Lifespan - Cognitive Development Theories

Piaget’s Constructivist theory

-cognitive development = active process of child constructing knowledge through interactions w/ environment

-assumes cognitive development depends on both biological maturation + experience with object environment (acknowledged peers, but not enough social interactions with adults in cognitive development)

Equilibration

-innate drive towards equilibrium, btwn current knowledge + environment

-Piaget said this was the innate driver for cognitive growth in children

Equilibration is achieved through adaptation (assimilation & accommodation) (what is this?)

Assimilation = understand current stimuli with existing schema

Accommodation = modify schema, or new schema

e.g. when a cow ‘moos’ (not barks) → disequilibrium → create new schema for cow

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development (, discontinuous + active)

-discontinuous – discrete stages, leaps & bounds

-active – child actively engages with environment to facilitate cog dev

Sensorimotor stage (age, mil)

0-2 yo

-Object permanence (4th substage)

-Representational thought develops → deferred imitation

Six substages of sensorimotor stage (in order)

1.) Reflexive reactions (1st month)

2.) Primary circular

3.) Secondary circular

4.) Coordination of secondary circular (8-12 mo)

• object permanence develops

5.) Tertiary circular (12-18 mo)

6.) Internalization of schemas

1.) Reflexive reactions (0-1 months)

-Responds to external stimuli via innate reflexes

2.) Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 mos)

-Repeating enjoyable actions of own body

e.g., thumb sucking, kicking

3.) Secondary Circular Reactions 4-8 mos

-Repeating actions involving objects + others

e.g., shakes rattle, to hear sound

4.) Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8-12 mo)

-Intentionally coordinates/combines secondary reaction bxs towards goals

-goal-directed coordination of secondary reactions

e.g., see toy car under table: crawls, reaches, grabs the toy

*Object permanence starts in substage 4

5.) Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 mo)

-’little scientists’; repeat the same action a little differently (experimentation)

e.g., drop different objects, ball from different heights, what sound does it make

6.) Internalization of Schemas (18-24 mo)

-mental representations develop (after experimenting)

-solves some problems mentally

Representational thought allows for → deferred imitation (what is it, which stage)

-ability to remember and imitate later/delayed

-Piaget thought deferred imitation develops in sensorimotor stage, last/6th substage

-but 6-week-olds: facial deferred imitation seen (substage 2)

Preoperational stage (2-7)

-representational thought increases

• allows thinking about past/future and non-immediate environment

• more sophisticated pretend play

• e.g., use object to symbolize another (box is a car), imaginary playmates, role-playing with other kids

-limitations: transductive reasoning (magical thinking), egocentrism, animism

Transductive reasoning (pre-causal reasoning)

-limitation of preoperational cognition

-thinking simultaneous unrelated events are causally related

→ leads to magical thinking (thinking about it makes it happen)

Egocentrism & animism

-limitation of preoperational cognition

-unable to understand others don’t experience same as them

-animism = inanimate objects have lifelike qualities (Peter & dinosaur pancakes)

Centration and irreversibility

-centration = focusing on just one aspect, to the exclusion of all other

-irreversibility = inability to understand action/process can be reversed

-preoperational stage limitations in cognition

*why conservation not possible yet

Concrete operational stage: (7-12)

-operate logically with concrete objects/situations

e.g., arithmetic, order items based on a quantitative dimension or physical characteristics -

-Conservation appears sequentially d/t decentration (ability to focus on >1 aspect of object/situation at a time) and reversibility (things can be reversed)

• in order: conservation of number, length, liquid quantity, mass, weight, volume (displacement)

Horizontal decalage in conservation skill

-gap/lag (decalage) in generalization of same conservation skill across physical properties during concrete operational stage

i.e., may understand conservation with number, but not yet volume

Formal operational stage: (12+)

-more formalized operations (think abstractly, abstract principles)

-hypothetical-deductive reasoning – scientific method

-propositional thought – evaluate logic of propositions/statements w/o concrete examples, via abstract/verbal reasoning

-renewed egocentrism

Renewed egocentrism – Imaginary audience

-teen’s belief they’re always subject of an audience’s attention/concern

-spotlight effect that occurs developmentally, during formal operational stage

Renewed egocentrism – Personal fable

E.g., lone wolf

-teen’s beliefs they’re special/unique, can’t be understood by others, omnipotent/invulnerable

Criticisms of Piaget’s theory

-underestimates abilities of infants/young children

• deferred imitation occurs earlier than substage 6)

• 3-4 yos can be taught to conserve under certain conditions

-didn’t adequately consider impact of social interactions with adults on cognitive dev (did acknowledge peers in shaping/changing children’s thoughts)

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

-views cog dev as influenced by social/cultural factors

-proposes cog dev always occurs first interpersonally → then intrapersonal

e.g., to know how to solve math problem, teacher provides verbal steps → when independently doing it, child verbalizes teacher’s prompts to guide own bx (private speech)

Private speech (what is it?, linked to)

-speech/utterances that children use to guide their actions

-frequent use of private speech ←→ more effective problem-solving

-by ~7yo: replaced with inner (silent) speech

According to Vygotsky, learning is most rapid when…

in a child’s zone of proximal development – sweet spot for learning, gap btwn what child can do independently vs. with assistance

-believed make-believe/symbolic play creates a zone of proximal development (children take on/practice bxs above developmental age)

Information Processing Theories

-mind as computer, changes in these processes over time (e.g., acquiring, encoding, storing, and retrieving info)

-view cog dev as gradual/continuous process (vs. Piaget discontinuous)

-there are stages, but change is quantitative

-also constructivist approach (active) – children are active participants in constructing their own cog dev

Neo-Piagetian theories

-combine elements of Piaget constructivist + info processing theories

e.g., stages of cog dev have qualitatively different characteristics, but these differences are d/t improvements in working memory, attention, other mental processes from increasing cognitive complexity and biological maturation

When does Theory of Mind develop?

