The paradox of the missing function: How similar is moral mutualism to biofunctional understanding?

Iran‐Nejad, Asghar; Bordbar, Fareed

doi:10.1017/s0140525x12000957

Cited by 7 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…To learn more about this paradox (Iran-Nejad and Bordbar, 2013), let us assume that there is a collective “how” organizer function or, rather, a set of “what, how, why, when, where, who, and which” organizer functions “underlying” (or perhaps “under-standing”) the ECOU as a multiple-source capability. Iran-Nejad (2000) proposed that the physical living system of subsystems and microsystems (i.e., neurons ) inside the skin of the understander could directly be the collective multiple-source organizer of the ECOU, implying essentially that the paradoxical ECOU is directly biofunctional in nature.…”

Section: Tacit Knowledge and Tacit Understandingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptual and Biofunctional Embodiment: A Long Story on the Transience of the Enduring Mind

Iran‐Nejad

Irannejad

2017

Front. Psychol.

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We examine how embodiment in biological activity is different from conceptual embodiment as reflected in classic, modern, and postmodern perspectives on tacit knowledge. The central theme of the essay is how understanding is embodied conceptually and biofunctionally. We focus (a) on how biofunctional understanding (BU) is different from conceptual understanding (CU) and (b) on how the overall differences between these two types of embodied understanding are complementary. We show here from a conceptual perspective that embodiment theories have diverged on the meaning of embodiment; but convergence may be more likely across future perspectives if we first redefine the construct of tacit knowledge as tacit understanding and then define (explicit) CU as being directly grounded in tacit understanding, for the purpose of comparison with BU defined as being grounded in biological activity. We illustrate the complementary differences between conceptual and biofunctional embodiment of understanding first in the absence of language and then using a particular statement format and the implicit analogy of biofunctional embodiment in other bodily systems. We conclude with a suggestion about the directly uncovered but highly related embodiment of language in a section on future research.

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Section: Tacit Knowledge and Tacit Understandingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptual and Biofunctional Embodiment: A Long Story on the Transience of the Enduring Mind

Iran‐Nejad

Irannejad

2017

Front. Psychol.

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“…There is evidence that all-involving performance learning activity (PLA) in this comprehensive cycle is characterized by a paradox of missing functions and that the hidden solutions to this missing function are biofunctional in origin (Iran-Nejad, 2013;Iran-Nejad & Bordbar, 2013). The cycle of the interlevel intuition>revelation<>reflection is paradoxical because understanders may know on the side of psychological (i.e., phenomenal) experience that they get revelations-only with the benefit of hindsight-but they have no idea how; they are clueless about what happens on the side of biological activity (Iran-Nejad, 2013;Iran-Nejad & Bordbar, 2013;Prawat, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The cycle of the interlevel intuition>revelation<>reflection is paradoxical because understanders may know on the side of psychological (i.e., phenomenal) experience that they get revelations-only with the benefit of hindsight-but they have no idea how; they are clueless about what happens on the side of biological activity (Iran-Nejad, 2013;Iran-Nejad & Bordbar, 2013;Prawat, 2000). Nevertheless, the working assumption behind the D 4(3) 255 current investigation is that, paradoxical or not, the interlevel biofunctional<>psychological spiral and its experiential intuition>revelation<>reflection cycle offer a more natural foundation for the development of understanding than a purely psychological or biological one (Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan, & Willingham, 2013;Iran-Nejad & Gregg, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of First-Person Education to a Multiple-Section Undergraduate Educational Psychology Course for Teacher Education Majors

