Cogntive development

Question 1

What is cogntive development?

Answer 1

mental processes that support learning, memory, attention

Question 2

Outline Piagets

Answer 2

Theory prominent from 60s
• How children understand the physical and social world
• Constructivist – child constructs knowledge by engaging with world, generates and tests theories
• Behaviourism was dominant – child passively soaks up information from the environment
• Interested in the errors children make – insight into processing

Question 3

what are Piagets key principles?

Answer 3

Influences on development:
• Maturation: unfolding of biological changes that are genetically programmed
• Activity: child as an active learner, exploring the environment
• Social transmission: learn from others
• Equilibration: when pre-existing schemes or ways of thinking about an object do not fit with our experiences we adjust to re-establish balance – this is how our thinking moves forward
– Assimilation: “adding” of information to existing structure
– Accommodation: reorganising the structure to take account of new information

Question 4

Outline Piagets stages of development

Answer 4

Qualitative shifts from stage to stage
• At any given point in development, children reason similarly on many different problems across different domains (e.g. maths, language, social cognition)
• New stage = major shift in underlying structure
• UNIVERSAL – All children go through all stages
• INVARIANT order of stages – All children go through the same stages, in the same order
• Rate of development varies

Question 5

Outline the sensorimotor stage of piget

Answer 5

Building schemes through sensory and motor exploration
• Child builds on basic reflexes
• Has six substages increasing from simple and complex reflexes to more purposeful actions
• Develops object permanence
• Sixth substage: use of symbolic thought and deferred imitation
Piagetian sensorimotor tasks
• One of Piaget’s key contributions to child development was the use of novel methods to probe development
• Object permanence: objects still exist when we can’t see them
A-not-B task
• A-not-B error: 10 month old child perseverates, continuing to look at the initial location
birth-2 years

Question 6

Outline the preoperational stage of piget stage theory

Answer 6

2-7 years
Preparing for concrete operations
• Symbolic: symbols (e.g., language) used to represent objects/the world
• Language development, play, deferred imitation
• Egocentric: limited appreciation of others’ perspectives
• Cannot systematically transform (operate on, manipulate) representations or ideas

Piagetian preoperational tasks
• At 2-7 years are children pre-logical?
conservation tasks

Question 7

A preoperational child doesn’t recognise that changing an object’s appearance doesn’t change its basic properties • Why?

Answer 7

Lack of understanding of reversibility: inability to reverse mental processes – Centration: focusing on one dimension/characteristic of an object or situation

BUT, children can pass conservation tasks earlier • More careful questioning (Rose & Blank, 1974) • Accidental transformations (McGarrigle & Donaldson, 1975) • Training (Gelman, 1982

Question 8

Outline the concrete operational stage of Piagets stages

Answer 8

7-11 years
Operation – Emergence of ability to transform objects in mind
• Logic – First signs of logical thinking
• Reversibility – Ability to mentally reverse an operation
• Decentration – Understanding that change on one dimension can be compensated for by change in another

Question 9

Outline the formation stage of Piagets theory

Answer 9

Characterised by hypothetico-deductive reasoning (like a scientist) – Deducing hypotheses from a general theory – Generate predictions – Systematically test predictions, holding one factor constant, vary another factor

Question 10

how does Piagets pendulum problem give adiffernecens between 2 of Piagets stages?

Answer 10

What determines the speed of the pendulum? • Concrete operational child will vary factors (length of string, weight of pendulum, force) randomly
• Formal operational child will systematically vary one factor at a time
Concrete operational child can manipulate objects in mind while formal operational child can manipulate ideas in mind

Question 11

give evaluation of Piaget

Answer 11

Very influential, many important contributions
• General consensus that thought is structured
• Constructivist view
– Cognitive development not just learning (nurture)
– Cognitive development not just unfolding of innate structure (nature)
– Cognitive development not passive (behaviourism), but the result of children’s active construction of knowledge
A ‘good’ theory?
– synthesise/account for a wide array of findings – describe, explain and predict behaviour

