreversible decline in intellectual capacity, a decline based on physiological loss and de-generation might be termed theory X [15]."

From this perspective, an individual's ageing brings a decrease in all physical and psychological capacities. Theory X gives us a pessimistic and purportedly defini-tive view of ageing. This theory shows that in the first years of life, there is a growth of our physical and intel-lectual capacities, followed in the last years by the de-cline of those same capacities. It is inexorable.

This fatalistic theory has a pernicious effect on indi-viduals and society. Indeed, expectations of the elderly's capacities are not very high. This theory leads to seniors' loss of motivation to change and to their acceptance of their decrepitude as inevitable. Accepting this theory is so pernicious and harmful that Jones presents theory Y to balance theory X.

3.1.2. Theory Y

According to Jones, theory X should be called into ques-tion and we should find a theory better adapted to the reality of ageing. This theory, which he calls theory Y, claims that the loss of brain cells is not as significant as suggested by theory X, so that intellectual functions re-main roughly stable until old age. However, he points out that researchers do not all agree on the question of cell loss.

"Rose (1971) asserts that by the age of seventy years we will have lost 2(1/2)% of the total. This is very slight in comparison with estimates of loss made by others, notably Woodburne (1976) who believes that nearly a quarter of the neurons have been lost in the same pe- riod [15]."

When we consider that at birth, a human being has 10 to 12 billion cells with the capacity to establish over 10,000 synaptic connections with each of its neighbors and then, when we take into account the fact that we use only 15% of our brain capacity, we have to realize that theory X must be put into perspective and applied with great caution.

Similarly, Schwartz [16] claims that Lashley's hy-pothesis, according to which there exist an impressive number of neurons in the cerebral cortex, allows us to question theory X. With these two arguments, Jones con-cludes:

"The probability that the learning function involves the whole brain, and the fact that we appear to have large reserves of cortical capacity capable of sustaining large losses of neurons, are factors which taken together cre-ate serious questions for theory X [15]."

Jones states that two additional arguments strengthen theory Y. The first is related to society's negative atti-tudes towards the elderly person and the second to the elderly's lack of intellectual exercise. The first hypothe-sis assumes that social stereotypes have an influence on motivation, self-concept, the environment, education, and even some intellectual operations such as the sorting of information, logical deductions, or complex abilities such as creativity [17]. Society's negative images concerning ageing certainly have a deleterious effect, not only on the elderly person's self-concept, but also on the elderly's poor results on intelligence, memory, and perceptual ability tests. "To avoid having seniors ceasing to learn ... Society must also ensure that the elderly are not abruptly deprived of their social role [4]."

The second argument puts forward the hypothesis that exercise plays a crucial role in maintaining intellectual functions. "Intellectual functions decline when we stop using them. The concept of learning throughout the life-span thus seems beneficial [4]."

This assertion is based on two observations:

The first assumes that elders with a high level of edu-cation have better short-term memory than less educated elders. In addition, the latter have poorer health and a poorer self-image than the former. "The adults of today have a level of education superior to that of previous generations. It can be said that we have strong evidence for the decline with age ... of long-term memory ... [4]"

The second observation [18-20] is based on the fact that an elder's verbal capacity remains stable, whereas the other intellectual functions decline somewhat with age.

The reason why verbal capacity remains stable is that we are forced to use this capacity everyday. This is why the daily use of speech leads us to believe that perceptual abilities, intelligence, memory, creativity, and learning capacity could remain stable and even increase if they were used in a sustained fashion.

As we see it, intellectual activity is as important as physical activity to maintain good mental and physical health [21]. Verghese's research strengthens theory Y, which suggests that an individual's intellectual capacities are maintained by consistent use and atrophy with lack of use.

In conclusion, theory Y, which asserts that the eld-erly's intellectual capacities remain stable throughout their life-span, is as valid as theory X, which claims that intellectual capacities disappear with age. In fact, it is not age itself that brings a decline in intellectual capacities, but the lack of exercise due to the lack of possibilities for elderly people to exercise their intellectual faculties. From this perspective, nothing prevents the elderly from developing their intellectual capacities throughout their lives.

With theories X and Y, we see that researchers do not agree on the decline of intelligence in seniors because they do not define intelligence the same way. Indeed, research shows that intelligence can be defined from a quantitative or qualitative perspective, which we will present as quantitative or qualitative intelligence.

3.2. Definitions of Intelligence

3.2.1. Quantitative Intelligence

Indeed, in theory X, researchers assume that all aspects of intelligence that increase eventually decrease. With the "Weschler's Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)" test, Weschler [22] demonstrated that old people are less in-telligent than young people and that intelligence in-creases until age 30, remains stable for 10 years, and begins to decline around 40 years old. Miles and Miles [23] and Jones and Conrad [24] confirmed this hypothe-sis by showing that seniors obtain poorer results when they are subjected to intelligence tests that require com-pleting a task in the shortest time possible.

While improving intelligence tests allowed for better interpretation of results, it did not allow us to address the problem that not only there was no agreement on a common measure, but also again that intelligence was defined differently. According to this school of thought, the definition of intelligence is summarized as the capac-ity to do well on an intelligence test [25]. It is presented as a quantitative entity, thus measurable. "Tests have transformed the notion ... of intelligence: ... it has be-come a unique quantifiable entity [26]."

3.2.2. Qualitative Intelligence

Yet, many researchers who criticized the tests' statistical methods wanted to present intelligence as multifaceted and qualitative rather than a unique and quantifiable en-tity.

The distinctive contribution of Terman [27] at the in-ception of this new orientation in the definition of intel-ligence, is presenting intelligence as the capacity to learn, to reason, to elaborate concepts, and to play with abstrac-tions. Botwinick [28] sees intelligence as multidimen-sional and Horn [29] distinguishes two dimensions, fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Baltes and Shaie [30] and Willis and Baltes [31] present fluid intel-ligence as being comprised of faculties that are inde-pendent of culture, whereas we find in crystallized intel-ligence the aptitudes acquired through education and culture. This type of intelligence is characterized by plas-ticity, allowing individuals to assimilate their own cul-ture's collective intelligence.

4. Qualitative Intelligence and Basic Forms of Dialectical or Post-Formal Thought

4.1. Elementary Forms of Piaget's Dialectical Thought

Piaget [32] portrays qualitative intelligence as the capac-ity to adapt to one's environment. Piaget [33] presents this plasticity as being rooted in a dialectical conceptu-alization of intelligence, which characterizes the elder's thinking style.

The reader will be surprised by our comments on Pia-get's genetic epistemology and Marx's dialectical theory. Indeed, "Seldom has genetic epistemology been consid-ered as a dialectic of knowledge. Piaget's own references to this aspect of his theory are scattered and indirect [34]."

Moreover, numerous critics claim that Piaget cannot be assimilated into a Marxist tradition and that genetic epistemology cannot be compared to Marxism as it han-dles this philosophy in a completely different way.

Yet, this definition of dialectic proposed by Piaget. "There is dialectic when two systems, thus far distinct and separated but not at all opposed to each other, merge into a new whole, the properties of which surpass the originals, and sometimes by a considerable extent," [34] is eerily similar, according to Garcia, "to the char-acterization of dialectic as a theory of is eerily similar, according to Garcia, "to the characterization of dialectic as a theory of opposites." opposites." The word opposites, he adds, should not be interpreted "in the exact sense of formal logical contradiction."

In addition, Piaget's definition of dialectic assumes that the two independent systems, which appear as abso-lutes and give birth to a new whole, must undergo a "re-vitalization" process to build a larger system than the previous two. Thus, in Piaget's definition, we have the two principles that constitute a dialectical thought, namely the principle of contradiction and the principle of revitalization of everything. However, it must not be presumed that dialectic intervenes at every step of cogni-tive development. In the analysis of logical-mathematical thought, it seems:

"Once a theory has been established, it operates in a purely deductive (or 'discursive') manner. And deduction as such is not dialectical [34]".

This is why scientists are reluctant to include dialectic in scientific theories but prefer to function in a deductive manner in their "problem solving."

Formal or dialectical thought

Consequently, it seems possible to claim that:

"Piaget belongs—whether he likes it or not—to a line of thought ... of the most important dialectical school of our time. [Hegel, Marx and Lenin] ... Genetic epistemol-ogy has created (or has begun to create) the psycho-genetic and sociogenetic research program that Lenin pointed out as being necessary ... [34]"

4.2. Choice of Formal Thought in the Work of Piaget

However, we must admit that, although Piaget presents basic forms of dialectical thought in the child's cognitive development, researchers agree that his work focuses mainly on the development of logical-mathematical or formal thought. We have to wait until John M. Rybash's writings, which synthesize the literature on the essence of post-formal thought, namely dialectical thought, to un-derstand that although it is found in young people, it is above all the prerogative of elders. Genetic epistemo-logical research shows that older people's thinking style is qualitatively different from the characteristics of Pia-get's formal operations. Those thinking styles that we only find in seniors are post-formal in nature. In the next section of our article, we will introduce the characteris-tics of this post-formal thought.

5. Qualitative Intelligence and Rybash's Fundamental Principles of Dialectical or Post-Formal Thought

Although Rybash was able to present a synthesis of adult thought in a single volume, we must acknowledge that Basseches [35-37] was the foremost scholar in the area of dialectical thought.

He is the one who published the most research in this field and who emphasized the four aspects of post-formal thought. Indeed, his research led him to demonstrate that post-formal thought is based on:

a) The contradiction and relativity of knowledge;

b) The development of meta-systemic reasoning or re-flective thought;

c) The "problem finding" rather than "problem solving";

d) The development of dialectical thought.

In the following portion of the text, we will examine each of the points listed above to explain their originality.

5.1. Contradiction and Relativity of Knowledge

The principles of contradiction and relativity are notions that were originally brought to us by Marx and Einstein. With his principle of contradiction, Marx has familiar-ized us with the idea that an antithesis opposed every thesis, which together formed a synthesis, that is to say a new reality coming from the thesis and the antithesis, but which had nothing to do with these items anymore. This position, applicable by Marx in sociology, brought deep instability as change was any reality's dynamic element and nothing could be taken for granted. We have already developed this Marxist principle in our analysis of Pia-get's thoughts.

Yet, when we apply this principle of contradiction to our development of knowledge, we are forced to ac-knowledge the: "... necessary subjectivity to describe relativistic thinking within the area of the interpersonal relations. Necessary subjectivity means that interper-sonal reality is characterized by mutually contradictory frames of reference [38]."

In that context, researchers discover that the reciprocal contradiction of frames of reference brings a kind of knowledge asymmetry or imbalance that no observer is able to properly explain. "It was the detection of a type of asymmetry that compelled Einstein toward the develop-ment of his theory of relativity [39]."

As we have just shown, this contradictory and relativ-istic nature of post-formal thought applies not only to pure sciences such as physics but also to social sciences like psychology.

5.2. Meta-Systemic Reasoning

We must conclude that this type of thinking brings us to a reasoning that is other than logical, a meta-systemic reasoning, typical of reflective thought. This reasoning does not imply knowledge of a system's elements, but knowledge of operations that apply to different systems, thus, that goes beyond the systems to observe their inter-actions. This ability to create meta-systemic operations endows people with the logical capacity to understand the legitimacy of value systems other than their own. These qualitative adaptations in adult thought are related to meta-ethical changes that emerge at this stage of life. Kohlberg [40] provides a convincing example of this in his longitudinal analysis of moral reasoning from ado-lescence to adulthood.

5.3. Problem Finding

Arlin [41] compared the characteristics of Piaget's for-mal thought with the characteristics of post-formal thought that we just covered. Her analysis shows that formal thought, the thought associated with formal op-erations, is mainly related to problem solving from a logical perspective that evolves in a known system, the interrelations of which we can control. However, her study shows that post-formal thought is essentially re-lated to solving tasks, linked to presenting a problem within its context and in all of its dimensions (problem finding).

Yet, in her study, Arlin asserts that, for problem find-ing, a person must be capable of problem solving. As a result, formal thought or the capacity to develop Piaget's formal operations is a necessary prerequisite to access post-formal thought or the capacity to create post-formal operations, that is vast intellectual operations on the principles of the contradiction and relativity of every-thing. This is why she suggests adding a fifth post-formal stage to Piaget's four stages.

5.4. Development of Dialectical or Post-Formal Thought

In the previous paragraphs, we saw that post-formal thought functions through operations based on the prin-ciples of contradiction and relativity, whereas formal thought functions through logical-mathematical opera-tions. While formal thought is termed logical thought in Piaget's theory, Rybash [42] uses the term dialectical for post-formal thought. Many researchers, such as Sinnott and Guttman [43] Basseches [35-37] and Kramer and Woodruff [44] have studied the development of dialecti-cal thinking in adulthood. Even though these researchers used different conceptual and methodological approaches to study dialectical thought, they all conclude that this thinking style falls within the constructivist tradition, meaning that operations are created by individuals and are not mere copies of reality.

Moshman [45] has been the one who most insisted on the constructivist nature of all knowledge. He argues that Piaget's theory and Piaget's own thinking fall within a dialectical constructivist thinking paradigm. From that perspective, Moshman's work analyzes the assertions we expressed earlier in the paragraph on Piaget's basic forms of dialectic in depth.

Although dialectical thinking operates differently from formal thinking, we hypothesize that there exists, after the formal thinking stage, a fifth stage of post-formal thinking, as Piaget had already studied its basic forms and would have concluded the same thing, had he had time to do so. However, we cannot credit Piaget with this notion, as we are simply hypothesizing. We can only state that post-formal thought constitutes a thinking style peculiar to adult thinking.

6. Conclusions

In this article, we have demonstrated that the human brain has an infinite regenerative capacity and that even if we lose brain cells with age, the brain compensates for this loss and creates other synaptic connections that al-low it to continue having enriching intellectual activities throughout the life-span.

Based on this observation, with his theories X and Y, Jones demonstrated that, depending on whether we de-fine intelligence in a quantitative or qualitative manner, we have a pessimistic or an optimistic outlook on the possibility of learning in old age.

While it is true that sensory functions, speed of proc-essing, and long-term memory decline with age, there is evidence that vocabulary, semantic knowledge, and wis-dom all increase with age. These cognitive functions are very important in the learning experience of the elderly, as we have shown in describing post-formal thought. Thus, seniors must take advantage of this post-formal thought in confronting the intellectual challenges pre-venting them from wanting to continue learning through- out their lives, and depriving them of an excellent tool to counter degenerative brain diseases.

