Cognition and development

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development overview and schema

focused on how thinking develops across childhood as Piaget believed children don’t just know less than adults but think in different ways.

schema- mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing (developed through experience)

• children are born with a small number of schema e.g. sucking, grasping and then construct more detailed schema for ourselves, others, objects, and abstract ideas.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development: motivation to learn

• disequilibrium

• equilibration

pushed to learn when our existing schema struggle to make sense of something new disequilibrium (unpleasant state)

to achieve equilibration we adapt to new situations through exploring and developing understanding.

assimilation and accommodation

assimilation- understand a new experience by adding new information to our existing schema e.g. having a dog and then being exposed to more dog breeds same schema

accommodation- radical change in current schema or a formation of new ones e.g. creating a new cat schema rather than adding to dog schema change and create

evaluating Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

research support, HOWE

• studied 9-12 year olds in groups discussing and watching objects move down a slope. 

• all increased their knowledge and understanding but did not come to the same conclusions despite seeing the same motions.

• each child formed individual mental representation. 

Revolutionised teaching: in the 1950s children sat in rows and had formal teaching usually copying from a blackboard. Classrooms are now more activity orientated so children construct their own understandings of the curriculum through active engagement. 

• early years learning focus on play, a-level ‘flipped’ lessons where students read up on the content. 

• positive impact on education leading to more effective ways for children to learn.

May have underestimated the role of other people in learning. Focused on learning that happens in the mind where adults and peers are important sources of information. 

• Vygotsky: other people are essential to the process of learning as it is a social process and children will achieve more advanced learning when supported by others. 

• overlooked key aspect.

Based on an unrepresentative sample as children were from predominantly white middle class well educated families. not all children want to complete mae sense of new situations and achieve equilibration. so lacks ecological validity as some children from poorer backgrounds have fewer educational opportunities and may display different levels of intellectual curiosity. 

• cannot be generalised especially if equilibration is not essential for everyone. 

Piaget’s stages of intellectual development: sensorimotor 

(0-2)

baby’s early focus is on physical sensations and developing physical coordination. They learn through trial and error to deliberately move body in specific ways e.g. crawling. also acquire some basic language e.g ‘mummy’

object permanence (8 months): ability to realise objects still exist when they are out of sight. 

• observed babies looking at objects and watched as objects were moved from sight. 

• pre 8 months: attention moved away

• 8 months+: continue to look for it

Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:

preoperational stage

(2-7)

conservation: quantity remains constant even when appearance of object changes. (preoperational children can’t conserve)

egocentrism: child’s tendency to only see things from their point of view. (3 mountains task)

• doll was placed at side of the model to face scene from a different angle than the child.

• child then asked to choose what the doll would ‘see’ from a range of pictures. 

(preoperational children select their own POV)

class inclusion: ability to recognise that subsets are part of broader categories e.g dogs and cats are also both animals (cannot see that dog is part of dog class and animal class)

Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:

concrete operations

(7-11)

now have reasoning abilities but these are limited to only concrete e.g. physical objects in child’s presence

struggle to reason about abstract ideas and imagine situations they cannot see

Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:

formal operations

(11+)

children become capable of formal reasoning so can focus on form of arguments and not be distracted by the content of arguments.

syllogism: all yellow cats have 2 heads. I have a yellow cat called Charlie. How many heads does Charlie have? → 2

once children can reason formally they are capable of scientific reasoning and can appreciate abstract ideas.

Evaluating Piaget’s stages of intellectual development

Piaget’s theory is able to be tested due to tasks like the 3 mountains or conservation tasks. These can be repeated many times to test various cognitive abilities increasing reliability and validity. 

Refuting evidence for egocentrism. HUGHES: tested ability of child to see situation from 2 people’s viewpoint. asked to position doll so police couldn’t see them.

• children aged 3.5 could do with 1 man 90% of the time and age 4 could do with 2 men 90% of time. 

• more child friendly task, Piaget underestimated the age of egocentrism. 

Refuting evidence for conservation. original questioning about whether objects were the same led children to believe something had changed.

• McGARRIGLE + DONALDSON: set up study where counters were knocked together by ‘naughty teddy’ and 72% conserved. 

• Piaget underestimated, children can conserve if the questions are not flawed.

