The notion of levels has been widely used in discussions of cognitive science, especially in discussions of the relation of connectionism to symbolic modeling of cognition. I argue that many of the notions of levels employed are problematic for this purpose, and develop an alternative notion grounded in the framework of mechanistic explanation. By considering the source of the analogies underlying both symbolic modeling and connectionist modeling, I argue that neither is likely to provide an adequate analysis of processes at (...) the level at which cognitive theories attempt to function: One is drawn from too low a level, the other from too high a level. If there is a distinctly cognitive level, then we still need to determine what are the basic organizational principles at that level. (shrink)

Educational phenomena and child development fascinate many disciplines for which they offer a tremendous field of experimentation and application. More than a hundred years ago, when educational sciences adopted the main institutional emblems of an academic discipline (chairs, diploma, laboratories, scientific network etc.), they obviously vacillated between the dream of becoming a unified science (as pedology testifies), and the claim of a rewarding pluridisciplinarity that could synergise all disciplines concerned with the child and with education. This paper asserts that the (...) issue of pluridisciplinarity is constitutive for the development of sciences of education whose object is ever coveted by other disciplines. The first section adopts the point of view of a social history and, on the basis of voluminous archives, it describes the main lines of the shaping of this pluridisciplinary field in Geneva, representative of that which also occurs elsewhere. In the second part, it presents a more theoretical reflection on the tensions and pitfalls of what we call the 'process of disciplinarisation' of educational sciences, outlining the characteristics of this constitutively pluridisciplinary field. (shrink)

El presente artículo realiza un breve análisis de la convergencia entre la psicología y la ciencia de la educación desde diferentes aristas como: senso-percepciones, tiempos de reacción ante estímulos, factores psicológicos que influyen en el aprendizaje, medición de habilidades mentales básicas, dificultades en el aprendizaje, problemas de comportamiento, entre otros, factores que han relacionado a ambas ciencias en forma progresiva, teórica y práctica desde las denominadas escuelas psicológicas y teorías del aprendizaje. En esta correlación se analizan: la psicología como ciencia, (...) el despunte de la psicología educativa, la psicología y educación conductista, insight y Gestalt, la inferencia del psicoanálisis en la educación y el enfoque constructivista en la educación contemporánea. (shrink)

(1942). Edouard Claparede. (1873–1940) Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy: Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 81-85.