The Acquisition of Symbolic Skills

606 Pages·1983·20.13 MB·English

by  Ulric Neisser (auth.)

THE ACQUISITION
OF SYMBOLIC SKILLS
NATO CONFERENCE SERIES
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Volume 22 The Acquisition ofSymbolicSkills
Edited byDon Rogers andJohn A. Sloboda
THE ACQUISITION
OF SYMBOLIC SKILLS
Edited by
Don Rogers
and
John A. Sloboda
UniversityofKeele
Keele, England
Published in cooperation with NATO Scientific Affairs Division
PLENUM PRESS· NEW YORK AND LONDON
LibraryofCongressCataloging in Publication Data
NATOConferenceon the Acquisitions ofSymbolicSkills(1982: UniversityofKeele)
Theacquisition ofsymbolicskills.
(NATO conference series. III, Human factors; v. 22)
"Published incooperation with NATOSCientific AffairsDivision."
"ProceedingsofaNATOConferenceontheAcquisitionofSymbolicSkills,heldJuly
5-10, 1982, atthe UniversityofKeele, Keele, England"-Versooft.p.
Bibliography: p.
Includesindexes.
1. Learning, Psychologyof-Congresses. 2. Cognitioninchildren-Congresses.3.
Logic, Symbolic and mathematical-Congresses. I. Rogers, Don II. Sloboda, John
A. III. North Atlantic TreatyOrganization. SCientific Affairs Division. IV. Series.
BF318.A28 1982 155.4'13 83·9464
ISBN-13:978-1-4613-3726-3 e-ISBN-13:978-1-4613-3724-9
001:10.1007/978-1-4613-3724-9
ProceedingsofaNATOConferenceon the Acquisition ofSymbolic Skills,
heldJuly 5-10, 1982, atthe UniversityofKeele, Keele, England
©1983Plenum Press, NewYork
Softcoverreprintofthehardcover1stedition 1983
ADivision of Plenum Publishing Corporation
233Spring Street, NewYork, N.Y. 10013
All rightsreserved
No partofthis bookmaybe reproduced, stored inaretrieval system, ortransmitted
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recording, orotherwise, withoutwritten permission from thePublisher
INTRODUCTION
This book is a selection of papers from a conference which
took place at the University of Keele in July 1982. The conference
was an extraordinarily enjoyable one, and we would like to take
this opportunity of thanking all participants for helping to make
it so.
The conference was intended to allow scholars working on
different aspects of symbolic behaviour to compare findings, to
look for common ground, and to identify differences between the
various areas. We hope that it was successful in these aims: the
assiduous reader may judge for himself.
Several themes emerged during the course of the conference.
Some of these were:
1. There is a distinction to be made between those symbol
systems which attempt, more or less directly, to represent a state
of affairs in the world (e.g. language, drawing, map and
navigational skill) and those in which the representational
function is complemented, if not overshadowed, by properties of the
symbol system itself, and the systematic inter-relations that
symbols can have to one another (e.g. music, mathematics). The
distinction is not absolute, for the nature of all symbolic skills
is, in part, a function of the structure of the symbolic system
employed. Nonetheless, this distinction helps us to understand
some common acquisition difficulties, such as that experienced in
mathematics, where mental manipulation of symbols can go awry if a
child assumes too close a correspondence between mathematical
symbols and the world they represent.
2. The course of acquisition in the various different
symbolic domains displays both striking commonalities and
significant contrasts. Thus, acquisition of both reading and
spelling skills proceeds through a similar sequence of stages. On
the other hand, even closely similar systems liKe American Sign
Language and spoken English can show differences in pattern or rate
of acquisition. Furthermore, different symbol systems can
v
vi INTRODUCTION
influence and bias one another: for instance a second language can
be affected by a first, drawing by existing representations of the
world, written language by spoken language, mathematics by other
forms of representation, and so on. Gardner and Wolf's keynote
paper offered a framework within which such similarities and
contrasts could be articulated.
3. Finally, the use of symbols is a skilled activity.
Differences in skill, in consequence of age, of experience, or of
interest, were a common theme of many of the papers, and the
parallel between the acquisition of mental skills and motor skills
was made explicit in Neisser's opening address.