• A single domain general theory
• Key ideas stimulating research:
– Child actively seeks and constructs knowledge
– Development follows qualitative shifts/stages
– 0-2 cognitive driven by sensorimotor system

Contributions to pedagogy (cf. Berk, 2008): • Education should help children learn how to learn, discovery learning • Listen to children, pay attention to their thinking processes • Set up situations with unexpected consequences, hypothesis testing e.g., what do we think will happen? • Concept of differentiation, materials can be taught at different levels, adjust to match child’s capacities • Individual differences, children develop at different rates

Question 12

give limitations of Piaget

Answer 12

• Methods for investigating cognitive development – Observation
– Clinical interviews (question and answer)

Findings well-replicated but does this mean that Piaget’s theory holds? • Stages: – Is development stage like (discontinuous; Siegler & Alibali, 2005)? – Do all children pass through the same stages at the same age? – Style of thinking might be applied to different problems at different stages (i.e. not universal) – Development doesn’t end at 11 years. Also do all adults apply formal operations (Kuhn & Franklin, 2006)?

Underestimates competence (Cohen & Cashon, 2006; Halford & Andrews, 2006):
– Tasks index more than just developments in logical thinking (language, memory, attention…)
– modern methods – Social and cultural influences/differences? E.g. Brazilian children pass a classic task when it is phrased in terms that they are familiar with (Dasen, 1984; Saxe, 1999)
• Performance on Piagetian tasks can be trained (Gelman & Baillargeon, 1983

Question 13

Outline Vygotsky’s history

Answer 13

Socio-cultural theory of cognitive development • Influences on development: – Social interactions with more experienced others (parents, older children, teachers): co-constructed processes are internalised – Learning – Language (and other mediators)

Question 14

Outline some of Vygotsky’s key principles

Answer 14

Mediators: psychological tools generated by the social and cultural developmental context – language, counting, art, writing
• Elementary mental functions: biological and emerge spontaneously – basic attention, perception, memory-
–>development –>
• Higher mental functions: coordinate cognitive processes, use mediators – Voluntary attention, intentional remembering, abstract thinking, problem solving

Question 15

`give a difference between Piaget and Vygotsky

Answer 15

No rigid stages but certain forms of thinking are typical of certain ages
affiliation
play
play
peers
work
theorising

Question 16

Outline the role of private speech in development

Answer 16

Private (or egocentric) speech
• Young children provide a running commentary to their own actions and thoughts
private speech
• Vital in driving development

Vygotsky viewed it as foundation for all higher cognitive processes, e.g. – Sustained attention, memory rehearsal and recall, categorization, planning and problem solving, self-reflection
• Private speech allows children to: – Reflect on thinking and behaviour – Plan appropriate action
• Helps guide behavior – Used more when tasks are difficult, after errors, or when confused
• Piaget called this “egocentric speech”, or “talk for self” and did not think it served a useful cognitive function

Becomes inner speech as thought processes are internalised (7+ years; cf. Bivens & Berk, 1990) • Private speech increases with task difficulty (Fernyhough & Fradley, 2005) • More private speech -> better performance on complex tasks • Children with learning and behavioural problems use private speech for longer (Ostad & Sorensen, 2007)

Question 17

give the zone of proximal development

Answer 17

Role of the teacher
• ZPD explains mechanism by which children can perform tasks they cannot do alone when they have support from expert
Describes how social interactions  cognitive development • Considers potential under optimal conditions

Question 18

Explain Vygotsk’s importance of social interactions

Answer 18

Intersubjectivity – Process by which two participants start task with different levels of understanding, but finish task with same level
• Scaffolding – Process by which teachers adjust level of instruction to suit child’s current level of understanding e.g. by breaking a task down into simpler components
• Guided participation (Rogoff, 2003) – in her own words – In less formal teaching situations than those where scaffolding occur – the cultural community – More knowledgeable other can guide behaviour through joint participation in a task, or in play.

