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Pintrich’s framework is concerned with cognition, conation and affect, yet the over-arching emphasis is upon the operation of a cognitive process, self-regulation, within these domains. While he provides a series of phases, rather than stages, of self-regulation, Pintrich emphasises that these are not necessarily passed through in a linear sequence and phases may operate simultaneously.

We end our survey of frameworks with a composite presentation and evaluation of recent work on the structure, function and development of executive function. This is a key area of psychological research and holds the promise of bringing together different traditions in psychology: experimental; neuropsychological; differential; developmental; social; and even transpersonal. It also seeks to provide an empirical evidence base to inform philosophical accounts of consciousness and the self.

At times, appropriate allocation of frameworks to this family was problematic. While it was comparatively easy to rule out those that were designed for the purposes of instructional design or critical thinking, there was more debate and uncertainty about which should be regarded as ‘all-embracing’ frameworks. Locating Sternberg’s theory was particularly difficult. His triarchic model of intelligence is clearly a model of cognitive structure, yet his model of abilities as developing expertise is much broader and has an applied as well as a theoretical purpose.

Time sequence of theoretical frameworks of cognitive structure and/or development

Piaget’s stage model of cognitive development (1950)

There are three main stages in intellectual development: sensorimotor; representational; and formal. In middle childhood, thinking becomes logical rather than intuitive. Not all adults reach the formal operations stage and think in terms of abstract rules and systems.

Guilford’s Structure of Intellect model (1956)

This is a three-dimensional model in which five cognitive operations work with four types of content to produce six types of product. The

188 Frameworks for Thinking

operations are: cognition; memory; divergent thinking; convergent thinking; and evaluation.

Perry’s developmental scheme (1968)

The scheme consists of nine positions which liberal arts college students take up as they progress in intellectual and ethical development. They move from the modifying of ‘either–or’ dualism to the realising of relativism and then to the evolving of commitments.

Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (1983)

Gardner identifies eight kinds of intellectual ability: verbal/linguistic; logical/mathematical; musical; visual/spatial; bodily/kinaesthetic; interpersonal; intrapersonal; and naturalist.

Koplowitz’s theory of adult cognitive development (1984)

Koplowitz builds on Piaget’s stage theory, but adds two postmodern stages beyond the formal operations stage – post-logical and unitary thinking. The stages reflect changes in how people understand causation, logic, relationships, problems, abstractions and boundaries.

Belenky’s ‘Women’s Ways of Knowing’ developmental model (1986)

Women in adult education tended to progress from: silence (a reaction to authority); to received knowledge; to subjective knowledge; to procedural knowledge (including separate and connected knowing); and finally to constructed knowledge.

Carroll’s three-stratum theory of cognitive abilities (1993)

This theory has a well-founded empirical basis for thinking of cognitive tasks as making demands on narrow and/or broad abilities as well as on general intelligence.

Demetriou’s integrated developmental model of the mind (1993)

For Demetriou, mind and personality interact at all levels of selforiented and environment-oriented systems. There are long-term