Creativity and Intelligence in Applied Educational Psychology - Reflection 5

Module 5 – Developmental and Environmental

1. Piaget and Vygotsky – cognitive development models (enviro. crucial)
2. Aging – Horn study and Shimamura et al Study – what changes, what protects?
3. Cultural influences – Luria (formal ed.), Kearin (spatial reasoning), Bart (proportional reasoning)
4. ​Home Influences – Dave, and also Wolf (at-home enrichment); Rauscher (musical)

I appreciated that our lecture notes started with the example of Piaget applying his cross-domain knowledge – a critical component of successful, creative teams – using a principle of biology to address a concern of educational psychology. My first finding was the clear evidence from the Luria study that clearly illustrated the relationship between categorical knowledge and education. It was a surprise to see that the responses to her questions in the study were as literal and functionally oriented as his hypothesis expected. Responses such as “plate” when being asked about a flat round object, declining to answer the question about Socrates due to a lack of direct knowledge of the person, and the avoidance of such an open-ended invitation to ask about any subject, made it clear to me that their mental models were the formed by their environment – just as those with greater education were clearly affected by their time in the school environment. My path to becoming a language arts and technology teacher has been strongly influenced by a desire to strengthen abstract thinking skills in young people, to help them synthesize their domain knowledge and apply it effectively in new situations, and this study is a great example of the potential long-term impact of education on cognitive skills, notably the abstract.

Dave’s study in particular, but also Wolf’s study, was personally meaningful to me, my second finding. I grew up as the only child of a single mother – an English teacher who was underpaid – and we struggled through financial and social disadvantages in the upper-middle class neighborhood she insisted had to be our home. Many weekend mornings, we would take the bus into New York City to spend the day in the museum. We would see the second half of Broadway shows, ballet, or the symphony because admission was free if you waited until intermission to enter. She would say that half-a-show was still plenty of enrichment time. Time at home was often oriented toward similar activities and reading. Wolf’s discovery of the high correlation between his rating of their home environment and their score on the Henmon-Nelson IQ test provides some explanation for why I was a successful student at an early age even though I had not participated in the same pre-school enrichment programs as my peers. Dave’s secondary finding about reading and word knowledge were also true for me as a young boy.
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Reading about the cognitive epidemiology data that showed a significant mortality risk difference based on intelligence was another finding. The overall difference was not surprising, but the more than 200% higher mortality rate when comparing the highest to the lowest ends of the index was striking. In this module more than the others, I noticed that I was considering the influence of external factors while reading about the findings of studies, or the points being made by Ritchie. Social class and genetics, the influence of family, must be relevant; successful parents share their lessons of success with their children. Ritchie’s addressed this well in the summary at the end of the chapter by reminding us that while intelligence is one aspect of being human that has a strong psychological impact, it’s not the only explanation for the results of the studies. Finally, I had always suspected that intelligence and near-sightedness were related and he provided evidence that that was true.