Chapter 19 - Cognitive Development

Cognitive development

• the development of thinking across the lifespan

• influenced by evolution (instincts), genetics (different versions of genes), and environment (both physical and social)

• initial thoughts are focused on sensation and movement

  • its a primitive goal-directed behaviour

how many neurons do babies have in the brain

• at 40 weeks, brain has almost 100 billion neurons and a convoluted (folded) cortex

teratogens

substances like drugs or environmental toxins that impair the process of development

reflexes

involuntary muscular reactions to specific types of stimulation

rooting

stimulation of the corner of the mouth causes the infant to orient herself toward the stimulation and begin sucking motions

swallowing

infant can swallow, but this reflex is not yet well coordinated with mouth breathing

Moro (startle)

when infants grimace and reach their arms outward and then inward in a protective motion

• occurs in response to losing head support or starting stimuli

Babinski

• infants toes will spread out and then curl in as a response to being touched on bottom of foot

grasping

when an infants palm is stimulated, they will grasp stimulating object

• facilitates holding onto caregiver

stepping

• if held so that the feet just touch the ground, an infant will show walking movements, alternating the feet in steps

Types of newborn reflexes

• rooting

• swalling

• Moro

• Babinski

• Grasping

• Stepping

2 types of postnatal brain development

• synaptogenesis - formation of new synaptic connections

• synaptic pruning - loss of weak nerve cell connections (after synapsis has developed)

  • gets rid of synapses or unuseful cells

perceptual abilities of infants

• infants visual range is about 30cm, but this ability develops quickly

• can distinguish contrasts, shadows, and edges

• learn which patterns are important

• visual cliff effect

  • babies that don’t know how to crawl won’t care

  • but babies that know how to crawl will freak out

Motor (movement) abilities of infants

• movement abilities are also linked to experience and changes in neural pathways

  • ex. pincer grasp (picking up dice or grapes)

Learning and Memory in newborns

• infants (2-3 months old) show ability to learn responses and remember them for days afterwards

  • such as kicking legs to move

• shows a lot of cognitive ability even though they lack the ability to talk

Newborns and how they are social creatures

• many sensory and motoric abilities are learned through imitation

  • shows that newborns are inherently social creatures

  • when kids stare at you, they are noting patterns

Piaget and his theory of cognitive development

• Cognitive development is a series of stages you go through

• errors are just as interesting as correct responses

• strategies are not random or meaningless

• strategies reflect a predictable interaction between the child’s maturational stage and the child’s experience in the world

Cognitive development

• study of changes in memory, thought, and reasoning processes that occur throughout the lifespan

assimilation

people fit new info into their belief systems (mental schemas)

• ex. knowing one dog breed and seeing a new dog breed, and categorizing them together as dogs

accomodation

creative process where people modify their belief structures based on experience

• (you must modify your schemas)

• ex. knowing a dog and seeing a cat, and recognizing them as different things (dog and cat)

sensorimotor stage

• from birth to 2 years, infants’ thinking about and exploration of the world are based on immediate senses (sight and touch) and motor experiences (grabbing, mouthing)

• “thinking” consists of coordinating sensory info with body movements

• purposeful movements are specific movements that will produce specific results

object performance

• ability to understand that objects exist even when they cannot be directly perceived

• “out of sight, out of mind” view is replaced by more logical thinking as the child leaves this stage

  • gaining spatial/social awareness even if the thing isn’t in view physically

preoperational stage

• (age 2-7 years)

• devoted to language, development, using symbols, pretend play, and mastering the concept of conversation

• ex. imagination

  • 2 year old kid is able to pretend that a large box is a house, table, or train

limits of peoperational stage

• children were egocentric

• children at this age could not reason

  • lacked reasoning to perform actions that could reverse an action

• Scale errors - interacting with dolls and toys as if they were the real thing

  • but disappears around age 2 ½

• they lack Conservation - knowledge that quantity or amount of object is not the same as the physical arrangement and appearance of that object

• Conservation of substance - thinking change in shape = change in amount

• Conservation of number - thinking change in arrangement of rows/columns = change in quantity

concrete operations stage

• (age 7-11 years)

• develop skills in logical thinking and manipulating numbers (arithmetic)

• thinking is still grounded in concrete experiences and concepts

  • but they can now understand conservation, reversibility, and cause-and-effect

• learn to categorize things

  • from smallest to largest

• understand the nature of identity

  • girl doesnt turn into a boy by wearing a boy’s hat

• Transivity - problem solving skills by applying context clues

  • Allen is taller than Cindy, Cindy is taller than Liam, rank tallest to shortest

formal operations stage

• (age 11-adulthood)

• development of advanced cognitive processes

  • abstract reasoning

  • hypothetical thinking

• thinking about the future

• problem solving skills improve

core knowledge hypothesis

infants have inborn understanding of some important aspects of their environment

• they just lack the language to communicate it

habituation

decreased responding to a repeated presented stimulus

• b/c people get tired of seeing the same things over and over again

dishabituation

increasing responsiveness to new stimuli

• b/c new stimuli is intriguing

core knowledge hypothesis

infants have inborn abilities for understanding some key elements of their environment

zone of proximal development

ideal development comes from pushing kids just outside their comfort zone to attempt new skills, with guidance from adults

scaffolding

when the teacher matches their guidance to the learner or student’s needs