Cognition, Intelligence, and Achievement

A Tribute to J. P. Das

Timothy Papadopoulos, Rauno K. Parrila, John R. Kirby

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9780124103887
• eBook ISBN:
  9780124104440
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Cognitive Psychology & Cognition
• Index: Psychology

Cognition, Intelligence, and Achievement is motivated by the work of the renowned Professor J. P. Das on the PASS (Planning, Attention, Simultaneous and Successive Processing) theory of intelligence and CAS measures (Cognitive Assessment System) of cognitive processes. This book reviews current research using this and other frameworks in understanding the relationships among cognition, intelligence, and achievement. The assessment and diagnosis of learning disabilities, mental retardation, and ADHD are addressed, and the interrelationships among cognition, culture, neuropsychology, academic achievement, instruction, and remediation are examined. No other book has presented such an integrated view across these domains, from such a diverse array of internationally known and respected experts from psychology, education, and neuroscience. - Summarizes decades of research on PASS theory and use of CAS - Discusses how findings in the neuropsychology of intelligence speak to PASS theory use and application - Covers use of PASS and CAS for assessing and treating a variety of learning disabilities - Outlines use of PASS and CAS for enhancing learning and cognitive processes

Part I

Introductory Chapters

Outline

Chapter 1 Cognition, Intelligence, and Achievement: A Tribute to J. P. Das

Chapter 2 Glimpses into the Personal Life of J. P. Das

Chapter 3 Three Faces of Cognitive Processes: Theory, Assessment, and Intervention

Chapter 1

Cognition, Intelligence, and Achievement

A Tribute to J. P. Das

Timothy C. Papadopoulos¹, Rauno K. Parrila² and John R. Kirby³, ¹Department of Psychology & Centre for Applied Neuroscience, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus, ²Department of Educational Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, ³Faculty of Education, Department of Psychology, and Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Cognition, Intelligence, and Achievement is a Festschrift volume to honor the career and the contributions of Professor Jagannath Prasad Das of the University of Alberta in education and psychology. Understanding the concepts of cognition, intelligence, and achievement requires the creation of theories and models that rely on data from the real world. J. P. Das (or Das, as he is known to his friends and close collaborators) has made major contributions to our understanding of the relationships among these concepts through a well-grounded neurocognitive theory and a solid empirical base. During his almost 60-year academic career, J. P. Das has published a great number of influential papers in the broad field of cognitive psychology and special education. For many, his work on the Planning, Attention-Arousal, Simultaneous, and Successive (PASS) theory of intelligence, first proposed in 1975 (Das, Kirby, & Jarman, 1979), and later elaborated by Das, Naglieri, and Kirby (1994), and Das, Kar, and Parrila (1996), advanced our knowledge by broadening the concept of intelligence and how to assess it. Motivated by the theoretical propositions of Soviet neuropsychologist Alexander Luria, the PASS theory studied human intelligence in the context of learning and cognition rather than with a predominant focus on test construction and the structure of intellect. This is the reason that makes Professor Das one of the most widely recognized scholars related to Luria’s seminal neuropsychological work on brain functioning.

Keywords

cognition; intelligence; achievement; Planning; Attention-Arousal; Simultaneous and Successive theory; Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System

Cognition, Intelligence, and Achievement is a Festschrift volume to honor the career and the contributions of Professor Jagannath Prasad Das of the University of Alberta in education and psychology. Understanding the concepts of cognition, intelligence, and achievement requires the creation of theories and models that rely on data from the real world. J. P. Das (or Das, as he is known to his friends and close collaborators) has made major contributions to our understanding of the relationships among these concepts through a well-grounded neurocognitive theory and a solid empirical base. During his almost 60-year academic career, J. P. Das has published a great number of influential papers in the broad field of cognitive psychology and special education. For many, his work on the Planning, Attention-Arousal, Simultaneous, and Successive (PASS) theory of intelligence, first proposed in 1975 (Das, Kirby, & Jarman, 1979), and later elaborated by Das, Naglieri, and Kirby (1994), and Das, Kar, and Parrila (1996), advanced our knowledge by broadening the concept of intelligence and how to assess it. Motivated by the theoretical propositions of Soviet neuropsychologist Alexander Luria, the PASS theory studied human intelligence in the context of learning and cognition rather than with a predominant focus on test construction and the structure of intellect. This is the reason that makes Professor Das one of the most widely recognized scholars related to Luria’s seminal neuropsychological work on brain functioning.

