The emergence, reproduction, and change of collective representations and idea: The study of small communities in New Guinea and the United States

Psychological studies of cognitive development are often conducted without regard for the interplay between the cognitive activities of individuals and the cultural histories of communities. In Prof. Saxe's talk, he illustrates a heuristic research framework that illuminates this interplay through studies drawn from two programs of work. The first illustration is drawn from his work with a remote Papua New Guinea group; he focuses on the emergence, reproduction, and alteration of collective representations for naming currency tokens in the community over an extended period of time. The second is drawn from work on mathematics in upper elementary classroom communities in the United States, where the focus is on geometric and arithmetic representations for fractions in classroom activities.

Room 1111