Question 19

Outline ZPD in research

Answer 19

Wertsch et al. (1980): problem solving with a parent (mother)
• Participants: 18 mother-child pairs, 33 months, 43 months, 53 months
• Task: complete a puzzle •
Key DV: gaze to model
• Key IV: age of participant (betweensubjects)
• Results: mother-directed gazes decrease with age i.e. prompt not needed
• Conclusions: roles within this learning situation change with age
Rogoff et al. (2003) – Intent community participation – Child initiates participation in a culturally relevant activity and is supported to make a genuine contribution (according to ability)
• Rogoff, Ellis and Gardner (1984) – Mothers pay more attention to structuring conceptually “difficult” tasks (mathematics) as opposed to conceptually easy ones (household chores)
• Cho & Compton (2015) – Dynamic assessment draws on the principles of the ZPD to look at potential to learn/capacity to learn rather than existing knowledge or skills

Question 20

outline Vygotsky’s imput to make-believe play

Answer 20

Make-believe play crucial to
– Cognitive development – Social development
• Provides children with self-generated ZPD
– Try out different approaches
– More complex problems
• Make-believe play often strongly rule-based
– Children experiment with role-play around social norms
• Experience of responding to internal ideas, not external stimuli -> self-regulation

Question 21

Vygotsky limitations?

Answer 21

Focus on language de-emphasizes other key factors, such as observation and other learning methods
• Underestimates role of nature (Piaget too)?
Evidence from infant studies
• Vygotsky was very interested in instruction but the implications of his work for teaching have been largely surmised by others

Question 22

give the strengths to Vygotsky

Answer 22

Contributions to pedagogy (cf. Berk, 2008):
• Need to do more than just arrange an environment that is conducive to learning, need to guide/assist learning
• Instruction → internalisation → learning • Imitation → learning (modelling)
• Collaborative learning between peers e.g., reciprocal teaching
• Scaffolding: work with more knowledgeable others (parents, teachers, older pupils…)
• Use language to organise thinking, dialogue and discussion
• Acknowledges individual differences
• Tailoring tasks, differentiation

Question 23

what about research after Piaget/ Vygotsky?

Answer 23

Nativism – Chomsky (1959) e.g., poverty of the stimulus

– Fodor (1983) and modularity (but see Karmiloff-Smith, 1996) – Spelke (2003) – BUT nativists underestimate the conceptual change that can be observed – BUT environment shapes development

Information processing theories (e.g., Siegler, 1996)
– Focus on role of attention, memory, self-control etc. as mechanisms of change
– Development involves overcoming processing limitations
– Not a unified theory, more an approach
– BUT components hard to combine into broad picture – BUT computer metaphors simplify real-life experience; overlooks nonlinear aspects, interaction with others – BUT slow to include biology, evolution
processing: coding, transforming, organising… input output

Neuroconstructivism (KarmiloffSmith, 1992; Mareschal et al., 2007; Westermann et al., 2007) – Emphasises both genes and the environment – Nativism meets Piaget – Motivated by advances in developmental cognitive neuroscience…

Question 24

outline neurobiolgical methods after piaget/vygotsky

Answer 24

Relationship between changes in the brain and cognitive development/learning
• Relatively new field, emerged in the late 80s but term coined about a decade later
• Interdisciplinary: psychology, biology, neuroscience and medicine

 Developmental neuroscientific methods – Potential to provide an additional source of evidence, in some cases addressing issues that are not tractable by more traditional methods
47
fMRI: spatial resolution, WHERE
Behavioural genetics
EEG/ERP: temporal resolution, WHEN

Developmental cognitive neuroscience: Critical evaluation – Neuroscientific studies tend to be very expensive – New and developing field – Tasks that can be used alongside these methodologies fairly limited – neuroscience experiments vs. the real world (e.g., classroom) – Popular fascination – Correlation ≠ causation – Misinterpretation very common/easy, can have expensive and distressing effects e.g., interventions (Paula Tallal: Fast ForWord; Dore programme) – Many myths…