Complete thesis - Murdoch University

Research on complex cognitive processes is approached on two fronts: extension to work onproblem-solving and the study of expertise and secondly, examination of the selection andmanagement of strategies for higher order processes. Both converge in the study of cognitivefunctioning in general, to which the term metacognition has been applied. This sectionprovides an overview of this work, and leads to a discussion of the theories of learning whichare underpinned by the study of cognitive functioning, and which, in their turn, underpinthe research reported in this thesis.3.1.1 The nature of knowledgeA clear trend may be seen, in the history of epistemology, from viewing knowledge as staticand passive to its relativity, or situation dependence – knowledge as adaptive, actively interferingin the world. The dominant philosophical positions have been:empiricism this posits that knowledge results from a ‘mapping’ or reflection of externalobjects. Although developed by observation, it is still absolute – any piece of proposedknowledge either truly corresponds to external reality, or not (Heylighen, 1993). Theunderlying premise is that knowledge results from the organisation of perceptual dataon the basis of inborn cognitive structures. While the subjectivity of basic concepts(such as space and time) are accepted, the a priori categories are static and given. Thisimplies a process of instruction in order to obtain an image, an encoding of the reality‘out there’pragmatism sees knowledge as consisting of ‘models’ that attempt to represent the environmentin such a way as to maximally simplify problem-solving (Dewey, 1910). Theassumption is made that no model can ever hope to capture all relevant information –if it did it would be too complex to use. Therefore the parallel existence of differentmodels, even if contradictory, is accepted – the model appropriate to the problem to besolved is chosen, as long as it produces approximate (if not correct) predictions. Therole of the outside world is limited to reinforcing some of the models while eliminatingothers in a process of selection. The ultimate reality behind the model is meaningless(Heylighen, 1993).A radical departure from these positions, constructivism assumes that all knowledge is builtby the subject – neither objective, empirical data, nor inborn categories or cognitive structuresare available for this construction, with the concept of correspondence with or reflection ofan external reality rejected. Knowledge is seen as largely independent of a hypotheticalexternal reality. Knowledge construction is a means of obtaining control over perception,105