Indeed, research shows that intense and consistent in-tellectual stimulation may prevent or at least limit the decline of cognitive functions. It is now established that every step of our life corresponds to a specific learning experience in our personal development that depends on our biological, psychological, societal, and personal ma-turity. Thus, for the elderly, with the development of post-formal thinking, the ideal goal of learning is the acquisition of wisdom. "Thus, wisdom is not simply for wise people or curious psychologists; it is for all people and the future of the world [46]."

From that perspective, life experiences and an elder's personality are more important in the functioning of post-formal or dialectical thinking than the pure intellec-tual logic of formal thinking to acquire wisdom, wisdom being, as mentioned before, the aim of adult learning. Indeed, wisdom makes elders aware of themselves and of their own identity by fostering a comprehensive concep-tion of human development in its limited, intellectual, social, and genetic aspects. "Wisdom, a notion that the university had transformed to science in their theology and philosophy faculties, finally finds its true identity in action, in the education faculties [47]."

While researchers in the education sciences have thus far neglected the aspects we developed in this article, we hope that in the future, it will be possible to develop re-search in this field in universities. This would allow re-searchers to further knowledge on the psychology of learning in the elderly to carry out a university program focused on the acquisition of wisdom.

Note: All quotations in italics were originally in French and were translated herein by the authors to make the article easier to read. The authors are the only ones responsible for these translated quotations.

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Altas habilidades/superdotação:

abordagem ao longo da vida

Juan José Mouriño Mosquera

Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul

Claus Dieter Stobäus

Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul

Soraia Napoleão Freitas

Universidade Federal de Santa Maria

O artigo tem como temática básica fundamentar as bases empíricas da temática das Altas Habilidades/Superdotação- AH/SD, a partir de estudos realizados e de discussões e reflexões que realizamos, para possibilitar melhor entender sua abordagem em termos de Infância, Adolescência e Vida Adulta, dentro da denominada Abordagem ao Longo da Vida (Lifespan Approach), levando em conta autores destacados na área, na Educação e na Psicologia, com nexos para as Neurociências e estudos do desenvolvimento do cérebro (cognição, inteligência, aprendizagem) e a cultura em que o sujeito evolui e atua. Procuramos aprofundar em aspectos do desenvolvimento humano e o da personalidade ao longo da vida, em relação direta com a aprendizagem social, para conseguir aprofundar na temática do processo contínuo de aprender comentando ao final algumas possibilidades de atenção a estas pessoas, conectando com a Psicologia Positiva.

Altas habilidades/superdotação

Nossa preocupação inicial, ao discutirmos como abordaríamos a temática, nos pareecu poder realizar um aprofundamento em termos do ideario da áreaa, levando a reflexões do que sejam Altas Habilidades/ Superdotação, no sentido de dar uma visão panorâmica de como são abordadas na Infância, Adolescência e Vida Adulta, de detalhar um pouco os processos psicológicos, pedagógicos e sociais que se encontram presentes.

Arroyo, Martorell e Tarragó (2006) perguntam: quem são os superdotados? Elas respondem que são aquelas pessoas com potencial intelectual muito elevado e com uma alta capacidade de idéias novas e originais. Nas suas publicações, as autoras se aproximam do mundo das altas habilidades/superdotação a partir das experiências dos próprios superdotados. Entendem a superdotação como um perfil complexo, que se define em torno de três eixos, e que não basta uma única característica para determinar AH/SD: Inteligência, Personalidade e Criatividade.

Quanto à Inteligência, para essas autoras, a superdotação intelectual implica dispor de um grande potencial em pelo menos uma das áreas que compõem a inteligência humana, acompanhado de uma alta capacidade para as tarefas criativas e um pensamento capaz de combinar estes aspectos com um resultado inovador e diferente, o que distingue de 'alta capacidade intelectual'; e há que se distinguir entre a precocidade intelectual e a superdotação.

A precocidade intelectual é parte do fenômeno evolutivo, um desenvolvimento intelectual inicial maior, em comparação a outras pessoas com a mesma idade cronológica. Já pessoas com altas habilidades/superdotação (pessoas com AH/SD) têm uma grande capacidade em relação a um/mais aspecto(s) de inteligência ou, ainda, uma grande destreza para uma habilidade, ou um comportamento específico. Possuem uma inteligência excepcional, que os diferencia daquela que consideramos normal, pela rapidez e facilidade que têm para aprender, combinar e utilizar os conhecimentos, com estrutura de sistemas de processamento de informação e de seus conteúdos, superior a seus pares.

No que diz respeito à Personalidade, Arroyo, Martorell e Tarragó (2006) afirmam que não existe um padrão de personalidade comum e invariável para as pessoas com AH/SD. Cada pessoa, além de contar com uma carga genética determinada e única, vive experiências que fazem com que sua personalidade se configure de determinada maneira. Entre as características de personalidade do superdotado cabe destacar:

(a) sentido ético e moral muito desenvolvido: estão preocupados com os conceitos abstratos de bem e de mal, de correto e incorreto e de justiça e injustiça; são sensíveis ante os problemas sociais.

(b) capacidade de liderança: muitos superdotados são capazes de influir nos seus companheiros e podem vir a ser muito populares e respeitados;

(c) grande perfeccionismo: quando realizam uma tarefa, especialmente se está dentro de algum de seus campos de interesse, costumam colocar objetivos demasiadamente elevados;

(d) auto-conhecimento muito desenvolvido: costumam compreender seus processos intelectuais e sabem quais são suas principais faculdades cognitivas;

(e) elevada sensibilidade: mostram sensibilidade ante o mundo do conhecimento e são suscetíveis de experimentar emoções junto às pessoas que os rodeiam. Segundo as autoras, pode-se destacar ainda: perseverança, sensação de sentir-se diferente, tendo conceito de si mesmos, acrescentadas de inconformismo, engenhosidade e imaginação.

Em relação ao eixo Criatividade, Arroyo, Martorell e Tarragó (2006) argumentam que os superdotados possuem um elevado potencial criativo; trata-se de uma aptidão para gerar ou inventar algo novo e original, com espírito de invenção e produção de novas ideias. O potencial criativo implica em: originalidade (produção de novas ideias); fluidez (capacidade de gerar diferentes alternativas); flexibilidade (capacidade de gerar soluções diferenciadas ante problemáticas diversas); pensamento independente (não se deixar dominar pelo comum e estabelecido); e, finalmente, possuem pensamento integrador, que faz com que consigam fazer sínteses de extraordinário valor.

No que diz respeito ao desenvolvimento humano como um todo, podemos afirmar que as capacidades que os seres vivos possuem para desenvolver-se ocorre desde muito antes do seu nascimento, abrangendo todos os momentos da vida; assim, a infância, de certa maneira, é um preparo extremamente importante para as etapas posteriores, e para toda a vida adulta.

A complexidade de pessoas com AH/SD não foi suficientemente esclarecida ainda, pois biólogos do desenvolvimento estudam a intersecção entre a superdotação e os estímulos ambientais visando uma nova dinâmica que leve a melhores níveis de produtividade e criatividade.

Considerando as relações interpessoais como uma rede na qual cada um de nós é 'um ponto do nó', qualquer atuação tem, inevitavelmente, consequência para todos os demais. Os seres humanos movem-se diariamente em uma infinidade de redes, o que os leva a interagir entre os seus princípios de nós e os nós das outras personalidades, tendo cada vez mais necessidades de adaptar-se, em qualquer fase da vida, mormente a vida adulta.

Na vida adulta, pessoas intelectualmente superdotadas também dispõem de capacidades, potencialidades e recursos que facilitam sua adaptação ao meio. Porém, devemos levar em conta a importância das relações com o entorno, no qual as pessoas se desenvolvem, favorecendo (ou não) o seu desenvolvimento global. Gostaríamos de chamar a atenção para a idéia de que existiriam dois tipos de adultos com altas habilidades/ superdotação, os superdotados adaptados e os não-adaptados. Esta diferenciação cria a grande expectativa de que é necessário educar estas pessoas desde crianças, para que possam ter um melhor encaminhamento em suas vidas desde cedo.

Renzulli, Sytsme e Berman (2003) afirmam que a história/cultura humana deve muito às contribuições criativas, feitas pela maioria de pessoas que, acreditamos, sejam superdotadas e talentosas. Também ampliam a ideia de que, para melhorar a experiência educativa dos jovens potencialmente superdotados, é necessário que educadores possuam a capacidade de dirigir criativamente o ensino das pessoas com AH/SD por meio do incentivo à liderança e criatividade.

Renzulli (apud RENZULLI, SYTSME e BERMAN, 2003) descreveu sua concepção dos três anéis da superdotação, esclarecendo o papel dos fatores da personalidade e do ambiente, representados por um modelo inicialmente descrito de campos básicos, com seis fatores, resultado de revisões da literatura e de resumos de suas investigações: otimismo; valor; paixão por um tema ou disciplina; sensibilidade para temas humanos; energia mental ou física; visão e sentido do destino. Esses elementos são extremamente importantes para o desenvolvimento da ideia de uma superdotação socialmente construtiva, com fatores potencialmente críticos para o desenvolvimento de pessoas com AH/SD. Assim, o cultivo de futuros líderes e pessoas relevantes, para o progresso de/em uma determinada sociedade, centra-se em melhoria da condição humana, incremento do potencial criativo social e o êxito futuro de nossa sociedade global, pois serão líderes valiosos, com interesses humanos que transcendem aos considerados puramente egoístas e mesquinhos.

Também Sternberg (2005), em um de seus últimos trabalhos, enfatiza o que determina o 'sucesso' de uma pessoa, em termos de seu desenvolvimento humano, está nas interrelações com os outros, especialmente seus pares mais próximos, em sua sociedade e que inteligência está unida a aspectros de emoções e afetividade.

McClelland (1989) abordou a criatividade dentro estudos sobre várias facetas relacionadas ao desenvolvimento da personalidade, como uma das mais importantes em termos do desenvolvimento humano.

Levemos ainda em conta que melhores relações interpessoais e aspectos de afetividade levam a entender a complexa natureza humana, conforme salientam Mosquera e Stobäus (2006a, 2008).

Características da personalidade infantil

A ideia de personalidade tem sido focalizada frequentemente como uma entidade interna ou processo que determina o comportamento do ser humano. Mas o problema com esta conceituação é que, na mudança de comportamento, seria então necessário unicamente levar em conta esta necessidade mais interna. No entanto, é difícil conhecer a internalidade, especialmente de uma criança, para poder agir sobre ela e educá-la. Tornase necessário levar em conta um novo ângulo, isto é, as condições genéticas que o ser humano apresenta e também as variáveis externas, no qual estabelece seus comportamentos, levados a efeito em algum ambiente.

Esta nova posição, no sentido de personalidade, representa um intento de estudar, de maneira mais cuidadosa, como a pessoa com AH/SD age, enriquece as suas manifestações e apresenta os seus comportamentos.

A relação existente entre o agir humano e o meio cultural provém de uma concepção também existente entre a atividade da criança e a influência da comunidade e da sociedade como um todo organizado sobre seus atos, colocando limites sociais.

A personalidade partiria de um histórico que se situa nas interações que acontecem entre sociedade/cultura e as relações humanas, com nuances de significado central para o desenvolvimento infantil, a partir de comportamentos adquiridos e os significados a eles dados.

O desenvolvimento da concepção pessoal decorre da aprendizagem que realizamos a cada momento, uma aprendizagem socializada que compõe-se de uma constelação de comportamentos que desenvolvemos e socializamos através dos estímulos que vem do ambiente. Os seres humanos, embora possam obedecer às mesmas leis, comporta-se diversamente, o que define sua personalidade. Este comportamento está diretamente relacionado com experiências levadas a efeito desde os primeiros momentos de desempenho e tendo, consequentemente, adquirido um significado e uma história, expressa na sua socialização.

Temos, pois, que comportamentos aprendidos são o núcleo da personalidade, a capacidade criadora de uma pessoa com AH/SD (e sua vulnerabilidade) ou aspectos contraditórios que possam existir, ocorrendo aprendizagens por vezes frustradoras, em interações sociais.

Este enfoque de personalidade, com ênfase na infância, enfatiza a clássica Teoria da Aprendizagem com a aproximação da chamada Psicologia Cultural. Cremos que a Psicologia da Personalidade deve abarcar três dimensões fundamentais: o desenvolvimento da aprendizagem, o processo de socialização e as influências culturais.

Existe uma íntima união entre a aprendizagem da criança com AH/SD e o desenvolvimento de seus comportamentos mais inteligentes e a estruturação da sua personalidade. Esta colocação envolve diferentes perspectivas, intimamente unidas pelo que supomos ser a função determinativa das ações das pessoas em circunstâncias de desempenho e mudança.

A concepção orgânica, que nos ajuda a entender o desenvolvimento da qualidade pessoal, tem íntima relação com ações determinadas na ambiência e, através das necessidades (satisfeitas ou não), poder-se-ía estabelecer um marco quanti-qualitativo para pessoas com AH/SD. Este enfoque, que foi muito enfatizado pelos autores neocomportamentalistas, encontra-se hoje bastante difundido entre os autores sócio-históricos, o que nos ajuda a entender o possível manejo de ambientes e de dimensões semióticas.

Tem significado central o tentar compreender a personalidade da criança com AH/SD como um sistema de ação, de tal modo que nos leve a fundamentações básicas, que implicitam um conhecimento da referência cultural em que ela se insere. Os autores clássicos Parsons e Shils (1968) deram significado à personalidade através do conhecimento, do impulso e das necessidades, estudando o comportamento em determinados níveis, que levam à sua satisfação. Esta satisfação traria, como consequência, o equilíbrio entre a necessidade e a disposição para desenvolver formas mais precisas e refinadas de comportamento. Para eles, a personalidade representaria uma orientação comportamental que vai-se modificando de acordo com as novas possibilidades ambientais e culturais que a pessoa encontra. Dinamismo integrativos, atributivos e avaliativos representam comportamentos qualitativos pessoais.

A aprendizagem infantil pode ser considerada como tentativa de estabelecer as bases da integração e ajustamentos individuais dentro de um grupo de referência, oferecendo elementos que expliquem mais clara e precisamente as respostas de pessoas em sua cultura.

O sistema da personalidade na criança representa um conjunto organizado de necessidades e disposições que, partindo de um aspecto mais primário, tornam-se complexas e generalizadoras, oferecendo coerência, hierarquia e propiciando estrutura à personalidade. A dinamicidade e desenvolvimento da personalidade, assim como seus estilos típicos (e atípicos), dependem especificamente da integração a estrutura genética individual e as dinâmicas culturais/sociais em que está imersa, que poderão redundar na integração (ou não) entre o sistema da personalidade e o sistema social.

