Theories of Cognitive Development Flashcards
1
Q
cognition
A
- The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experiences, and the senses
- Includes knowledge, problem-solving, attention, reasoning, and memory
2
Q
theories of cognitive development
A
- Number of theories have been proposed describing the ways infants acquire and build on their cognitive resources
- Each make different statements about ages and mechanisms, and takes a position on the 7 themes of developmental psych
- Theories: Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, Information-processing theory, Sociocultural theory, dynamic systems theory
3
Q
con-specifics
A
- other members of the species
- will be referenced in the sociocultural theory
4
Q
why are theories useful?
A
- Provide grounding for us to be successful in scientific enquiry
- Provide a framework for understanding important phenomena and events
- Raise questions about human nature
- Lead us to a better understanding of infants
- Help us identify what we do and don’t know -> help us generate new research hypothesis and questions
5
Q
Jean Piaget
A
- Swiss developmental psychologist (1896-1980)
- First began publishing work in the 1920’s
- Studied his own children to come up with developmental theories
- The most influential developmental psychologist (“the father of developmental psychology”)
- Studied children’s development from egocentrism to sociocentrism
- Divided cognitive development into 4 stages (discontinuous theory)
- Piaget argued that kids form schemata (organizational frameworks about knowledge) to help them move from 1 stage to the next
6
Q
pros and cons of Piaget studying his own kids
A
- Pros: more natural environment, can observe children at all hours of the day, no attrition, know their typical and atypical behaviour, knows their biological and experiential background
- Cons: bias (underestimated children’s abilities), restricted sample (hard to generalize), low sample size (2 kids -> little power to detect developmental changes)
7
Q
limitations of Piaget’s work
A
- studied his own kids
- his theory is a stage theory, but development is more of a transition (like the change of seasons) than a sudden change (like moving from grade 2 to grade 3)
- Underestimated children’s abilities (ie. Symbolic function may occur earlier, but we may not be able to see it due to limited motor/verbal ability rather than limited cognitive ability)
- Described many of children’s behaviours, but didn’t explain how their cognitive systems work (Information-processing theories are the answer to this problem)
- Underestimated the role of socialization on children’s developments -> emphasized child’s individual actions/role in development (“little scientists”) (Sociocultural theory is the answer to this problem)
- Underestimated the complex relationship between thought and action in young children (Dynamic-system theories are the answer to this problem)
8
Q
stages in Piaget’s theory
A
- Stage 1: sensorimotor stage -> Birth-2 years (or until child can communicate in full sentences)
- Stage 2: preoperational stage -> 2-7 years
- Stage 3: concrete operational stage -> 7-12 years
- Stage 4: postoperational stage -> 12 years-adulthood
9
Q
schemas
A
- Depending on how much experience/data points they have, they may develop slightly inaccurate frameworks about each concept
However, the more experience they gather throughout the lifespan, their schemas have to change in order to include new information -> “assimilation”
When you get a data point that won’t fit into an existing schema, you have to create a new schema to understand it -> “accommodation”
10
Q
sensorymotor stage
A
- Birth-2 years (or full sentences)
- Kids learn about the world through their senses or their manipulation of the world using their motor abilities
- Even rudimentary reflexes (eg. Sucking) develop rapidly in the first months of life
- Infants increase motor movements that produce pleasant sensations (and vice versa)
- substages: reflexive schemas -> circular reactions -> mental representations
11
Q
reflexive schemas
A
newborn reflexes (birth-1 mo)
12
Q
circular reactions
A
- motions that initially occurred by chance, but which are repeated because of their pleasurable outcomes
- Primary: repetitive actions centers on the infant’s own body (ex. Passing hand in front of face)
- Secondary: repetitive actions centered on something in the environment (ex. Flicking light switches on and off)
- Tertiary circular reactions: involve a child’s body and an external object, but the repetitive actions vary in some way -> experimentation/”Little Scientists” (ex. Dropping a spoon from different heights to see the changes)
13
Q
mental representations
A
- Signal the end of the sensorimotor period and entrance to the preoperational stage
