Cognitive Development

social constrictivism

• Lev Vygotsky

• children are social learners

  • teachers/more advanced peers work w/ children to help them understand more advanced topics

zone of proximal development

• ZPD

• learner can do it w/ guidance

cognitive development

• Jean Piaget

• we build schemas (patterns of thinking + behaving) + adapt them to understand new things + escape disequilibrium

assimilation

same schema; incorporate new experience into existing schema

• (ex. knowing that you dog is a dog, so that other thing that looks like a dog must be a dog)

accomodation

change + create; exisitng schema modified or a new one is created (learning what a thing actually is

sensorimotor stage

• piaget’s stages

• 0-2 years

• children are exploring the world w/ their senses + motor skills

object permanence

knowing objects exist even when they are out of sight

preoperational stage

• piaget’s stages

• 2-6/7 years

• cognitive actions they cannot perform; logical deficits

• they develop language, mental symbols, + pretend play to represent the world

reversibility

understanding that things that change can also be returned to their original state

conservation

understanding that principles such as mass, volume, and number can remain the same despite changes in form (ex. tearing paper)

egocentrism

inability to imagine another person’s p.o.v.; unable to imagine a visual perception other than the one they experience

animism

the belief that inanimate objects have human feelings + intentions

magical thinking

the belief held in this stage by children that their thoughts influence reality

concrete operational stage

• piaget’s stages

• 6/7 - 11/12 years

• child gains ability to think logically + overcome the deficits of the previous stage, but still struggles w/ abstract thinking

formal operational stage

• piaget’s stages

• (12+ years)

• child develops abstract, hypothetical abilities, + adult logic/thought

• can analyze from multiple p.o.v.’s

adolescents

• piaget’s stages

• underdeveloped prefrontal cortex

• development of self consciousness/spotlight effect

personal fable

the belief that adolescents think they are unique + special + protected from problems

adults

• piaget’s stages

• loss of intellectual capacity and/or personality due to neuron loss/damage

• lack of acetylcholine (neurotransmitter: function → learning/memory)

crystalized intelligence

accumulated knowledge; increase with age

fluid intelligence

ability to reason quickly + abstractly; decreases with age

alzheimer’s disease

a type of dementia; gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, + physical abilities