Cognition and Development Notes

What types of learning did Piaget propose?

• Accommodation

• Assimilation

What is accommodation?

• Occurs when new information significantly alters existing understanding.

• Requires forming a new schema to process the new information.

What is an example of accommodation?

A child initially mistakes a tiger for a cat but then develops a new 'tiger' schema upon observing the differences

What is assimilation?

Occurs when new information can be incorporated into an existing schema without radical change.

What is an example of assimilation?

A child seeing a tabby cat for the first time assimilates this new appearance into their existing 'cat' schema

What are the differences between accommodation and assimilation?

• Accommodation involves creating new schemas, while assimilation does not.

• They occur in different situations, as shown in the examples.

What is the motivation to learn?

• Arises from the unpleasant feeling of disequilibrium.

• Disequilibrium occurs when new situations cannot be understood through assimilation.

• Leads to exploration and schema development through equilibration.

What is equilibrium?

The desired mental state is achieved when new or existing schemas are complete.

What is a schema?

• A mental framework of knowledge and beliefs about specific concepts (place, object, person, time).

• Influences cognitive processing by providing shortcuts for efficient processing.

• It can lead to perceptual errors by distorting sensory stimuli.

• Some schemas are innate (e.g., sucking and gripping reflexes in babies).

• Schemas become more sophisticated over time, enabling understanding of more complex situations.

What are criticisms of Piaget’s theory?

• Unrepresented sample

• Comparison with Vygotsky’s theory

Why does Piaget’s theory have a unrepresented sample?

• Piaget's sample consisted of children from a university nursery, predominantly white, middle-class, and well-educated families.

• This limits the ecological validity, as not all children have the same need to achieve equilibrium.

• Children from poorer backgrounds with fewer educational opportunities may differ in intellectual curiosity.

• Thus, Piaget's theory may not universally explain cognitive development.

What is the comparison between Vygotsky’s theory and Piaget?

• Vygotsky emphasised learning as a social process involving interactions with experienced peers ('experts').

• Piaget gave less importance to social elements, viewing peers and teachers as facilitators of discovery learning.

• Vygotsky emphasised the importance of language as an external expression of thought, unlike Piaget.

What did Howe et al (1992) find?

• Observed children (9-12 years old) discussing the motion of an object sliding down a slope.

• Each child reported different details and understandings, despite seeing the same motion.

• Supports Piaget's prediction that individual mental representations are formed through discovery learning.

• Individual differences in schemas affect the understanding and accommodation of new information.

What is Piaget theory’s impact on education?

• Emphasis on active learning and exploration in the classroom (e.g., using a sandpit to develop conservation skills).

• Implementation of the 'readiness approach', aligning learning with the 4 stages of intellectual development.

• Project-based learning for 'concrete' subjects (e.g., science) between 7 and 11 years.

• Shift from rote learning to teachers as facilitators of discovery learning.

What are Piaget’s stages of intellectual development?

He proposed 4 main cognitive abilities acquired through stages of intellectual development: object permanence, class inclusion, egocentrism, and conservation.

• The order of the stages is fixed, but the age can vary.

When does the sensorimotor stage last?

0-2 years

What is the sensorimotor stage?

• Focus on physical sensations, the development of basic language use

• Discovery of movement through trial and error

• Object permanence develops around 8 months: understanding that an object exists even when not visible

  • Before 8 months, infants don't search for hidden objects;

  • After 8 months, they do.

How long does the pre-operational stage last?

2-7 years

What is the pre-operational stage?

• Development of class inclusion, egocentrism, and conservation

• More sophisticated language, but reasoning faults persist

• Egocentrism

• Class inclusion

• Conservations

• Impairments in egocentrism, class inclusion, and conservation prevent pre-operational children from learning ‘concrete’ subjects like science, which require abstract reasoning.

What is egocentrism?

The tendency to view the world from one's own perspective

How is egocentrism tested?

The Three Mountains Task (Piaget and Inhelder, 1956)

• Children describe a doll's perspective of three mountains with different toppings.

• Pre-operational children often recount their own viewpoint, demonstrating egocentrism

What is class inclusion?

Understanding that objects can belong to multiple classes

How is class inclusion measured?

• Measured by showing children pictures of 5 dogs and 2 cats

• Pre-operational children struggle to understand that a single object can belong to multiple classes.