- Mental representations include:
- Object permanence: mentally representing an object when it disappears (understanding that it continues to exist even when they can’t see it)
- Differed imitation: imitating a con-specific at a much later time -> can mentally represent that action and reproduce it at a later time
14
Q
milestones of sensorimotor stage
A
- gain object permanence, but it’s fragile
- begin exhibiting the A-not-B error
15
Q
A-not-B error
A
- If an object is hidden under a blanket repeatedly, infants will learn to look there
- When they watch the object move to be under a different blanket, they fail to look in the new location
- This happens around 8-12 months
- Children aren’t easily calmed down by the object once it re-emerges, and often continue to look for the object in location A even though it’s emerged from location B
16
Q
preoperational stage
A
- Onset of speaking/2 years – 7 years
- After they acquire language, infants move to the preoperational stage of cognitive development
- 2 substages:
- Symbolic function substage (age 2-4)
- Intuitive thought (age 4-7)
17
Q
symbolic function substage consists of
A
- Pretend play: either alone, with peers, or with caregivers -> Tells us that kid’s mental representations are strong – they’re capable of relatively complex social interactions even if the child hasn’t experienced them before (Ex. Role playing, imaginary friends)
- Symbolism: children can recognize that one thing can be a symbol for another (ex. that a drawing of an object can represent an actual object)
- Egocentrism: children’s inability to recognize other individual’s thoughts, beliefs, desires, etc. And recognize that they differ from their own (fail theory of mind tasks)
- Centration: Focusing on one perceptually salient aspect of stimulus and ignoring other aspects
(Ex. Conservation tasks: kids focus/centrate on the height of the water and ignore the volume and fact that no water was added) - Animism: attributing animate roles to inanimate objects
(Ex. Saying they tripped on the sidewalk because the sidewalk was mad at them and tripped them) - Transductive reasoning: flawed logical reasoning; results in overgeneralization of knowledge (ex. “My dog is brown, so all dogs must be brown”)
18
Q
information-processing theories
A
- Attempt to explain how cognitive systems work rather than focusing on the interaction between cognition and action
- Argue that humans process information – they don’t just respond automatically to stimuli
- Think about cognitive systems as being like a computer processor -> take in information/input -> process/store it -> output/action
- Argues that the child is a “little problem solver” -> performs operations on info and act on it
19
Q
mechanisms of change (info-processing)
A
- Piaget correctly identified some limitations of young children
- Information-processing theories explain these limitations from a cognitive perspective
- The developing brain:
- Can only hold a certain amount of information at a time
- Can only process information at a certain speeds
- Has limited strategies for problem-solving
20
Q
development of the 3 types of memory
A
- One way infants become more adept problem-solvers is that their memories get better
1. Sensory memory - Ex. Retinal cells still firing after you’ve looked at a bright light; pain cells still firing to create a sting after you’ve been slapped even after what slapped you is gone; the ability to hear the echo of the voice of someone you’re speaking to even after they’ve stopped
- Lost if not attended to
2. Working memory - With attention, information can go here
- Is worked on through maintenance rehearsal
- Lost if not encoded or rehearsed
3. Long-term memory - Gets here once it’s encoded, but can still be forgotten
21
Q
3 processes that work to improve memory and cognitive skill
A
- Basic processes
- Association
- Recognition
- Recollection
- Generalization
- Encoding (some details are remembered, while others are not) - Strategies
- Rehearsal
- Selective attention – develops with age - Content knowledge: learning more about how the world works by acquiring more knowledge
22
Q
2 processes that increase memory and processing speed
A
- Myelination (increase in speed)
- Synaptogenesis (increased space/connectivity)
- Areas of the brain that are being used heavily will experience synaptogenesis rather than synaptic pruning
23
Q
sociocultural theory
A
Emerged from the fact that Piaget understated the role of socialization on children’s development
Socioculturalists believe that while children are responsible for their environment (active child), caregivers and peers also play a crucial role
24
Q
Lev Vygotsky
A
- Russian psychologist (1934-1987)
- Unknown outside Russia until the late 20th century
- proposed sociocultural theory
25
Piaget vs. Vygotsky
