Human Development - Cognitive Development Flashcards
Jean Piaget
He believed that intellect is “built up” through experience with the world
This process is evidenced by apparent developmental stages
Developmental Stages
1) SENSORIMOTOR
- Birth to 2 years
- No thought beyond immediate physical experiences
2) PREOPERATIONAL
- 2 to 7 years
- Able to think beyond the here and now, but egocentric and unable to perform mental transformations
3) CONCRETE OPTERATION
- 7 to 11 years
- Able to perform mental transformations but only on concrete physical objects
4) Formal Operations
- 11 years to adulthood
- Able to perform hypothetical and abstract reasoning
Object Permanence
Infants younger than the age of about 10 months tend to act as if they are unaware of objects that have been occluded from their field of view
If we do not have a sense of object permanence, our behaviour (in sensorimotor stage) should be dominated by conditioning and learned motor behaviour
This leads to A-NOT-B ERROR
Object Permanence - Baillargeon (1987)
METHOD
Infants are shown a rotating flap and a block behind it.
The time infants stare at the flap after rotation is measured
RESULTS
Children as young as 4 months spend more time looking at physically impossible events, indicating they have s sense of object permanence
What is A-Not-B Error, and what factors affect if the infant will make this error?
Behaviours that only occur after very specific developmental stages can spontaneously be made to occur much earlier by changing environmental and physiological constraints
Development may not be as straightforward and orderly as Piaget thought
Infants STOP making the A-Not-B Error around 12 months of age
FACTORS
- Visual distinctiveness
- Spatial proximity
- Number of containers
- Spatial organization of containers
- Object salience
Naive Physics
Naive physics is the study of when children develop an understanding of general principles of “how the world works”
Ex. Object permanence, conservation of mass
Gravity - Spelke (1994)
When do children understand that “unsupported objects will fall’?
Children begin staring longer at physically impossible events around 4 months of age
Representations and Transformations
According to Piaget, children in the preoperational stage are capable of forming mental REPRESENTATIONS, but not capable for performing mental TRANSFORMATIONS
Egocentric Thinking
Children ages 2-7 show deficits in their ability to imagine the world from another’s perspective
Theory of Mind
During childhood, children develop what is called Theory of mind
This is the ability to understand that another persons perception and beliefs might differ from their own
Abstract Thinking
The ability to think about hypothetical or imaginary situations typically does not develop until the Formal Operations stage
Systematic Problem Solving
Humans in the formal operations stage begin showing the ability to systematically work through options to solve problems.
Children not yet in the FORMAL OPERATIONS stage do not.
Theories of Development
JEAN PIAGET
- Knowledge comes through interacting with the environment
- Knowledge is “built up” incrementally
- Learning is an active process
Since Piaget, other theories of development have also emerged.
Vygotsky
Was a developmental theorist that emphasized the role of social interaction on development
MAJOR CONCEPTS
1) ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
- Defined this as the “distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance”
EX. The goal of formal education, Vygotsky believed, is to expose children to situations that fall within the zone of proximal development, with the goal of children becoming capable of independent learning
2) SCAFFOLDING
- One of the implications of the ZPD is that child development can be aided by providing “crutches” to aid learning difficult tasks. These simplify the task, requiring less guiding, and can eventually be removed for fully autonomous learning.
Ex. Training wheels are a good example of educational scaffolding. Practice problems are also another good example; they define the scope of “how should I be thinking about this material?”
3) THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY
- Playing games and using imagination becomes pronounced in children during early childhood. Some theorists have argued that play is essential to proper child development, and often serves as practice for required skills later in life.
Ex. Playing give us opportunities to develop motor, cognititive, and social skills that are useful for survival and success later on as adults.
Differences in Social Learning between Piaget and Vygotsky
PIAGET
Most of our knowledge comes from interacting with the physical world
VYGOTSKY
Most of our knowledge comes from interacting with other people
