Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Wassmann's (1995) analysis is complemented by questioning the adequacy of supposed omniscient and expert knowledge of the ideal type who traditionally informed investigators about how 'order is made out of chaos' in his or her culture. Stratification of societies by any criterion-age sets, gender groups or differentiation of 'experts' from 'novices' reflects the fact that not all problems are consciously known by all members of a society. Relying on cultural persons' abilities to articulate the questions of their culture that may interest the researcher is limiting, especially if the researcher objectifies the information or the informant's abilities. However, if we recognize the informativeness of all cultural members in terms of their specialized knowledge, as no one cultural member is able to give an ideal or typical account of cultural knowledge, a realistic picture of the heterogeneity of both culture and human mind may be obtained. The same may be true of researchers-in the dialectics of interdisciplinary research projects, there are opportunities for a requiem for the omniscient researcher, beginnings of which can be found in Wassmann's analysis.

Keywords

cognitive science expert-novice distinction methodology

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Brown, J.S. , Collins, A. , & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Research, 19(1), 32-42.

Carraher, T.N. , Carraher, D.W. , & Schliemann, A.D. (1985). Mathematics in the street and in schools. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 3, 21-29.

Chi, M.T.H. , Glaser, R. , & Farr, M. (Eds.). (1988). The nature of expertise. Hillside, NJ: Erlbaum.

D'Andrade, R. (1990). Some propositions about the relations between culture and human cognition. In J.W. Stigler , R.A. Shweder , & G. Herdt (Eds.), Cultural psychology: Essays on comparative human development (pp. 65-129). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gardner, P.M. (1976). Birds, words, and a requiem for the omniscient informant. American Ethnologist, 3, 446-468.

Gergen, K.J. (1992). Towards a postmodern psychology. In S. Kvale (Ed.), Psychology and postmodernism (pp. 17-30). London: SAGE Publications.

Glaser, R. , & Chi, M.T.H. (1988). Overview. In M.T.H. Chi , R Glaser & M. Farr (Eds.), The nature of expertise (pp. xv-xxviii). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Landauer, T.K. (1989). Some bad and some good reasons for studying memory and cognition in the wild. In L. Poon , D.C. Rubin , & B.A. Wilson (Eds.), Everyday cognition in adulthood and late life (pp. 116-132). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

10.

Lawrence, J.A. , & Valsiner, J. (1993). Conceptual roots of internalization: From transmission to transformation. Human Development, 36, 150-167.

11.

Perlmutter, M. , Kaplan, M. , & Nyquist, L. (1990). Development of adaptive competence in adults. Human Development, 33, 185-197.

12.

Perkins, D.N. , Faraday, M. , & Bushey, B. (1991). Everyday reasoning and the roots of intelligence. In J.F. Voss , D.N. Perkins , & J.W. Segal (Eds.), Informal reasoning and education (pp. 83-106). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

13.

Riegel, K. (1979). Foundations of dialectical psychology. New York: Academic Press.

14.

Salthouse, T.A. (1984). Effects of age and skill in typing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 13, 345-371.

15.

Scribner, S. (1984). Studying working intelligence. In B. Rogoff & J. Lave (Eds.), Everyday cognition: Its development and social context (pp. 9-40). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

16.

Valsiner, J., & Lawrence, J.A. (1995). Human development in culture across the life span, unpublished ms.

17.

Volet, S.E. , Lawrence, J.A. , & Dodds, A.E. (1986). Adolescents' organizational strategies for planning errands. In A.E.C. Pratt , A. Garton , & D. Nesdale (Eds.), Research issues in child development (pp. 69-76). Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

18.

Wassmann, J. (1993). When actions speak louder than words: The classification of food among the Yupno of Papua New Guinea. Quarterly Newsletter of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, 15(1), 30-40.

19.

Wassmann, J. (1995). The final requiem for the omniscient informant? An interdisciplinary approach to everyday cognition. Culture & Psychology, 1(2), 167-201.

Requiem or Recognition: Not Omniscient and Not Plain Informants

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References