In 1972, J. P. Das became the Director of the newly formed Centre for Mental Retardation at the University of Alberta; this center was later renamed the Developmental Disabilities Centre, and more recently the J. P. Das Centre on Developmental and Learning Disabilities. Das’s extensive research since then covers three broad areas, all of which are represented in this volume: intelligence as a cognitive process, developmental and learning disabilities, and remediation of learning and cognitive processes. In research and practice, Das has always adopted an international and cross-cultural perspective and demonstrated great concern for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children, trying particularly to improve the lives of those with developmental and learning disabilities.

Das’s work on the conceptualization and measurement of intelligence challenged theories of general intelligence (g) on the grounds that the brain is made up of interdependent but distinct functional systems. Das was one of the leaders in the 1970s, offering theoretical interpretations of the cognitive processes that comprised intelligence (others represented in this volume include Earl Hunt and Robert Sternberg). Whereas the construction of intelligence tests and the mathematical analysis of the relations among measures had dominated the research on intelligence until then, Das and others began to reintegrate the study of intelligence with the study of cognition (e.g., Hunt, Frost, & Lunneborg, 1973; Sternberg, 1977). Instead of viewing intelligence simply as being whatever IQ tests measure, they studied the processes by which intelligent behavior was produced. As a result, they were far more focused on how to improve intelligence and its consequences. Many of the papers in this volume address issues regarding the cognitive conceptualization of intelligence.

The second major area of Das’s work focused on the diagnosis of different learning and developmental disabilities. The four PASS cognitive processes helped further understand and better define some of the most common categories of special populations including children with specific learning disabilities, attention and planning deficits, reading comprehension deficits, mathematics deficits, or individuals with intellectual disabilities. The application of the PASS theory to practical assessment strategies has been achieved through the Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System (D-N CAS; Naglieri & Das, 1997), a cross-culturally applicable battery of tests of intelligence and cognitive processes. As a result, the PASS theory and the CAS have helped make the assessment of intelligence useful for the differential diagnosis of learning and developmental disorders. Examples of this research are included in the present volume.

Das’s research on the remediation of learning and cognitive deficits is a third major area of his work: the PASS theory of cognitive processes has proven useful for designing educational and cognitive interventions. The theory has provided the framework for the development of two intervention programs: (a) the PASS Reading Enhancement Program (PREP), and (b) Cognition Enhancement Training (COGENT). The development of these intervention programs involved extensive efforts at tracking the short- and long-term effects of treatment with studies carried out with young children in Canada, the United States, Australia, Europe, China, and South Africa. It is expected that this line of research will stimulate much new empirical research in the area of cognitive intervention. All these issues and many others relating to cognition, intelligence, and achievement are addressed in the chapters ahead.

The Rationale for this Book

To honor Professor J. P. Das, we invited scholars who are familiar with his work to contribute chapters in one of the three thematic areas described below. This resulting collection of 20 essays by researchers in the fields of educational, developmental, and cognitive psychology and special education is rich and diverse, illustrating how Das’s contributions continue to guide or shape psychological research.

As noted previously, Das has been instrumental in relating work from neuropsychology and cognition to intelligence and school achievement. Our intention, therefore, was to bring together researchers who know or have been influenced by Das’s work to contribute chapters which focus on the themes that Das had studied. The goal was not to focus only on Das’s contributions, but rather to see how his contributions stimulated or are related to the thinking and research of other researchers in education and psychology. As such, we hope that the book will become a valuable resource for scholars, graduate students, practicing educational psychologists, and special education teachers. We believe that the chapters transcend the boundaries of Das’s work to investigate the emergence of a range of new ideas in the fields of cognition, assessment, intelligence, and intervention.