São interessantes as contribuições oferecidas por Dollard e Miller (1950), que destacavam o papel relevante da aprendizagem para o desenvolvimento da personalidade, explicando e dando coerência à mesma em relação à sociedade e, em última análise, à cultura.

A maior parte do comportamento humano é aprendido; o comportamento caracteriza-se por dar sentido àquilo que Vygotsky (2001) entende como mediação entre a cultura/pessoa. Aprendemos medos, culpas e outras motivações sociais, que são características apresentadas por qualquer indivíduo. Conhecendo melhor como foi realizada sua socialização, teremos uma das 'chaves' para melhor entender o comportamento como um todo (STOBÄUS e MOSQUERA, 2003).

Existe, por outro lado, nas AH/SD, um 'equipamento interno' que fornece a base para as respostas ulteriores, enraizado possivelmente também em suas condições genéticas, e que poderão oferecer (ou não) respostas por meio destes seus aspectos genéticos, inatos a cada ser humano.

Portando, repetimos, o comportamento infantil parte desta base genética oferecida pelos fatores inatos, que propiciam a detecção e reconhecimento de impulsos primários pelo próprio sujeito, que são estímulos internos de grande força e persistência, ligados aos processos fisiológicos cerebrais que começamos a conhecer melhor com as Neurociências.

Estes impulsos levam a pessoa à ação, embora não guiem ou a dirijam, cabendo, portanto, esta qualidade da ação à sua resposta ao processo de aprendizagem. Portanto, é necessário conhecer o ponto de integração entre a base genética e a dinâmica cultural. É muito interessante entender que o estudo qualitativo das respostas infantis esteja integrado com o espaço que leva à dinâmica cultural e ao universo simbólico.

Para Parsons e Shils (1968), o sistema da personalidade depende das relações diretas estabelecidas pela aprendizagem e socialização, em uma cultura, de tal modo que a aprendizagem de padrões comportamentais característicos da cultura infantil e da cultura adulta inclui discriminações e generalizações através de símbolos, evidenciado em ações. Nos parece interessante chamar a atenção também sobre o papel da recompensa, enfatizado por Dollard e Miller (1950), que acreditavam ter o mesmo efeito que aquele dos estímulos provocadores do impulso e que estivesse operando para o aumento ou redução do comportamento. Hoje, as Neutociências desvendam estas ideias através de neuroimagens, com a complexa (re) organização cerebral a partir dos mecanismos de recompensa/evitação.

Outra posição, na qual os autores clássicos e os da Psicologia Cultural encontram-se é o intento de analisar a influência do contexto social.

Por isto, dizem, não se possuiria uma visão completa da personalidade somente através da aprendizagem, mas é fundamental entender as condições da aprendizagem. Assim, teríamos que os princípios da aprendizagem, para serem válidos, devem ser examinados à luz de uma realidade cultural,

para estabelecer bases compreensivas de desempenhos de pessoas e de comportamentos em uma sociedade.

Estas ideias tiveram extremo valor nos anos trinta do século XX e, hoje, voltam com a Psicologia Cultural, analisada por Cole (1999), quando fala sobre a validade ecológica e sua influência na atividade do ser humano em seus diferentes âmbitos.

No nosso entender, no desenvolvimento da personalidade as forças ambientais jogam, sem dúvida, papel significativo. Por isto, pode-se compreender que os psicanalistas afirmem que os conflitos inconscientes, adquiridos durante a infância, sirvam como base para os problemas emocionais da vida adulta dessas pessoas com AH/SD.

Miller e Dollard (1941) tentaram operacionalizar algumas ideias anteriormente desenvolvidas por Freud, ao não rejeitarem aspectos como processos inconscientes, determinantes do comportamento e alguns dos denominados mecanismos de defesa. Para eles, o mais significativo foi entender as propostas de Freud, traduzi-las à linguagem da teoria da aprendizagem, ao mesmo tempo que realizaram grande esforço para compreender o papel de cultura/ambiente na vida humana.

A análise da imitação também propicia um enfoque suficientemente interessante da personalidade, com repercussões na teorização contemporânea e que teve seu aparecimento no ano de 1941, com grandes semelhanças com as teorias sócio-históricas e com a moderna psicanálise cultural. O comportamento imitativo, segundo estes autores, apresenta três classes ou tipos de manifestação. A primeira classe é o comportamento idêntico, que consiste na emissão da mesma resposta através do mesmo indício. Na segunda classe, encontra-se o comportamento imitativo, é denominado de dependente do modelo/mentor, e que requer que exista um par ou díade; acontece quando a pessoa identifica-se com um líder/pessoa significativa, cuja resposta provoca a resposta do seguidor, desde a imitação mais simples até a imitação mais complexa e refinada. É fascinante analisar o comportamento de crianças AH/SD, a partir da dinâmica da imitação e como ela é levada a efeito, na medida que desenvolvem-se como seres sociais.

Atualmente, em Neurociências tentamos entender este desenvolvimento desde a mais tenra idade através de descobertas como, por exemplo, as cadeias neuronais que possibilitam estas imitações, os 'neurônios-espelho'.

Kagan (1987) também destaca o desenvolvimento da criança como um processo intimamente ligado a diferentes âmbitos socio-culturais e muitas de suas ideias encontram-se integradas às teorias neocomportamentais, com implicações em aspectos cognitivos e possibilidades de elementos de crescimento e socialização pessoais.

O terceiro tipo de comportamento imitativo é denominado de cópia; é quando alguém esforça-se para apresentar uma resposta que seja idêntica à de outra pessoa. Isto aparece especialmente em situações de aprendizagem de habilidades, tanto pessoais como culturais, no desporto ou mesmo em atividades artísticas (exemplo interessante é o de cover).

O aspecto de cópia é sumamente importante em termos sociais, porque nos leva a entender como a percepção do comportamento de alguém pode apresentar para nós um modelo típico, provocado no ambiente na qual precisamos nos desenvolver e nos superar.

A partir destas idéias, gostaríamos de trazer algumas implicações para um novo paradigma de personalidade, especialmente refletidos na infância. Nossa preocupação passa pela revalorização da teoria neocomportamentalista e sua aproximação à psicologia cultural, com implicações nas formas atuais da psicologia. Seria interessante, nesse momento, chamarmos a atenção para o fato de que tudo o que foi trabalhado até agora, representa uma possibilidade de compreender pessoas com as AH/SD, unidas às problemáticas de teorias da aprendizagem e as culturais.

Não podemos descartar a grande contribuição científica dada pelos autores citados, especialmente porque na segunda década do século XXI nos damos conta de que muito desconhecemos sobre o potencial humano, o talento e a capacidade de expressar tudo aquilo que está internalizado e que se expressa em formas específicas de agir.

Gostaríamos, ainda, de dedicar algum espaço a Robert Sears, que enfatiza a ação diádica como base da ação interior. Desde 1943, Sears preocupou-se com o estudo das concepções da psicanálise e convenceu-se da significativa importância das relações progenitor–filho e de seu fecundo potencial sobre a teoria da aprendizagem. Sears (apud SEARS, MacCOBY e LEWIN, 1957) organizou a teoria da aprendizagem sobre a base da teoria psicanalítica e em forma paralela a esta; preocupou-se com os temas da dependência e da identificação durante os primeiros anos da infância. Ao citá-lo, estamos preocupados em entender o processo de identificação que foi construído por Freud, que parece agir sobre os primórdios da aprendizagem e, ao mesmo tempo,na construção das melhores e mais válidas altas habilidades. Está aqui mais uma constatação da importância das AH/SD serem identificadas como tal.

Portanto, um bom desenvolvimento baseia-se na preparação de

condições apropriadas de permissividade e oportunidade de depender (ou de agredir) e na determinação de limites adequados para promover atos e formas de controle cada vez mais independentes.

A criança começa a comportar-se de acordo com a orientação e controle dos progenitores e, mais adiante, de outras pessoas no contexto, como cuidadores e educadores. À medida que esta se conduz, consegue desenvolver-se. O comportamento é um produto das experiências sociais imediatas de sua criação. Portanto, o desenvolvimento infantil é o resultado visível dos esforços de criação de pais (e outos adultos). Ou seja, o desenvolvimento da criança é uma consequência da aprendizagem (no social). Por isto, as diferenças entre os seres humanos estariam radicadas nas aprendizagens diferenciadas levadas a efeito em sua cultura; da mesma forma, os níveis de exigência e pressão que a sociedade coloca através dos adultos próximos a ela provocariam a diferença comportamental e a diversidade de tipos personalógicos.

Tudo isto nos leva a concluir que um maior rigor no estudo da personalidade infantil pode ser estabelecido na medida que trabalharmos com comportamentos aprendidos em situações verdadeiras (diferente de 'laboratório'), desenvolvendo, deste modo, um sentido mais real do comportamento das AH/SD, evitando sua exagerada 'idealização', tentando compreender como essa pessoa desenvolve-se em determinada sociedade/cultura e como suas respostas podem provocar comportamentos que, muitas vezes, não bem entendemos.

Gostaríamos de encerrar estas considerações citando Kagan (1987), quando chama a atenção sobre a fascinação do determinismo na infância e deixa claro que o problema do desenvolvimento encontra-se muito na intersecção do que conhecemos como herança genética e influência sociocultural. Não é fácil, segundo este autor, determinar como as pessoas podem e devem reagir nas suas culturas; temos que aprender sobre as experiências das crianças e as respostas que são dadas nas ambiências, pois, na medida em que conhecemos melhor as dinâmicas como a ordem de nascimento, identificação e época histórica, aprendermos mais sobre a qualidade de comportamento e criatividade.

Vida adulta

Após termos chamado a atenção sobre o desenvolvimento da infância, focando as AH/SD, nos preocuparemos agora em ressaltar a etapa da vida adulta, sem deixar de lembrar a adolescência, pois as AH/SD são um contínuo ao longo de toda a vida.

Estamos convencidos que a problemática das AH/SD é uma problemática desafiadora para os séculos vindouros. Vanderplas-Holper (2000) assinalam que o desenvolvimento da vida humana, especialmente na idade adulta, é um 'tecido de relações' complexas e imbricadas. A partir dos anos 70 do século XX, uma rede de investigadores, da qual Paul Baltes pode ser considerado o líder, envolveu-se muito ativamente na formulação dos princípios teóricos que orientam o estudo do desenvolvimento ao longo de toda a vida, e na realização de muitas investigações científicas que inseremse no quadro conceitual assim elaborado. Entre os investigadores destacamse

Schaie, Willis e Lenner, que trabalhavam em diferentes universidades dos Estados Unidos. Também destacou-se como pesquisador muito criativo Klaus Riegel (1925-1977), um investigador alemão emigrado para os Estados Unidos e que deixou uma obra extremamente interessante e meritória.

Baltes criou, a partir de 1980, uma equipe importante de investigadores no instituto Max-Planck, em Berlim. Por meio dos seus trabalhos, Baltes e seus colaboradores definiram a Psicologia do Desenvolvimento ao Longo de Toda a Vida (Lifespan Approach) e formularam um corpo de proposições que constituem os princípios diretores que orientam os trabalhos empíricos. Podemos afirmar, como coloca Baltes (apud BALTES, STAUDINGER e LINDENBERGER, 1999), que a Psicologia do Desenvolvimento ao longo de toda a vida interessa-se pela descrição e explicação das mudanças ontogenéticas, da concepção até a morte. Como consequência, o desenvolvimento passa a ter um sentido fundamental sem um único estatuto explicativo verdadeiramente psicológico da idade somente baseada na parte cronológica; esta não passa de uma variável 'bruta', cujo significado psicológico tem de ser precisado pela referência aos processos psicológicos que constituem o desenvolvimento e as condições que o modelam, no contexto social em que e pessoa vive. Baltes define, ainda, mais explicitamente na Psicologia do Desenvolvimento ao longo de toda a vida, como ocorre um estudo da constância e da mudança que manifestamse no comportamento humano ao longo da ontogênese, da concepção até a morte.

Essas idéias extremamente interessantes foram básicas para delinear o sentido da vida adulta e o seu desenvolvimento, em culturas em constante transformação. É evidente que os adultos vivem, hoje, maiores expectativas de vida e melhores possibilidades de futuro, pois os avanços na área médica e farmacológica, a tecnologia, a melhoria na qualidade de vida e a reconceitualização do sentido vital fazem com que eles possuam melhores condições em sua existência e mais possibilidades de desenvolvimento cognitivo por meio da suas próprias experiências vitais. Tudo que foi exposto até o presente momento pode ser incluído dentro das chamadas influências ontogenéticas normativas ligadas à idade, que são constituídas por determinantes biológicos e ambientais fortemente ligados à idade biológica.

Cabe esclarecer que os determinantes biológicos referem-se à maturação do organismo (ou ao declínio) em certos domínios que os caracterizam a partir de certa idade. Já os determinantes ambientais referem-se às expectativas que a sociedade provoca nos seus membros, e que também estão ligados aos níveis motivacionais e cognitivos.

Nos anos 60 do século passado, a socióloga Neugarten (apud MOSQUERA, 1986), da Universidade de Chicago, pesquisou as expectativas de mulheres adultas em relação ao seu desempenho vital, criando a ideia de 'relógio social', que determinaria as possibilidades que os adultos têm na sua própria existência em um mundo social; enquanto Levinson (apud MOSQUERA, 1986) estudou homens, chegando a conclusões semelhantes.
Outro aspecto importante são as influências normativas, ligadas

à história. São constituídas por determinantes biológicos e ambientais associados ao contexto histórico em que evoluem os diferentes grupos de adultos. Por isto, determinada geração é importante para poder compreender o nível de pensamento e o nível de motivação que aparece em determinado momento histórico.

Outro aspecto muito importante são os acontecimentos significativos da vida, de natureza não normativa, que podem aparecer como fissuras ou cortes em determinado momento da existência, em que cada pessoa reage de maneira única, de modo singular.

É evidente que o quadro de referência relativo ao desenvolvimento ao longo de toda a vida esboçado por Baltes constitui-se em uma dimensão paradigmática e não uma teoria. No entanto sabemos que existem aspectos teóricos e metodológicos de especial relevância, levando em consideração as conquistas realizadas pelas pesquisas, que possibilitam visões de desenvolvimento desde perspectivas como a cognitiva, ressaltando sua estruturação e seu declínio. Antes de entrar nessa temática, é interessante apresentar algumas características pelas quais passa o ser humano.

Podemos afirmar, segundo Schaie e Willis (2003), que a transição para a idade adulta está marcada por uma série de acontecimentos, sendo os mais comuns o final da escolarização, trabalhar e ser economicamente independente, viver fora da família, o ter um matrimônio e praticar a paternidade/maternidade.

