11/4/2019 Jerome Bruner — Cognitive Learning - Interactive Designer's Cookbook - Medium

Thelma Garrison Follow

May 16, 2017 · 9 min read

J erome Bruner — Cognitive Learning

Meet Chef Jerome Bruner

O ne of the world’s greatest cognitive psychologist was born on October 1, 1915 to

two Polish Jewish immigrants: Herman and Rose Bruner.

Although born blind from cataracts, Jerome Bruner underwent surgery at the age of two
to receive sight.

Wikipedia

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He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology at Duke University in 1937, a master’s

degree in psychology in 1939, then a doctorate degree in psychology in 1941 at Harvard
University.

From his first psychological article on the effect of thymus extract on the sexual behavior
of female mice to serving on the Psychological Warfare Division of the Supreme
Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force committee during WWII, Bruner dedicated
years of his life to teaching and most importantly research on cognitive psychology,
developmental psychology, educational psychology, language development, and
narrative construction of reality.

Theories:

Let’s look inside Bruner’s cookbook. Here are some of the main ingredients, followed by
some examples of interactive design.

Cognitive Psychology — Cognitive Learning Theory

In Bruner’s research of cognitive development of children in 1966, he proposed three

modes of representations — enactive, iconic, and symbolic.

Enactive Representation

This type of representation happens in the very young (birth to age 1). It involves
encoding action based information that is then stored into our memory. Examples are
muscle memory like that of shaking of a rattle. Children in this age group represent their
past events through motor responses. Infants will shake a rattle expecting the
accustomed sound. Actions on physical objects and the outcomes of the actions form the
enactive representation of learning.

Dust Example: Balloonimals

Although the game has accustomed sounds there is no movement to indicate that the
sounds are related to the objects on the screen.

Magic: Baby Phone Games for Babies

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Baby Phone Games for Babies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEfZRgpXl2g

This app illustrates how an action of clicking a specific icon or animal gives a different
sound. The action is finger driven, and the buttons appears to be very “crisp” and
responsive. Although the same action is used, the tapping of the screen, the child will
understand that difference in the animal on each button based on the corresponding
sound.

Iconic Representation

This type of representation happens in children between 1–6 years old. Information in
this age group is stored visually in the form of images. When learning subjects it is easier
to develop strength in the subject when diagrams and illustrations are coupled with
verbal information. Models and pictures are what form the iconic representation of
learning.

Dust: Nancy Drew 31: Labyrinth of Lies

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70SRXDF6F-k

The laying of the pieces of the puzzle has too similar of a sound. Although the diagrams
of puzzles make it reasonable to solve, the sound for the correct placement and the
incorrect placement can get confusing.

Magic: Crazy Gears

Crazy Gears - Educational App for Kids, iPad iPhone

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpGelEvNr38

Gears are used to represent models and diagrams. The verbal response here that
indicates success is the chime when correctly assembled gears pull the board for the next
level. The absence of this chime and illustration, the moving of the board, informs the
child that the assembly is incorrect.

Symbolic Representation

This type of representation happens in children between 7 years old and older. In this
stage of life information is stored in the form of code or symbols such as language. The
use of words and symbols are combined to describe experiences. Developing a capacity
to think in abstract terms forms the iconic representation of learning.

Magic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — NEW GAMEPLAY! 14 Minutes of…
of…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojsc6dg1sjE

Developmental Psychology — The Spiral Curriculum

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The spiral curriculum is when ideas are presented in repeated learning opportunities
over the course of time. These learning opportunities start simple then increase in
difficulty and are examined in relation to one another. Bruner believed that learning
information in a spiraling way helps children organize knowledge into a structure that’s
accessible and usable in different stages of life in addition to the presented learning
situation.

Dust: I am Bread

Let's Play: I am Bread

To avoid “humor” skip to 2 minute portion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cih7xsBfBU

Although you are granted the buttons to move the toast the sensitivity of the game make
it nearly impossible for repetitive actions to work the same way they did before. Using
the same bottoms do not produce the same actions.

Magic: Think Rolls 2

Thinkrolls 2 - Stage 2 Gameplay

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-lU5YH5BFg

The movement of tap and dragging helps users understand that this is the way you move
things, whether your thinkroll, eggs, barrels, or accordion platforms.

