cognitive development with thanks to jen brace. jean piaget “father” of cognitive development...
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Cognitive Development
With thanks to Jen Brace
Jean Piaget• “Father” of cognitive
development• Studied his children
Jacqueline, Lucienne & Laurent
• Where does knowledge come from?
Piaget’s Theory of Development
• Stage theory– Children think differently in different stages but
similarly within a stage– Prolonged period of time in a stage, relatively
abrupt transition to next stage• Four stages
– Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational and Formal Operational
Piaget’s Theory of Development
• 3 processes to move between stages– Assimilation: Transform incoming information to
fit existing way of thinking– Accommodation: Adapt thinking to new
experiences– Equilibration: Integrate pieces of knowledge into
unified whole
Sensorimotor Period• From birth to ~2 yrs old• Actions progress from simple
reflexes to deliberate movements
• Object permanence – realize object still exists even when it can’t be perceived
• Internal representation – ability to think about objects/events not immediately present
Preoperational Period• From ~2 yrs to ~7 yrs• Learn to use symbols, signs and language• Egocentrism – cannot understand another person’s point of
view (but nursery school pics/code switching)• Failure of conservation – do not yet understand that
quantity remains the same despite appearance
Concrete Operational Period
• From ~7 yrs to ~11 yrs• Thinking becomes systematic, quantitative and
logical• Success at all conservation tasks – number, solid
quantity, liquid quantity• Decentration of perception – ability to classify
objects in terms of more than one dimension
Formal Operational Period• From ~11 yrs to adult• Apply logical and systematic
thought to abstract problems• Deductive reasoning – specific
conclusions based on general hypotheses
• Inductive reasoning – make generalizations based on specific observations
• Handling multiple variables simultaneously
Strengths of Piaget’s theory• Good “feel” for what
children’s thinking is like • Asks the right questions• Covers broad age span• Covers broad spectrum of
developments in children’s thinking
• Surprising observations• Interplay of content &
mechanism
Weaknesses of Piaget’s theory
• Underestimates competence – children succeed earlier than predicted
• Can’t explain dissociations – success or failure depends on the way concept is tested
• No discrete stages - development occurs somewhat gradually or incrementally
Habituation
• Infants like to look at objects that are new and interesting to them
• Procedure– Familiarization: Object presented repeatedly until infants
no longer look at it much– New object introduced
• Method: Infants look longer at new object—allows testing of whether they perceive object as new or old
Occluded rod experiment• 4-month-old infants
familiarized with A, then presented with either B or C
• Results – Looked longer at C than B
• Conclusions– Broken rod more novel than
unbroken rod– Rod in display A was
originally perceived as unbroken
Drawbridge experiment• 4.5 month old infants• Two conditions
– B is ‘possible’– C is ‘impossible’
• Results – Looked longer at C
• Conclusions– Infants know box exists,
even when hidden – 4.5 month olds understand
object permanence
A-not-B experiment
• Experimenter hides toy under cover A• 9-month-old infant successfully retrieves toy• After several successful retrievals, experimenter then hides toy under
cover B• Results - Child still searches under cover A, even though he/she
watched the toy being hidden• Conclusions – 9 month olds do not understand object permanence
Information-Processing Theories
• Thinking = information processing– Representation of information– Processes - applied to representations– Constraints - memory limits constrain representation
and processing• Cognitive development = change in information
processing capability– Precise analysis of change mechanisms
• Change produced through continuous self-modification– Outcomes of child’s actions change information
processing in the future
Memory representations & capacity
• Leg-string Infants remembered that kicking made mobile move after 2 months
•Working memory span increases with age
- Iconic memory capacity also increases with age (1st grade = 2.5 digits, 4th grade = 3 digits, adults = 3.5 digits)
Rehearsal as information processing
• Increase in rehearsal speed leads to increase in working memory capacity
• Older children do better on recall tests because they use rehearsal as a memory strategy
Sociocultural Theories
• Vygotsky - father of sociocultural theories of development
• Cognitive development occurs in social interaction– Developmental change occurs through
internalization of socially shared processes– Zone of proximal development
• Psychological functioning is mediated by cultural tools & language
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