Wize University Psychology Textbook > Development
Cognitive Development
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Cognitive Development
Piaget's Stages of Development
We don't just get better or faster at thinking as we age - the way in which we think changes
Schemas - an internal framework that guides our thoughts and actions
According to Piaget, cognitive development involves developing new schemas and adding more complexity to the schemas we already have
- Assimilation - new experiences are added to existing schemas
- Example - a toddler who has only ever seen dogs meets a cat for the first time and calls it "little doggie"
- Accommodation - schemas are changed by new experiences
- Example - a toddler who has only ever seen the family's golden retrievers meets a chihuahua for the first time and has to shift the definition of "dog" to include this new animal
Four major stages of cognitive development:
- Sensorimotor (birth to age 2)
- Understands and explores world through sensory and motor experiences (Example - sucking on objects)
- Object permanence develops - the understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight
- Symbolic thought emerges
- Preoperational (age 2-7)
- Symbolic thinking established
- Words and images to represent objects
- Pretend play
- Egocentrism - Difficulty understanding the world through another person's perspective
- Does not understand conservation - principle that basic characteristics of objects stay the same even when outward form changes
- Example - You pour water from a tall, skinny glass into a short, wide glass and ask which glass had more water. A child who is preoperational will say that the tall, skinny glass had more water
- Centration - Child only focuses on one aspect of a situation (e.g., water level) and ignores other aspects
- Concrete Operational (age 7-12)
- Logical thinking about concrete events. Have difficulty with hypotheticals or abstract reasoning
- Conservation - Understand that basic characteristics of objects stay the same even when outward form changes
- Serial Ordering - Able to easily arrange objects along a continuum (e.g., smallest to biggest)
- Formal Operational (age 12+)
- Logical, abstract, and flexible thinking
- Forms hypotheses & tests systematically
Watch Out!
Note the difference from the "regular" use of the word egocentric - doesn't mean selfish in Piaget's stages
Piaget's stages occur in the same order in cultures around the world
Criticisms of Piaget's Stages:
- Children generally reach these milestones before Piaget thought they did
- Development does not proceed in clear stages and is more complex than Piaget thought
- Children may be at the preoperational stage in some ways, and concrete operational in others
- Culture influences cognitive development
Vygotsky & Social Context
There is often a gap between what children can do independently and what they can do with guidance from others
Zone of proximal development - difference between what a child can do independently and what they can do with guidance of adults or more advanced peers
Information Processing Approaches
Cognitive development is a continuous, gradual process (rather than stages)
- Information search strategies - Older children are more systematic and methodical in visual search tasks
- Processing speed - Older children process information faster, with rapid increases from 8-12 years old
- Attention span & inhibition - Older children have longer attention spans and are better at inhibiting irrelevant or distracting information and incorrect responses
- Working memory - Older children can store more information in working memory than younger children, and are better with visuospatial information than younger children
- Long-term memory - Older children are more likely to use strategies to remember things
Theory of Mind
Theory of mind is the ability to understand and infer other people's mental states
By 4 years old, most children can infer mental states, though it is effortful
Lying and deception require theory of mind - you must be aware that the other person doesn't know what you know
Practice: Cognitive Development
Match up the stages of cognitive development:
A.
children think and reason abstractly
B.
children begin to think logically
C.
children begin to think symbolically, but not logically
D.
children acquire information only through the senses
sensorimotor
preoperational
concrete operational
formal operational
Practice: Cognitive Development
(Vygotsky/Piaget) stressed the importance of the (cognitive/sociocultural) influence in a child's cognitive development, whereas (Vygotsky/Piaget) did not consider the environmental influences that can shape cognitive development. Piaget viewed the child as developing (dependently/independently), and Vygotsky viewed the child as an apprentice to strong sociocultural influence.
Practice: Cognitive Development
Ashton is in the cognitive stage of development where he is beginning to talk, but mostly it comes out as gibberish because he can't yet put fully formed, logical sentences together. He is most likely in which age group?
Raven and her mother are playing hide-and-seek. Raven's mother turns her back and counts to 10, while Raven runs to find a hiding spot. When her mother gets to 10, she turns around and sees Raven standing directly in front of her in the middle of the room, with her hands covering her face. Because Raven cannot see her mother, she assumes that means her mother cannot see her. Which stage of cognitive development do you think Raven is in?
Practice: Cognitive Development
Which of the following is not considered a drawback to Piaget's theory on cognitive development?