Organization of the Text

The book is organized around three broad research themes, which correspond to J. P. Das’s major research interests: intelligence as a cognitive process (Chapters 4–9), developmental and learning disabilities (Chapters 10–15), and the enhancement of learning and cognitive processes (Chapters 16–20). Because of the nature of these fields and the goal to integrate them, the three sections necessarily overlap extensively. Next, we briefly overview the chapters that follow.

Foreword and Introductory Chapters

The book begins with a foreword by Robert J. Sternberg, who portrays the outstanding career of J. P. Das. Sternberg places emphasis on how the work of Das has motivated researchers, psychologists, and educators to investigate functional relationships between information processing abilities. He describes their attempt to assess individuals more comprehensively, relying on the triangulation of theory, assessment, and intervention. In addition, Sternberg extracts the values Das models that mark his career and inspire all of us who follow.

Chapter 2 is a brief biography of J. P. Das, written by his son, Satya Das, a highly respected journalist and consultant in international affairs. Satya talks about his father’s personal qualities, the context in which he grew up and worked, and his family.

In Chapter 3, J. P. Das describes his academic career and the development of the PASS model. He elaborates on the operationalization of the model in the Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System and the development and application of two intervention programs designed to improve cognitive processing and therefore achievement—the PASS Reading Enhancement Program (PREP) and Cognition Enhancement Training (COGENT). Das describes how PASS theory has broadened the scope of the assessment of intelligence and learning disabilities, and guided intervention when necessary. Finally, he sets the ground for future research, examining the prospects for PASS theory’s continuing growth.

Intelligence as a Cognitive Process

Given Das’s interest in intelligence and its assessment, this section starts with an essay titled “J.P. Das’s Ideas in Retrospect and Prospect” by Jerry Carlson and Earl Hunt. Chapter 4 examines the emergence of the PASS theory of intelligence and how this relates to the work of Luria and Vygotsky. To inform the discussion, Carlson and Hunt (a) review relevant research on the applications of the PASS theory in children with learning disabilities; (b) emphasize the need to expand on the conceptualization of planning as a higher-order mental process in order to better inform intelligence research; (c) point out the need to consider processing speed as an essential part of intelligence; and (d) conclude by suggesting ways to revise the PASS model by including constructs of central processing speed, both higher and lower order skills necessary for language comprehension, and skills in orientation and perceptual control.

Chapter 5, by Rauno Parrila and Lynn McQuarrie, examines the relationship between cognitive processes and academic achievement, and proposes a meta-theoretical framework that can help better contextualize cognitive processes within a broader array of other psychological attributes of individuals, their environments, and their behaviors within those environments. Motivated by the current trends in reading research, the authors argue that their Multiple Systems Model of Reading can be used to better understand typical and atypical reading development. This can be achieved, they argue, if we respect the complex and sometimes idiosyncratic nature of the developing organism, and by not allocating causal responsibility for possible reading problems to any single factor.

The next chapter, which relates to Das’s long-standing interest in cross-cultural psychology, is a 40-year overview of the relationship between culture and cognition by John Berry. The review is based on the combination of two perspectives: (a) the ecocultural framework, which seeks to understand the cognitive adaptation and development of persons living in particular habitats, and (b) the universalist perspective on cognition in cultural context. This approach provides a basis for examining both the underlying similarities in cognitive processes and the cultural variation in cognitive development (known also as competence) and display (known also as performance). By placing emphasis on the linkages between cognitive performances and experiences available to ind...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Foreword
• List of Contributors
• Part I: Introductory Chapters
• Part II: Topic Area 1: Intelligence as a Cognitive Process
• Part III: Topic Area 2: Developmental and Learning Disabilities
• Part IV: Topic Area 3: Enhancing Learning and Cognitive Processes
• Part V: Final Chapter
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Author Index
• Subject Index