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Chapter 1 - Towards a Psychology of Knowing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2025

By
David R. Olson
Edited by
Frank Kessel
Frank Kessel
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
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Summary

My understanding of children’s cognitive development involved a series of progressive shifts in my understanding of what is involved in learning a language. Rather than language serving as a means of expressing and sharing existing thoughts, I came to see language as the exclusive means of creating thought itself. To my surprise I have become a sort of “Nominalist”; the view that language is the vehicle of thought itself.

Keywords

cognitionmental statestheory of mindascriptionself-ascription
Type
Chapter
Information
Pillars of Developmental Psychology
Recollections and Reflections
 , pp. 1 - 7
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Suggested Reading5

Olson, D. R. (1996). The World on Paper: The Conceptual and Cognitive Implications of Writing and Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Olson, D. R. (2003). Psychological Theory and Educational Reform: How School Remakes Mind and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Olson, D. R. (2016). The Mind on Paper: Reading, Consciousness, and Rationality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, D. R. (2022a). Making Sense: What It Means to Understand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, D. R. (2022b). Two cheers for literacy: Walter Ong, President Trump and the literate mind. Explorations in Media Ecology, 21, 37–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, D. R. (2023). Ascribing understanding to ourselves and others. American Psychologist. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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