Week 4 (Lec 6): Cognitive Development Development Theories

How to core knowledge theories differ from Piaget’s theory and information processing account of cognitive development?

How do Dynamic systems theories enhance our understanding of errors in the A-not-B task?

Why do we bother understanding theories of cognitive development?

• they provide a framework for understanding important phenomena

• raise crucial questions about human nature

• they lead to better understanding of human children

Without discussing the specific stages, summaries the ideas of Piaget’s theory?

• children are mental active from the moment of birth

• children construct knowledge for themselves in response to their experiences (little scientists)

• children learn many important lessons on their own, rather than through instruction

• children are intrinsically motivated to learn and do not need rewards to do so

Piaget’s Theory: Assimilation

the process by which people incorporate incoming information into concepts they already understand

Piaget’s Theory: Accommodation

the process by which people improve their understanding in response to a new experiences

Piaget’s theory: Equilibration

the process by which people balance assimilation and accommodation to reach understanding

When it comes to Piaget’s theory, how does Piaget describe the qualitative changes to a child’s way of thinking?

• Broad Capability - the type of thinking that characterizes one stages influences children’s thinking about a diverse range of topics and contexts

• Brief Transitions: before entering a new stage, children will be in a transitionary period where they flip flop between old and new ways of thinking

• Invariant sequences: no one escapes

What are the 4 stages of Piaget’s Theory

1. Sensorimotor (0-2)

2. Pre-operational 2-7)

3. Concrete Operational (7-12)

4. Formal Operations (12+ years)

Describe the sensorimotor stage in piaget’s theory?

• Stage #1

• 0-2

• learning about space, time, causality

• living in the here and now

• in first few months

  • infants use their sensory and motor abilities to perceive and explore the world around them

• towards end of first year

  • object permanence

  • A not B error: where they continue to search for an object in the location where it was last found (Location A), even after seeing it moved to a different location (Location B)

• 18-24 months

  • imitation, ex. pretending to put makeup on

Describe stage #2 of Piaget’s theory

• #2 (2-7 yrs)

• represent their experiences in language and mental imagery

• they can’t yet consider multiple dimensions simultaneously

• symbolic representation e. playing card for an iphone

• conventional symbols: dress up

• drawing makes use of symbolic conventions

• Ego centrism

• centration

egocentrism, what is it? what stage is it associated with in piaget’s theory?

seeing the world only from your POV

• being a convo but really you are responding o yourself and are not interested in what the other people are saying

Centration, what is it? What stage of piaget’s development is it associated with? Give an example.

focusing on the salient feature of an object or even, to the exclusion of the other relevant features

ex. the conservation task. the water is the same amount, but they only focus on the fact that its taller

Stage #3 of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development? Give an example of a test we give them at this age.

The concrete operations stage (7-12)

• children can reason about concrete objects and events

• increasingly abstract, but can’t think purely abstractly

  • pendulum task - concrete operations perform unsystematic and biased tests, will they test variables one at a time, dont?

Stage # of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive development

• thinking abstractly and reasoning hypothetically

• performing systematic experiments with the pendulum

• Piaget thought not everyone reaches this stage

• doesn’t mean you will alway reason in advanced ways, just that that at this point you reached this capability

What are 4 big criticisms of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development?

1. What are the mechanisms that allow for changes in children’s thinking

2. infants and young children are more cognitively competent than given credit

   1. using looking tests at 3 months infants suspects objects still exist

3. underestimates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development

4. depicts children’s thinking as being more consistent than it is

Give an overview of the main points of Information processing theory

addresses the mechanisms underlying cognitive processing and developmental change

• views child development as continuous, incremental process, which specific cognitive factors acting as rate limiting factors

• children expand the amounts of info they can process at one time though learning and maturation

• tasks analysis

• children are active problem solvers

• children’s cognitive flexibility allows them to attain goals

Task analysis, what is it, what theory is it associated with?

