Introduction to Cognitive Development Flashcards
Lectures 5 and 6
cognitive development
the development of thought processes and mental activity
- memory, attention, language, reasoning, social cognition, problem solving, and more!
constructivist theory
children construct their own understanding of the world
- reject both sides of nature and nurture (children aren’t sponges)
- children themselves conduct their own teaching and learning (play an active role in learning about the world)
- child as scientist: they ask questions, test things, derive conclusions
jean piaget
father of cognitive development
- First major theory of comprehensive development
- Idea of how children change in their thinking as they develop
jean piaget: early fascination
fascinated with the mistakes children made in logic that to an adult, seemed incomprehensible
- Started by testing his own children
schema
organized ways of thinking and acting on the world
schemas: adults vs children
As an adult: we have many different schemas
○ Ex: we have schemas about how to drive a car and use it every time we drive a new car
○ Ex: how to ride a bicycle
Kids have different schemas for everything that they build
○ When we encounter something we’ve never seen before, we use our known schemas to interact with them
how we change schemas
- assimilation
- accommodation
assimilation (schemas)
new info viewed thru existing schemas
- bring new info into our existing schemas
accommodation (schemas)
schemas are adapted according to new experiences
- adapt our ideas; change our schema according to our new information
- as we gain more information, we can accommodate our schemas
button schema: example
we know what a button is, but when we encounter a bead, we need to change our existing schema and maybe make new ones
Piaget’s stage theory of development
- Discontinuous development: it’s qualitatively different
- Times in between stages are when children do radical shifts
- In each stage, Piaget talks about things that children learn/mistakes that they make
Piaget’s stage theory of development: stages
- Sensorimotor (0-2)
- Preoperational (2-7)
- Concrete operations (7-12)
- Formal operations (12+)
Sensorimotor stage
Overall way that children think about the world is thru their senses and motor actions (looking, sucking, touching, reaching)
- growth in their understanding: they learn how to grow and adapt
- object permanence
first reflexes (sensorimotor)
Babies: sucking reflex
□ Everything they get they’re going to try and assimilate by their sucking reflex
object permanence (sensorimotor)
@ 6-10 months
the understanding that an object continues to exist even when you can’t see it
§ Once an object disappears, they stop searching for it; they “think” that it doesn’t exist anymore
sensorimotor stage: accomplishments
- adapting to the environment
- object permanence
sensorimotor stage: gaps
representing the world mentally
- need to be able to represent things in your world to understand they still exist even when you don’t see them
preoperational stage
2-7 years
- symbolic representations
- imaginary play
- being able to represent in our minds that something is not just always the object as it exists, but it can be represented as something else
symbolic representations
- Ability to make symbolic representations
- Something can make something else
○ Seen in kids pretend play
○ Drawing: symbolically representing that lines on a paper can represent something
○ Playing with objects: a banana can represent a phone
preoperational stage: gaps
- conservation
- egocentrism
- not yet capable of “operations” –> logical manipulation of information
- no mental logic
conservation (preop. gap)
understanding that physical properties do not change despite changes in form or appearance
- focusing on the physical properties of something (often height) and not the underlying volume
- Same error seen on different tasks where physically, things look different but the count says the same
- Even when they’re observing it, they’re not able to follow the mental logic that something is the same thing
centration (conservation/preop gap)
focus on one aspect; perceptually physical property
egocentrism (preop. gap)
the ability to go beyond your viewpoint
- They see things just from their own viewpoint
- Difficulty understanding that other people have viewpoints, and that people can have different viewpoints from them
ex: playing hide and see; “i can’t see you so you can’t see me” perspective
how piaget would test preop. gaps
Three Mountains Task
- One has a house, one has a cross, one has snow
- One side has a doll
- Children are asked “what does the doll see?”
○ Children in the preoperational stage describe just from their viewpoint; they don’t understand that the doll sees something different
concrete operational stage
7-12 years old
- able to use mental logic to reason about concrete things
○ i.e. things they can directly experience and can see
○ Decentration: able to focus on multiple dimensions
- pass conservation and egocentrism tests
concrete operational stage: gap
reasoning about abstract, hypothetical concepts
- While they’re using mental logic to reason about concrete things, they can’t reason about abstract things
○ Hypothetical things, things they haven’t directly experienced themself
formal operational stage
12+ years old
- now able to use mental logic to reason about abstract, hypothetical things
- logically examine evidence and test hypotheses (use logic to test hypotheses)
formal operational stage: feather + glass rule
The rule: if you hit a glass with a feather, it will break… If you hit a glass with a feather, will it break?