What is conservation?

Understanding that quantity remains the same despite appearance changes

How is conservation tested?

• Liquid conservation task: pouring liquid into a taller beaker.

• Pre-operational children often report more liquid in the taller beaker.

• Demonstrates a lack of understanding of 'reversibility'.

How long does concrete operations stage last?

7-11 years

What is the concrete operations stage?

• Development of skills in egocentrism, class inclusion, and conservation

• Reasoning limited to physically present objects ('concrete' reasoning).

How long does the formal operations stage?

11+ years

What is the formal operations stage?

• Capable of scientific thinking and reasoning about abstract ideas

• Tested by Smith et al. using neologisms.

What are the criticisms of Piaget’s methods?

• Flawed experimental methods

• Conflicting empirical evidence

• Domain-general approach

How does Piaget’s methods have flawed experimental methods?

• Some methods caused confusion (e.g., McGarrigle and Donaldson's conservation task).

• Piaget's research involved spreading out the coins, leading children to believe the quantity had changed.

• Lack of statistical analysis makes the data unreliable, as it is unclear whether the results were significant or not.

• Failure to adhere to standardisation and control procedures during clinical interviews.

• He was wrong to assume that task failure equates to a lack of ability

How do Piaget’s methods have conflicting empirical evidence?

• Martin Hughes (1975) demonstrated that children aged 3.5 years could hide a doll from a policeman 90% of the time.

• Challenging Piaget's assumptions about egocentrism in pre-operational children.

• Suggests that the original experimental method may have been confusing to children, which may have biased the findings.

How do Piaget’s methods have a domain-general approach?

• Piaget's domain-general approach viewed intellectual and cognitive abilities as developing together.

• Vygotsky adopted a domain-specific approach, emphasising language as critical.

• A moderate interactionist approach (a 'middle-ground') may be more suitable.

What is Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development?

He proposed that learning is a social process where children acquire knowledge and reasoning skills from 'experts'

What is language according to Vygotsky?

• Crucial cognitive skill that develops at its own rate (domain-specific).

• Contrasts with Piaget's domain-general approach.

• Agreed with Piaget that cognitive development occurs in stages.

• Knowledge is first 'intermental' (through interaction) and becomes 'intramental' as learners cross the zone of proximal development.

What is the zone of proximal development (ZPD)?

• The distance between independent problem-solving and potential development with guidance.

• Defined by Vygotsky as "The distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers".

What are the stages for scaffolding?

• Help received from experienced peers to cross the ZPD.

• Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976) identified 5 scaffolding techniques:

  • Recruitment

  • Reduction of degrees of freedom

  • Direction maintenance

  • Marking critical features

  • Demonstration

• The level and frequency of help decrease as the child crosses the ZPD.

What are the impacts of Vygotsky’s theory on education?

Highlights the limits of what a child can learn based on their current developmental stage and the size of their ZPD.

What are the criticisms of Vygotsky’s theory?

• Individual differences

• Incorrect universal assumptions

How does Vygotsky’s theory have individual differences?

• Does not account for individual differences in social aptitude and personality.

• Some children are ill-suited to social learning.

• Limited practical applications for teachers in facilitating peer learning.

How does Vygotsky’s theory have incorrect universal assumptions?

• Assumes that children experiencing the same interactions should develop the same understanding.

• Contradicted by Howe et al. (1992), who found that children observing the same motion developed different understandings.

What is supporting evidence of Vygotsky’s theory?

• Roazzi and Bryant (1998)

• Conner and Cross (2003)

What did Roazzi and Bryant (1998) find?

• Children (4-5 years old) receiving help from experienced peers estimated the number of sweets in a box more accurately.

• Supports the Vygotsky-Bruner model of scaffolding.

• Social interaction enhances logical inferences.

What did Conner and Cross (2003) find?

• Mothers showed systematic decreases in support and increases in contingent interaction over 3 years.

• Children became more successful during interactions.

• Supports the idea that the level and frequency of help given towards the learners by experts decreases as the learner crosses the ZPD.

What is Baillargeon’s explanation of infant abilities?

He challenged Piaget's assumption that infants lacking object permanence do not understand it.

What is the violation of expectation?

