Dynanic systems in development

Relevant to my lengthy discussion in the real/false reason thread:

Fischer & Bidell (2006), "Dynamic development of action, thought and emotion."

"The major models of development describe psychological structure in static, formal terms. Concepts like universal stages, innate linguistic modules, and innate cognitive competencies portray psychological organization as fixed and unchanging, insulated from variation in context and feedback from activity" (313-14).

"Structure refers to the system of relations. [...] Form is an abstraction from structure—a fixed pattern that can be detected in a dynamic structure. [...] The concept of sphere is an ideal form that applies across myriad realities. [...] A structure/form problem arises when an abstraction used to describe reality is confounded with the reality described. People commonly expect patterns of phenomena in the world to conform to their underlying abstractions, instead of determining which patterns fit an actual object or experience. [...] The spherical shape is an abstraction of a common pattern across different objects, not an independently existing form that somehow dictates what the objects should be like" (314-15).

Compare with Commons on the Model of Hierarchical Complexity:


"The MHC is a mathematical theory of the ideal. It is a perfect form as Plato would have described it. It is like a circle. A circle is an ideal form that exists. Once one draws a circle, something additional and different has been created. The new creation is a representation of a circle, but it is not, itself, a perfect ideal circle. The lines have width whereas a circle does not, and thus cannot perfectly represent the perfect form itself. The representation is not perfect nor can a drawn circle be perfectly round. This distinction between the ideal form and representations of the ideal is important for understanding the MHC and its relationship to stage of performance" (315).

"Four basic terms are essential in discussing the Model: orders, tasks, stage, and performance. The orders are the ideal forms prescribed by the theory’s axioms. They are the constructs used to refer to the Model’s levels of complexity. The orders of hierarchical complexity are objective because they are grounded in the hierarchical complexity criteria of mathematical models and information science…. The term stage is used to refer to an actual task performed at an order of hierarchical complexity: order is the ideal form, stage is the performed form" (306).