06 Cognitive Social Development

cognitive development

- involves teh way that growth and change in intellectual capabilities influence a person's behavior

cognitive development components across the lifespan

- learning

- memory

- problem solving skills

- intelligence

Questions of cognitive development

- how do people explain their academic successes and failures?

- can a person who experiences a traumatic event as a young child remember it when she becomes an adult?

- how will that experience shape the way the person processes information

Cognitive View

- interested in how a child acquires and processes information

- simulating environment affects learning

Theories in Cognitive Development

- focuses on the processes that allow people to know, understand, and think about the world

- Piaget

- Vygotsky

- Neuroscience

Piaget's Theory

- people pass in a fixed sequence through a series of universal stages of cognitive development

- in each stage, the quantity of knowledge increases - the quality of knowledge and understanding increases also

- cognitive development

- systematically recorded many different observations about childrens' cognitive developments

* described cognitive development as a series or fixed stages, (ordinal stages), moving from an infant's need to directly interact with the environment and the sensorimotor phase through the individual's ability to manipulate abstract concepts in absence of direct experience (formal operation stage)

ordinal stages

- piaget's theory of congnitive development

- in each stage, the quantity of knowledge increases - the quality of knowledge and understanding increases also

* more complex

Sensorimotor Stage

- 1st stage of piaget's stages of cognitive development

Sensorimotor Stage Age

birth to 18 months or 2 years

Sensorymotor Stage Description

- knowing by sensing and acting

- the infant uses direct experience and manipulation of objects in an environment to learn about how the environment works

- further divided into reflexive stage and stage about increasing awareness of how one can interact with and effect change in environment

Peroperational Stage

- 2nd stage of piaget's stages of cognitive development

Peroperaational Stage Age

about 2-7 years

Preoperational Stage Description

- concept formation, symbolic reasoning

- development of mental representation

- linked with language and symbolic reasoning (having an idea of something in your mind and connecting it to reality)

- ex. abstract concept such as electricity was then connected to language (symbolic) such as lightning bolts

Concrete Operations Stage

- 3rd stage of piaget's stages of cognitive development

Concrete operations age

about 7-11 years

Concrete operations stage description

- logical operations on concrete objects and events

- logic development and the understanding of nature in terms of mathematics

ex. water changing as solid, liquid, gas but still being a concrete object

Formal Operations Stage

- 4th stage of piaget's stages of cognitive development

Formal Operations Stage Age

12+ years

Formal Operations Stage Description

- abstracts, anaologies, metaphors, hypothetical reasoning

- generalize something they learned in a previous experience to a novel experience (even if experiences aren't exactly the same)

- use trial and error to generate and test hypotheses

- think abstract

- imagine different possible solutions to a problem in one particular situation

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

- emphasizes how development proceeds as a result of social interactions between members of a culture

- argues that children's understanding of the world is acquired through their problem-solving interactions with adults and other children

- also argued that to understand the course of development we must consider what is meaningful of a given culture

Culture

a society's beliefs, values, customs, and interests shapes development (Vygotsky)

Cognitive Neuroscience Approach

- seeks to identify actual locations in the brain related to different cognitive activity

- utilizes sophisticated brain scanning techniques

- neuroscientists engage in cutting edge research identifies specific genes associated with disorders that, in turn, can lead to genetic therapies, even prevention

cognitive development in infancy range

0-12 months

quiets when picked up

0-1 month

responds to voice

0-1 month

consoles self by sucking

0-1 month

searches with eyes for sound

2-3 months

shows active interest in person

2-3 months

inspects and plays with own hands

2-3 months

looks for hidden voice

4-5 months

plays for 2-3 mins with one toy

4-5 months

finds partially hidden object

4-5 months

works to obtain object out of reach

4-5 months

looks for family members when named

6-7 months

shakes toys to hear sound

6-7 months

plays peek-a-boo

6-7 months

plays with paper

6-7 months

imitates simple gestures

6-7 months

responds to simple verbal requests ("come here", "give mommy")

8-9 months

throws and drops objects

8-9 months

looks at pictures when named (ex. hold book open and point to lion)

9-12 months

enjoys looking at pictures in books

9-12 months

stacks and unstacks rings

9-12 months

guides action toy manually

9-12 months

Toddler Cognitive Development Range

13-36 months (1 yr - 3 yrs)

understands and follows simple commands

13-18 months

include others as recipients of play behaviors

13-18 months

points to 3 body parts

13-18 months

demonstrates invention of new means through mental combinations (experiment w toy and find new ways to play with toy thru trial and error)

19-24 months

finds hidden objects through invisible displacement

9-24 months

shows deferred imiration (replicates actions the way they see from others and replicates it later)

19-24 months

activates toy or doll in pretend play

9-24 months

shows ability to substitute objects in pretend play (if they don't have a doll, they pretend something else is the doll)

24-36 months

matches objects

24-36 months

responds to 2-3 commands at one time

24-36 months

sings songs

24-36 months

Development in Preschool Years

how do the dramatic advances in intellectual development that begin during the preschool years take place?