• Suggests that if a child understands the physical world, they will have expectations about object behaviour.

• When expectations are violated, the child looks longer at the scene because they are surprised.

• The Physical Reasoning System (PRS) pays attention to scenes that may improve understanding.

What did Baillargeon et al do in 1985?

• Tested object permanence in 24 infants (5-6 months old).

• Possible condition: a short rabbit can't be seen passing behind a window, but a tall one can.

• Impossible condition: neither rabbit can be seen passing behind a window.

• Infants looked at the impossible condition longer (7.96 seconds).

• Concluded that infants believed the rabbit existed, represented its height, and expected to see the tall rabbit in the window.

• Suggested that infants acquire object persistence at 5 months, instead of 8 months as Piaget suggested.

What is the physical reasoning system (PRS)?

An innate predisposition to pay attention to ‘surprising’ events which are not in line with our expectations, in an effort to improve and advance our understanding of the physical world, and event categories.

What is a comparison with Piaget’s Test of Object Permanence?

• Limitations of Piaget’s method: Children may lack motor abilities, attention, or interest.

• Baillargeon’s method removes this by requiring children only to look at the scene.

• Baillargeon’s VOE research may be a more accurate and reliable measure of infantile cognitive abilities.

What is the evidence suggesting the PRS is Universal?

• Innate understandings: sucking and gripping.

• Basic physical understanding is developed through experience.

• Supported by Hespos and van Marle (2012) as early as we can test for them, and the nature of the underlying representation is best characterised as primitive initial concepts that are elaborated and refined through learning and experience”.

What are criticisms of Baillargeon’s theory?

• Distinction between behavioural response and behavioural understanding

• Casual conclusions

What is the distinction between behavioural response and behavioural understanding?

• Bremner emphasised that looking longer does not necessarily mean understanding.

• Baillargeon may have overestimated the significance of the results.

What are casual conclusions of Baillargeon’s theory?

• Difficult to judge what infants actually understand.

• Infants find a certain scene more interesting than the other

• It cannot be certain that they even experience expectations about the physical world in the first instance.

What is perspective taking?

• Taking on another person’s viewpoint in physical and social situations.

• Physical examples: Piaget and Inhelder’s 3 Mountains Task.

• Social examples: taking on multiple perspectives in an argument.

How did Selman develop stages of perspective-taking based on tasks administered to children?

Assessed 60 children (10 boys and 10 girls, each of ages 4, 5 and 6) using perspective-taking tasks. These included the ‘Holly and her kitten’ task, which involved identifying the emotional status of Holly, her father and her friend, whose kitten is stuck up a tree. Holly must therefore make a decision to decide whether to rescue the kitten or not, after promising her father not to climb trees.

What are Selman’s stages of development?

• Socially egocentric

• Social information role-taking

• Self-reflective role-taking

• Mutual role-taking

• Social and conventional system role-taking

How long does the socially egocentric stage last?

0-3 years

How long does the social information role-taking stage last?

6-8 years

How long does the self-reflective role-taking stage last?

8-10 years

How long does the mutual role-taking stage last?

10-12 years

How long does the social and conventional system's role-taking stage last?

12+ years

What are additions to Selman’s explanation?

Schultz, Selman, and La Russo (2003) added interpersonal understanding, negotiation strategies, and awareness of the personal meaning of relationships.

What are criticisms of Selman’s theory?

• Lack of clarity

• One-sided approach?

How does Selman’s theory have a lack of clarity?

• There is a lack of clarity over the precise role of perspective-taking, and specifically whether it is important for the development of prosocial or antisocial behaviour.

• The role of perspective-taking in prosocial and antisocial behaviour is unclear.

• Buijzen and Valkenburg (2008) suggested that perspective-taking abilities become more advanced with age and so reduce the number of infant-parent conflicts when in supermarkets.

• Gasser and Keller (2009) found that bullies suffer from no perspective-taking impairments.

• Perspective-taking may have little theoretical value.

How is Selman’s theory a one-sided approach?

• Over-emphasis on cognition.

• Other factors, like theory of mind and mirror neurons, are also critical.

What are practical applications of Selman’s theory?

• Improved understanding of those with autistic spectrum disorders, such as ADHD, as suggested by Marton et al (2009).

• Pinpointing impairments experienced by autistic children can lead to more efficient treatments.

