Chapter 2 - Cognitive Development Flashcards
Development
orderly, adaptive changes that humans or animals go through
maturation
changes that occur naturally and spontaneously, eg physical development
social development
brought about through learning
What development of thinking, personality influenced by
motivation and interaction with the environment
Three questions across development theories
- Source of development - Nature vs Nurture
- Shape of development - Continuity vs Discontinuity
- Timing Critical periods & sensitive periods
Continuity
improvement in an ability
Discontinuity
development of a new ability
sensitive periods
when person especially ready for or responsive to certain experiences
General principles of development
- people develop and different rates
- development is relatively orderly (but orderly does not mean linear)
- development takes place gradually
cerebellum
- balance and skilled movements
- higher cognitive functions
hippocampus
recalling new information
amygdala
directs emotions
thalamus
- learn new information, especially if verbal
neurons
specialized nerve cells that accumulate and transmit info
- greyish - “grey matter”
axons and dendrites
connect other neuron cells
synapse
tiny space between neurons
synaptic plasticity
strength of synaptic connections - dynamic
glial cells
“white matter” - between neurons
- fight infections
- control blood flow and communication
- provide myelin coating
cerebral cortex
- complex problem-solving, languages
- largest area of brain
- last part of brain to develop
- more susceptible to environmental influences
- region of cortex that controls physical motor movement matures first, then areas that control vision, hearing, then frontal lobe - high order thinking
temporal lobes of cortex
emotions, judgement, language - only developed at high school years
left-side of brain
language processing
right side
spacial - visual information & emotions (non-verbal)
adolescent development and brain
- increased ability to control behaviour
- increased organization
- inhibit impulsive behaviour - but not fully developmed
- high horse power, poor steering
limbic system
emotions, reward-seeking, sensation-seeking, risk-taking, novelty
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development - 4 factors influence change in thinking
- biological maturation
- activity (e.g. seesaw)
- social experiences
- equilibration
Piaget’s theory - tendencies in thinking
- organization - mental systems or categories
- adaptation - adjusting to environment
- assimilation - fit new info into existing schemes
- accomodation - change existing scheme for new
information
- equilibration- search for mental balance between cognitive schemes and information from invironment
Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development
sensorimotor (0-2 years) - senses
peroperational (7 years old) - develop language
concrete operational (grade 1 to 11 years old) - logical thinking
formal operational (adolescent to adulthood) - think hypothetically
semiotic function
adility to use symbols - language, picture, signs, gestures to represent real objects
centering attention
focus on one object
compensation
change in one dimension offset by change in another
seriation
arrange objects in sequential order
formal operations
abstract thinking, coordinate variables
hypothetico-deductive reasoning
formal operations of problem-solving strategy - identify factors that might affect a problem, deduces and systematically specifies solution
adolescent egocentrism
assumption that everyone else is intewrested in one’s thoughts, feelings and concerns
executive functioning
process used to organize, coordinate and perform goal-directed, intentional actions, including focusing attention, inhibiting impulsive responses, making and changing plans, use memory to manipulate information
neo-Piagetian theories
more recent theories that integrate findings about attention, memory and strategy use with piaget’s insights about children’s thinking and construction of knowledge
limitations of Piaget’s theory
- 4 seperate stages questioned
- lack of consistency in children’s thinking
- underestimates children’s abilities
- overlooks children’s social groups and culture
Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspective
theory emphasizs role in development of cooperative dialogue between children and more knowledgeable members of society
- children learn culture of community (way of thinking and behaving)
- human activities take place in cultural settings, and cannot be understoof apart from these settings,
Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspective - assumption
every function in a child’s cultural development appears twice - on social and individual levels
Cultural tools
physical tools (PC, scales), & symbol systems (numbers, language) that allow people in a society to communicate, think, solve, create knowledge
Psychological tools
language
collective monologue
form of speech in which children in group talk but do not interact
Private Speach
self-talk, guides thinking and actions, verbalizations internalizerd as silent inner speech - not immaturity
Zone of proximal development
“magic middle” - area between what sutdent knows and what student is not ready to learn
- phase at which child can master a task if given appropriate help & support
Piaget’s position on cognitive development
cognitive development precedes learning - not supported by research
Vygotsky’s position on learning
learning does not have to wait for readiness
Limitations of Vygotsky’s theory
consists of general ideas
- he dies young, Soviet Union restricted research
Implications of Vygotsky’s theory
avoid “inch deep, mile wide” curriculum
- develop higher mental functions
- imitative learning
- instructed learning
- collaborative learning
- teach directly, intentionallly use modelling to teach
Implications of Piaget’s theory
help children learn to learn - “form, not finish”
- understand child’s thinking
- observe students, listen to their strategies
- learning is a constructive process
- value of play
- to know is to act on
- scaffolding
assisted learning
- more than arranging environments guided participation - learn from students what is needed give information, prompts, reminders, encouragement - adapt materials - walk through steps
What part of the brain is associated with higher mental functions?
- cortex - crumpled sheet of neurons
- functions - receive signals from sense organs, control vonultary movement, form associations
- part that controls physical movement develops first
What is lateralization and why is it important?
- specialization of two hemispheres of brain
left = language, right = spacial and visual processing - systems work together to perform complex activities like reading and understanding
What are the main influences on cognitive development?
- Piaget’s theory - assumes people try to make sense of the world through experiences with objects, people and ideas
- thinking processes and knowledge development impacted by maturation, social activity, need for equilibrium
- thoughts organized - assimulation (new info into existing schemes) vs accodation (changing existing schemes)
What is a scheme?
basic building block of thinking - organized systems of actions or thoughts - allow us to think about objects and events in our world.
As children move from sensorimotor to formal-operational thinking, what are the major changes?
- 4 stages of development (according to Piaget) - sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational
- sensorimotor stage - use senses to explore world - master object permanance, goal-oriented activities
preoperational stage - symbolic thinking and logical operations begin - concrete operations - think logically about tangible situations, demonstrate conservation, reversibility, classification, serialization
- hypothetico-deductive reasoning, coordinate a set of variables, imagine other worlds
How do neo-Piagetian and information processing views explain changes in children’s thinking over time?
- information processing theories focus on attention, memory capacity, learning strategies & processing skills
Neo-piagetian - also consider attention, memory, strategies
Research shows as children move through actions to representations to abstractions - move from completing one action to several at once for a whole system of understanding
According to Vygotsky, what are the three main influences on cognitive development?
- understand human activites in cultural setting
- mental structures and processes adn be traced to interactions with others
- tools of culture (esp. language) = key factor in development
- zone of proximal development is area where learning and development are possible
Explain how interpsychological development becomes intra-psychological development.
- as children engage with adults, peers - exchange ideas, ways of thinking
- children internalize co-created ideas
- chilcren appropriate by more capable members of group