- peroperational piaget stage

Cognitive Changes: Intellectual Development (preoperational thinking)

- piaget saw the preschool years as a time of both stability and great change

- characterized by symbolic thinking (directly related to language acquisition)

- mental reasoning emerges, use of concepts

- less dependence on sensorimotor activity for understanding the world

symbolic thinking

- key aspect of preoperational stage

- the ability to use symbols, words, or object to represent something that is not physically present

- ex. using word duck as a symbol for actual duck

- ex. understanding that a toy duck represents an actual duck

- directly related to language acquisition

the relationship between language and thought

- for piaget, language and thinking are interdependent (advances in language during the preschool period = advances in thinking)

- language allows preschoolers to represent actions symbolically

- language allows children to think beyond the present to the future

- language can be used to consider several possibilities at the same time

centration

- major aspect of piaget's preoperational stage (limitation)

- the process of concentrating on one limited aspect of a stimulus and ignoring other aspects

- the cause of the child's mistake is allowing the visual image to dominate their thinking (appearance is everything)

limitation of centration

- leads to inaccuracy of thought (only focus on certain things and can exclude other things)

conservation

- the knowledge that quantity is unrelated to arrangement and physical appearance and physical appearance of objects

- learning that appearances are deceiving

- preschoolers do not understand this (not learned until operational stage of development)

types of conservation problems

- number

- substance

- length

- area

- weight

- volume

number

- type of conservation problems

- rearranging elements (buttons)

- grasped earliest

modality: number of elements in collection

change in physical appearance: rearranging or dislocating of elements

number (avg age grasped)

6-7 years

substance

- type of conservation problems

- altering shape (clay, water) yet its the same substance

modality: amount of malleable substance

change in physical appearance: altering shape

length

- type of conservation problems

- altering shape, configuration can still be conserved

modality: length of line or object

change in physical appearance: altering shape or configuration

area

- type of conservation problems

- rearranging figures

modality: amount of surface covered by a set of plane figures

change in physical appearance: rearranging the figures

weight

- type of conservation problems

- altering shape

modality: weight of an object

change in physical appearance: altering shape

volume

- type of conservation problems

- altering shape (water in different containers) - still have same volume of water in different containers

modality: volume of an object

change in physical appearance: altering shape

substance (mass) (avg age grasped)

7-8 years

length (avg age grasped)

7-8 years

area (avg age grasped)

8-9 years

weight (avg age grasped)

9-10 years

volume (avg age grasped)

14-15 years

transformation

- preschoolers unable to understand

- the process in which one state is change into another because they ignore the intermediate steps

- unable to fill in sequences of change

The Falling Pencil

- example of transformation

- preoperational period unable to understand successive transformations that the pencil follows

- don't see arc it follows when it falls, just goes from point a to b

egocentrism

- aspect of intellectual development during piaget's preoperational period

- inability to take on persepctive of others

- at root of many preschool behaviors

egocentric thought

- preoperational period

- thinking that does not take into account the viewpoint of others, 2 forms:

1. lack of awareness that others see things from different physical perspectives

2. failure to realize that others may hold thoughts, feelings, and points of view, different from ones own

- not intentional/inconsiderate - just lack of understanding

Intuitive thought age

- preoperational stage

- ages 4-7

intuitive thought

- the use of primitive reasoning and avid acquisition of knowledge about the world

- curiosity

- leads children to think they know all the answers for how the world operates, but no logical basis yet

functionality

- preoperational stage

- concept that actions, events, and outcomes are related to one another in fixed patterns

- ex. tv remote buttons change channels

identity

- begin to understand in peroperational phase

- that certain things stay the same regardless of changes in shape, size, and appearance

- ex. clay stretched out is the same amount of clay rolled into a ball

- understanding identity is necessary for children to develop an understanding of conservation (req. for the child to transition to the next stage)

Critics of Piaget's Theory

- argues he underestimated children's capabilities

- thinks congintion develops in continuous manner, not stages

- focused too much on deficiencies of young children's thought

Milestones of Cognitive Development in Preschoolers (range)

3-6 years

tells simple story

3-3.5 years

knows conventional counting words up to 5

3-3.5 years

tells action in pictures

3-3.5 years

puts together puzzle

3-3.5 years

follows 3 step unrelated command

3-3.5 years

cannot easily distinguish reality from fantasy

3.5-4 years

can count 5 objects

3.5-4 years

makes rows of objects equal to another row by matching

4-4.5 years

gives age

4-4.5 years

makes opposite analogies

4-4.5 years

matches and names 4 colors

4-4.5 years

knows conventional counting up to 15

4.5-5 years

better able to distinguish reality from fantasy

4.5-5 years

appreciate past, present, and future

5-6 years