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In this article, based on a symposium presented at the Gerontological Society meeting in 1982, several reconceptualizations of adult cognitive development and its relations with everyday problem-solving are presented. From research showing that older adults have little difficulty remembering sentences involving sudden insight, it is suggested that some age-related differences in remembering reflect a higher criterion for deeper semantic processing. Arguments are presented that post-formal operational thought (especially involving interpersonal relations) may be described as relativistic and as involving integration of contradictions into dialectical wholes, along with questions as to whether these notions have been adequately distinguished either conceptually or empirically from formal operations. Finally, it is argued that investigation of the relations between adult cognitive development and everyday problem-solving may be facilitated through causal modeling that includes task characteristics, social context, personality and motivational factors, and so forth. A causal model for the case of strategy selection in remembering is presented.

We all feel the urge to maintain a Self that is somewhat stable, while at the same time transforming that Self over time by developing through new learning. Learners, and especially adult learners, consciously or unconsciously bring a complex Self to new learning experiences-a Self that is nested in a complex series of relationships that can help or hinder learning. Our Self becomes a "strong center of interactions" rather than a concrete "thing" that must be defended lest it change or disappear.As described in a new theory (Sinnott, 2004a; Berlanstein, 2004a, 2004b), three levels of felt connection facilitate or hinder that ability to be an adult Self while continuing to transform that Self. The theory has implications for adult teaching and learning. When we adults learn, or when we attempt to teach other adults, we need to honor these felt connections so that learning may be integrated into that adulttransforming Self. A wide variety of adult learning systems found in many cultures honor and incorporate felt connections and that dynamic dance of the transforming Self. Complex cognitive development permits, and is developed by, this Self-transforming dance. Bridged by our felt connections, we manage to experience and understand inner change and continuity over time as we learn during adulthood.

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Spirituality is important to humans but gets little attention in experimental studies of life span cognitive development. One way to integrate such studies is to examine cognitive aspects of spiritual development using complex postformal Piagetian models. Four possible points of interface within postformat models are: developmental stages; elements of emotion and will; multiperson cognition; and forms taken by the processes used. Testable hypotheses are outlined and some possible difficulties to be expected within such research are discussed.