- Piaget viewed child as a scientist; Vygotsky viewed child as a teacher/learner
- Piaget focused on solving physical and logical problems; Vygotsky focused on socially relevant events
- Piaget was more discontinous, Vygotsky was more continuous
26
mechanisms of change (sociocultural)
- Unlike information-processing theories, sociocultural theories focus on how children use people around them to develop cognitively
- Intersubjectivity drives learning (Ex. Joint attention)
- Social scaffolding: when parent, caregiver, or peer provides support/help so that the child can complete a task they wouldn't be able to complete without help
27
intersubjectivity (and its 2 types)
- Attending to the same person/event/stimulus as a social partner
- Begins early in infancy with joint attention
- Dyadic joint attention (2 partners focusing on each other)
- Triadic joint attention (2 partners focusing on a stimulus/event)
28
development of joint attention
- For the first 6 months of life, infants predominantly engage in dyadic joint attention
- Sometime after 6 months, they begin to better engage in directed triadic joint attention
- Ex. Pointing as a cue for triadic joint attention (less complex)
- Ex. Gaze following (12 months): following the partner's gaze without any physical cue as to what to look at (more complex)
29
language development
- One of the crucial aspects of sociocultural theory is the movement from parent-directed to child-directed speech
- Young infants rely on parent instructions
- As they begin developing language, older infants begin linguistically directing their own activities -> "private speech"
- Self-praise is a hallmark of private speech
- Eventually, after infancy, children internalize this language as thought
30
zone of proximal development
- Where most leaning takes place
- Like 3 interconnected circles -> what child can do, what child can do with help, what child can't do
- Where learning takes place is in what child can do with help zone -> no learning takes place in other 2 zones because one zone has been mastered already and the last zone is out of reach at the moment
31
dynamic systems theory
- Emerged from Piaget's underestimation of the complex relationship between thought and action in young children
- There is a circular relationship between young children's thoughts and their actions
- New actions produce more complex thoughts
- More complex thoughts produce new actions
- Development is a complex network of thought and action...
- Striking evidence of dynamic systems theory comes from the intersection between cognition and motor behaviour -> ex. Crawling
- Infants are surprisingly precise in their knowledge of their own capabilities (they can use their knowledge of their own limitations to produce action)
- Centrality of action: action contributes to development throughout life
32
dynamic systems study example
- Karen Adolf: slide study
- Investigates how children can make decisions on behaviour based on their own limitations
- Ex. Children were aware of their limitations and knew whether they should slide or walk down a slope of varying degrees (and whether they should crawl or walk up a slope of varying degrees)
- They demonstrated more hesitation at the slope of 20 degrees, even though it wasn't the steepest, because they were deciding which motor action would be best for this situation -> they know that they may be able to succeed by crawling or walking
33
cultural tools
- sociocultural theory
- products of human ingenuity that enhance thinking (symbol systems, artifacts, skills, values, and so on) and are a part of a certain cultural context.
34
info-processing theory: task analysis, basic processes, and overlapping waves theory
- task analysis: identifying goals, relevant information in the environment, and potential processing strategies for a problem.
- basic processes: The simplest and most frequently used mental activities, like association, recall, generalizing, etc.
- overlapping-waves theory: An information-processing approach that emphasizes the variability of children’s thinking. Proposes that children use strategies, and as they age, they rely on increasingly more advanced strategies
35
equilibrium
- goes along with assimilation and accomodation in Piaget's theory
- The process by which children (or other people) balance assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding.
- When satisfied with understanding -> equilibrium. When you encounter new information that makes you realize your understanding is inadequate -> disequilibrium. This forces you to develop a more sophisticated understanding in order to return to equilibrium.
- Ex. Kids start out believing that animals are the only living things -> then realize plants are living too -> have to understand why in order to reach equilibrium
