Contemporary approaches to moral development and moral education emphasize propositional thinking and verbal discussion of abstract moral dilemmas. In contrast, this article proposes that narratives (stories) are a central factor in a person's moral development. Support for this position comes from recent theoretical contributions of Bruner, Sarbin, Spence, Tulving, and others, who have emphasized narrative thought as a major form of cognition that is qualitatively different from abstract propositional or scientific thinking. In addition, over the last 10 to 20 years psychologists investigating and conceptualizing moral development have come to emphasize such processes as empathy (Hoffman), caring and commitment (Gilligan), interpersonal interaction (Haan), personal character and personality (Coles; Hogan; Staub; Rushton). It is proposed that narratives and narrative thinking are especially involved in how these processes lead to moral development and therefore that narrative should be rehabilitated as a valuable part of moral education.
A parameter-free model is developed of how human subjects perceptually process sequential patterns of binary and trinary events, for example, aabbab; aabcacc; etc. Emphasis is on repeating and on short, nonrepeating patterns. The model's major characteristics are (a) coding of the pattern into a hierarchy of larger and fewer elements until the pattern itself is the final coded element. This coding is described with a set of coding axioms. And (6) evaluation of the information (H or statistical uncertainty) associated with the coded elements using Garner's multivariate uncertainty analysis. The total uncertainty of the coded elements of a pattern, called H eo ^e, is denned as the pattern's complexity. H 00 d8 values of a large variety of binary and trinary patterns are used to predict such response indexes as accuracy of pattern recall, mean number of words to describe a pattern, and judged pattern complexity. Typical correlations ranged from .90 to .95. Some deviations from the predictions that imply changes or additions to the model are discussed.
In this article are reported two studies carried out to test the hypothesis that subjects prefer a specific degree of visual complexity. Angular patterns of increasing complexity were presented to subjects. Results of these tests showed that the average curve of preference increased up to a moderate degree of complexity and then decreased.
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