models (revisited) themes to keep in mind throughout material nature vs. nurture nativist vs....
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DevelopmentCognitive
Models (revisited) Themes to keep in mind throughout material
Nature vs. Nurture Nativist vs. Empiricist (Constructivist)
Models of Development No development (little adults) Maturation Readiness Stages Waves Critical periods
PiagetThe “father” of cognitive
development
“Everything you’ve been taught in an intro to psychology course about Piaget is wrong”
- Howard Gardner
Studied biology – became interested in human intelligence
Went to work with Alfred Binet on designing an intelligence test for children Had a really difficult really difficult time using
simplified adult measures
! Children are thinking in a way that is qualitatively different from adults. Children of different ages have different conceptions of the world that change the way they approach problems !
Jean Piaget’s theory remains the standard against which all other theories are judged Often labeled constructivist because it depicts
children as constructing knowledge for themselves
Children are seen as Active Learning many important lessons on their own Intrinsically motivated to learn
3 processes to move between stagesAssimilation: Transform incoming
information to fit existing way of thinkingAccommodation: Adapt thinking to new
experiencesEquilibration: Integrate pieces of
knowledge into unified whole
Stages
Sensorimotor
Birth–2 years
Understands world through senses andactions
Preoperational
2–7 years
Understandsworld throughlanguage andmentalimages
Concrete operational
7–12 years
Understandsworld through logicalthinking andcategories
Formal operational
12 years onward
Understandsworld throughhypotheticalthinking and scientificreasoning
Sensorimotor Infants react reflexively and gradually adapt
behavior to control movement and manipulate objects
Infants aren’t born with object permenance
A-not-B failure
Achieved at 9 mos.
Recent experimental support for sensorimotor period
Sticky mittens!
Sped up object knowledge & understanding of causality (& social awareness?)
PreoperationalLearn to use symbols, signs, and language
(symbolic representations)
Failure of conservation – do not yet understand that quantity remains the same despite appearance
PreoperationalEgocentrism – cannot understand another
person’s point of view
Symbolic representations?
THE CREDIBLE SHRINKING ROOM! (DeLoache et al., 1997)
2.5 years children are unable to use a model of a room to find a toy hidden in the room
UNLESS they are told that the model is the actual room shrunken by a shrink ray
Concrete OperationalThinking becomes systematic, quantitative,
and logical.
• Logical thought for concrete information that is perceived
Work poorly when applied to abstract, hypothetical info: Succeed: If stick A is longer than stick B and stick
B is longer than stick C, then is stick A is longer than stick C?
Fail: Susan is taller than Sally and Sally is taller than Mary. Who is the tallest?
Formal OperationsApply logical and systematic thought to
abstract problems
Deductive reasoning – specific conclusions based on general hypotheses
Inductive reasoning – make generalizations based on specific observation
Hypothetical thinking – truth, justice, morality
Weaknesses
Infants and young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized
Piaget’s theory is vague about the cognitive processes and mechanisms of cognitive growth
Piaget’s theory understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development
Stage model depicts children’s thinking as being more consistent than it is
“Why does everyone speak of stages?... One tries to construct stages because this is an indispensable instrument for the analysis of formative processes....I must vigorously insist on the fact that stages do not constitute an aim in their own right. I would compare them to zoological or botanical classification in biology, which is an instrument that must preceded analysis” (The Essential Piaget, p. 817)
Earlier Object Permanence
4.5 month old infants
Two conditions B is ‘possible’ C is ‘impossible’
Results – Looked longer at C
Conclusions Infants know box exists,
even when hidden 4.5 month olds
understand object permanence
Why later for A-not-B?Errors decrease with fewer trials where toy is
hidden in A
Failure could be from a lack of inhibitory control (impulse to reach to the same location)
Errors decrease with shorter time between between hiding and when child is allowed to reach for toy
Failures could be from poor iconic memory
Information Processing Theory
Human brain as computer Representation of
information Processes: applied on
representations Limitations: memory
Development = change in processing abilities
Memory capacity• Working memory
span increases with age - Iconic memory
capacity also increases with age (1st grade = 2.5 digits, 4th grade = 3 digits, adults = 3.5 digits)
Increase in rehearsal speed – leads to increase in working memory capacity
Increase processing speed
The speed of basic processes increases greatly over the course of childhood
Biological maturation and experience contribute to increased processing speed Two biological processes that contribute to
faster processing are myelination and increased connectivity among brain regions
Problem Solving (Wave Theory)
Children are active problem solversAccording to overlapping-waves
theory, children use a variety of approaches to solve problems
At any given time, children possess several different strategies for solving a given problem
With age and experience, the strategies that produce more successful performance become more prevalent
Wave Theory
Core Knowledge Domain specificity: Children’s innate understanding
allows them to distinguish between animate beings and inanimate objects.
Children’s informal theories: understanding organized into informal theories of
domains like other people, plants and animals, and objects.
Psychology Biology Physics Language
Information-processing view
Core-knowledge view
Occluded Rod4-month-old infants
familiarized with A, then presented with either B or C
Results – Looked longer at C than B
Conclusions Broken rod more novel
than unbroken rod Rod in display A was
originally perceived as unbroken