Estes acontecimentos podem ocorrer de forma sequencial ou simultânea e, na verdade, o momento e o padrão podem variar segundo indivíduos e sua geração. Como já apontávamos anteriormente, esses acontecimentos estão determinados pelas expectativas sociais e os cenários históricos.

Devemos recordar que Erikson, segundo explicam Schaie e Willis (2003), introduziu o conceito de crise de identidade para descrever o período que amiúde transcorre na adolescência, na qual a pessoa em desenvolvimento deve integrar novas habilidades, sentimentos, papéis e uma nova aparência física. Detacamos que o desenvolvimento cognitivo tem extrema relevância para poder detectar a possibilidade de AH/SD, ao mesmo tempo em que se aguçam os motivos que levam os seres humanos a desenhar sua própria vida.

Mosquera (1986) tem destacado que, na adultez jovem, acompanhando o pensamento de Erikson, dá-se o estado de intimidade x isolamento, que marca a transição para a idade adulta. Nesta fase, a tarefa primordial consiste em estabelecer relações íntimas, sem perder a identidade e a independência, sendo que o isolamento ocorre quando as defesas de uma pessoa são demasiadamente rígidas para permitir-lhe a união com o outro.

Seria interessante falarmos agora sobre a problemática do amor, que Mosquera (2004) tem trabalhado desde 1979. Poderíamos afirmar que o desenvolvimento emocional ocorre imediatamente após o nascimento e percorre um longo caminho através das etapas determinadas pela idade e pela cultura, que caracterizam a evolução do ser humano. Se as primeiras experiências relevantes têm grande importância, assim como as experiências subsequentes, todas configuram a dinâmica da vida na sua estruturação vital. O amor é um sentimento único, porém multifacetado, expressando a necessidade de viver e permanecer nas outras pessoas. A liberdade do amor é condição única para sua permanência e qualidade, que consiste na espontaneidade da doação e no desejo de transcender aos outros, sem necessidade de manipulá-los ou torná-los continuidade de nossas apetências.

Lembremos da importância da (auto)motivação para o desenvolvimento, e a aprendizagem, como destacávamos (MOSQUERA e STOBÄUS, 2006b), ao mencionarmos as ideias de Maslow (1954).

O adulto jovem com AH/SD também defronta-se com a tarefa de determinar sua relação com a comunidade. Pode ser que a identidade e o compromisso político religioso sejam importantes para ele sentir-se implicado na comunidade. Outro aspecto fundamental é a tentativa de elaborar um projeto de vida, de cunho filosófico e epistemológico, que o faça penetrar de maneira mais adequada no chamado período da adultez média.

Existem controvérsias a respeito de quais idades são determinantes dos períodos da vida. Assim, a adultez jovem estaria aproximadamente os 18-20 e os 35 anos, enquanto a adultez média, segundo vários critérios, pode começar entre 35 e 40 anos e terminar entre 65 e 70 anos. Devemos lembrar que, segundo as ideias anteriormente expressas, a idade é uma variável 'bruta', por isto podemos afirmar que, segundo apontam vários autores, é um período que implica na geratividade e produtividade na família e no trabalho.

Por outro lado, em vários momentos da vida adulta média as pessoas se vêem implicadas no cuidado de seus filhos adolescentes e jovens, e conseqüentemente, dos seus pais que envelheceram, além de terem de cuidar de si mesmos. Essas três gerações frequentemente estão em estreito contato, em nossa sociedade; por isto cuidar dos pais mais idosos converteuse em uma parte normativa da adultez média.

Temos trabalhado frequentemente com adultos médios, o que nos revela uma possibilidade de compreender os dramas e as alterações que se dão nessa etapa da vida. Pode ser um momento de grande crescimento e possibilidade de auto-atualização e, ao mesmo tempo, um período de depressões e crises. De qualquer maneira, termos como 'menopausa' e 'andropausa' nos revelam as transformações orgânicas e psicológicas que as pessoas experimentam, ao lado de determinados conflitos que estão intimamente ligados às satisfações/insatisfações e crises enfrentadas nesta etapa.

Na vida adulta média é extremamente importante o poder criativo e a capacidade de desenvolver idéias mais engenhosas e produtivas; por isso é muito importante o estimular e o desenvolver melhores condições e habilidades de imaginação, fantasia e criatividade.

O terceiro momento da vida adulta, denominado por autores de adultez tardia ou envelhecimento, segundo Schaie e Willis (2003), podedividir-se em três sub-estágios: os vigorosos anciãos jovens, os mais lentos anciãos e os muito anciãos. Segundo esses autores, os três grupos diferem de forma significativa.

Os anciaõs jovens permanecem ativos e comportam-se em muitos aspectos como na idade adulta média. Isto prova, de certa maneira, que podemos estender nossa capacidade de permanecermos ativos e jovens por muito mais tempo.

Os anciãos mais lentos mostram também uma maior incidência de debilidades físicas, porém muitos são capazes de viver uma vida plena, recorrendo a ajudas. Os muito anciãos, hoje caracterizados como os acima de 90 anos de idade cronológica, frequentemente estão incapacitados física e mentalmente, e precisam de um sistema de ajuda intensiva, algumas vezes em instituições, sendo, portanto mais dependentes.

Em termos gerais, a preocupação é tentar permanecer íntegros e não 'cair no desespero', e também ter segurança emocional e econômica. Isto é desejável para poder alcançar maior produção criativa, científica e artística.

O envelhecimento pode ser um período de grande realização pessoal, em que pode-se propiciar a oportunidade de estar implicado na exploração de opções que antes não eram possíveis por questões familiares ou laborais. O envelhecimento mais saudável consiste em um processo de otimização e compensação seletiva. Por outro lado, esse processo implica em maximizar o apoio interpessoal e ambiental; por isto a maioria dos idosos que tem envelhecido melhor possui capacidade de reserva que os leva a serem mais sábios.

Vanderplas-Holper (2000) assinala que as investigações de Riegel se referiam ao desenvolvimento das capacidades cognitivas durante o período da existência adulta, que foram realizadas entre a década de 50 até os anos da sua morte. Riegel propôs diferentes explicações sobre o fato de que, ao longo da vida adulta, houvesse maiores ou menores declínios na capacidade cognitiva e, por isto, chegou à conclusão de que pode-se admitir que certas pessoas teriam capacidades cognitivas superiores e uma longevidade superior. Isto estaria associado a fatores biológicos, bem como a fatores psicológicos. Esta possibilidade estaria intrinsecamente ligada a termos dialéticos e, por isto, poderíamos chegar à conclusão de que o organismo não é um 'receptáculo passivo' de estimulações ambientais. Pelo contrário, imprime sua marca sobre o meio, modificando-o e sendo por ele modificado.

Ainda referindo Riegel, afirmamos que organismo/meio influenciam-se recíproca e dialeticamente.

Como conclusão dessa sessão, podemos chamar a atenção de que existe cada vez mais refinamento nas pesquisas e nas teoriazações, sendo muito possível compreender que a dimensão cognitivo-existencial é de relevância fundamental, para poder entender a evolução da potencialidade humana, não apenas na infância e adolescência mas, sobretudo, no caminho da vida adulta até a morte.

Comentários finais

O nosso trabalho partiu da abordagem psico-social, com a Psicologia Positiva de transfundo, que consideramos de enorme importância e abrangência. Além de rever alguns apectos do desenvolvimento da vida humana numa perspectiva holística, apresentamos o desenvolvimento infantil e adulto atrvés de grandes características, como uma abordagem em dois momentos da vida, da infância à vida adulta, com seus desafios, suas fortalezas e possíveis crises.

Acreditamos que podemos encontrar pessoas com Altas Habilidades/Superdotação motivadas para sua realização e desenvolvimento cognitivo, afetivo e social. Cremos também que é necessária uma Educação para o futuro que nos traga maiores possibilidades de estimular o talento, alcançando soluções viáveis para tornar um mundo melhor, e que tenhamos

em conta elementos mais positivos para aceitar, entender, conviver e auxiliar em seu desenvolvimento aquelas pessoas com AH/SD, que merecem (con) viver saudavelmente e bem desenvolver suas capacidades e habilidades.

Referências

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Foundations of Intelligence Science

Zhongzhi Shi

Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

In order to make significant progress toward achievement of human level machine intelligence a paradigm shift is needed. More specifically, the natural intelligence and artificial intelligence should be closely interacted in Intelligence Science study, instead of separate from each other. In order to reach the paradigm, brain science, cognitive science, artificial intelligence and others should cross-research together. Brain science explores the essence of brain, research on the principle and model of natural intelligence in molecular, cell and behavior level.

Cognitive science studies human mental activity, such as perception, learning, memory, thinking, consciousness etc. Artificial intelligence attempts simulation, extension and expansion of human intelligence using artificial methodology and technology. All together pursue to explore the mechanism and principle of intelligence which is the engine of advanced science and technology. The paper will give the definition of intelligence and discuss ten big issues of Intelligence Science. The conclusion and perspective will be given in last section.

1. Introduction

Since 1956 artificial intelligence is formally found and very impressive progress has been made in many areas over the past years. Its achievements and techniques are in the mainstream of computer science and at the core of so many systems. For example, the computer beats the world's chess champ, commercial systems are exploiting voice and speech capabilities, there are robots running around the surface of Mars. In well-known TV quiz show "Jeopardy" IBM super computer system Watson beats the best of the two bit of human champion Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. But all these achievements are not in the realm of human level machine intelligence. Humans are the best example of human-level intelligence.

McCarthy declared the long-term goal of AI is human level AI [1]. Recent works in multiple disciplines of cognitive and neuroscience motivate new computational approaches to achieving human level AI. In the book On Intelligence, Hawkins proposed machine intelligence meets neuroscience [2]. Granger presented a framework for integrating the benefits of parallel neural hardware with more serial and symbolic processing which motivated by recent discoveries in neuroscience [3]. Langley proposed a cognitive architecture ICARUS which uses means-ends analysis to direct learning and stores complex skills in a hierarchical manner [4]. Sycara proposed the multi-agent systems framework which one develops distinct modules for different facets of an intelligent system [5]. Cassimatis and his colleagues investigate Polyscheme which is a cognitive architecture designed to model and achieve human-level intelligence by integrating multiple methods of representation, reasoning and problem solving [6]. Based on the LIDA cognitive architecture, Franklin et al. proposed an underlying computational software framework for Artificial General Intelligence [7].

To make significant progress toward achievement of human level machine intelligence a paradigm shift is needed. Artificial intelligence should change the research paradigm and learn from natural intelligence. The interdisciplinary subject entitled Intelligence Science is promoted.

In 2002 the special Web site called Intelligence Science has been appeared on Internet [8], which is con-structed by Intelligence Science Lab of Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

A special bibliography entitled Intelligence Science written by author was published by Tsinghua University Press in 2006 [9]. The book shows a framework of intelligence science and points out research topics in related subject. The English version of the book Intelligence Science is published by World Scientific Publishers in 2011.

Intelligence Science is an interdisciplinary subject which dedicates to joint research on basic theory and technology of intelligence by brain science, cognitive science, artificial intelligence and others. Brain science explores the essence of brain, research on the principle and model of natural intelligence in molecular, cell and behavior level. Cognitive science studies human mental activity, such as perception, learning, memory, thinking, consciousness etc. In order to implement machine intelligence, artificial intelligence attempts simulation, extension

and expansion of human intelligence using artificial methodology and technology.

Next section will define what is intelligence. The basic issues of Intelligence Science are listed in Section 3. Finally, conclusion and perspective will be given.

2. What Is Intelligence

Intelligence is a very hot word. At the present it is a new development trend to intellectualize technology, product, equipment, such as intelligent computer, intelligent robot, intelligent database, intelligent management, intelligent control, intelligent CAD, intelligent network, intelligent engineering and so on [10]. Intelligence is most widely studied in humans, but has also been observed in animals and plants. Numerous definitions of intelligence have been proposed with no consensus reached by scholars.

Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving.

Legg and Hutter list 70 odd definitions of intelligence from collective definitions, psychologist definitions and AI researcher definitions [11]. They pull out commonly occurring features and find that intelligence has following features:

1) A property that an individual agent has as it interacts with its environment or environments.

2) Is related to the agent's ability to succeed or profit with respect to some goal or objective.

3) Depends on how able to agent is to adapt to different objectives and environments.

According to above features they give the informal definition of intelligence as "Intelligence measures an agent's ability to achieve goals in a wide range of environments." [11]

We think that intelligence is a comprehensive ability to use one's existing knowledge or experience to adapt new situations or solve new problems [10]. Since 1956, traditional artificial intelligence adopts reasoning to do problem solving. Most of expert systems are implemented through deductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning is applied in machine learning and data mining. Artificial neural networks are massively parallel, adaptive, dynamical systems modeled on the general features of biological networks. Through trial and error, the network literally teaches itself how to do the task. In terms of situatedness, embodiment, intelligence and emergency behavior-based artificial intelligence has built more powerful autonomous mobile robots. It is a good idea that symbolic, connectionist and behaviorist mechanism are combined together to develop intelligent systems.

Humans have many remarkable capabilities: first the capability to reason, converse and make rational decisions in the real world of imprecision, uncertainly, incompleteness of information; and second, the capability to perform a wide variety of physical and mental tasks.

Machine intelligence should learn from natural intelligence and more closely interacted in Intelligence Science study.

3. Basic Issues of Intelligence Science

3.1. How Do Brain Neural Circuits Work?

The brain is a collection of about 10 billion intercomnected neurons. Neurons are electrically excitable cells in the nervous system that process and transmit information.

A neuron's dendrites' tree is connected to a thousand neighboring neurons [12]. When one of those neurons fire, a positive or negative charge is received by one of the dendrites. The strengths of all the received charges are added together through the processes of spatial and temporal summation. The aggregate input is then passed to the soma (cell body). The soma and the enclosed nucleus don't play a significant role in the processing of incoming and outgoing data. Their primary function is to perform the continuous maintenance required to keep the neuron functional. The output strength is unaffected by the many divisions in the axon; it reaches each terminal button with the same intensity it had at the axon hillock.

Each terminal button is connected to other neurons across a small gap called synapse. The physical and neurochemical characteristics of each synapse determines the strength and polarity of the new input signal.

This is where the brain is the most flexible, and the most vulnerable. In molecular level neuron signal generation, transmission and neurotransmitters are basic problems attracted research scientists to engage investigation in brain science.

One of the greatest challenges in neuroscience is to determine how synaptic plasticity and learning and memory are linked. Two broad classes of models of synaptic plasticity can be described by Phenomenological models and Biophysical models [13].

