Transcript Cognitive Development

Cognitive Development
“Acquiring knowledge”
I. What is cognitive development?
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The process by which our intellectual abilities
(problem solving, perception, reasoning, etc.)
form & evolve over time.
Are cognitions different from
behaviors?????
From a behaviorist point of view, cognitions (thoughts,
beliefs) are believed to be “actions” and as such are
behaviors.
The primary difference between cognitions & other overt
behaviors that can be seen is the location.
Skinner argued that cognitions are really behaviors that
occur inside the skin, which he called private events.
What are cognitions??
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Knowledge
Ability
Problem Solving
Others include: beliefs, reasoning,
perceptions
II. Theories of cognitive development:
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1. Piaget’s theory
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2. Vygotsky’s theory
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3. Information-processing theory
A. Piaget’s theory:
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Is a stage theory of development.
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Examines how children acquire knowledge
from birth onward.
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Examines the processes by which children’s
thinking changes over time.
Important contributions of Piaget’s
theory:
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1. Focused on children being active participants in
the learning process.
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2. Argued that children adapt thinking & learn
from their mistakes.
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3. Provided a broad-based view of cognitive
development in the natural context of the
environment.
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4. Object permanence.
Assumptions of stage theories:
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1. Children’s thinking in earlier stages differs
qualitatively from their reasoning in later stages.
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2. At a given point in development, children
reason similarly on many problems.
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3. Changes from one stage to the next are marked
by an abrupt transition.
How do children progress from one
stage to another?
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Piaget argued that we need to adapt to our
environment.
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Two processes are critical to adaptation:
Assimilation & accommodation (mutually
influence one another).
1. Assimilation:
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We transform incoming information so that
it fits within our existing way of thinking.
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We add new information to our existing
mental framework.
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(E.g., an infant grasps a new object with
same strategy she used for grasping other
objects.).
2. Accommodation:
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Adjusting our knowledge (framework) in
response to characteristics of an object or
event (that is often different from what
we’ve encountered).
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Changing existing mental framework to
new information.
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(E.g., infant changes the way she grasps a
new object, based on its shape).
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development:
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1.
Sensorimotor period (birth to 2 yrs.)
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2.
Preoperational period (2-6 yrs.)
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3.
Concrete operations period (6-12 yrs.)
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4.
Formal operations period (12+)
1. Sensorimotor:
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Infants use reflexes to form primitive mental
representations of objects & events.
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Symbolic thought begins, allowing infants to
devise strategies for attaining goals & solving
problems.
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Hallmark: Child learns that objects have
permanence, even if out of sight (object
permanence) by 8 months of age.
A. Was Piaget correct about the timing of
when children acquire Object Permanence?
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No!!! Infants appear to have the concept of object
permanence much earlier than Piaget thought.
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Piaget argued that infants show object permanence
by 8 months or after.
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It turns out that infants as young as 3.5 months
have object permanence concept.
2. Preoperational Period (2-6 yrs.):
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Symbolic thought improves as language acquisition
comes on-line. Children start babbling in first year of
life, and start producing simple two-word sentences
by age 2.
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Mental representations that allow children to think
about objects in their absence develops.
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Hallmark: Cannot conserve objects (changing an
object’s physical appearance does not alter substance
of object.)
2. stages in preoperational period:
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A. Preconceptual stage (2-4 years):
1. Animistic thinking (the attribution of
life to inanimate objects).
E.g, a child believing the wind talks to the
trees.
Conversation between Piaget & a
preoperational child demonstrating
animalistic thinking:
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Piaget: Does the sun move?
Child: Yes, when one walks it follows. When one
turns around it turns around too.
Piaget: Why does it move?
Child: Because when one walks, it goes too.
Piaget: Why does it go?
Child: To hear what we say.
Piaget: Is it alive?
Child: Of course, otherwise it wouldn’t follow us,
it couldn’t shine. (Piaget, 1960, p.215)
2. Egocentricity:
The child views world from his/her own
perspective; can’t see it from others view.
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The dialogue where the sun follows the
child illustrates the child’s sense of
egocentric thinking.
Piaget’s 3-Mountain Task: egocentrism
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Models of 3 mountains of different sizes are placed on
a square table & chairs are placed at all four sides of
the table.
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The child is seated in 1 chair, & dolls are placed in the
other 3 chairs, 1 at a time.
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Child is asked what doll sees. Has to select 1 set of
drawings or use cardboard cutouts to construct doll’s
view.
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Piaget found kids couldn’t consistently identify dolls’
view from each of the three views until 9-10 yrs old.
Criticisms of 3-Mountain Task:
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1. Piaget’s Models lacked salient characteristics that could
allow kids to differentiate 1 view from the next.
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2. The task of reconstructing the display, or choosing the
appropriate drawings may be beyond the ability of a young
child.
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Borke (1975) had child do task, but placed snowcaps,
trees, or houses, on the sides of the mountains, to make
them more distinctive and also asked kids to rotate a small
model of the mountain display so that they could present
the correct view, rather than reconstruct the scene from
drawings. This resulted in correct performance in kids
as young as 3 years.
B. Intuitive Stage:
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Child can solve some problems, but can’t tell you
why.
Children cannot:
*Perform a seriation task- in which objects are
grouped on the basis of a specific dimension (height,
length).
*Perform class inclusion problems (if child is given 5
toy cats & 3 toy short-haired tabbies (a type of cat)
& asked whether there are more cats than tabbies,
they can’t do it.
Limitations of Preoperational Thought
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Preoperational children cannot conserve (matter,
liquid,etc.). Conservation—altering an object’s
physical appearance, does alter its basic properties.
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Conservation of liquid task. The experimenter shows
a child 2 short wide glasses with the same amount of
liquid.
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Then, the experimenter pours the liquid from 1 of the
glasses into a tall & skinny glass.
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The child is asked which glass contains more & picks
the tall glass.
2. The Period of Concrete Operations
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Learn to perform operations; mentally
manipulate representations.
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Can conserve (number, matter, & liquid).
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Master concept that operations are
reversible & may be organized with other
operations into larger systems.
3. Period of Formal Operations:
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Hallmark- capacity to think abstractly.
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Learn that operations may be organized into more
elaborate systems.
(a girl thinking about why she is thinking about
thinking)
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Adolescents realize that the reality they live in,
may be one of several realities they could
experience.
Criticisms of Piaget’s theory
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1. Piaget underestimated infant capabilities
& older children’s cognitions.
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2. Piaget was wrong about object
permanence & conservation.
B. Vygotsky’s theory:
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Is a stage theory.
Children’s thinking—the result of their interaction
with more skilled & sophisticated partners
(parents, teachers, etc.).
Children born with innate abilities to learn, but
need social interaction to develop cognitively.
Elementary and Higher Mental Functions:
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Elementary functions– Are innate structures
(memory, attention, & perception) that we
all possess that influence our interaction
with others.
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Higher mental functions (logic, abstract
reasoning) –Require complex mediators
(language; symbols) to develop.
The Zone of Proximal Development:
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The difference between a child’s “actual
developmental level” & his/her potential as
determined by an adult through the child’s
interaction with more capable peers &
adults.
Examines children’s potential during
optimal conditions.
Overview of Vygotsky’s theory:
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1. Focused on importance of social interactions in
cognitive development.
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2. Social contexts are important in development.
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3. Did not specify the processes that govern
development nor does it tell us whether they are
the same at all