Ch 8 - Cogn. Piaget’s + Vygotsky

Cognitive development

Changes in how people think, learn, understand, and use knowledge as they grow.

Genetic epistemology

Piaget’s theory of how knowledge develops and how intelligence helps children adapt to their environment.

Intelligence

A basic life function that helps individuals adapt to their environment.

Cognitive equilibrium

A balance between existing ways of thinking and experiences. When new experiences conflict with existing knowledge, children adjust their thinking to restore balance.

Constructivist

Someone who views children as active learners who construct knowledge through exploration and experience.

Scheme

An organized pattern of thought or action used to understand and respond to experiences.

Organization

The process of combining and arranging schemes into more complex, coordinated systems of thought.

Adaptation

Adjusting thinking to fit experiences through assimilation and accommodation.

Assimilation

Interpreting new experiences using existing schemes without substantially changing them.

Accommodation

Modifying existing schemes or creating new ones to fit new experiences.

Invariant developmental sequence

A fixed order of developmental stages that children pass through, according to Piaget, although the timing may vary.

1) Sensorimotor period

Piaget’s first stage (birth–2 years), when infants learn about the world through sensory experiences and physical actions.

• How children learn: Through basic reflexes, movement, and the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell). [1, 2]

• Key milestone: Development of object permanence (the realization that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen or heard)

Reflex activity

Innate, automatic responses, such as sucking and grasping, that form the starting point of sensorimotor development.

Primary circular reactions

Repeated actions involving the infant’s own body because they produce interesting or pleasurable results.

Secondary circular reactions

Repeated actions involving external objects because they produce interesting results.

Coordination of secondary circular reactions

Combining previously learned actions to achieve goals, marking early goal-directed behaviour.

Tertiary circular reactions

Experimenting with different actions on objects to discover new results.

Inner experimentation

Solving problems mentally by imagining actions and their possible outcomes before physically performing them.

Deferred imitation

Reproducing an action after a delay, showing that the child remembered and mentally represented it.

Object permanence

Understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen or sensed.

A-not-B error

The tendency for an infant to search for a hidden object in its previous location (A), even after watching it being moved to a new location (B).

Neo-nativism

The view that infants possess some innate knowledge or abilities that guide early cognitive development.

Theory theories

The view that children develop and revise mental theories about how the world works as they gain experience.

Preoperational period

Piaget’s second stage (ages 2–7), when symbolic thought develops but logical cognitive operations are not yet fully established.

Symbolic function

The ability to use words, images, or objects to represent other things or experiences.

Representational insight

Understanding that an entity can represent something other than itself, such as a photograph representing a person.

Dual representation

The ability to understand an object both as something in itself and as a representation of something else.

Animism

Attributing life or lifelike qualities, such as intentions, to inanimate objects.

Egocentrism

Difficulty recognizing that other people may have perspectives different from one’s own.

Appearance/reality distinction

The ability to recognize an object’s true identity or properties despite a misleading appearance.

Centration

Focusing on one aspect of a situation while ignoring other relevant aspects.

Conservation

Understanding that an object’s quantity or properties remain unchanged despite superficial changes in appearance.

Decentration

The ability to consider multiple aspects of a situation at the same time.

Reversibility

The ability to mentally undo an action or reverse a process to understand how the original state can be restored.

Identity training

Teaching children that an object or substance remains the same despite changes in its appearance, helping them understand conservation.

Theory of mind

Understanding that people have mental states, such as beliefs, desires, and feelings, that influence their behaviour and may differ from others’.

Belief–desire reasoning

Explaining and predicting behaviour based on what people believe and what they want or desire.

• the core cognitive process by which people explain and predict someone else's behavior using an understanding of their mental states—specifically their desires (what they want) and beliefs (what they think is true). It forms the foundation of Theory of Mind (ToM

False-belief task

A test of whether children understand that another person can hold a belief that differs from reality or from what the child knows.

Concrete-operational period

Piaget’s stage (ages 7–11), when children develop logical thinking about tangible objects and experiences but still struggle with abstract reasoning.

Mental seriation

The ability to mentally arrange objects or events in order according to a characteristic, such as size or length.

Transitivity

Understanding that if A is greater than B and B is greater than C, then A is greater than C.

Horizontal décalage

The uneven development of cognitive skills, in which a child can solve one problem but struggles with a similar problem requiring the same mental operations.

4) Formal operational stage

Piaget’s stage beginning around ages 11–12, when individuals develop abstract, systematic, and logical reasoning.

• How children learn: Through abstract, systematic, and hypothetical-deductive reasoning.

• Key characteristics: Ability to think about abstract concepts (like morality, justice, or love), plan systematically, and philosophize

Hypothetico-deductive reasoning

Developing possible explanations or hypotheses and systematically testing them to determine what follows.

Inductive reasoning

Using specific observations or examples to identify patterns and develop general conclusions.

Sociocultural theory

Vygotsky’s theory that cognitive development is shaped by social interaction, cultural values, language, and shared learning experiences.

Ontogenetic development

Changes in an individual’s development over their lifetime.

Microgenetic development

Changes in thinking or understanding that occur over a short period while a skill or concept is being learned.

Phylogenetic development

Changes in a species across evolutionary history.

Sociohistorical development

Changes in thinking and development shaped by a culture’s historical experiences, values, and practices.

Tools of intellectual adaptation

Culturally transmitted methods of thinking and problem-solving that help children learn and adapt to their environment.

Zone of proximal development

The range of tasks a child cannot yet complete independently but can accomplish with guidance from a more skilled person.

Scaffolding

Temporary support from a more skilled person that helps a child complete a task, with assistance gradually reduced as competence increases.

Guided participation

Learning through participating in activities alongside more knowledgeable or skilled people who guide the learner.

Context-independent learning

Learning skills or knowledge in ways that can be applied beyond the specific situation in which they were learned.

Egocentric speech

Children’s self-directed speech that Piaget viewed as reflecting egocentric thinking and serving little purpose in developing new knowledge.

Private speech

Self-directed speech children use to guide their own thinking and behaviour while completing tasks.

Cognitive self-guidance system

Vygotsky’s view of private speech as a tool for directing attention, regulating behaviour, and solving problems; it eventually becomes internal verbal thought