Chapter 6 (L4 Cognition)

Clincal method

flexible QNA method to observe child development made by PIAGET

Schemes/schemas

Cognitive structures used to categorize info and can be used to interpret experiences/stimuli

Piaget’s theory of constructivism

Assimilation → applying old schemas to interpret new experiences
Equilibrium → State of mind w reduced conflict where internal thoughts align with reality
Some stimulus happens and triggers disequilibrium where internal thoughts now do not align with reality, maybe schemas don’t fit this new stimulus
Accomodation → Modifying existing schemas to better fit new experiences

Equilibirum is reached again

Children develop by continuing to do this process and learning about the world and building schemas to understand the world around them

Challenges to Piaget

• Underestimating young minds, the theory doesnt distinguish between competence and performance, just bc u understand something doesnt mean you can transfer this understanding in performance

• Claiming behaviour is catergorized in broad stages of development and is consistent in these stages, with distinct differences → irl development is very inconsistent and share overlaps all the time, indiviual performance is also inconsistent at times

• Describes development well but not actually what happens, doesnt ever touch on the maturational or cognitive changes in the brain in these diff stages

• Sociocultural influences no where to be seen

Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspective 

Zone of proximal development → Gap where skills learnt can be accomplished by learner but with assistance by a more skilled guide, skills in this zone are ripe to develop
skills outside this zone are either too hard or too easy (alr mastered)
- Children learn by guided participation from parents or skilled guides like teachers
- Scaffolding → more skilled person helps less skilled person learn something by providing alot of support first, then reducing support little by little until the skill is fully mastered and learner becomes independent
- Adults use diff tools to pass down culturally valued modes of thinking/problem solving to their kids, such as language, writing and numbers

Private speech

Guides thought and behaviour, most present in kids in preschool, used more when faced with a challenging task

Modern approaches

Houde → neuroconstructivism theory, new knowledge is contructed thru changes in neural structure in brain in response to stimuli
Fischer → Dynamic skill framework → Human performance and devleopment is dynamic and depends on CONTEXT

• Skills are context and task specific eg a 99% success rate heart surgeon only has 99% success rate when hes in a surgery room doing heart surgery

• There is a developmental range, where skill and potential can be maximized under the right context/conditions (optimal level)

Infant intellectual accomplishment substage 1

0-1 month, shows survival and primitive reflexes

Substage 2

Primary circular reactions and first habits develop

• 1-4 months

• Sensorimotor schemas develop

• Capable of accomodation

• Random acts of pleasure and repetition

Substage 3

Secondary circular reactions develop

• 4-8 months

• Can interact with env

• Understands cause and effect

• Object concepts emerge

Substage 4

Coordination of secondary schemas

• 8-12 months

• Combine secondary actions to achieve simple goals like throw a ball at mom

• Means-end behaviour thru schemas

Substage 5

Tertiary circular reactions

• 12-18 months

• Scientist era, experiments w trial and error, active experimentation

Substage 6

Beginning of thoughts

• 18-24 months

• Internalizing sensorimotor schemas, transforms them to mental symbols

• Inner experimentation such as problem solving delayed imitation

• Understands language and pics as symbols

Object permanence

Understanding that when an object is covered or hidden it doesn’t dissapear, newborns lack this

A not B error

One of Piaget’s clinical methods of testing development, object first hidden in A multiple times, then taken out and then hidden at B, infant understands it was hidden at A but when hidden in B it still searches at A

Symbolic capacity 

Using imgs or words or gestures to represent objects or experiences

Imaginary companions

present in preschoolers, they use private speech to talk to their imaginary companions

Perceptual salience

Most obvious features of an object or situation is focused on (When children focus they demonstrate this)

Conservation

Concept that when something changes in appearance it is still the same thing, like in the conservation of water quantity task. Children lack this understanding

Decentration

Focusing on 2 or more dimensions of a problem (Preschoolers cant)

Centration

Centering attention to 1 aspects (Children do this alot)

Reversibility

Undoing a process mentally or reversing something/action in the mind (Hard for children)

Transformational thought

Visualizing processes of change mentally

Static thought

Usually used by kids, where they believe what they see and understand is fixed and unchangeable

Classification problems

2-3 yr old kids have problems identifying relations between classes and subclasses. Gets better with age

Egocentrism

Kids have trouble thinking from other peoples perspectives and tend to project their own experiences/thoughts onto other situations regardless

When can kids demonstrate conservation

7-11 yrs old

Seriation 

Arranging items mentally on a quantifiable scale

Transivity

Understand and describe relations between elements in series

Adolescent thought development

Emergence of abstract thought and hypothetical thinking, more intuitive thinking in decision making. Can use hypothetical deductive reasoning, but susceptible to confirmation bias

Implications of formal operation thought

Thinking becomes more critical and may start to question the world and its rules, may not accept world as it is and become upset of problems like injustice 

Adolescent egocentrism

Imaginary audience → Thinks everyone thinks the same as them, can lead to self conciousness if self esteem low
personal fable → Thinks own thoughts are unique and special

Adult thought development

Reaching formal operational thought is correlated w better performance higher GPA
Adults specialize for jobs so their modes of thinking become super strong in their respective fields (can be explained using Fischer) Today, older adults perform formal operational thinking worse than younger adults

Post formal thought 

Thinking about complex issues that require many diff modes of thinking

Relativistic thinking

Understanding knowledge based on context and subjective perspective of viewer, can recognize ill defined problems.