→ criticisms of age Piaget identified was not of the stages themselves so principles were unchallenged e.g. Hughes, ability for egocentrism does improve with age so just Piaget’s timing of stage wrong. 

Assumed intellectual development was domain general (singular process, all develop together) e.g. language and reasoning. research of autism shows they develop separately e.g. high functioning ASD are egocentric but have normal logic and reasoning. But some autistic children do have an issue with logical and language. 

cognitive development, Vygotsky

cognitive development is a social process of learning from more experienced others ‘experts’

• intermental (between child and expert)

• intramental (within mind)

cultural differences, Vygotsky

• children learn mental tools from others in their environment which help in the physical and social environments of their culture which is why there are cultural differences in cognitive development.

  • e.g. mongolian children use bow and arrow and british children learn to ride a bike

scaffolding

• support and prompting usually provided by an adult which helps child reach potential

• gradually withdraw as child’s knowledge and confidence increases

most → least

5. demonstration- draws shape

4. preparation- help child hold pencil

3. indication- points to pencil

2. instruction- ‘draw shape

1. general- now draw

zone of proximal development

expert assistance allows a child to cross ZPD and understand as much as possible (still limited on developmental stage)

• increased understanding and advanced reasoning abilities.

evaluating vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development

research support, Roazzi and Bryant: 4 year olds had to guess how many sweets in the box

• working alone they struggled to produce estimate

• when paired with expert child, gave prompts and guidance to help younger child work out the correct answer

→ demonstrates the importance of expert assistance to help with tasks a child can’t do independently

research support, Connor: level of support changes as child develops. studies mothers helping children (aged 1-5) with problem solving tasks.

• as children grow older mothers provide less direct assistance and offered more subtle prompts

• adults naturally adjust amount of support they give depending on child’s ability and then withdraw as child becomes more competent → support for scaffolding

real world application, particularly in education

• influenced classroom practice through group work, peer tutoring and teaching assistants who scaffold children’s learning

  • e.g. 7 year olds tutored by 10 year olds made greater progress in reading than those without tutoring

• shows social interaction and guided help enable children to perform tasks (have a positive impact)

may overlook important individual differences: assumes social interaction and guidance are key drivers of learning for all children. not true for every child as differ in personality, learning style and social cues.

• this influences how people benefit from scaffolding (prefer to work independently, may feel anxious or not respond to guidance)

• so theory is not universally applicable

procedure and results of Baillergeon’s violation of expectation research

procedure: showed 24 babies aged 6 months a tall and short rabbit passing behind a screen with a window.

• first showed them both disappearing behind a screen fitting with object permanence.

• short rabbit passes screen with window and not seen in window.

• tall rabbit not seen through window in screen - UNEXPECTED

results: babies looked for 33s at unexpected event and 25s at expected. interpreted as babies surprised at unexpected condition as would expect tall rabbit to appear in window- so have object permanence.

→ infants also paid more attention to impossible/ unexpected events like an object disappearing from a container or not falling from air when unsupported.

physical reasoning system, baillargeon

hardwired with a basic understanding of the physical world so are aware of the physical properties of the world.

this becomes more sophisticated with experience.

babies predisposed to learn so are surprised at unexpected events because they want to develop understanding of physical world and how objects interact.

object persistence, baillargeon

knowledge that even when not in view an object remains in existence and does not spontaneously alter in structure.

evaluating baillargeon’s explanation of infant abilities and violation of expectation

the physical reasoning system accounts for why the basic physical principles are understood universally. for example, infants across all cultures know an object falls when dropped. suggests physical reasoning system is innate and that some cognitive knowledge is present from birth rather than learned through experience. good explanation of early cognitive abilities.

violation of expectation findings have been replicated. wang also found 4 month infants looked longer at impossible events. shows results are reliable and supports object permanence from a young age.

violation of expectation technique provides a more valid measure of infant understanding than piaget.

• he assumed that if infants failed to search for a hidden object then they lacked object permanence (but could be due to limited motor skills, low motivation or boredom)

• measures how infants look so removes confoundings variables and gives a more accurate measure of cognitive understanding so findings stronger and more reliable.

hard to know exactly what infants understand from watching their behaviour.

• violation of expectation relies on measuring time looked but could reflect novelty rather than recognition of an impossible event

• questions validity of interpreting VOE results as evidence of object permanence so method not completely conclusive.