Iran‐Nejad

Stewart

Robinson

2015

IJEP

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This is a semester-long study of the development of first-person biofunctional understanding in educational psychology for teacher education majors. We defined biofunctional understanding as a spontaneous intellectual capacity. To reach its deep biological levels, sculpted by countless evolutionary millennia, students identified and dwelled in writing on their biggest idea of every week for a semester. They stated the idea in a simple sentence and followed by writing a concise paragraph to contemplate on it. Control sections equated their biggest idea with one most important to learn through the conventional learning-testing cycle of deliberate knowledge internalization or construction. Experimental sections fought the learning-testing-cycle urge and sought by hindsight the biggest idea of the most striking revelation (MSR) delivered to their awareness spontaneously by the biofunctional<>psycho-logyical spiral of their intuition>revelation<>reflection cycle. Results showed that experimental condition outperformed the control in the development of their insightful understanding measured by a Levels of Revelatory Strikingness Scale (LRSS) ResumenUsando cuatro secciones de un curso de grado de psicología de la educación con educación deliberada, se estudió en a posteriori el cambio no deliberado en el desarrollo de la comprensión biofuncional sobre sí mismos. Definimos la comprensión biofuncional como una capacidad intelectual espontánea; y para llegar a sus niveles biológicos profundamente arraigados, esculpidos por milenios de evolución, todos los estudiantes escribieron su principal idea acerca de ello cada semana durante un semestre. Las secciones de control equipararon su mayor idea con lo que ellos consideraron que era lo más importante a aprender a través del ciclo convencional de aprendizaje-evaluación en la internalización o construcción del conocimiento deliberado. Se animó a las secciones experimentales a combatir el ciclo de aprendizaje evaluación y a buscar a posteriori la idea esencial o mayor sorprendente revelación (MSR) consciente e involuntaria en la espiral biofuncional <> psicológica en su ciclo de intuición>revelación<>reflexión. Los resultados mostraron que las secciones experimentales superaron secciones de control en el desarrollo de su comprensión perspicaz medida por la Levels of Revelatory Strikingness Scale (EBLR). Llegamos a la conclusión de que los estudiantes son más propensos a cambiar su comprensión en función de sus propias revelaciones en primera-persona revelaciones que en respuesta a las evidencias en segunda/tercera persona presentadas por otros.Palabras clave: intuición>revelación<>reflexión espiral, educación en primera persona, comprensión biofuncional, conocimiento, personificación.

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“…In such a framework, consider the respective role of color and shape for biofunctional understanding, which might be used as a prerequisite for psychological comprehension. Content without color is an abstract content (see Iran-Nejad and Ortony, 1984 ; Iran-Nejad and Bordbar, 2013 ): color is crucial for biofunctional understanding. Shape is more than crucial, it is intrinsically linked with biofunctional understanding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Square bananas, blue horses: the relative weight of shape and color in concept recognition and representation

Scorolli

Borghi

2015

Front. Psychol.

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The present study investigates the role that shape and color play in the representation of animate (i.e., animals) and inanimate manipulable entities (i.e., fruits), and how the importance of these features is modulated by different tasks. Across three experiments participants were shown either images of entities (e.g., a sheep or a pineapple) or images of the same entities modified in color (e.g., a blue pineapple) or in shape (e.g., an elongated pineapple). In Experiment 1 we asked participants to categorize the entities as fruit or animal. Results showed that with animals color does not matter, while shape modifications determined a deterioration of the performance – stronger for fruit than for animals. To better understand our findings, in Experiments 2 we asked participants to judge if entities were graspable (manipulation evaluation task). Participants were faster with manipulable entities (fruit) than with animals; moreover alterations in shape affected the response latencies more for animals than for fruit. In Experiment 3 (motion evaluation task), we replicated the disadvantage for shape-altered animals, while with fruits shape and color modifications produced no effect. By contrasting shape- and color- alterations the present findings provide information on shape/color relative weight, suggesting that the action based property of shape is more crucial than color for fruit categorization, while with animals it is critical for both manipulation and motion tasks. This contextual dependency is further revealed by explicit judgments on similarity – between the altered entities and the prototypical ones – provided after the different tasks. These results extend current literature on affordances and biofunctionally embodied understanding, revealing the relative robustness of biofunctional activity compared to intellectual one.

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The paradox of the missing function: How similar is moral mutualism to biofunctional understanding?

Cited by 7 publications

References 5 publications

Conceptual and Biofunctional Embodiment: A Long Story on the Transience of the Enduring Mind

Conceptual and Biofunctional Embodiment: A Long Story on the Transience of the Enduring Mind

Application of First-Person Education to a Multiple-Section Undergraduate Educational Psychology Course for Teacher Education Majors

Square bananas, blue horses: the relative weight of shape and color in concept recognition and representation

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