-btwn 3-5 yo

More advanced Theory of Mind is linked to…

-4 yos who engaged in fantasy play (have imaginary companions + impersonate characters) have more advanced ToM

-3 yos didn’t have ToM regardless

False-belief task

-used in ToM research; showed that ToM emerges btwn 3-5 yo

-children are tested on the understanding that another person can have a mistaken belief + will act based on that

Change-of-location task

-type of false-belief task

-Person A puts object somewhere, person B changes the location → child is asked where Person A will look for object

-4.5-5 yrs: correctly answers

-children <4 yrs: Person A will look for object in second location (egocentrism, what the child saw)

Eyewitness testimony can be inaccurate at times d/t

-misinformation effect (memory suggestibility) – memories altered by subsequent exposure to misleading info

*misinformation effect decreases with age

-young children are most susceptible to misinformation effect, followed by older kids, teens, adults); suggestibility from external misinformation decreases with age

Misinformation effect & age (what age group is most likely to be susceptible to misinformation effect)

-Younger kids

-but 3yos can give accurate eyewitness testimony, if interviewed nonsuggestively and not exposed to external misinformation

Reverse developmental trend

-when young kids’ testimony can sometimes be more accurate

-older adults have greater internal knowledge base, that can change/suggest memories

e.g., list of words: bed, awake, tired, dream, blanket, yawn → “was ‘sleep’ on the list?” (adult likely to say yes)

Childhood Amnesia (life ages that most adults can’t remember, possible explanations)

-most adults unable to recall memories from < 3-4 yo

-possible explanations: language helps memory encoding (low language ability <3-4, sense of self is needed for developing personal memories)

Length of LT memory for 6-month old + 20-mo infants

-6-mo infants LTM: 24 hrs

-20-mo infants: up to 1 yr

Reminiscence bump & what time period are older adults likely to recall the most memories from

1.) past 10 yrs before present-day/being asked

2.) reminiscence bump – ages 15-25, mid-adolescence to early 20s (d/t memorability of self-defining memories)

Primary vs. secondary vs. tertiary memory

1.) Primary memory = STM (temporary storage)

2.) Secondary memory = recent LT (remembering things for EPPP)

-encoding and retrieving newly-learned information

3.) Tertiary memory = remote LT (deep vault, long LTM)

Greatest age-related memory declines occur in…

1.) secondary memory/recent LTM (where did I park my car?, studying for EPPP)

• Older adults suck at recent LT memory (e.g., learning for a test)

2.) followed by WM

Older adults are walking encyclopedias (little/no decline in semantic), but can’t remember where they parked their car or study for a test as well (episodic, and recent LTM declines)

Except for vivid self-defining memories (e.g., reminiscence bump), which are protected from general episodic memory decline.

Self-defining memories (what are they, characteristics that make them resistant to decline)

-episodic memories that contribute to personal identity construction/ maintenance

-characteristics:

• emotional intensity, vividness

• high repetition

• linkage to similar memories

• connections to enduring concerns/unresolved conflicts

Declarative memory

-Explicit memory, consciously stored and recalled (semantic + episodic memory)

Nondeclarative memory

-Implicit, retrieved automatically, with little effort

-procedural memories (memories for learned skills and actions)

-memories from classical conditioning (conditioned associations)

-memories affected by priming (prior exposure affects how person responds)

Synchrony Effect (what is it, age-related differences in it)

-cognitive performance is best at time of day synchronized with person’s circadian rhythm

-older adults: peak circadian arousal and task performance in morning

-younger adults: late afternoon and evening

Gender/sex differences in cognitive abilities + personality traits

-reliable differences are rare, any differences are small

-differences aren’t just d/t biology; gender-role stereotyping from birth/pre-birth, self-fulfilling prophecy

-Gaby does the verbal presentation since she’s great at reading, writing, and flowing words (speech fluency), but Brody interrupts with a great verbal analogy

-Gaby instantly calculates the math budget (clean computations), but Brody looks at the bigger picture, uses different problem-solving strategies, and mathematical reasoning

-Brody grabs the visual instructions and mentally rotates the 3D rocket parts to create the rocket

Boys are better at:

• Math reasoning, acquired math problem-solving strategies

• Verbal Analogies

• Visual/spatial abilities, esp. mental rotation

• Physical aggression (as early as 2yo)

• Greater self-esteem starting from late childhood

Girls are better at:

-Computational skills (e.g., arithmetic)

-Most verbal abilities (speech fluency, reading, writing achievement)

Self-esteem & Gender/Sex

-Males have higher SE throughout life starting from late childhood

-Gender gap size is even greater in US, and individualistic countries (smaller SE difference btwn M/F in collectivistic cultures)

Lifespan trajectory of self-esteem (and how does this apply across gender + culture)

(Self-esteem rollercoaster)

-relatively high SE in childhood → adolescent drop

-increases from late adolescence through middle adulthood

-drops in late adulthood

**same trend across M/F gender + culture

-but the Male line is always higher! Especially in individualist/wealthy places (i.e., US)

Self-esteem & Race/ethnicity

“Black self-esteem advantage” – Black kids, teens, & YA have higher SE than white/other POC!

-Men across the board have higher SE than women

Developmental vulnerabilities + Gender

-Boys are more biologically vulnerable to pre/perinatal hazards + diseases

-Boys more likely to have developmental problems

• e.g., intellectual disability, speech defects, ASD, ADHD