We would like to thank the other two members of the organizing
committee - Richard Cromer and Peter Bryant- for invaluable
assistance and advice. We are also grateful to the symposium
conveners - Diana Deutsch (who was finally unable to attend the
conference after arranging the music symposium), Bill Ritchie, Bill
Chase, Graham Hitch, Uta Frith, David Wood, Ellen Winner, Howard
Gardner, ~ichard Cromer and Peter Bryant; our secretaries Joyce
McGreevy and Carolyn Parnell; Judith Sloboda for proof reading; and
NATO for providing funds and administrative advice.
Don Rogers and John A. Sloboda
University of Keele
England
CONTENTS
Toward a skillful psychology
u. Neisser 1
Waves and streams of symbolization: Notes on the development
of symbolic capacities in young children
H. Gardner and D. Wolf 19
GRAPHIC SKILLS
Introduction
E. Winner and H. Gardner 43
The use of communication tasks to investigate depiction of
spatial relationships in young children's drawings
P. Light 47
Intellectual realism in adults' and children's copies of
cubes and straight lines
F. Pratt 53
The conservatism of children's drawing strategies: At what
level does stability persist?
P. van Sommers 65
Children's representations in drawing and speech: Content,
structure and context
P. Jools 71
Young children's planning strategies and early principles of
spatial organization in drawing
C. Golomb 81
Individual drawing styles of three children from five to
seven years
S. C. Somerville 89
vii
viii
CONTENTS
Children's sensitivity to aesthetic properties of line
drawings
E. Winner, P. Blank, C. Massey and H. Gardner 97
READING AND SPELLING
Introduction
U. Frith 105
Microethology of spelling behaviour in normal and dyslexic
development
S. Farnham-Diggory and B. Nelson 109
Phonological impairment in Italian: Acquired and
developmental dyslexia
G. Sartori and R. Job 123
Interaction of symbol systems in reading
P. A. Kolers 131
Bi-alphabetism and word recognition
L. B. Feldman 137
The development of strategies in the acquisition of symbolic
skills
G. Marsh and P. Desberg 149
The development of phoneme segmentation skills in young
children
M. Snowling and D. Perin 155
Understanding the alphabetic system
T. N. Carraher and L. L. B. Rego 163
Patterns of writing errors in the framework of an
information-processing model of writing
P. T. smith 171
The psychological productivity of inflectional and
derivational morphemes
C. M. Sterling 179
CONTENTS ix
SYMBOLIC SKILLS IN THE DEAF
Symbolic skills in the deaf: Some recent developments in
research
D. Wood 187
Meaning in sign: Recalling events in British Sign Language
and English
J. Kyle 199
Early sign language acquisition and cognitive development
J. D. Bonvillian, M. D. Orlansky, L. L. Novack 207
and R. J. Folven
The semantics of early deaf communication: Object
acquisitive volitionals
B. Dalgleish, S. Wilkie and J. Pittam 215
The development of symbolic play in young deaf children
s. Gregory and K. Mogford 221
Language, deafness and mathematical reasoning
D. Wood, H. Wood and P. Howarth 233
MUSICAL SKILL
Is music a symbolic skill? Introduction
J. A. Sloboda 241
The perception of musical pitch - A sense of scale
I. Cross, P. Howell and R. West 245
The initial identification of tonal centres in music
D. Butler 251
Towards a contour-pitch continuum theory of memory for
melodies
J. Edworthy 263
Reproduction and representation of musical rhythms: The
effects of musical skill
J. smith 273
A preliminary investigation of motor programming in piano
performance as a function of skill level
C. L. MacKenzie, J. A. Nelson-Schultz and B. L. Wills 283
x CONTENTS
LOGICAL SKILL
Logical development: Introduction
P. E. Bryant 293
What preschoolers know about animate and inanimate objects
R. Gelman, E. S. Spelke and E. Meck 297
Knowledge-derived categorization in young children
M. T. H. Chi 327
Perception of inclusion in collections of objects
A. w. smitsman and A. D. Pick 335
Semantic and cognitive factors in class-inclusion and
co-extension performance
G. Di Stefano, V. Girotto and c. Gorrini 343
On the generalizability of conservation: Context and
transformation
S. A. Miller 351
MAP AND NAVIGATIONAL SKILL
Maps and navigation: Introduction
w.
G. Chase 357
Maps and memorability
A. I. Schulman 359
Children's plan drawings of their houses
E. o. Imamoglu and V. Imamoglu 369
Mental imagery and mental maps
A. J. Cohen and J. E. Foley 381
Spatial representations of taxi drivers
w. G. Chase 391