chapter 19 - cognitive development

Cognitive delvelopment

Study of changes in memory, thought and reasoning processes that occur throughout he lifespan

• Development of thinking across lifespan and is influenced by evolution, genetics, and environment

• initial thoughts are focused on sensation and movement, its a primitive goal oriented behavior

Brain at 40 weeks

40 weeks

• brain has almost 100 million neurons and folded cortex

Teratogens

Substances like drugs or environmental toxins that impair process of development

Reflexes

Involuntary reactions to specific types of stimulation

Types of newborn reflex

1. Rooting

2. Swallowing

3. Moro

4. Grasping

5. Stepping

Rooting

Newborn reflex that stimulates the corner of the mouth causing infant to orient herself toward stimulation and begin sucking motion

Swallowing

Newborn reflex where an infant can swallow but doesn’t coordinate with mouth breathing

Moro or startle

Newborn reflex where infants grimace and reach their arms outward and inward in protective motion

• occurs when they lose support to their head or to starting stimuli’s

Grasping

Newborn reflex where infants palm is stimulated she will grasp the stimulating object to facilitate holding on to caregiver

Stepping

Newborn reflex where If held so that the feet just touches the ground the infant will show walking movements

Babinski

Reflex where in response to a touch on the bottom of the foot, the infant toe will splay outward and curl in

• in adults the toes just curl

2 Postnatal brain development

Synaptogenesis - forming of new synaptic connections

Synaptic pruning - loss of weak nerve cell connections to become more effective

Visual abilities In infants

Infants visual range is 30cm but develops fast

• can distinguish contrast shadow and edges

• They learn what patterns are important (needs exposure)

• Visual cliff effect works on crawling babies

Motor abilities in infants

Are also linked to experiences and changes in neural pathways

Ex. Pincer grasp (grabbing with thumb and index)

Newborns learning ad memory

Infants (2 and 3 months) show ability to learn responses and remember them for days afterwards

Ex. Kicking thier legs to make mobile move

Influence of imitation

Many sensor and motoric abilities are learned through imitation

• helps infants get used to certain patterns thats why they stare

Piaget influence on cognitive development

Theorized that cognitive development is why kids have different learning abilities By observing their errors

Assimilation

People fit new information into the belief system, they already posses (mental schemas)

Accommodation

A creative process whereby people modify their belief system based on experiences (modifys schemas)

Sensorimotor stage

From birth - 2 years old, infants think and explore the world based on immediate sensory and motor experiences

• their thinking consists of coordinating sensory information with bodily movement

• purposeful movements - specific movements have specific results

Object permanence

Ability to understand that objects exist even when they cant be directly perceived

• being able to have spatial awareness ( knowing smt is there without visually seeing it)

_ occurs at sensorimotor stage

Preoperational stage

2-7 years

• stage devoted to language development using symbols, pretend play, and mastering concept of conservation

• Ex. 2 year old able to pretend box is a house

Limits of preoperational stage

• egocentric

• Thinking is limited and they cant connect different ideas together

• Scale errors (2 - 2 ½ years old) - using dolls and toys thinking theyre real

• Conservation / conservation of substance - not knowing that different size containers can have the same volume or different shapes can have same amount of material used

• Conservation of numbers - thinking quantity is measured by arrangement (more spaced out = more quantity)

Concrete operational stage

7-11 years old

• children develop skills in logical thinking (categorize things and nature of identity), and manipulating numbers (mental operation like maths)

• Still grounded by experiences and concepts but they understand conservation, reversibility and cause and effect

• transitivity skills - problem solving skills by applying context clues

Ex. Allen is taller than Cindy, Cindy is taller than Liam, whos taller Cindy or allen?

• But has issues with transitivity when names are replaced with symbols

Ex. X > Y, Y > Z, which is larger X or Z

Formal operational stage

11 - adulthood

• Advanced cognitive processes like abstract reasoning and hypothetical thinking

Ex. Thinking about the future

• consistently problem solving through life

Core knowledge hypothesis

Testing what infants know if they already have born reflexes and always learning without being able to communicate what they know

3 ways to Study infant knowledge and cognitive development

1. Primitive neuron imaging (EEG) - analyze brain activity in infants

2. Habituation - decreased responding to repeated presented stimulus

3. Dishabituation - increasing responsiveness to new stimuli’s

Core knowledge hypothesis

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

Ex. Recognizing patterns

Zone of proximal development

Guiding children to attempt new skills and activities beyond their ability to do it alone

Scaffolding

Teacher matches guidance to the learner of students needs

3 theories of child development

1. Piagets stage theory - whether kids progress qualitatively different stages of development

2. Sociocultural theories - lev vygotsky emphasizing how nurture can influence development

3. Information processing theory - David klahr examined how thinking can influence growth

Depth perception

Ability to actively perceive the distance from oneself to objects in the environment, depends on seeing patterns and have normal brain activity to process patterns

How does genetics and environment play a role in cognitive development

• People who are more physically attractive can be treated better at younger ages

• Being easy going and easy to take care of can lead to more affection from parents

• Parents largely determine their experiences at younger ages and then children choices as they grow older will face consequences

applicaton to education

Understanding how children think and learn is useful for improving education such as

• using phonemic awareness - Awareness of sounds within words (used for reading) over the years for them to become better readers

• Engaging more in numerical activities like chutes and ladders