The present study forms part of a continual process of ongoing research based on the assumptions and principles of Pascual-Leone's neo-Piagetian Theory of Constructive Operators. Pascual-Leone proposes a model of development that has as its main postulate a quantitative parameter (M-power) which, together with other operators, is held to account for the qualitative logical-structural competencies characteristic of the epistemic subject at each successive Piagetian developmental stage. The present study was designed to assess, via the use of the Compound Stimulus Visual Information (CSVI) task, the role of executive processing on performance. The aim of the study was to ascertain the effect on performance if subjects are trained to use arousal executives and temporal executives that maximize the application of M-power and increase the number of times subjects attend and respond to the compound stimulus. All subjects (N =114) were Zulu-speaking children aged 11 (N =59) and 13 (N =55) years living in a township (Indaleni) adjacent to Richmond (Natal). Subjects in each of the two age groups were randomly assigned to three experimental groups (arousal-temporal; temporal-arousal; and control) in accord with the order in which they received executive training between the three CSVI tests administered. ii The most striking feature of the results is the contrast between training, learning, and developmental effects. Niether the arousal nor temporal training appears to have effected performance although clear developmental effects were evident, with older subjects consistently performing at higher levels than younger subjects on the first look of the CSVI. This is not the case for repeated looks or for the second look of the first CSVI, for which older and younger subjects perform at the same level. However, for both first and repeated looks strong learning effects are evident across the three CSVI tests with performance improving from an initial underperformance to overperformance on the final CSVI. This suggests that subjects learn strategies that enable them to lower the task demands across looks. In investigating this possibility a comparison was made between the theoretically anticipated proportion of "new" and "repeat" responses and those actually obtained. This comparison clearly indicates the use of some strategy on the part of both 11 and 13 year-olds which significantly reduces the number of repeats made. This, in turn, effectively increases the M-power available for new responses on repeated exposure of the stimulus compound. This improved performance of subjects on repeated testing suggests that tasks cannot be made equivalent across subjects unless the subjects have the opportunity to engage in the task Hi and thereby generate strategies appropriate to meet the task demands. Further, the self-generation of strategies and the marked degree of individual variation evident within the present study suggests that these must be investigated in the light of the interrelation between contextual/individual factors and postulated structural invarients such that a clearer understanding of the interaction between inter- and intra-individual processes becomes possiable. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1989.

The poor school performance among black children in South Africa is best understood by focussing on the generative mechanisms which underlie performance. This research was undertaken within Pascual-Leone's neo-Piagetian Theory of Constructive Operators, which models cognitive functioning as a bilevel system of content-specific schemes and situation-free silent operators. Of the seven silent operators posited, Pascual-Leone is able to distinguish cognitive competence, or mental capacity (structural M, or Ms), from learning (L structuring) which is dependent upon environment. The M-construct is a reserve of mental attentional energy which can be applied to task-relevant schemes to boost their activation weights. The Compound Stimulus Visual Information (CSVI) task was used to distinguish the amount of M-power subjects employed in a given task (functional M, or Mf ), as well as the efficiency with which they used this Mf. Children from the black township of lndaleni, outside Richmond, Natal, South Africa, were selected. Thirty subjects in each of four age groups, seven-, nine-, eleven-, and thirteen-year-olds, were tested. The Children's Embedded Figures Test (CEFT) and the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) test were administered in groups. Two versions of the CSVI were given: the Free Response (CSVI-FR) and the Tachistoscopic version. The latter was analysed in terms of first look (CSVI-1STL), which gives an estimate of Mf, and repeated looks (CSVI-TACH) which estimates the number of attending acts made over the task. The CEFT was found not to distinguish cognitive style in the sample. As the sample was of low socioeconomic status and rural, it was argued that the subjects were predominantly field dependent.Results were analysed for the total sample as one FD group. Results showed eleven- and thirteen-year-old children's arousal executives were increasingly poor (i.e., the eleven-year-olds brought one unit less than their available M to the task.). Performance on the RSPM showed a dramatic decline in percentile rank with age, which confirmed these increasingly poor arousal executives. This concurs with a regular cross-cultural Piagetian finding which shows no formal operational thinking in certain cultures. All subjects evidenced poor temporal executives (i.e., made fewer attending acts than predicted in task analyses). In the CSVI-FR analysis It was shown that children employed more efficient temporal executives as the stimulus became more complex, but their maximum performance still did not reach the predicted level. The results confirm patterns found among children from other disadvantaged environments. Proposals are made for further research to isolate the factors involved in the poor arousal executive strength of the present sample, which conflicts with a previous finding that Zulu-speaking children employ their full Ms.The findings are related to the poor educational environment of the children and suggestions are made for improving school performance by encouraging active problem solving. This would focus first on maximising M arousal, afterwhich temporal executives may be improved. Further, a warning is made to those who see training as a useful method to improve performance, for this does not maximise arousal and temporal executives within the child, but rather reduces the demand of the task. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1987.