Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

PSyChdOgJ’ 233
choice of inputs supposes a dividing up of the universe by the observer. How-
ever, as we have just seen, the production or presence of outputs is still relative
to the particular moment in the life of the organism or the subject being studied,
which implies a dividing up in time. The total experiment, even from the positi-
vist viewpoint, would be to try out one by one every possible input and to study
them continuously from birth (or from the foetus) till death. The great advance
of instrumental learning over the traditional approach (see below under 7) is
that it has extended the input range, thereby attaining in the outputs a cross-
section of the subjects’ life. However, we must pursue both lines of research
which inevitably means, even from the positivist viewpoint, adopting a genetic or
relative approach to development as a whole.
III. If we then examine the many studies that have been carried out on the
development of the mind (I shall return to this under S), we observe that they
are either lists of facts - but facts recorded for interpretation purposes - or more
general doctrines based on facts but all attempting to explain and not just to
describe them, in other words, all going beyond the positivist schema. For none
of these doctrines escapes the almost unavoidable necessity of dealing, at one
time or another, with development ‘factors’ (the process of attaining organic
maturity, experience, social life, etc.), which involves seeking for a causal ex-
planation and a general tendency to fill - if only with assumptions - the inside
of the black or empty ‘box’ of strict empiricism.
As regards learning, the general trend is also clearly in the direction of ex-
planatory theories. We can, for instance, stick to simple description so long as
the process of learning is gradual and the laws observed receive confirmation;
but if a new acquisition, which is too similar to a previous one, partially obliterates
it and what is called ‘retroactive inhibition’ occurs, everyone is bound to want
to know why. Of course, whatever is discovered wil again constitute laws, but
any such partial laws wil have to be reconciled with more general laws and their
co-ordination is no longer ’a matter of mere description, for here deductive
elaboration becomes necessary, which is precisely one of the aspects of causal
explanation.
We constantly find this in laboratory work on perception, memory, mental
processes, and so on. It is impossible, for instance, to examine with a tachisto-
scope, using an exposure, say, of 1110th or 5/1ooths of a second, a known per-
ceptive effect (such as an optico-geometric illusion) and discover a new regular
modification7 without wondering what this change is due to, which again means
searching for the causal explanation.
Under the most varied names (and the vocabulary used here may not suit
everyone, though this is perhaps only a question of wordss), the general ten-
dency is therefore to go beyond description to interpretation, which involves
three stages of research.9
I, First there is the description of general facts or repeatable relations, i.e.,
the formulation of laws.
2. Then comes the deduction or co-ordination of the laws. The best example
is provided by Hull who, after discovering a series of laws concerning the pro-