• identification of goals needed to perform the task, obstacles that prevent immediate realization of the goals, prior knowledge relevant to achieving the goals, and potential strategies for reaching the desired outcome

  • Enables computer simulations of knowledge and mental processes involved in certain behaviors.

How do Piagets theory and Information Processing theory differ in how they view children problem solving?

• Piaget’s Theory: Children use one strategy and then move to another more effective strategy as they age. Number conservation: 5 year olds choose the longer row of objects, and 7 year olds reason if nothing was taken away or added it must be the same

• Information processing theory: Children use at least three different strategies to solve any problems and switch between them, eventually finding the more effective strategies as they age.

What do Core knowledge theories tell us about if babies come into the world with general learning abilities as Piaget’s theory states?

Children come into the world with general learning abilities AND mental structures that allow them to quickly and effortlessly learn information with evolutionary importance.

Nativism, what is it, what kind of theory is it?

• nativism - infants are born with substantial knowledge of evolutionarily important domains, as well as the ability to quickly and easily acquire more knowledge in these domains.

  • ➤ Spelke’s domains of core knowledge: Inanimate objects, minds of people and animals, numbers, spatial layouts

• Core Knowledge Theory

Constructivism, what is it, and what type of theory is it?

• blends elements of nativism, Piagetian theory, and information processing theories

• unlike nativists: emphasize that infants’ initial knowledge in

  these domains is rudimentary and that construction of more

  advanced knowledge reflects specific learning experiences

  within the domain

• a type of core knowledge theory

What core knowledge theories do we discuss in class?

• Nativism

• Constructivism

What social cultural theories did we discuss in class?

• Vygotsky’s theory

• Tomasello

guided participation, what is it? what type of theory is it associated with?

• a process emphasized in sociocultural research in which more knowledgeable individuals organize activities in ways that allow less knowledgeable people to perform the activity at a higher level than they could manage on their own

• social cultural theories

social scaffolding, what is it? What type of theory is it associated with?

is a process through which adults and others with greater expertise organize the physical and social environment to help children learn.

• social cultural theories

Describe Vygotsky’s theory, what type of theory is it?

• children as social learners, who gradually become full participants in their culture through interactions with other people and with the broader social environment of institutions, skills, attitudes, and values.

• Thought is internalized speech originating in

  statements that other people make to children

  • ➤ 1. Children’s behavior is controlled by

    others

  • ➤ 2. Children think aloud

  • ➤ 3. Children internalize their speech (move

    their lips or whisper it sometimes) Turning

    it into thought

• A social cultural theory

What is Tomasello’s theory? What kind of theory is it?

• Humans are natural born teachers and learners

• allows us to communicate facts, skills, values, and traditions = culture

• social cultural theory

intersubjectivity, joint attention, and intersubjectivity are all features of what type of theory? Define each.

• Social Cultural Theory

• Intersubjectivity: Meeting of the minds

• Joint attention: infants and their social partners intentionally focus on a common referent in the external environment (~1 year of age)

• Intersubjectivity allows eventual perspective taking, cooperation etc.

Give an overview of dynamic systems theories.

• Esther Thelen’s team found that because of individual differences in the infants’ physiology, activity level, arousal, motivation, and experience, each child faced different challenges in mastering the skill of reaching.

• Dynamic - ever changing

• Systems - each child is a system and each cognitive ability must be understood within that system (attention, motor skills, perception etc).

• Children are internally motivated to learn about the world (e.g., they practice skills even though they have better practiced skills that achieve the same end)

• Natural Selection - nfants have varying behaviors to meet a goal and will (over time) increasingly chose actions that have previously been successful

What are the Piaget vs Dynamic systems perspective on the A not B error?

• Piaget: Children continue reaching to A because they lack a concept that the object continues to exist when they can’t see it.

• Dynamic systems: Error is more frequent after many reaches to A (infants have formed a habit).

  • If a delay is inserted between showing and reaching more successful

  • Infants reach more to area their attention was drawn to.