Phenomenological models are characterized by treating the process governing synaptic plasticity as a black box. The black box takes in as input a set of variables, and produces as output a change in synaptic efficacy. No explicit modeling of the biochemistry and physiology leading to synaptic plasticity is implemented. Two different classes of phenomenological models, rate based and spike based, have been proposed.

Biophysical models, in contrast to phenomenological models, concentrate on modeling the biochemical and physiological processes that lead to the induction and expression of synaptic plasticity. However, since it is not possible to implement precisely every portion of the physiological and biochemical networks leading to synaptic plasticity, even the biophysical models rely on many simplifications and abstractions. Different cortical regions, such as Hippocampus and Visual cortex have somewhat different forms of synaptic plasticity.

Some important questions about human brain structure and function remain a puzzle to us. What functions happen in the left-right and front-back division of cerebral cortex and how to link each other? Many regions of the - brain come together to form a dynamic and intricate biological structure that holds many puzzles for us to unravel.

3.2. What Is Perceptual Representation and Theory of Perception?

The perceptual systems are primarily visual, auditory and kinesthetic, that is, pictures, sounds and feelings. There is also olfactory and gustatory, i.e. smell and taste. The perceptual representation is a modeling approach that highlights the constructive, or generative function of perception, or how perceptual processes construct a complete volumetric spatial world, complete with a copy of our own body at the center of that world. The representational strategy used by the brain is an analogical one; that is, objects and surfaces are represented in the brain not by an abstract symbolic code, or in the activation of individual cells or groups of cells representing particular features detected in the visual field. Instead, objects are represented in the brain by constructing full spatial effigies of them that appear to us for all the world like the objects themselves or at least so it seems to us only because we have never seen those objects in their raw form, but only through our perceptual representations of them.

Objects of perception are the entities we attend to when we perceive the world. Perception lies at the root of all our empirical knowledge. So far there are 3 theories of perception mainly, that is, direct realism [14], indirect realism, Gestalt principles [15]. The fundamental question we shall consider concerns the objects of perception: what is it we attend to when we perceive the world?

As you know that the binding problem is an important problem across many disciplines, including psychology, neuroscience, computational modeling, and even philosophy.

Feature binding is the process how a large collection of coupled neurons combines external data with internal memories into coherent patterns of meaning.

According to neural synchronization theory, feature binding is achieved via neural synchronization. When external stimuli come into the brain, neurons corresponding to the features of the same object will form a dynamic neural assembly by temporal synchronous neural oscillation, and the dynamic neural assembly, as an internal representation in the brain, codes the object in the external world.

In 1990, Eckhorn and coworkers proposed a Linking Field Network according to the synchronized neural oscillation in the visual cortex of cat [16]. Linking Field Network can synchronize stimuli evoked oscillations at different regions in the visual cortex if the regions have similar local coding properties. Referred to noisy neural model, Bayesian method and competition mechanism a computational model for feature binding has been proposed [17].

3.3. How Are Memories Stored and Retrieved?

Memory can be defined as a lasting representation that is reflected in thought, experience or behavior. Based on operation time memory can be categorized as sensory memory, working memory or short-term memory, long-term memory. Sensory memory is memory from our immediate sensory. Sensory memory preserves accurate representation of the physical features of sensory stimuli for a few seconds or less. Working memory holds information temporarily in the order of seconds to minutes.

Long-term memory can be considered a warehouse of all experiences, events, skills, words, rules, emotions, and judgments that have been attained from sensory and short-term memory.

In terms of the types of information stored long-term memory can be classified into declarative and non-declarative memories. Declarative memory can be further divided into episodic and semantic memory, while non-declarative memory consists of procedural memory and conditioning memory.

Understanding how memories are stored in the brain is an essential step toward understanding ourselves. Since the 1970s, work on isolated chunks of nervous-system tissue has identified a host of molecular players in memory formation. Many of the same molecules have been implicated in both declarative and non-declarative memory.

A key insight from this work has been that short-term memory involves chemical modifications that strengthen existing connections, called synapses, between neurons, whereas long-term memory requires protein synthesis and probably the construction of new synapses [18].

A brain has distributed memory system, that is, each part of brain has several types of memories that work in somewhat different ways, to suit particular purposes.

According to the stored time of contents memory can be divided into long term memory, short term memory and working memory. Research topics in memory exist coding, extract and retrieval of information. Current working memory attracts more researchers to involve.

Working memory will provides temporal space and enough information for complex tasks, such as understanding speech, learning, reasoning and attention. There are memory and reasoning functions in the working memory. It consists of three components: that is, central nervous performance system, video space primary processing and phonetic circuit [19].

Memory phenomena have also been categorized as explicit or implicit. Explicit memories involve the hippocampus-medial temporal lobe system. The most common current view of the memorial functions of the hippocampal system is the declarative memory. There are a lot of research issues that are waiting for us to resolve.

What is the readout system from the hippocampal system to behavioral expression of learning in declarative memory? Where are the long-term declarative memories stored after the hippocampal system? What are the mechanisms of time-limited memory storage in hippocampus and storage of permanent memories in extrahippocampal structures?

Implicit memory involves the cerebellum, amygdale, and other systems [20]. The cerebellum is necessary for classical conditioning of discrete behavioral responses under all condition. It is learning to make specific behavioral responses. The amygdales system is learning fear and associated autonomic responses to deal with the situation.

3.4. What Is the Neural Basis of Language?

Language is fundamentally a means for social communication. Language is also often held to be the mirror of the mind. Chomsky developed transformational grammar that cognitivism replaced behaviorism in linguistics [21].

Through language we organize our sensory experience and express our thoughts, feelings, and expectations. Language is particular interesting from cognitive informatics point of view because its specific and localized organization can explore the functional architecture of the dominant hemisphere of the brain.

Recent studies of human brain show that the written word is transferred from the retina to the lateral geniculate nucleus, and from there to the primary visual cortex. The information then travels to a higher-order center, where it is conveyed first to the angular gyrus of the parietal-temporal-occipital association cortex, and then to Wernicke's area, where the visual information is transformed into a phonetic representation of the word. For spoken word the auditory information is processed by primary auditory cortex. Then the information input to higher-order auditory cortex, before it is conveyed to a specific region of the parietal-temporal-occipital association cortex, the angular gyrus, which is concerned with the association of incoming auditory, visual, and tactile information. From here the information is projected to Wernicke's area and Broca's area. In Broca's area the perception of language is translated into the grammatical structure of a phrase and the memory for word articulation is stored [22].

3.5. How Does the Brain Learn?

Learning is the basic cognitive activity and accumulation procedure of experience and knowledge. Through learning the system performance will be improved. Perceptual learning, cognitive learning, implicit learning are active research topics in the learning area.

Perceptual learning should be considered as an active process that embeds particular abstraction, reformulation and approximation within the Abstraction framework.

The active process refers to the fact that the search for a correct data representation is performed through several steps. A key point is that perceptual learning focuses on low-level abstraction mechanism instead of trying to rely on more complex algorithm. In fact, from the machine learning point off view, perceptual learning can be seen as a particular abstraction that may help to simplify complex problem thanks to a computable representation.

Indeed, the baseline of Abstraction, i.e. choosing the relevant data to ease the learning task, is that many problems in machine learning cannot be solve because of the complexity of the representation and is not related to the learning algorithm, which is referred to as the phase transition problem. Within the abstraction framework, we use the term perceptual learning to refer to specific learning task that rely on iterative representation changes and that deals with real-world data which human can perceive.

In contrast with perceptual learning cognitive leaning is a leap in the process of cognition and generate knowledge through clustering, classification, conceptualization and so on. In general, there are inductive learning, analogical learning, case-based learning, explanation learning, evolutional learning connectionist learning.

The core issue of cognitive learning is self-organizing principles. Kohonen has proposed a self-organizing maps which is a famous neural network model. Babloyantz applied chaotic dynamics to study brain activity. Haken has proposed a synergetic approach to brain activity, behavior and cognition.

Introspective learning is an inside learning of brain, which means without input information from outside environment. We have proposed a model for introspecttive learning which employs case-based reasoning and ontology-based knowledge [23].

The term implicit learning was coined by Reber to refer to the way people could learn structure in a domain without being able to say what they had learnt [24]. Reber first proposed artificial grammars to study implicit learning for unconscious knowledge acquisition. It will help us to understand the learning mechanism without consciousness. Since middle of 1980's implicit learning become an active research area in psychology.

3.6. How to Think in Human Brain?

Thought is a reflection of essential attributes and internal laws of objective reality in conscious, indirect and generalization by human brain with consciousness [25]. In recent years, there has been a noteworthy shift of interest in cognitive science.

Cognitive process rises man's sense perceptions and impressions to logical knowledge. According to abstraction degree of cognitive process, human thought can be divided into three levels: perception thought, image thought and abstraction thought.

Perception thought is the lowest level of thought. Behavior is the objective of research in perception thought. Reflection is a function of stimulus. Perception thought emphasizes stimulus-reflection schema or perceptionaction schema. The thought of animal and infant usually belong to perception thought because they can not introspect, and also can not declare empirical consciousness. In perception thought, intelligent behavior takes place without representation and reasoning.

Behavior-based artificial intelligence has produced the models of intelligence which study intelligence from the bottom up, concentrating on physical systems, situated in the world, autonomously carrying out tasks of various sorts. They claim that the simple things to do with perception and mobility in a dynamic environment took evolution much longer to perfect. Intelligence in human have been taking place for only a very small fraction of our evolutionary lineage. Machine intelligence can take evolution by the dynamics of interaction with the world.

Image thought adopts intuitive imagery as thinking element. Intuitive imagery is one kind of information which acquires through processing perceptual representtation, but does not yet generate concepts of language.

Typical image thought is pattern recognition which can deal with pattern information, such as character, image, speech, classification and recognition of objects, and so on [10,25].

Based on perceptual knowledge, the process which reflects the common properties and exposes internal relations of distinct objects through concepts, judgment and inference is called abstraction thought. Concepts are no longer the phenomena, the separate aspects and the external relations, while reflect the essences and internal relations of objects. Judgment represents the certain relations between conceptions. Inference acquires new knowledge from existing knowledge. There are existing deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, and abductive reasoning currently. By means of judgment and inference one is able to draw logical conclusions. Logical knowledge is capable of grasping the development of the surrounding world in its totality, the internal relations of all its aspects.

Attention focuses consciousness to produce greater vividness and limits the number of thoughts that can be entertained at one time. Attention forces human thinking process from parallel to sequential in terms of leaping from image thought to abstraction thought.

3.7. What Is the Procedure of Intelligence Development?

From pregnant with, born to the adult's coursing human cerebral cortex passed perception and effectors with external environment that mutual and plasticity development takes place, cause corresponding intelligence and cognitive ability to reach maturity progressively. The first theory of intelligence development which is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence developed by Jean Piaget. It is primarily known as a developmental stage theory. Jean Piaget proposes that there are four distinct, increasingly sophisticated stages of mental representation that children pass through on their way to an adult level of intelligence [27].

1) From birth to 2 years old is the sensorimotor stage.

2) From 2 years old to 7 years old is pre-operation stage. The Preoperational Stage can be further broken down into the Pre-conceptual stage and the Intuitive stage.

3) Concrete operational stage is between the ages of 7 and 11 years. This stage is characterized by the appropriate use of internalized, reversible, conservative and logical actions.

4) Formal operational stage is between the ages of 12 and 15 years. In this stage, individuals move beyond concrete experiences and begin to think abstractly, reason logically and draw conclusions from the information available, as well as apply all these processes to hypothetical situations.

Soviet psychologist Vygotsky's most important contribution concerns the inter-relationship of language development and thought. This concept, explored in Vygotsky's book Thought and Language, establishes the explicit and profound connection between speech, and the development of mental concepts and cognitive awareness [28].

In recent years, biological mechanism, computational theory and cognitive applications of intelligence development have obtained very great development. Studying on Independent motivation and utility system in cognitive computation, internal representation and development mechanism based on the basis of sensory perception and action effection, getting nonspecific study and characteristics of popularization and application, and

development structure of cognitive computation scholars have made the abundant achievements. Through the study of intelligence development the mankind can expand physical limit greatly.

3.8. What Is the Nature of Emotion?

The mental perception of some fact excites the mental affection called the emotion, and that this latter state of mind gives rise to the bodily expression. Emotion is a complex psychophysical process that arises spontaneously, rather than through conscious effort, and evokes either a positive or negative psychological response and physical expressions. Research on emotion at varying levels of abstraction, using different computational methods, addressing different emotional phenomena, and basing their models on different theories of affect.

Since the early 1990s emotional intelligence is systematically studied [29]. Scientific articles suggested that there existed an unrecognized but important human mental ability to reason about emotions and to use emotions to enhance thought. Emotional intelligence refers to an ability to recognize the meanings of emotion and their relationships, and to reason and problem solve on the basis of them. Emotional intelligence is involved in the capacity to perceive emotions, assimilate emotion-related feelings, understand the information of those emotions, and manage them.

Emotional state refers to one's internal dynamics when one has an emotion. Emotional states influence available information in working memory, subjective utility of alternative choices and style of processing. There are five models on emotion have been proposed, that is, Ortony Clore Collins cognitive model [30], Roseman's cognitive appraisal model [31], three-layer architecture [32], six-layer architecture [33], four elicitors for emotion synthesis [34]. However, till today, there is no model that can completely represent the human emotional system.

One of the key problems is how to map emotional states to behaviors. Another problem is the possible emotional circuitry in the brain. The process of emotion engages parts of the cortex, in particular the frontal cortex. The frontal cortex communicates with the limbic system and impacts decision-making.

3.9. What Is the Nature of Consciousness?

The most important scientific discovery of the present era will come to answer how exactly do neurobiological processes in the brain cause consciousness? The question "What is the biological basis of consciousness?" is selected as one of 125 questions, a fitting number for Science's 125th anniversary. Recent scientifically oriented accounts of consciousness emerging from the properties and organization of neurons in the brain. Consciousness is the notions of mind and soul.

The physical basis of consciousness appears to be the most singular challenge to the scientific, reductionist world view. Francis Crick's book 'The astonishing Hypothesis' is an effort to chart the way forward in the in vestigation of consciousness [35]. Crick has proposed the basic ideas of researching consciousness:

1) It seems probable, however, that at any one moment some active neuronal processes in your head correlate with consciousness, while others do not. What are the differences between them?

2) All the different aspect of consciousness, for example pain and visual awareness, employ a basic common mechanism or perhaps a few such mechanisms. If we could understand the mechanisms for one aspect, then we hope we will have gone most of the way to understanding them all.

