developmental psychology ch4

Jean Piaget (1896-1980):

Pioneer in the domain of cognitive development of children.

How does cognition develop according to Piaget?

Universally fixed order of phases → discontinuous development → Each phase qualitatively different → child actively contributes to own knowledge formation

Piaget’s stages od development:

Schema:

Building blocks of knowledge (piece of knowledge)

Assimilation:

Existing schema is used in new situation.

Accomodation:

When the existing schema doesn’t work, it need to be changed to deal with a new situation.

Equilibration:

Balance between assimilation and accommodation.

What happens in the sensori-motor phase?

Learning about the world via senses, development of motor skills.

• No theory of mind

• Circular responses

• Object permamence

Theory of minds in children in sensorimotor phase:

Children in the sensorimotor phase cannot imagine the intentions, emotions, and expectations of others.

Circular responses:

Circular reactions are both:

• Repetitive responses — the child repeats an action that initially happened by chance

• And they drive development — through that repetition, the child learns, refines skills, and builds cognitive understanding.

Circular responses in the sensorimotor phase:

S1. Reflexes (Birth – 1 month): Newborn reflexive responses to stimuli.

S2. Primary Circular Responses (1 – 4 months): Simple motor habits centered on own body.

S3. Secondary Circular Responses (4 – 8 months): Repeats actions to observe effects in environment.

S4. Coordinating Secondary Circular Responses (8 – 12 months): Intentional, goal-oriented behavior; begins object permanence.

S5. Tertiary Circular Responses (12 – 18 months): Experiments with new actions on objects – “little scientist” phase.

S6. Mental Representations (18 months – 2 years): Internal representation of objects/events; delayed imitation emerges.

S1. Reflexes (Birth – 1 month)

Reflexes of the newborn – automatic responses to stimuli.

S2. Primary Circular Responses (1 – 4 months)

Simple motor habits centered on the infant’s own body.

S3. Secondary Circular Responses (4 – 8 months

Repeating actions to observe interesting effects in the environment.

S4. Coordinating Secondary Circular Responses (8 – 12 months)

Intentional, goal-directed behavior; development of object permanence.

S5. Tertiary Circular Responses (12 – 18 months)

Exploring properties of objects with new actions – the “little scientist” phase.

S6. Mental Representations (18 months – 2 years)

Internal representation of objects/events; ability for delayed imitation.

Delayed imitation = the ability to observe a behaviour and reproduce it after a time delay, connected to storing mental representations.

Object permamence:

Understanding that something still exists when it is out of sight.

• Around 9 months first signs of object permanence

• Tested by A not B error test: A kid is shown a toy, toy is hidden under a blanket and the kid retrieves it, but when two blankets are present it doesn’t know when the toy went.

• Around 1 year: better object permamence

• Piaget explains A not B error as immature object permamence

• But memory, inhibition, planning, and positive reinforcement may also play a role.

Critique of Piaget’s theory:

• Underestimated abilities of infants

• Infants grasp the basics of physical reality well before age well before 1 age (Piaget lacked methods)

• Understanding of physical reality develops gradually, not in huge qualitative stages

• They already show basic insight in emotions and intentions of others

• → Now rather information processing approach: thinking is divided into specific steps and processes, like a computer

Research: cognition of babies

• Baby < 1 year: basic understanding of laws of nature (gravity, volume, continuity of movement)

• Violation of expected physics rules: → Looking longer after unexpected outcome

What happens in the pre-operational phase? 2-7 years

• Language and mental representations

• Symbolic capacity

• Intuitive reasoning

• Magical thinking

• No understanding of conservation

• Egocentric perspective

Language in the pre-operational phase:

The young child learns to use symbols and language → product of cognitive development.

Symbolic capacity emerged at the end of sensorimotor stage → advancements of preschoolers.

Use of words to refer to things, people, and events that are not physically present also past/future.

Pretend or fantasy play flourished: chair can stand for a train, role play.

Intuitive reasoning:

Preschoolers use of primitive reasoning to acquire knowledge.

Curiosity blossoms: Why questions become central

At the same time: Explanation of the world with own logic, their intuitive thought leads them to confidently believe they know answers to all kids of questions.

Examples:

• Feeling of participation

• Animism

• Articialism

• Finalism

• Transductive reasoning

Feeling of participation:

Child participates dynamically in the actions of nature, accompanied by beliefs in magic

Animism:

Things are conscious and alive.

Artificialism:

Everything is willed, intentional and organised for the good of man.

Finalism:

Everything has an explanation.

Transductive reasoning:

Combining unrelated facts leading to draw faulty cause-effect conclusions simply because two events occur close together in time or space.

Ex. Clouds move because they feel cold

Magical thinking:

Consequence of animism: to be afraid in the dark and imagining monsters.

Phase in which children have nightmares, difficult to calm down.

Sensitive to fantasies → in both positive and negative ways

Consequence: Imaginary companion → 28% of the 3 and 4 year olds report to play with an imaginary friend, lasts into school years.

Positive consequences: Advanced cognitive and social development, higher levels of creativity and imaginary use. More engagement in private speech.

