Actos de Significado: Más Allá de la Revolución Cognitiva

by Jerome S. Bruner, Juan Carlos Gómez Crespo (Translator), Jerome S. Bruner

En este libro, Jerome Bruner, uno de los padres de aquella revolución cognitiva que hace más de cuarenta años cambió la psicología, hace una crítica brillante e incisiva de su desarrollo histórico y de su situación actual. El autor nos obsequia con un recorrido divertido y agudo por los avatares de la revolución cognitiva, deteniendo su irónica pluma en la actual preocupación por los ordenadores y el cálculo que anima a sus herederos intelectuales. Bruner acusa a la actual psicología cognitiva de haberse enredado con problemas técnicos que son marginales a los propósitos y al impulso que animaron aquella revolución que él ayudó a crear y aboga por la creación de una psicología cultural. Este cambio cultural ha quedado reflejado en sus trabajos de investigación en el ámbito de la educación. En Actos de significado se subraya la naturaleza de la construcción del significado, su conformación cultural, y el papel esencial que desempeña en la acción humana. Es un intento de mostrar cómo debe ser una psicología que se ocupa esencialmente del significado y cómo esta se convierte inevitablemente en una psicología cultural.

Genres: Psychology, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Education, Academic, Language, Narrative

168 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1990

Reviews

[Davood Gozli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, perhaps very similar to Ulrich Neisser's "Cognition and Reality", represents an important critique of where Cognitive Psychology is today and its inherent limits (whereas Neisser frames his critique more in terms of issues regarding goal-oriented behaviour, Bruner's "Acts of Meaning" is framed in terms of the mind's conceptual understanding of the world, or the problem of meaning). Although the book was published in 1990, its message is still fresh and incredibly relevant! The book is a defence of a new kind of psychology. A psychology that is culturally informed, a psychology that regards narratives as valid units of analysis, a psychology that is no longer charmed by the hypes of logical positivism, a psychology that does not require to model itself after the physical or biological sciences.

Whatever the Cognitive Revolution was, it somehow convinced the majority of the community to regard the human mind as an information processing system. The units of analysis in this framework often are perceptual properties, perceptual biases, acts of memory, motor responses, and concepts that are activated, evaluated, and so forth. According to Bruner, this framework does not do justice to the human mind. The proper psychology is one that tackles the issue of meaning. If meaning is examined adequately, we arrive at the undeniable significance of narratives as units of analysis in their own right. A lot of what Bruner goes through could be regarded as argument for the metaphysical validity of narratives - narratives are real and they are irreducible.

There are consequences to Bruner's proposal. Namely, an appreciation of the narrative quality of the human experience, in turn, leads to the appreciation of the concept of Self (or what Dennett refers to as the center of narrative gravity), because stories are not self-less. Examining self, in turn, gives rise to understanding intersubjectivity, as well as the continuity of personal identity (in its connection to culture and other people). These are topics that many Cognitive Psychologists do not concern themselves with. And for this very reason, the relevance of Cognitive Psychology is decreasing rapidly. The world that the Cognitive Psychologist describes today is not a world people know and find themselves in. As Bruner recalls Adrienne Rich's sentiment, "when someone with the authority of a teacher, say, describes the world and you are not in it, there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing." Yes, I look at the world as the mainstream Cognitive Psychologist describes it. And I am not in it.

I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the history of modern experimental psychology, or with an interest in the world of narratives (especially chapter 4), as well as anyone who is an active participant in the community of Cognitive Psychology research.

[Mesoscope · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of four highly-literate essays by the developmental psychologist Jerome Bruner is a centerpiece of narrative psychology, which uses tools of narrative analysis to examine human cognition in terms of meaning. I have reread this book several times and never fail to take new levels of insight away from it.

[Ahmed Hamad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is quite a brilliant book. It highlights the problem with the cognitive revolution and how it moved away from everything that inspired it, while attempting to go back to those roots using cultural psychology, folk psychology, and the concept of narratives to guide the way.

The cognitive revolution was supposed to help us understand the reality of our experience. It was supposed to elevate us to a point where we saw the world around us more clearly. Unfortunately, it started developing more rigid forms of what is considered progress in the field of psychology. It became more scientific, but in the process alienated the general population from the potential impact of the material it studies; us.

To draw a picture: Instead of elevating us to see the land in which we experience things more clearly, cognitive psychologists have built mountains that only the most dedicated of hikers can maneuver. Sadly, once the hiker's on top, they can no longer even see what we on land are experiencing. This is were Jerome Bruner comes to play.

