Piaget introduced the concept of cognitive conflict or cognitive dissonance (which will not be distinguished here).In the social constructivist account of mathematics, this has a parallel with the emergence of a formal inconsistency , or a conflict between a formal axiom system and the informal mathematical system that is its source (Lagatos,1978). This is analogous to cognitive conflict, which there is conflict between two schemas , due to inconsistency or conflicting outcomes. In psychology, this is resolved through the accommodation of one or both of the schemas. Likewise in mathematics, or in science , this stimulates revolutionary developments of new theories.
Overall, there is a striking analogy between theory growth and conflict in the social constructivist philosophy of mathematics and schema theory in psychology, and underlying it, between theories and schemas. Unlike the situation in the philosophy of mathematics, schema theory, as sketched above, represent the received view in psychology, lending support to a psychological parallel for social constructivism.
C .Reification and Concept Formation
The social constructivist philosophy of mathematics distinguisher two modes of concept development , vertical processes of concept formation, involving the reification of concepts into objects, and horizontal processes . These can be elaborated as part of a psychological parallel to social constructivism.
We may conjecture that psychological concept formation involves both vertical and horizontal processes. The vertical processes include the standard processes of concept formation, namely the generalization and abstraction of shared features of earlier formed concept to from new concept. Beyond this, we conjectures the existence of a psychological mechanism or tendency which transforms mental procedures or processes into objects. This mechanism changes a property , a construction, a process, or an incomplete collection into mental object, a complete thing-in-itself. What is represented as a process, a verb or an adjective becomes represented as a noun . This is ‘reification’ or ‘objectification’ . Psychologically , much concept formation has this character . Even in the act of coordinating different perception of an external object, in sensory concept formation, we reify the set of perception into the concept , an enduring object- representation in a schema.
There is some parallel between this conjectured ‘vertical’ mechanism and Piaget ‘s notion of reflective abstraction , the process whereby an individual’s operation, both physical and mental, become represented cognitively as concepts. Thus reflective abstraction includes concept reification, although the former is a broader notion.
A number of other researchers have proposed psychological theories notion. Specifically with concept reification (Skemp,1971). Dubinsky (1988,1989)includes ‘encapsulation’ as part of his explication of the notion of reflective abstraction. Encapsulation converts a subjective mathematical process into an object, by seeing it as a total entity. Sfard (1987,1989)has been testing a theory of mathematical concept development, in which operational concept are transformed into structural concepts, by a process of reification. Both these researchers have empirical data consistent with the hypothesis that a process of encapsulation or reification occurs in vertical concept formation. Parallel to the social constructivist account, and accounting for subjective belief in Platonism.