cognitive development

what is cognitive development?

how children/people think, learn, explore, remember and solve problems 

• involves perception, attention, language, problem solving, reasoning, memory, conceptual understanding, intelligence 

takes time to develop

theories of cognitive development

psychological frameworks that explain how our cognitive skills develop 

piaget’s theory

children take on an active role in the way they interact with the world, discontinuous change

• 4 stages

piaget’s theory stage 1 - sensorimotor stage

infants can only know about the world through senses/actions 

piaget’s theory stage 2 - pre-operational stage

young children have some ability to internally represent their environment through a mental image. Very simple thinking, related to the child’s needs/wants 

piaget’s theory stage 3 - concrete-operational stage

children become able to think logically, can understand that events are influenced by multiple factors 

piaget’s theory stage 1 - formal operational stage

adolescents can think systematically and hypothetically

limitations of piaget’s theory

• doesn’t talk about underlying mechanisms (does not tell us the causes of change)

• underestimates the cognitive abilities of young children and infants

• social/environment impact ignored

• lacks understanding about individual differences within children 

lev vygotsky's sociocultural theory of cognitive development

children are social learners, lacks the stages that piaget’s theory has 

• Infants have basic cognitive skills (attention, sensation, perception, memory) 

as infants interact with others, these skills become more sophisticated

ZPD - zone of proximal development  

information processing theories

human mind is a complicated information processing system like a computer. mechanisms of change rather than how change happens

• popularised as computers started to become more accessible/mainstream

what is intelligence?

the capacity to learn from experience and adapt to one’s environment 

• developmental concept 

• means different things at different ages 

• definition could vary in different contexts/cultures 

general intelligence

a person posses acertain amount of general intelligence (g) that influences their ability on all intellectual tasks 

limitation of general intelligence theory

focuses on a person’s performance on individual tasks doesn’t really focus on real-life observations 

Intelligence can be measured as

1. one dimension (IQ)

2. two dimensions (crystallised and fluid)

3. three dimensions (thurstone 7 and gardener 7)

4. many dimensions (carrol’s 3-statum model)

one common limitation of measures of intelligence

not developmental measures

intelligence as one dimension

mental age/iq

intelligence as one dimension - mental age

average age at which children achieve a given score on a binet and simon’s test

intelligence as many dimensions

three-stratum theory of intelligence

intelligence as many dimensions - three-stratum theory of intelligence

hierarchical integration of 

• g: general intelligence 

• eight generalised abilities 

• many specific processes 

stanford binet scales

five cognitive abilities

• fluid reasoning 

• knowledge

• quantitative reasoning

• visual-spatial processing

• working memory 

popular in US from ages 2-24, uses MA to calculate IQ 

british ability scale 

three domains 

• verbal ability 

• non-verbal reasoning

• spatial ability 

wechsler intelligence test for children (WISC) 

most widely used instrument for children +6 years old 

two main sections 

verbal: general knowledge, language skills 

performance: spatial and perceptual abilities 

WISC - performance section

• block design: arrange 9 blocks to match a picture 

• coding: identifying patterns from series of simple shapes or numbers, each paired with a simple symbol 

• mazes: a set of increasingly difficult mazes printed in a response booklet, no pencil lifting of entering blind alleys 

• object assembly: assemble puzzle parts to form a meaningful whole 

• picture completion: describe what is missing from a picture 

• picture arrangement: arrange cartoon frames to tell a coherent story 

overall evaluation of all tests of intelligence