Educational psychology — Theory of Education

In The Process of Education (1960) Bruner laid out the four basic parts of the process of
education: structure, readiness for learning, intuitive and analytical thinking, and
motives for learning.

Bruner believed that curriculum should foster the development of problem-solving skills
instead of memorizing facts through processes of inquiry and discovery and that learning
should begin with the direct manipulation of objects. Subject matter should be
represented in terms of the child’s way of viewing the world. He also believes that the
mastery of one skill should lead to the mastery of another powerful skill. He felt that
teaching by organizing concepts and learning by discovery.

Structure — when children and even adults grasp the structure of a subject, it enables
them to relate to other subjects that before seemed unrelated. In The Process of
Education, Bruner explained how elements of tropism in biology such as “… [the]
swarming of locusts where temperature determines the swarm density in which locusts
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are forced to ravel…” can enabled the learner to understand other phenomena. In other
words, understanding how a baby is formed in the womb can lead to understanding how
trees grow and how relationships work; a seed or relationship must be nurtured to grow
to produce more seeds or strengthen the bond.

Readiness for Learning — as we learn our consciousness begins to evolve. Bruner

believes that “any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to
any child at any stage of development.

Intuitive and Analytical Thinking — Bruner believes that we can all distinguish
between in articulate genius and articulate idiocy. There are things we understand and
things we don’t understand. This explains why some people are good in mathematical
subjects and others in literature.

Motives for Learning — Interest in the material one has to learn is the best was to
stimulate learning, rather than just getting a good grade or having competitive
advancement. Bruner felt that “… the motives for learning must be kept from going
passive… [and] they must be based as much as possible upon the arousal of interest in
what there it to be learned, and they must be kept broad and diverse in expression.

Dust: JumpStart Adventures

Although JumpStart Adventures game has structure to collect all of the items on the list
and demonstrates motives for learning by having a “follow the directions” gameplay
type, it does not provide readiness for learning or intuitive and analytical thinking.

JumpStart Adventures 3rd Grade: Mystery Mountain Walkthrough (Robots …

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ-kS_GeSOI

First, the picture needed did not contain 3 skulls. Secondly, there is a lack of difficulty
upon level advancement.

Magic: Assassin’s Creed 2

Assassin’s Creed 2’s structure is present by the historical setting and interaction with
historical figures.

Assassin's Creed 2 Gameplay 3/3 HD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnQZHBodpwk

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You learn about Leonardo De Vinci’s inventions like his tank and flying machine. In the
state of combat you have the ability to either flee or to fight everyone head on. This
proves one’s the amount of idiocy or genius depending on their skill level in playing such
a game. Completing each objective in each level helps you to complete the story which
makes each

Language Development — Scaffolding Theory

Scaffolding describes the type of interaction that occurs within the Zone of Proximal
Development of Vygotsky. It means that the instructor, the one teaching the subject,
provides the support for those that are learning. An example used is riding a bike. The
instructor holds and pushes the bike as the learner pedals and steers.

Dust: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Navi)

The Legend of Zelda Theory: Navi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYgu9ARqiyQ

Although Navi serves as a guide she mysteriously leaves Zelda’s side throughout the
game. She leaves in times where Zelda does not know what to do next. Her cues like,
“Hey Listen!”, are very annoying to the point you don’t even want her help even if you
are stuck; a type of unprofitable redundancy.

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Magic: Portal

Portal - Full Walkthrough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P2dzIa6pZY

GLaDOS gives you the challenge and guides the player through the experiment. Her
voice gives you the indication that you’re on the right path.

Narrative Construction of Reality

One of Bruner’s biggest concepts was that culture and narrative play a huge role in how
you build knowledge. He expresses that “[t]he central concern [in learning] is not how
narrative as text is constructed, but rather how it operates as an instrument of mind in
the construction of reality.” With this in mind he constructs the ten features of narrative.

1. Narrative Diachronicity — This feature of narratives illustrates an illusion that time

is passing within a story. Although some illusions are linear in occurrence, narrative
diachronicity can include leap forwards and flashbacks.

