cognitive development with thanks to jen brace. jean piaget “father” of cognitive development...
TRANSCRIPT
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