- they will now be able to follow this rule
formal operational: third-eye question
What would you do if you had a “third eye” that you could place anywhere on your body?
- Before formal operational: on the forehead b/c that’s the only place they know that eyes can be
formal operational: often back of the head
how piaget would test formal op. stages
the pendulum problem
- Their task is to determine the characteristics that makes the pendulum swing for longer
- Teenagers: would approach this problem much more logically
○ Maybe I want to isolate the weight and vary the length
○ Maybe I want to isolate the length and see if the weight makes a difference
formal operational stage: social justice movements
one theory: they’re learning about a hypothetical future & the knowledge that they can change that
- understanding that their future can be different from what it is and they can change that
piaget’s stages: extra notes
- Everyone goes though this in the same order; you can’t skip a stage, you can’t go backwards
- The only one that he was fuzzy about: not everyone will make it to formal operations stage
piaget’s legacy
- study of cognitive development (inspired others to investigate children’s cog + explore mechanisms of cognitive change)
–> almost every other field is based on Piaget’s theories - idea of “natural limits” at a given age: not based on outward influence, but the child own’s learning
- active contribution; children as contributing actively to their own development; children aren’t sponges, but actively seek to understand the world thru their experiences
Piaget’s criticisms
- underestimate influences of outside factors (culture, people, etc.)
–> ex: children of pottery makers in Mexico achieve conservation of mass at an earlier age - underestimates development of children and infants
–> piaget’s tasks are very hard + rely on verbal, motor, and organization for children
–> When you simplify the task (reduce language/motor skills), they can understand things a lot earlier
piaget’s criticisms: recent object permanence findings
Piaget: developed O.P. by 6-10 months
current research: O.P. present by 3-5 months
piaget’s criticisms: recent egocentrism findings
Piaget: develops in concrete operational stage
- Three mountains is hard for children to do because of language
current research: even toddlers have some awareness of others’ perspectives
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory
- gradual, continual shifts in knowledge
- children as social learners (learning from capable members of your culture)
- emphasizes the social component: the knowledge that comes from other people
zone of proximal development (Vygotsky)
- the range of tasks to doo difficult to do on your own, but which are possible with the help of a skilled other
- Refers to where the learning is happening; where social collaboration is helping to improve our social development
scaffolding
how “Zone of Proximal Development” works
- “teachers” adjust the level of support they offer to fit the learner’s needs
- the idea of giving help, but not more than what’s needed; slowly taking away help as they grow
○ When someone is first starting to learn something, they need a lot of support
○ As a person gets better and better at it, we pull back at the support
scaffolding: cultural variation
seen across cultures BUT different types of scaffolding are more common in some places than others
- How people approach scaffolding seems to be different
Turkey and US: verbal scaffolding
Guatamala: gesture scaffolding
India & Guatamala but NOT Turkey and US: gazes & touches; physically putting hands to help guide them
Vygotsky: learning thru social collaboration
- Zone of Proximal Development
- Scaffolding
- Language
Language (Vygotsky)
- the most important tool for cognitive development
- gives learners access to other knowledge; how we give info to others
- allows learners to think about the world
- private speech
private speech (Vygotsky)
how you talk to yourself
- Allows us to work through our own work
Vygotsky: legacy
- emphasis on culture
–> learning is situation w/i a culture; we learn from individuals within our culture - role of teaching
- impact in educational settings
Vygotsky: criticisms
- overemphasis on language
–> There are individuals who don’t use language; individuals who are non-linguistic - undervalue biological mechanisms
–> Genetics, nature, individual differences, etc. might play a role
Piaget vs. Vygotsky: contrasts
- P: self-discovery/child creating their own knowledge VS. V: learning thru social collab./co-creating their knowledge
- P: discontinuous change VS. V: continuous change
- P: universal processes of development VS. V: development as culturally situated
- P: language and thought are unrelated VS. V: language is key to learning
Piaget vs. Vygotsky: similarities
- focus on child: both emphasize the child as an active learner/participant in their learning
- children as active learners: looking at not only external influences, but also what the child themselves brings
Piaget & Vygotsky: modern notes
current research shows neither of these theories is entirely accurate, and neither can explain all of children’s learning
- We don’t believe all of them
- We have lots of research testing
- Neither theory is entirely accurate or entirely inaccurate
○ Piaget: underestimate children
○ Vygotsky: overestimate language