He attempts to bring psychology down to earth. He brings out a lot of interesting ideas and notions that can open gates for us to get to a "better psychology". I found the third chapter with its developmental psychology to be truly fascinating. At a point I had to stop and jump around my flat with excitement over his ideas (Something my flatmates found to be odd).

I have 2 complaints though. One, there is something about the way this book is written that I found to be oddly distracting and annoying. The flow of arguments is sometimes incoherent. Two, the expression of those arguments -or the questions he's trying to answer- is vague at many points.

[Toby Newton · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the key texts in fleshing out an understanding of Homo technologicus ... Bruner’s insistence is that human thought is irreducibly complex, more than computational, ineluctably both autobiographical and social, and, much of the time, about as far from being rational as it’s possible to get. Which is just fine, because the world isn’t generally “rational” either.

It’s a demanding, poetic, nebulous read - Bruner clearly wants to enjoin the reader in some actual thinking or, to use the language of human technologies, to oblige her to switch from her standard cognitive gadgetry. In his erudite and compelling company it’s worth the effort.

[Helena · Rating 4 out of 5]

*sighs in Bruner*
Me mandaron este libro para clase y aunque más o menos he sido constante al principio me resultaba muy denso, pero al final me he acostumbrado y ha acabado gustándome y todo.
Me ha impactado sobre todo, la primera parte del último capítulo. La idea del Yo como un enjambre de participaciones, me ha servido para pensar en algunas cosas personales y creo que lo tendré en cuenta a partir de ahora.
Adiós, Bruner, se echarán de menos tus enrevesamientos.

[Jorge Rodighiero · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half of the book: 4 stars.
Bruner explains in a clear and concise way the importance of a new revolution in psychology, that should put meaning again in its center.

Second half of the book: 2 stars.
The way he introduces narrative as the structure seems a bit forced, especially when he starts analysing children's acquisition of language.

Total: 3 stars.
Suggestion: Read the first half!

[Jonathan Hayden · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic case against the Cognitive Revolution. Bruner’s arguments against the psychology of “stimuli” and “information processing” while placing man and his narrative, symbolic, and cultural self at the center of the social science is a brilliant take on how man should really be studied psychologically. He also argues we have an innate narrative predisposition and that we narrativize our lives as parts of our selves. To remove the narrative is to dehumanize humanity. Great read.

[Esteban Padilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

El libro pone sobre laesa una crítica a la revolución cognitiva que terminó por abandonar los procesos involucrados en la creación de significados para limitarse al procesamiento de la información. La propuesta de Bruner es un regreso de la psicología cognitiva a su ala.más sociocultural teniendo la narración como una forma de pensamiento

[Silvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non semplicissimo senza basi di psicologia, ma non basta. C'è la filosofia di Ricoeur, la teoria letteraria di Aristotele e Auerbach, la semiotica di Peirce. È un lavoro quasi interdisciplinare per delineare le caratteristiche del pensiero narrativo.

[Elías Casella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesante construcción del yo como un dispositivo social que se basa en la narración como principal herramienta para procesar el mundo.

[Dominic Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Project Communication #9

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very useful for my thesis 🥰

[Victória Goulart · Rating 4 out of 5]

salvou o meu pibic, te amo jerome

[Mark Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still have my heavily-inked copy from when I read this in graduate school many years ago. It made a profound impact on my understanding of narrative and its restorative powers.

[amory_books · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ✨🌟

[Eliezer Sneiderman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bruner challenges the shift in Psychology from meaning to data. He argues that narrative is the mechanism by which we form identity. I am looking forward to reading the rest of his work.

[Stuart Macalpine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bruner is enormously thought provoking. This 1990 text makes the relationship between the standards movement and UBD's focus on 'big ideas' that endure, to structuralism very clear. I had never really made the link between Chomsky et al. and the 'standards' we have at UWCSEA, but that idea of fundamental organising structures that are inherent to understanding is not culturally neutral, and definitely starts life with Bruner applying structuralism to learning.

Chapter Three 'Entry into Meaning' is the fullest exploration of our standard about 'Humans make sense of the world through story' I have found, and is really engaging. Being able to link this up with structuralism and the work of say a Steven Pinker makes it even more powerful.

The idea that learning has a natural 'grammar' and that it is socially constructed is a powerful rationale for the curriculum work at UWC.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for my BA thesis in social anthro. It was certainly interesting, but not as good as some of the other books on cognition that I've read (like Solsa's).

[Nelson Zagalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Central book from Bruner on the topic of narrative as mind information organization.

[Jing]

structurlism studies