What is the theory of mind (ToM)?

• The ability to understand/identify what other people are thinking and feeling, through a ‘mind-reading’ -like process.

• Understanding others' thoughts and feelings ('mind-reading').

How might autism involve a deficit of ToM?

Autistic individuals may struggle to understand that others have different emotions.

What are deficits in ToM?

• Deficits cause impairments in empathy, social communication, and social imagination.

• Deficits cause impairments in empathy, social communication, and social imagination.

  • Lack of understanding behaviour impacts others.

  • Difficulty differentiating fact from fiction.

  • Poor performance on 'false-belief' tasks like the Sally-Anne task

What happened in the Sally-Anne tasks?

• The participants were asked to identify where Sally would like her marble after it had been moved without her knowledge. 85% of the control group, which includes (14 children with Down’s Syndrome and 27 neurotypical children, correctly answered, compared to 20% of the autistic group. This supports the idea that a ToM deficit is responsible for autistic children being unable to understand that people can believe something that is not true.

• 85% of the control group, compared to 20% of the autistic group, passed the task.

• Supports the idea that a ToM deficit is responsible for autistic children being unable to understand that people can believe something that is not true.

• Difficulties predicting the behaviour or emotional states of others.

How can ToM be assessed in young children?

• Meltzoff (1988) used intentional reasoning tasks for children under 2.

• 18-month-olds imitated the intention of an adult struggling to place beads in a jar.

How can theory of mind be tested in adults?

Adults struggle with ‘The Eyes Task’, which involves identifying the emotion displayed in the eyes of a character that can only be seen.

What are criticisms of ToM?

• Doesn't explain the desirable characteristics of AS sufferers.

• Limited as a universal explanation for autism.

• Close Links with Perspective-Taking

• Low mundane realism

How is ToM have close links with perspective-taking?

• Meltzoff’s tasks can be explained both in terms of the child taking on the perspective and intention of the adult.

• It can be difficult to differentiate between the mechanisms of ToM and perspective-taking.

How does ToM have low mundane realism?

• The Eyes Task has low mundane realism.

• We usually see the whole face and hear verbal cues in real life.

• Findings may have limited ecological validity.

What are mirror neurons?

• Located in the premotor cortex, supplementary motor area, primary somatosensory cortex, and inferior parietal cortex

• Activated when we observe the motor actions of others, but are also activated when we perform motor actions ourselves.

What is understanding intention?

• Goldman and Gallese (1998) suggested a link between mirror neurons and understanding intention.

• The activity of mirror neurons can also be considered as the neural mechanism for this process too!

What is the role of mirror neurons in social development?

• Ramachandran (2011) emphasised the role of mirror neurons in human evolution as a social species.

  • Evolution increased the likelihood of survival.

  • Mirror neurons facilitate the learning of language

• Mirror neurons facilitate learning of language and skills (communication, hunting, cooking).

What is the link between autistic spectrum disorders and ToM?

• Oberman and Ramachandran (2006) link neurological deficits involving mirror neurons to autism.

• The ‘broken mirror neuron hypothesis’ may result in an inability to understand the intentions and emotions of others.

  • Leads to problems in social communication, awkwardness and manifests itself as adults who struggle to ‘read’ others.

  • In terms of their intentions, goals, emotions and perspectives.

What are criticisms of ToM?

• Correlational research

• Incomplete explanation for autism

What is correlational research for ToM?

• Most research is correlational, with some questioning their existence at all.

• Indirectly studied.

• Hickock (2009) argues that understanding intentions is very different to simply using observed motor actions in others to make our own judgements about appropriate behaviour.

What is incomplete explanation for autism?

• The link between mirror neuron deficits and AS may have been overstated, and is not as ‘exclusive’ as once believed.

• Hadjikhani (2007) found that despite autistic participants having an abnormally small average thickness of the pars opercularis, there has been evidence to suggest that not all AS sufferers have atypical mirror neuron patterns.

What is supporting evidence for ToM?

Role of social cognition

How is the role of social cognition supporting evidence for ToM?

• Oberman and Ramachandran (2006) link neurological deficits involving mirror neurons to autism.

• Increased activity in the pars opercularis during sexual arousal while watching pornography (Mouras et al., 2008).