Jerome Bruner was born in 1915 in New York and received bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees from Duke University and Harvard University. He developed theories of cognitive development in children that proposed they progress through enactive, iconic and symbolic modes of representation. Bruner was influenced by Piaget's ideas about cognitive development and focused on how mental sets and strategies impact human perception and categorization. He advocated for active, problem-solving approaches to education based on constructivism.