Lack of conservation: Conservation test

Understanding that certain properties remain identical despite changes in appearance.

Children in this phase (3-4 years) don’t get it.

Why do children in this phase not understand conservation?

1. Centering: attention goes to visually most salient parts → single aspect of a problem

2. Irreversibility: not able to mentally reverse change

3. Static thought: Thought is fixed on end states rather than the changes that transform one state into another.

No understanding of identity constancy: people remain their essential self despite changes in their appearance

Egocentric perspective:

Child views the world from an egocentric perspective = the inability to understand that other people have different point of view, they don’t realise what is in their mind isn’t in everyone else’s - visually and mentally.

Classic Test: Three mountains test

Kids receive 10 pictures with different views - What does the doll see?

Piaget and Inhelder:

4 year old → own perspective

7 year old → correct other perspective

Criticism: Too complex, unrelated test

What happens in the concrete operational phase? 7-11 years

• Logical reasoning, but not scientific

• Categorisation

• Conservation of number and mass

• Seriation

• Transitivity

Classification: Are there more dogs or more animals in this picture?

• Pre operational phase: Dogs

• Concrete operational phase: Animals

→ Understanding of class inclusion: logical understanding that parts are included in the whole

Seriation:

The ability to arrange objects based on features (ex. shortest - longest)

Transitivity:

Ability to logically combine relations to reach certain conclusions

→ Reasoning about the relations between elements in a series

Transitivity Task:

Differences in childhood phases:

• Early childhood - ages 3 to 6 (preschool and kindergarten)

  Entering the world of play

  Developing language

  Tethered to their immediate perceptions

  Curiosity, try to explain the world

• Middle childhood: ages 7-11/12 (elementary school)

  Inductive reasoning → Logic closer to the one of adults

• Less egocentric view of the world

• Due to advancements in inductive reasoning: developments in strategy usage, resulting in better memory

Pre-operational vs Concrete-Operational Thinkers:

Preoperational Thinkers (Ages 2–7):

• Irreversible thought: Can’t mentally undo actions

• Centration: Focus on one aspect

• Static thought: Don’t grasp transformation

• Perceptual salience: Judgments based on appearance

• Transductive reasoning: Link unrelated events

• Egocentrism: Struggle with others’ perspectives

• Single classification: Sort by one dimension only

Concrete-Operational Thinkers (Ages 7–11):

• Reversibility of thought: Can undo actions mentally

• Decentration: Focus on multiple aspects

• Transformational thought: Understand changes

• Logical reasoning: Use internal operations

• Inductive reasoning: Draw logical conclusions

• Less egocentrism: Understand others’ thoughts

• Multiple classification: Categorize by multiple dimensions

What happens in the formal operational phase? From 12 yrs old

Scientific reasoning and hypothesis testing - systematically exploring possibilities.

Abstract thinking.

Classical task: Third eye task

“If you could have a third eye and put it anywhere on your body where would u put it any why?”

Adolescent Egocentrism: hightened self-consciousness, imagining audience, personal fable

Some adults never become formal operational thinkers…

Early and late formal operations:

• Younger adolescents: Simple hypothetical propositions, struggle solving a problem or systematically generate and test hypotheses.

• Older adolescents: Still only 50-60% of tasks testing scientific reasoning correctly solved, bias: evidence consistent with pre-existing beliefs rather than evidence inconsistent.

Formal operations: Relevance for transition to adulthood

• Behaving like adults: Approach problems in a systematic way and have independent control of complex situations

• Highschool curricula adapted to new skill: Understand a poetic metaphor, understand chemistry experiment, debate

• Thinking about identity, planning for future, better understanding of other people, better appreciation of humor

Questioning → confusion and rebellion against whatever seems illogical → idealistic thinking, perfect worlds

Formal operations fully achieved in adulthood?

Only 50% of all American college students master Piaget’s scientific reasoning tasks → also show better grades.

Cultural differences.

Solving formal tasks linked to intelligence and formal educations.

Difference between areas of expertise.

What happens in adulthood?

Post-formal thought: suggested as a stage after formal operational phase - more complex way of thinking.

1. Understanding that knowledge is relative, not absolute - many grey areas.

2. Accepting that the world is filled with contradictions.

3. Attempting to integrate the contradictions into some large understanding.

Post-formal though shows up as:

1. Relativistic thinking: conclusions depend on context and perspective, multiple solutions - many people start like this and then make commitment to positions.

2. Dialectic thinking: detecting paradoxes and inconsistencies among ideas and trying to reconcile them.

Foster by diverse environments, adult thought may indeed be different than formal thought, but it isn’t officially recognised as a stage.

Aging and Piaget’s tests:

Older adults often have trouble solving Piagetian tests of formal operational thinking.

Do adults go backwards in the stages?

Many studies cross-sectional: Less formal education in elderly

Relevance of skills: unfamiliar problems, more linked to tasks at school not everyday motivation?

Age related decline not firmly established.

Criticism of Piaget’s theory

• Restricted research method

• Underestimated children’s skills

• Language as product of cognitive development (not cause)

• Underestimated influence of social environment: Nature - nurture interaction.

Summary of the stages