Bernard Baars has proposed Global Workspace Theory (GWT) which integrates conscious contents with unconscious distributed expertise in the brain [36]. A theatre metaphor for GWT is a useful approximation. Unconscious processors in the theatre audience receive broadcasts from a conscious bright spot on the stage. Control of the bright spot corresponds to selective attention. Backstage, unconscious contextual systems operate to shape and direct conscious contents.

Chalmers suggests the problem of consciousness can be broken down into several separate questions. The major question is the neuronal correlate of consciousness (NCC) which focuses on specific processes that correlate with the current content of consciousness [37]. The NCC is the minimal set of neurons, most likely distributed throughout certain cortical and subcortical areas, whose firing directly correlates with the perception of the subject at the time. Discovering the NCC and its properties will mark a major milestone in any scientific theory of consciousness. Several other questions need to be answered about the NCC. What type of activity corresponds to the NCC? What causes the NCC to occur? And, finally, what effect does the NCC have on postsynaptic structures, including motor output.

3.10. How to Build Mind Model?

Mind could be defined as: "That which thinks, reasons, perceives, wills, and feels. The mind now appears in no way separate from the brain. In neuroscience, there is no duality between the mind and body. They are one." in Medical Dictionary [38]. A mind model is intended to be an explanation of how some aspect of cognition is accomplished by a set of primitive computational processes.

A model performs a specific cognitive task or class of tasks and produces behavior that constitutes a set of predictions that can be compared to data from human performance.

Task domains that have received considerable attention include problem solving, language comprehension, memory tasks, and human-device interaction.

Researchers try to construct mind model to illustrate how brains do. Anderson and colleagues have demonstrated that a production rule analysis of cognitive skill, along with the learning mechanisms posited in the ACT-R model, provide detailed and explanatory accounts of a range of regularities in cognitive skill acquisition in complex domains such as learning to program Lisp [39]. ACT-R also provides accounts of many phenomena surrounding the recognition and recall of verbal material, and regularities in problem solving strategies [40-42].

In the early 1980's, SOAR was developed to be a system that could support multiple problem solving methods for many different problems [43]. In the mid 1980's, Newell and many of his students began working on SOAR as a candidate of unified theories of cognition.

SOAR is a learning architecture that has been applied to domains ranging from rapid, immediate tasks such as typing and video game interaction to long stretches of problem solving behavior [44]. SOAR has also served as the foundation for a detailed theory of sentence processing, which models both the rapid on-line effects of semantics and context, as well as subtle effects of syntactic structure on processing difficulty across several typologically distinct languages.

Stan Franklin et al. have proposed a mind model called LIDA [45,46] which is grounded in the LIDA cognitive cycle. Each cognitive cycle the LIDA agent first makes sense of its current situation as best as it can. It then decides what portion of this situation is most in need of attention. Broadcasting this portion, the current contents of consciousness, enables the agent to finally chose an appropriate action and execute it.

A new mind model called Consciousness and Memory (CAM) is proposed by Intelligence Science Laboratory of Institute of Computing Technology [47].

The consciousness possesses a set of planning schemes which arrange the components of CAM to accomplish different cognitive tasks. The memory part contains three types of memory which are long term memory, short term memory and working memory. The high level cognitive function part includes a class of high level cognitive functions such as event detection, action execution etc.

In CAM model, for episodic memory we employ case-based system to retrieve the episode according to the cues; while for semantic memory we adopt dynamic description logic to represent concepts and reasoning.

Also we develop the cognitive cycle consists of awareness, intension, action composition which will be discussed in another paper.

4. Conclusions and Perspective

Intelligence Science is a new paradigm and interdisciplinary subject. Ten basic issues of Intelligence Science have been explored in the paper. These problems will constitute foundation of Intelligence Science and waiting for scientist to study.

Intelligence Science will let the human dream be reality to replace human brain work by machine intelligence.

The incremental efforts in neuroscience and cognitive science provide us exciting solid foundation to explore brain model and intelligent behavior. We should research on neocortical column, population coding, mind model, consciousness etc. for the human-level intelligence [48].

We believe that intelligence science will make great progress and new breakthroughs in the coming years. It is a good opportunity to contribute our intellect and ability to promote the development of intelligence science and become a bright spot of human civilization in 21 century.

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Growing for a Theory of the Developing Mind

in and around the Ivory Tower

Andreas Demetriou

University of Nicosia, Cyprus

Growing for a Theory of the Developing Mind in and around the Ivory Tower

When I was invited to write this autobiographical note I wondered who on earth might be interested to read it? What my audience might be? Shall I myself read somebody else's autobiographical note? So far I myself read only two autobiographies, those of Freud and Darwin, and the biographies of a few people such as Piaget and Einstein. My work is by no means comparable to the work of these Giants. Eventually, I decided to accept the invitation in order to reflect on my life and choose among my reflections those who might be interesting for some people. Prominent among those they are the following:

1. As a developmental scientist myself I would like to be useful for life-span developmental scientists who study life-span development with an interest in how a professional career is chosen, how it interacts with important life evetns and cycles, and how it provides meaning to life at different life phases.

2. Students and future researchers in psychology and education who are interested to follow a research career in these fields and they would like to see why it might be worthwhile to follow a life course in these fields of science, from the point of view of somebody who already walked most of the road.

3. Researchers of science who study the birth and development of scientific ideas.

4. Fellow academics and researchers, especially the younger ones, who at the peak of their research career are tempted or invited to serve in demanding administrative positions in academia, such as the office of the Rector, or in politics, such as the office of the Minister in government of one's country.

The Formative Years: From British Curfew to Aristotle University

I grew up in Cyprus, in a small village, Strongylos, in the Messaoria plains. There were about 300 Greeks and as many Turks, separated in two neighborhoods divided by a street running through the whole village. In a sense, this was a relic of the Ottoman presence in Cyprus. I was a child in the 50s, when Cyprus was still a British colony and an adolescent in the 60s, just after Cyprus gained its independence. Literally speaking, my memories of childhood have nothing academic. There was no electricity, no tab water, no phones, and of course no television. But there was everything else: The immense power of history, past and recent. The community involved "us" and "them". Bonds between "Us" were close, almost a 300-member family. The "others" were a different world, close in space but very remote in the minds. This was the school of human evolution teaching us that the world is segregated by language, religion, culture, and history.

Memories of this world are embroidered on a background of Mediterranean fields, green in the winder but decorated with all sorts of flower colors and brown and yellow in the summer. The horizon at the far north was interrupted by Pentadaktylos, our mountain, to make us as children wonder what was behind, if anything. At the near east it was interrupted by a hill, full of wonders in our eyes. This hill was the wonderland of our explorations. We used to go there to explore unknown caves, see uncharted land, come close to the boundaries of the prohibited land, and even excavate archeological treasures.

Like most other families in the community, we made our living from agriculture. We were relatively comfortable but not affluent. Making a living from agriculture at those times required hard work by all members of the families, since a very early age. This engrafted on us a sense of responsibility and obligation to the family and the community together with the motivation to escape to a better world. Education was the road to this world. Thus, there was hunger for education both in the community and the family. In the family, my mother was pushing for persistence, success, and distinction ("There is no 'I can't; only I don't want" was her motto!) and my father was pushing for pride. And growing with two younger brothers, Demetris, only by 3 years, and Aristotelis, 13 years younger, gives a kick start in later setting a research group where competition and protected cooperation are a recipe for success.

Every child went to the primary school in the village. Reflecting back, we received good education by the standards of the time. Explicitly and implicitly, our education opened our minds to the whole world. Columbus, Captain Cook, and Julius Vern were there to take us to strange worlds, past or future, far beyond the Messaoria horizons. The Incas, the Maoris, and the worlds on the moon pulled our boundaries much beyond the horizon ending at Pentadaktylos mountains. But it was restrictive too, because these times were fervent for Cyprus. It was the period of liberation uprising against the British (1955-59) and the inter-communal conflict with the Turks. The school systematically transfused into us the sense of belonging to the Greek nation and transformed the historical boundaries between Greeks and Turks into mental boundaries. It was very successful education in both respects! The boundaries grew hard and mark a no man's dead zone!

In August 1960 everything changed. We became an independent country. There was optimism for the years to come, fast development in every aspect of life, and a sense of obligation in every one to get involved in building a new country. The fruits planted in the years before were ripe to be harvested: Go to high school and then to the University to become a scientist. I passed the exams, both written and oral (which were close to an inquisition), and I was accepted at the Pancyprian School, which boasts to be the oldest Greek school in the modern world (it started in 1812, before the Greek revolution). The school was indeed good: It was tough and strict teaching us that there is no limit to learning but this can only come from non-stop hard work. Fortunately, the theory that learning at school must always be pleasant was not around at the time!

In Piagetian terms, I must have entered formal operations quite early. I was reflective, questioning, argumentative, and very much interested in politics from the very beginning of secondary school. I reflected on the society and the country and leaned left, assuming that socialism can make a better, freer and fairer world. This might have been a reaction against the nationalist and religious messages imposed on us by both, the school and the society at large. I remember myself pondering the existence of God, developing the logical arguments for and against it. I do not ponder the question as such since then, but I am still doing research on children's conception of Gods and the interaction of religious thought with intellectual development and life choices.

Some experiences in this phase contributed crucially to decisions and orientations I still follow. For good or bad, I was part of an experiment on mathematics teaching which included supposedly strong first-graders. It was based on the assumption that learning mathematics must start from set theory. It was the time when Piagetian theory was very popular among educators as a frame of learning mathematics. Piaget's claim that logical and mathematical thought is grounded in the logic of classes and relations was interpreted at that time to imply that learning mathematics via set theory is good for learning mathematics in general. Actually it might be, if there is a complete model specifying how this approach would relate to other aspects of mathematics and systematically develop in time. This model never came into being. Thus, as it is quite common in education, the experiment was abandoned after two or three years, probably because decision makers thought that we do not learn the proper mathematics. Thus, they got us back into the classrooms where the classical stuff was taught. It was shocking. It was all new to me and very often I felt that I couldn't catch up. I lagged behind and the effect radiated to the sciences, to the extent mathematics was needed. As a result, I turned away from the sciences as an option for university studies.

My socio-political interests and facility with language compensated for my difficulties in the sciences. Due to a model teacher of the time, Theodoros Stylianou, I developed interests in sociology and psychology which were much beyond the school curriculum. I read a lot about Mahatma Ganti and his ideas and activities. These ideas are still with me. I came across Freud and read the "Introduction to psychoanalysis". I was excited. I studied this book, which I treasured, thoroughly and feel that my understanding of psychoanalysis still draws upon that reading. In any case, I decided that I will study sociology or psychology.

Throughout the school years I was heavily reading literature—all sorts but especially Greek novels. Kazantzakis (the author of Zorba the Greek) was my preferred author due to both his world view and his originality in using Greek. For some time, I even thought of becoming a novelist. I wrote poems and novels and this resulted into my first publication when I was 16 (Demetriou, 1971). This was a novel titled "Struggle", dealing with father-son and Greek-Turks relations and it was embedded in the agricultural activities of the village. The novel was awarded the "Best novel" prize of the school in the year 1969 and the activity as a whole was awarded the "Greek letters" prize.

That was it: I made my mind that I will go to the social sciences and I was confident that I was good in writing. I chose the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki because it offered the programs I wanted.

Studying at the Aristotle University: From Freud to Piaget

After about one year of national military service, I started my studies at the School of Philosophy of the Aristotle University in the fall of 1970. There were several options. I chose the program in Psychology and Education. Looking back, the program was good, in the spirit of the German bildung. We acquired a good background in classical studies and philosophy and a sound background in psychology and education. The representation of schools of thought was also good. Depending upon the professor, the theory-based continental school of thought and the empiricist Anglo-Saxon traditions were well represented. The psychology component robustly represented the cognitive revolution of the 60s, the rise of Piaget and Vygotsky at that time, and the Chomskyan revolution in linguistics. The clinical training was fair and eclectic, well representing psychodynamic theory but with a leaning to behaviormodification. During my studies I was attracted to clinical psychology and even decided to specialize in it. In fact, as a student, I participated in the clinical activities of the Department, practicing behavior modification under the supervision of Mika Fatouros.

Becoming an academic

In the summer of 1974 there was a coup d' etat in Cyprus against the President which was followed by the Turkish invasion in Cyprus and the occupation of about one third of its land, including my village. At that time I was in Cyprus for the summer vacations. I was called to the army and released in September, when I returned to take the final exams, with the prospects looking grave. I graduated in March 1975 with a good degree. Returning back to Cyprus was futile then and of course the means for graduate studies have gone because of the war. Unfortunate as they are, these coincidences opened my road to academia and the research I am still doing: Professor Lambros Houssiadas, my professor and mentor and the pater familias of modern psychology in Greece, offered me the post of the research assistant at the Department. I proudly accepted the offer.

Having a job I decided to start a family. I was married to Litsa Tsakalea, after a long campus affair. We are still growing together; the flames are still burning but, in Doppler's terms, their color shifts with time to suit the new challenges of life. She was ideal for creating the stability and home atmosphere that was necessary for the long course in science that just started. These events permanently framed my life.

Soon after I started working in the fall of 1975, Professor Houssiadas asked me to teach Piaget to undergraduate students. I was thrilled by Piaget. I was enticed by the complexity of his thought, feeling that reading him was a mind stretcher. Piaget's genetic epistemology, integrating psychology, biology, philosophy, logic, and education, was cognitive science long before the term was coined in the 60s. I still consider two of his books, "Biology and knowledge" (Piaget, 1974) and the "Growth of logical thought: From childhood to adolescence" (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958) to be among the best books of psychology I ever read. So, that was what I was looking for.

I decided to do my doctoral dissertation on Piagetian theory. At the same time, I was still involved in clinical activities.

Thus, when I spent a year in Australia at the University of New South Wales by means of a scholarship offered to me by the Australian Government I followed both lines. I was testing children in primary schools for my doctoral experiments, attended the Master program in behavior modification, and heavy courses in statistics and cognitive psychology. The year in Australia was seminal because it helped me put my work in the perspective of cognitive science and write technical English. Dr. John Taplin, my supervisor then, was very helpful in both of these tasks.

In the years following my visit in Australia I was fully occupied by my doctoral experiments. I submitted the thesis in 1982 and settled in cognitive and developmental psychology. I practically abandoned my involvement with clinical psychology but remained always clinically sensitive in dealing with evidence in research or about individuals.