2. Particularity — Bruner views stories as a representation of a large range of general

types or numerous genres of stories. Stories fall into more general types such as those
with romance deals with the males giving gifts; tokens and emblems. “Particularity

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achieves its emblematic status by its embeddedness in a story that is in some sense
generic.”

3. Intentional State Entailment — This narrative feature means that we must have a
sense of a character’s internal motivation. “This might not explain what happens in a
story — this might often be in conflict with the ‘intentional state’ of the character — but
rather, what we understand through the ‘intentional state’ are the reasons why a
character acts as they do.”

4. Hermeneutic Composability — This terms means that there exists text or a text’s
analogue that has a meaning someone is trying to extract. With these two meanings,
what’s meant and what the hearer believes is meant, implies that there is a different
between what’s expressed and what the expression might mean. A text can only exist in
the relation with the author’s intention. The author’s intention then must be ‘de-
cipherable.’

5. Canonicity and Breach — This is feature of narrative is the breaking point of making
the reader understand the significance of the events of the story such that they gain new
insight through the each new portion of the narrative.

6. Referentiality — This feature of narrative defines “[t]he relation between the things
described in fiction and their interaction with our own knowledge of a world external to
the narrative.”

7. Genericness — This feature refers to the different conventions of text types and how
they differ in acceptability. This means that there exists different forms of ‘reality’ in a
specific genre, that the narrative is willing to accept as real.

8. Normativeness — This feature expresses that there exists a construction in a tale that
is viewed as and accepted as culturally normal.

9. Context Sensitivity and Negotiability — This feature presents a negotiation between

our presumptions about what a text might mean and what we believe the reader meant
it to mean. This negotiation depends on the context and different elements involved
when making the presumption, like time and place.

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10. Narrative Accrual — Expresses that the narrative read can somehow fit into a wider
context of other stories previously read. This connection or accrual helps us depict
different parts in other stories and what we believe should happen next.

Dust: Fallout 4

Fallout 4 Walkthrough Part 1 No Commentary Gameplay Lets Play FULL G…

G…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4n-BlEUuFU

The motive for doing all the things the character does doesn’t make sense in the terms
that he is able to do accomplish different tasks in a new world where he is a novice. You
go on the same quest repeatedly. Not enough referentiality, genericness, and variety in
the quest to provide narrative accrual.

Magic: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4ony2r0QFs

The Witcher 3 follows the story of Geralt of Rivia on his quest to find his adopted,
missing daughter Ciri. He wants to save her from supernatural beings who want to use
her magic to kill everyone. The story itself is based off of the books by Andrzej
Sapkowski and his influence of the stories came from Polish folklore. Point of views
alternate between him and his daughter’s forming different perspectives that are then
able to be pieced together to form Ciri’s trail. When you’re trying to find her his magic
helps him pick up pieces of where she’s been. Since they’re not in order when switching
to her perspective you get to experience her view of the pieces and clues her dad found
with his magic

Bruner’s Very Large Kitchen

With this analysis of Jerome Bruner’s work, one can see how bits and pieces of his
ingredients have been part of many types of interactive media.

Although his passing on June 5th of last year was a sad day for many who cherished
Bruner and his work, he left behind a vast legacy for many psychologists and cognitive
scientists. Of one of those psychologists is Howard Gardner, a developmental
psychologist famous for his Multiple Intelligence Theory.

Howard Gardner - On Jerome Bruner

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNhWCwRx4Bc

Gardner expresses his strong influence he developed from working with Jerome Bruner.
He expressed how “intellectual curiosity” was a strong force in their continuance in their
learning theories.

. . .

It takes intellectual curiosity to make interactive media.

Work Cited; Informative Reads:

1. https://www.slideshare.net/sanjeevmehta52/jerome-bruner-learning-theory

2. https://www.simplypsychology.org/bruner.html

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner

4. https://sheldonclark.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/jerome-bruner-teaching-
learning-and-the-spiral-curriculum2.pdf

5.
http://edci770.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/45494576/Bruner_Processes_of_Education.
pdf

6. http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04132007-
101339/unrestricted/Burch_dis.pdf

7. http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/L470/Bruner_1991.pdf
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8. https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/hi-text-narrative-construction-reality-
jerome-473225

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