Cognitive Development I

What is Cognition?

• Knowing

• It involves:• attending• remembering • symbolizing• categorizing • planning• reasoning• problem solving • creating• fantasizing

Cognitive Development

according to Piaget

Cognitive Development according to

Vygotsky

Piaget

• From the mouths of babes•Lions and Mailmen

Piaget

• From the mouths of babes•Lions and Mailmen

• Piaget’s sample size

• Basic drive to make sense of the world• Passive vs Active

Key points in Piagetian Theory

• Scheme/schema- an internal framework that organizes information and provides structure for interpreting that information

• Adaptation- to make sense of the world, something in us must change

• Assimilation- world interpreted through existing schemes. Focus on similarities • Examples- Daddy, kitty cat

• Accommodation- schemes changed or developed to fit new information. Focus on differences• Examples- mail man, lion

2 Types

What is a tree?

Cognitive Change- What is the Source?

• Where does cognitive change come from?• Internal process• Purpose of adaptation is

to preserve what we know and what we are experiencing

Cognitive Change- Who is the Agent of Change?

• Socially, peers are important agents of change

• Play (same age) helps develop problem solving skills- trial and error

Cognitive Change- Influence of Language

• Doesn’t really matter for cog dev

• Cog dev language•language is a form of

Cognitive Change- Influence of Culture

• Little to no influence

• Cog dev. occurs in stages

• ALL children go through same stages

4 primary stages of cog dev

• Sensorimotor Development (0-2 years)• Begins with reflexive behavior and

ends with planful or intentional actions and symbolic thought. Primarily focused on NOW

• Pre-operational (2-7 years)• Pre-conceptual (2-4 years)-

Distinguished by symbolic logic (language), egocentrism (can’t take another’s perspective), animism.- Magical beliefs

• Egocentrism video- QuickTime

4 primary stages of cog dev

• Pre-operational

• Intuitive (4-7 years)- • Distinguished by categorization- limited to

immediately relevant stimuli features. By the end can categorize into multiple features-Think “blocks” or Hobby collections

• Beginnings of perspective taking (theory of mind)-

• At the end you see the very beginnings of “conservation” with training, but “centration” occurs frequently without

• Mental manipulations on the HERE and NOW, but lack “reversibility”

• Where would you put your third eye?

4 primary stages of cog dev

• Concrete operations (7-11 years)• Mental manipulations- more

complex. • Has deductive reasoning about

concrete events but not abstract thoughts and examples.

• Conservation video • Can complete all other conservation

tasks- number, length, mass, weight, volume… displacement (“which is more??”)• Indicative of decentration and

reversibility

Conservation (and lack of) in Action

4 primary stages of cog dev

• Formal Operations (11+)- • Characterized by abstract thought,

abstract reasoning, hypothetical-deductive reasoning.• Pendulum problem

• Deductive Reasoning• Mental manipulation of imaginary

• Propositional thought• Object in my hand

Are either one, both, or none true?

Either the clasp in my hand is green or it is not green.

The clasp in my hand is green and it is not green

4 primary stages of cog dev

• Formal Operations (11+)- • Characterized by abstract thought,

abstract reasoning, hypothetical-deductive reasoning.• Pendulum problem

• Deductive Reasoning• Mental manipulation of imaginary

• Propositional thought• Object in my hand

• Adolescent egocentrism- Imaginary Audience and the personal fable• Pimples• “you just don’t understand”

• Once formal operations always formal operations?

Sensorimotor Stages

Sensorimotor

• Reflexes (birth-1 month)- spontaneous, involuntary, respond to novelty with programmed response. • For example, put something in the

infants mouth, she will begin sucking

• Primary circular reactions (2-4 mo) • Discovers behavior by chance. • Accidental behavior; but if reinforced

it’s repeated (hence, “circular”). • Actions are centered on infants own

body. i.e. Sucking a thumb when placed in his mouth.

Sensorimotor stages

• Secondary circular reactions (4-8 mo) • Behaviors still discovered by chance. • But, centered outside the body. • Actions are on objects and intended

to achieve goals. e.g. foot on the mobile.

• Does not understand object permanence by seeking out object

Sensorimotor Stages

• Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8-12 mo)• characterized by intentional/purposeful

behavior: anticipating/adapting to “get” • Combines two previous behaviors into more

complex behavior (crawling). Tool Use

• Early- Not consistent in understanding and searching out hidden objects. • Though “Object Permanence” is beginning to

form-“Peekaboo”.

• Late- Will search for fully hidden objects,• Sometimes victim to the A not B error.

A-not-B error

Fail Pass

Sensorimotor stages

• Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 mo)• Characterized by the invention of new

problem solving methods with objects. Will experiment or use trial & error.• Doesn’t make the A not B error. But will

make error if object displacement is not seen.

• Symbolic Problem Solving (18-21 mo)• Can perform mental manipulations for

simple problems. • Can problem solve mentally. • Object permanence is fully developed.

• NO A not B error, even if object displacement is implied.

See Website for Imitation According to Piagetian Stages

• Bring any questions about Piagetian Imitation to Review Session.

• Piagetian Imitation WILL be on the exam.

Sensorimotor Stages