Theory Building and Empirical Research

Piaget was a great man. Freud legitimized the unconscious and the forces of nature in us but Piaget legitimized childhood, showing that children are not little adults—they live in a different world. But his theory was plagued by many weaknesses. This is actually the cost that most foundational theories have: They secure a glorious place in the history of a discipline but they are plagued by foundational weaknesses as well. Their descriptive constructs are too general to accommodate the delicate complexities of the phenomena they are concerned with (the human

mind here) and their explanatory constructs are two global to accommodate the variety of causal relations in these phenomena (learning and development here). I soon set myself the task to develop a theory that would preserve the strengths and remove the weakness of Piaget's theory. This theory, so far, evolved in three phases: The Piagetian (1977-1987), the neo-Piagetian (1987-1996), and the universal phase (1996-present). I will outline them below.

The Piagetian phase: From Structures d' Ensemble to Specialized Structural Systems

In the late 70s, when I started, Piaget's theory was still the dominant model of cognitive development. By that time, many of the problems of this theory were obvious to cognitive developmental researchers: Research showed that the Piagetian structures of the whole do not account for the organization of cognitive processes. Moreover, equilibration was too general to explicate why and how development occurs. At the beginning, I focused on the problem of structure. With many colleagues, Anastasia Efklides in particular at that time, we tested people with original Piaget's tasks Piagetian-like tasks addressed to concrete or formal operations and used psychometric methods to analyze their organization. The Piagetian structures did not emerge (Demetriou & Efklides, 1985; Shayer, Demetriou & Prevez, 1988). Specialized domains, such as quantitative, causal, and spatial though, emerged as very powerful organizational factors of development and performance. These were called Specialized Structural Systems (SSS). Thus, in this first phase I formulated a theory of cognitive domains that was well tuned with psychometric theories of intelligence and the core processes movement of the time (Demetriou & Efklides, 1981; Shayer et al., 1988). At that time I visited Geneva many times. I wanted to see Piaget and his colleagues and talk with them about their and my own research. I saw Piaget for a very short time and still treasure the memory of his imposing presence. I met with many of his close colleagues, such as Barbel Inhelder, Hermina Sinclair, Magali Bovet, Pierre Dasen, and Willem Doise, and spent time searching in Piaget's archives. I even gave a talk about my research to their research seminar. It was my firm impression that they were too loyal to the theory and not really interested to grasp the implications of research on Piagetian theory that was going on outside Geneva. They were already a school of thought coming from other times and these schools of thought do not adjust: in the fullness of time they just come to a closure.

My two sons, Pantelis and Demetris, were born in this phase. Watching them developing was instructive. Piaget was right in the phenomena he discovered. Everything came on time, object constancy, intuitive thought, the conservations, the suppositional stance of the adolescent. Being a cognitive developmentalist is good for empowering the mind of your children and giving them a drive for freedom. I hope that now, both in their 30s, they can themselves judge and that they agree.

The neo-Piagetian phase: From SSS to Mental Processing

The next phase was very productive. This reflected, to a large extent, the dynamics of the country and the University at that time. Everything was vibrant and explosive. The country was striving to meet the European challenge and the University was expanding in many ways. For the first time, research money was available. We started a new graduate program in cognitive and developmental psychology and so my research was infused with the vigor of new graduate students who came to study with me. Maria Platsidou, Smaragda Kazi, Nicos Makris, Eleftheria Gonida, George Spanoudis, James Adecoya from Nigeria and Xiang Shang Kui from China, and many others were involved in our research which focused on the question of transition. Following the trends of the time, we studied how various aspects of information processing, such as speed of processing, control and inhibition, and working memory, relate to transitions across developmental levels of thought.

The so called neo-Piagetian researchers, especially Juan Pascual-Leone and Robbie Case, were very influential at that time, both stressing the role of working memory in cognitive development. We showed that other factors, such as speed and control of processing, are equally, if not more, important for cognitive development than working memory. Moreover, we specified how the SSS are related to these dimensions of mental processing. It was deeply gratifying when this work made it to the Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (Demetriou et al., 1993, 2002). On another track, with a logician friend, Philip Kargopoulos, we tried to develop the logical substantiation for the psychological differentiation between SSS (Kargopoulos & Demetriou, 1998). This line of research needs to be developed. We also showed that SSS are accurately reflected into subjective aspects of mental processing. This suggested that self-awareness of cognitive processes is important for cognitive organization and change (Demetriou & Efklides, 1989), lending an experiential dimension mental functioning. However, it is only just now that I realized how cognizance catalyzes cognitive transitions. An experiment to highlight this force of change just started. Expanding on the previous phase, we detailed development within the various domains, such as quantitative and causal thought and tried to specify how they relate to the general processes represented by speed and working memory (see Demetriou et al., 2010, for references and elaboration).

There was strong interest in our work during this phase. People wanted to visit us in Thessaloniki and I was invited to visit and talk at many renowned Universities all over the world, such as Stanford, Yale, and Harvard, and most of the prestigious European Universities, such as Amsterdam, Complutence, Edinburgh, Leiden, Leuven, Nijmegen, Munich, Gothenburg Gottingen, Wurzburg, to mention only a few. Admittedly wondering around the world Universities gives a sense of fulfillment. After all, the road from colonial Cyrpus and the Messaoria plains of the 50s was a long one. But, as put by Homer at the very beginning of his Odyssey, the big gain of travelling is knowing the other people's minds. Many of them were influential one way or another. I met all of the neo-Piagetians theorists: Robbie Case, Kurt Fischer, Graeme Halford, and Juan Pascual-Leone, and some other important researchers of cognitive development, such as Robert Siegler and Robert Sternberg. I was even active to promote the neo-Piagetian movement, organizing symposia with all of these scholars at important conferences. Some of this work appeared in two edited volumes (Demetriou, 1987; Demetriou et al., 1992). The relation with these people grew into friendship, closer with some of them, Robbie Case and Juan Pascual-Leone.

Robbie's early and unexpected death at 56 was a great loss for the field. He was a deep thinker still having much to offer. In fact, our two theories might have developed very differently if he were still alive. We started working together to integrate the two theories. One study was accepted for publication a few weeks before he passed away so that he never saw it in print (Case et al., 2001). A happy coincidence in concern to this paper was having Arthur Jensen as a reviewer. He was extremely constructive and helpful. I am honored to still cooperate with Juan Pascual-Leone and, in the current days, do work with him. He was the founder of the neo-Piagetian movement. In recognition of his important contribution to developmental psychology

the University of Cyprus bestowed upon him the honorary doctorate. Thus, we are academically bonded in the history of the field. Discussing with Juan about theory building is always a mind enriching experience.

Jan-Eric Gustafsson of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Michael Shayer of Kings College, London, are two important methodological influences coming from this period. Jan-Eric introduced me into the intricacies and the technicalities of structural equation modeling, which became one of my main methodological tools in the service of the development of the theory. Michael taught me his method of discrimination level analysis and we did important work together (Shayer et al., 1988). This method allows the systematic study of developmental structure of performance on large numbers of tasks. These two methods served as the instruments that allowed me to play the music that would get Jensen and Piaget to tango, so to speak: i.e., to work for the integration of the differential and the developmental theory of intelligence into a comprehensive theory. With Michael we are still closely working together (Demetriou et al., 2013).

The universal phase: Mind the Mind

By the mid-90s a comprehensive theory was already in place. The architecture of the mind, the development of the various processes and their relations were at the core of the theory. The relations between these processes and self and personality were at the periphery. In a sense, my initial interest in clinical and psychodynamic theory was gradually coming back. The main postulates are as follows:

1. The mind involves both general and specialized processes. Namely, (i) representational capacity (how much information we can represent and process at a given moment), (ii) abstraction and inference (integrative processes identifying and relating information and meaning), (iii) domain-specific processes (recording and processing of specific types of information and relations, such as verbal, spatial, quantitative), and (iv) cognizance (awareness, control, and metarepresentation of mental processes) (Demetriou et al., 2011). Cognizance interacts with personality, channeling individuals to formulate strategies for information seeking and handling that are in general accordance with their intellectual profile (Demetriou & Kazi, 2001; Demetriou et al., 2003)

2. All of these processes are always present in mental functioning but their relations and change with learning and development. Development occurs in four cycles: (i) Pre-representations from birth to 2 years, based on observational and action episodes. Global representational from 2 to 6 years; these are the mental analogues of observational and action episodes. (iii) Generic concepts from 7 to 11 years; these are encodings of the relations between representations. (iv) Finally, principles from 12 to 16 years; these are rules defining acceptable relations between concepts and the logical processes governing their relations. Production of new representations dominates at the beginning of each period; later representations are aligned and inter-related, preparing transition to the next period.

3. Thus, with development, students can deal with increasingly more representations. They become increasingly adept in using inference to connect representations and evaluate conclusions. Also, they invent new representations to stand for the relations between representations (e.g., a class name such as "mammal" standing for very different animals) and they can flexibly alternate between them according to current needs. As a result the concepts or problems children can master develop drastically (Demetriou et al, 2010). Development transforms the worldview prevailing at successive phases of life. Interestingly, the two main markers of the efficiency of mental processing, speed and working memory, are differentially related to the cycles of thought development. Speed marks transitions across cycles and working memory marks development within cycles (Demetriou et al., 2013).

4. Intellectual development may come from genetically driven changes in the brain or it may be a reaction to experience, including learning at school. Thus, progression withing the cycles above or across them may vary extensively across concepts within individuals or across individuals for a given concept. Variation depends on experience and learning that may differ for different concepts or individuals (Demetriou et al., 2002). In any case, there is a personal and subjective side to intellectual development. This is reflected in the grasp of insight about the nature of representations dominating in each cycle and the mental processes underlying their alignment. Cycle after cycle, the awareness about the new cycle-specific representations is minimal at the beginning and it builds up as the relations between them are worked out. By the end of the cycle, awareness becomes explicit and it is part of the generation of the mental units opening the new cycle. Interestingly, in experiments addressed to learning how to reason, individual differences in working memory are a strong predictor of who is going to acquire awareness about reasoning processes and use them properly. Thus, in a sense, working memory is the window to cognizance that is needed to master new logical principles. However, in experiments addressed to learning new skills or concepts in a domain, such as mathematics, individual differences in reasoning and prior knowledge were the best predictors of individual differences in learning. Thus, the effects of mental efficiency markers on domain-specific learning are mediated by inferential processes (Demetriou & Kazi, 2001, 2006).

Serving the Community

In terms of the Big Five Factors of personality, I enjoy being and working with people (high extroversion), thrive in change (high openness to experience), can stand pressure (low in neuroticism), I play with rather than abide by rules (average in conscientiousness), and care for others but don't mind if am not always pleasant (average in agreeableness). I discovered early that this profile is conducive to social and political activities. The others accept you, they seek your company, they vote for you in elections most of the times, although they may sometimes be pissed off. These inclinations, together with my political interests, led me into both, active involvement in the academic life of the University and the scientific community at large.

At the Aristotle University, I was very instrumental in the separation of the section of psychology from the Department of Psychology and Education and the creation of an autonomous Department of Psychology. I served as the first chairman of this Department in the early 90s. At the same time, I was very active, with several colleagues from all over Greece (notably Professors John Paraskevopoulos and Jim Georgas of the University of Athens), in the creation of Greek Psychological Society in 1989 and the starting of Psychology: The Journal of Greek Psychological Society. I was the first secretary general of the Society and the founding Editor of journal. At the same time, I was actively involved in the development of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction which started in 1985. I served as a member of its governing board for two terms, under the presidency of Erik De Corte. I was also an associate editor of its journal, Learning and Instruction and the Editor of the Advances in Learning in Instruction, the EARLI book series. These experiences were extremely enriching for a young lecturer. I became acquainted with the European academic world and acquired self-evaluation standards that were very useful for the further development of my research.

There was no University in Cyprus until the 80s. The reason was political. The local establishment was concerned that a University in Cyprus may weaken the bonds with Greece. Eventually, a change in government in 1988 brought in power the first left-leaning government in Cyprus and a forward looking President, George Vassiliou. Fortunately, they soon started the University of Cyprus, which was conceived as a research University. Many Cypriot academics who were working all over the world took the challenge of creating a new University and they returned home. So, there we are. In 1996 I moved from my alma mater, the Aristotle University, to the University of Cyprus. I started as a Professor of Psychology at the Department of Education, as there was no Department of Psychology at the time.

At the beginning, there were very few experienced full professors at the University of Cyprus. As a result, involvement with administration was unavoidable. I was soon elected chairman of the Department of Education and two years later I was elected Vice-Rector of the University. The experience was great. The place was vibrant and enthusiastic in all respects. By a large majority, academics and administrators were very young, in their 30s or 40s. They all wanted to create a world-class University. The ambience around was good too. The people and the state were very supportive both because their children could eventually study in Cyprus but also because different voices were heard for the first time. Cyprus was economically doing well then. Thus, the University developed fast and became a respectable member of the European and international academia. We created new Schools and Departments, new services and institutions, and established a community of scholars. I will mention only one of these creations here: A new autonomous Department of Psychology, the second in my career.

However, not everything was easy. The conservative forces which objected the University were very resistant to it at the beginning. They often attacked us on the silly ground that we endanger the "Greekness" and the traditions of the place. Also, political parties, each for a different reason, were very uneasy with the University. It was a new center of power or influence out of their control. They systematically tried to control it by various means including changing the regulations about the participation of students in the elections for the administration of the University. They increased student participation because they influence them directly through their party-associated youth organizations. This caused a clash of the University with the state which resulted in the resignation of the Rector, Professor Nicholas Papamichael. I succeded him as acting Rector for several months and then ran for Rector at the elections. It is not a good thing to run for office in a system in a crisis, if you are not in the opposition. Thus I lost this election.

Losing the elections was frustrating because I served the University for six consecutive years—successfully I believe. But it was a good lesson because I learned that organizations do not return favors on the basis of a mutuality principle. They expect you to always do good for them but they do not forgive mistakes, real or imaginary. Moreover, in systems still on their way to maturity populism prevails! However, societies balance their give-and-take with individuals if the balance of one's actions is positive. Thus losing this election opened new challenges. The state decided to start a second University in Cyprus. I was invited to become its founding president. I wavered because the demands of the job were huge in every way: academic, administrative, and political. Moreover, I was concerned that this may halt my research. Eventually, I accepted because the opportunity to create a University is very rare in the life of a professor. After all, theories are destined to vanish sooner or later but institutions may be eternal. I chaired the Interim Governing Board involving 11 professors, Greek or Greek-Cypriot, representing all fields of science, coming from four different countries (Cyprus, Greece, UK, and the USA). The meetings of the Board were immensely rewarding. We gathered usually once a month and we convened for a couple of days, non-stop. It was highly stimulating to coordinate people coming from different University traditions, disciplines, and countries. But it was also impressive to see how strong a shared universal academic tradition is. This facilitated understanding and constructive decision making, which converged to the birth of the Cyprus University of Technology in 2004. The side-birth of the meetings was the "Rector's sandwich". This was the sandwich I took for lunch during our lunch breaks, which a restaurant owner at the market square named after me to honor the University and the Board. Now he also offers the "lecturer's sandwich" which is much less substantial than the Rector's sandwich—naturally so!

The Cyprus University of Technology is located in Limassol, the second largest city in Cyprus. We designed a University to expand the possibilities for studies and research offered by the University of Cyprus in orientations and studies. This University is oriented to applied research and it offers studies in most fields of applied science, social and natural, and the arts. We opted for a city University. We planted the university in the historical center of the city, which was deserted at the time. In this way we completely transformed the city. In a lucky combination with many other social and economic changes we transformed Limassol into a very nice Mediterranean University town.

My service to the community co-evolved with my research. In fact, the years from 1996 to 2008 were very productive in terms of research and publications. New research programs started on the relations between information processing and logical development (Demetriou et al, 2008), thought and personality development (Demetriou et al., 2003), thought and emotional intelligence (Demetriou, 2006). New doctoral students came to work with me. Maria Andreou, Terpsa Constantinidou, Antigoni Mouyi, Rita Panaoura, and Panayiotis Stavrinidis and others completed their dissertations during this period. I appreciate their contribution to the sustainability of the research program of a very busy Rector.

Stepping out of the Ivory Tower

High level academic administration is political, especially in countries with unsettled national and political disputes. A Rector is visible and he interacts with politicians. Thus, the road to politics is often short. This was my case. A left-center coalition won the 2008 presidential elections and the new President of Cyprus, Demetris Christofias, invited me to participate in his government as the Minister of Education and Culture. I accepted. I thought that I may contribute to bringing down the mental boundaries that divide the country and experienced from the years of my primary education. And felt that I can infuse something of the mentality of the cognitive developmental researcher and academic into a system dominated by local mentality for a long time.

It was the first time that I stepped out of the ivory tower of the University. The experience does have positive and unpleasant sides for an academic. The positive side first: It is a privilege to serve in your country's government. On the human side, it offers honors that would please every mortal. On the political side, no one can really understand how a state operates unless s/he sits around the cabinet's conference table and participates in decision making ruling a country. Moreover, it is utterly educational to learn the game of negotiating and balancing between all stake holders and institutions: Political parties, unions, institutions, such as the church, and the media, are all part of the every day's game. To implement actions and decisions the minister needs to juggle many balls. Also, it opens possibilities for doing things that no other post would allow. During my term we reformed the curriculum of every school subject, from preschool education to high school and we changed many structures in the Ministry. Happily, the new curricula are still in place and developing despite the change of two ministers since I left.

On the negative side, from decision to implementation the road is very long. At any moment, even under the best of intentions on the part of a government, decisions about education are disputed and challenged by other stake holders, agents, or institutions in society. In a sense, political conflict about educational policies originates from a fear on the part of forces opposing the government that education is used as a disguise for the long-term settlement of current political issues in the direction of the political party in power. Introducing new curricula may be a casus belli for many. History or language wars are common in countries where national or international disputes still linger. There have been countries, such as Greece, where new curricula in these sensitive subjects were scrapped. I had my own history war and survived, with some casualties. Mental boundaries are very difficult to bring down, especially when defended by brain washed missionaries led by populist politicians!

On top of politics, the bureaucracy may be a hindrance. Modern systems of education are vast systems of bureaucracy. They are governed by laws and regulations ruling everything. Laws exist at multiple layers, frequently clashing with each other, because they may have been legislated at different times by governments with different orientations and priorities. Also, education is served by a very complex administrative structure, involving multiple layers and departments. Administrative bureaucracies are constrained by their habitual ways of dealing with problems. When the pace of change is faster than what they can absorb, change may be halted. Hidden agendas are frequently present which come either from within administration itself, when change endangers the power balance within the system, or from connections between administration and agents in the society which oppose the government. Implementation of policies often is derailed skillfully and imperceptibly so that no one really knows why things stay stagnant.

Academics may not realize that however demanding the world of science is, it is a world of saints compared to the wild world of politics. In academia we care for truth—most of the time. In politics they don't—normally. In academia we praise the accomplished. We promote, a give awards and metals, we bestow honorary degrees, and the like. In politics you are always wrong for the opposition. Also, in politics no one really enjoys the other's success because it minimizes the chances of one's own success. In academia we understand that recognition may come after decades of work on a problem, if not posthumously. In politics they want it now, if not yesterday. With all of its shortcomings, evaluation in science is systematic and generally fair. In politics, it is based on popularity as controlled by the media and frequently on underground inter-dependencies of various sorts of interests. People in politics, in the economy, and the media strive for power, profit, and popularity. Their inter-dependencies are variable and often underground. As a result, violation of principle and morality are common and violation of the law is not uncommon. Staying untouched takes guts and alertness. Surviving is a feat. Succeeding is a miracle.

The differences between academic and politics may be big but there is something common. Both academics and politicians raise claims for a place in the minds of other people, students or citizens, and in history (their discipline or their country). This is of course an illusion for most of them but it keeps the machine running, sometimes in wrong directions!

The international aspect of the Minister's job is definitely among its assets. For a country of the European Union the experience is very instructive. Participating in the Council of Ministers of Education, Culture, and Sports is a powerful educational experience at many levels. Most important: Getting to know how other countries think about and solve their problems and participating in the historical process of European integration. For obvious reasons, education and culture fall under the subsidiarity principle. That is, decisions are indicative and advisory for the countries rather than mandatory. This process is at its early beginnings, and is guided by goals, both explicit and implicit, that may be in conflict with national priorities. For example, the goal for a European citizen is often interpreted with caution and mistrust by people and organizations in many European countries. There is as yet no commonly acceptable answer as to how or how much a European identity would be integrated with a national or a local identity. Obviously, answers to these questions vary depending upon the history, the culture, local conditions, and the size of each member state. Taking positions on these issues is not an easy business for the Ministers.

Bilateral ministerial exchanges between countries are very rewarding. Visits in different countries help understand how similar the problems are for sustaining quality education for all. Even in very different countries, such as the European countries on the one hand and Muslim countries or China, a world in its own, on the other hand, leaders strive for preparing thoughtful and knowledgeable citizens for a better world. And definitely this is what children themselves want: I saw this in the eyes of all children in every classroom I visited from Stockholm to Teheran, Kuala Lumbur and Beijing. Succeeding is a different story. It is my firm impression that politicians all over fall short of the demands of our meta-modern era where everything is changing fast, the borders of the spacetime have fallen, images from every corner of the world can come in every home at the blink of an eye and every one can generate or transmit information any time. Educational researchers and theorists need first to understand the implications of these changes and then help the leadership understand, cope, and prepare the world for them.

I was privileged to visit CERN and go down into the tunnel and see the Large Hadron Collider just before it was finally closed for the experiments to start. It is already well known that these experiments found the Higgs particle, which Peter Higgs predicted about 50 years earlier. He earned the Nobel Prize of this year (2013) for this prediction, which lends completeness to the so called standard model of physics. I was honored to participate in the 2010 Nobel Prize Award ceremony because one of the laureates in economics in that year, Christoforos Pissaridis, comes from Cyprus. I was touched to pay homage to Freud, visiting his house in Vienna. The Austrian colleague, knowing of my background, was kind enough to arrange this visit for me when I visited Austria. These encounters give depth to ones understanding of science and self-awareness about one's own limits! Being into the LHC helps place psychology in the perspective of mega-science and its exactness in crashing and modeling the nano-components of matter. I am sure Democritus's soul would get ecstatic if he could slip into the collider and see what the atoms he imagined about 2500 years really are. Being at the Nobel prize ceremony helps place our science in the perspective of modern global science: However important psychology is for people's life, it is a poor and distant relative in the distribution of public recognition and awards. Economics is neither more exact nor more helpful than psychology for people—the recycling economic crisis is an unpleasant attestation. Finally, being in Freud's house helps a psychologist place his theory in the perspective of probably the most influential theory ever created in the social sciences.

Some times, if a Minister is lucky enough, s/he may experience the fusion of the eons. I did have my share of luck when I had the opportunity to chat with Silvio Berlusconi, then Prime Minister of Italy, at the ceremony of the beatification of Pope Saint Paul VI at the Vatican Square. In these occasions you see how the layers of power coming through the millennia are intertwined to preserve power and control in ways far exceeding academics, only a recent development in the history of humanity.

Drawing the Educational Implications of the Theory

Doing science while a Rector is difficult but not impossible. Doing science while a Minister is next to impossible. But the development of the theory was my life organizer. So, I did not abandon it during these years. Obviously, it was impossible to start and run new experiments. However, I continued to work conceptually on the theory, mainly very early in the morning, from 6 to 7.30 am, or during the weekends. Given the concerns of the Minister of Education, I pondered extensively on the educational implications of the theory. This culminated in a monograph length essay published in the Educational Psychology Review (Demetriou et al., 2011) with very constructive commentaries by some distinguished colleagues (Lorin Anderson, Earl Hunt, and David Olson). In a nutshell, these are the educational postulates of the theory:

1. The worldview associated with each major educational layer (preschool, primary, and secondary) must be consolidated at the beginning of the layer and then used to prepare the transition to the next worldview: Preschoolers must acquire awareness of age-specific representations and build links between them. For example, look at a set of objects, name them, choose representations appropriate for each, and make a story for them, arranging the objects so that they match the story. Primary school children must acquire an insight into the mental processes underlying links. For example, explicate the object-word-image connections, conceive of alternative connections, and specify their similarities and differences. Adolescents must grasp the formal principles constraining these processes. For instance, explicate how the sequences of one such story necessarily follow from one another.

2. Education needs programs addressed to each of the four types of processes involved.

3. The complexity of concepts taught at successive school grades must be tuned to the representational possibilities typically associated with each grade.

4. The pacing of teaching of any concept must be tuned to the typical representational and processing rate of the grade concerned. Anyone may operate lower than his or her optimum level when first facing a new task. Thus, teaching must always start with examples demanding less than the students' optimum capacity.

To be able to implement these processes efficiently, education must cater for the following:

1. Develop and use diagnostic tools able to specify the discordance between understanding capabilities, developmental tempo of students, and teaching demands and pace.

2. Develop flexible curricula in the various school subjects that would allow individualization of teaching rate according to the possibilities of individual students.

3. Develop special remediation programs to enable students left behind to catch up and progress apace with their student mates.

4. Follow students at risk at major developmental/educational turning points to ensure that new teaching demands proceed apace with developmental transitions.

So, this is my revenge to the Piaget of the 60s, whose crude ideas about learning mathematics spoiled my possible choice of the sciences. I hope that we now are in a better condition to use cognitive developmental theory to guide education.

Conclusion: Back to the Ivory Tower

History in Cyprus is still active and it gets explosive every so often, changing the course of individual lives. It may not be a coincidence that in the summer of 2011 we managed to produce the largest explosion of conventional military explosives that ever happened. The explosion caused many deaths, the destruction of a major power plan, and a major political crisis. People marching around the presidential palace kept asking the president to resign. He refused, rightly so. But he reshuffled his government to maneuver his way out of the crisis. I was out of government and thus back to academia. Notably, the 74 war channeled me into academia. A war-like incidence in 2011 pulled me back to it.

For the first time in my life I work at a private university, the University of Nicosia as the president of the University of Nicosia Research Foundation. This implies that most of my time is dedicated to research, one way or another. After a long time, I am free of the administrative activities that burdened my life in the last 15 years. This is a happy development. I now have the time to concentrate on the theory and weave its final version into a magnum opus to come soon. The four years break in the Ministry was helpful in approaching old questions and concepts through a fresh eye and new methods of analysis. The discovery of the developmental cycles mentioned above, whose beginning is indexed by speed and deployment by working memory (Demetriou et al., 2013), was the result of this fresh look. At present, we run analyses on the data of many independent studies conducted by many esteemed researchers all over the world to validate the pattern. This pattern has many implications for individual intellectual diagnosis and the planning of learning activities. Also, we started a new series of experiments to specify the role of insight into mental processes in the transition across major developmental cycles.

A reader might ask here: Where do ideas come from in the process of developing a theory? How is the science establishment involved in this development? The contribution of others differs according to phase. At the beginning it is substantial. At my first phase, the combination of Piaget's conception of structure combined with psychometric methods of analyzing performance led to the discovery of SSS. We looked for Piaget's structures, we did not find them, and proposed structures emerging from the data. Later, the dialogue with others' ideas in oneself is more balanced. Searching for the central functions of mental processing, such as speed and working memory, was a combination of an understanding of what was missing from the theory with a search for good candidates. Later, ideas strive to bind with each other. Thus, they spring out of massaging old ideas all time, day or night, awake or asleep. Experiment and modeling at thisadvanced phase are just traffic signs to prevent derailing.

Other persons may give good hints but they do not generate ideas in you. This is the case with the reviewing business in science. I read hundreds of reviews of papers I submitted. Most of them good and some of them nasty. Have they affected my ideas? Not really. Many of them were very useful in improving and refining a paper but they are not really part of the fabric of ideas. And something that I just realized: In my whole academic life I was very successful in getting empirical papers accepted in good journals. This was not the case for my theoretical papers. They were negatively received most of the time and some of them never made it to print. However, the ideas tested in the empirical papers came from these never published papers. This tells something about the dominant epistemological stance is standard psychology: It is dominated by blatant positivism that despises theory-making. Most probably, Piaget or Freud would have much of their work rejected if submitted through the standard review process!

Educating new researchers is as important as doing science. Making them epistemologically aware and sensitive is, in my view, more important than knowledge or research skills as such. Knowledge and research skills may enable a young researcher to run good research but enlightenment that goes into theory comes from understanding what science is, your own and your discipline's place in it, and your obligations to it!

As Daniel Kahneman, a cognitive psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in economics said at one his talks, if you live long enough you may experience the unexpected. Becoming a fellow of the International Academy of Education and Academia Europea, Honorary Doctor of Middlesex University and Honorary Professor of Durham University, UK, and the Changchun Normal University, China, are strong calls to stay on course. It is a great pleasure that the company at this part of the course is very gratifying. It is a very rewarding running new research projects with some of my academic children, already established academics themselves, such as George Spanoudis (University of Cyprus), Smaragda Kazi (Panteion University of Social Sciences, Greece), and Nikos Makris (Democritus University of Thrace, Greece) and my academic grandchildren, their doctoral students. And it is an immense pleasure evaluating and enriching the theory through my interactions with Pantelis son, my grandson, Andreas Demetriou. Close to 5, he enjoys my stories about the village, going half a century back, and suggests that I must keep telling stories to every-one. I promised him I will do!

References

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