Ed Psych Chapter 3 - Cognitive Development

what is development

lasting changes that appear in an orderly manner

what is maturation

changes that occur naturally and are genetically programmed

How does maturation constrain certain parts of development?

physical maturation constrains cognitive and social development

cannot speed up development beyond what is allowed by physical maturation

what is learning

interactions with the environment

can be through active exploration or social transmission

Nature vs nurture

how the individual interacts with their environment and vice versa dictates how genes are expressed during development

Are behaviours due to only nature or nurture?

• No behaviours are purely genetic OR just from the environment; there is a constant interaction going on throughout development

3 general principles of development

1. people develop at different rates

2. development is orderly

3. development is gradual

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

children learn in fundamentally different discrete ways at each stage of development

children are little scientist who use play to interact with and learn from environment

Piaget: Organization

as children develop, they organize thought and behaviour into schemas

over time, schemas become more complex and efficent

Piaget: Adaptation

More understanding in an environment comes with time and experience which leads to the ability to adjust better in the environment 

Piaget: Assimilation

Assimilating new information into existing schemas

Piaget: Accommodation

Modifying or creating new schemas to accommodate new info

Equilibration

schema is accurate → expectation and experience match → we experience equilibration

Balance between Assimilation and Accommodation

Disequilibriation

schema doesn’t make sense→ mismatch between expectation and experience → uncomfortable/anxious

Piagets Stages of Development

in each stage, new abilities emerge that were not in the previous stage

Piaget: Preoperational Age + Abilities

• 2-7 yrs/ JK-Gr 2

• Make-believe/ pretend play

• Semiotic funciton

• egocentric thought

• one-way logic

Semiotic Function

preoperational stage

ability to think in symbols

ex. red rose is symbolic of love and desire

Egocentric thought

preoperational stage

inability to take someone elses’ perspective; assumption that everyone else shares their feelings and experiences

ex. i can’t see you, so you can’t see me

one-way logic

preoperational stage

can think through operations logically in one direction only

struggles with conservation tasks

Piaget: Concrete Operational Age + Abilities

• 7-11yrs/ grades 3-6

• can think logically about concrete/hands-on problems

• understands conservation rules

• can organize based on classification and seriation (order/series)

• 
  

Conservation Tasks

principle that the amount/number of something remains the same even if the arrangement or appearance is changed, as long as nothing is added and nothing is taken away. 

3 things needed to solve conservation tasks

1. Identity -  students knows if nothing is added or taken away, the material remains the same 

2. Compensation - student knows apparent change in one direction can be compensated for by a change in another direction

3. Reversibility - student can mentally cancel out the change that was made

Piaget: Formal Operational Stage

• 11yrs+ / grade 7+

• can understand abstract thought

• can transcend concrete situations

• adolescent egocentrism

Abstract Thought

operational stage

• can understand problems without physical objects present

• can understand abstract language —> metaphor, satire,etc

Adolescent egocentrism

• focus on own thoughts, feeling, concerns, emotions, etc

• ex. other people have experienced a similar thing, but not really like how I am experiencing it

Imaginary Audience

belief that everyone is watching and judging you

implications of Piagets theory for Education

• different ages/grades will need different methods of teaching to understand concepts

• instructions need to match developmental stage

• children develop/progress through stages at different rates

critiques of piagets stage theory

• development is continuous not discrete —> abilities for the next stage may start to show up as children learn and make mistakes practicing it

• his task underestimate childrens abilities + his tasks have leading questions

• doesn’t consider cultural and social factors

Information Processing Theories

• Children stuggle with conservation and Piagetian tasks because they develop information proccesing skills as they mature

• emphasis on development of executive function

Executive Function

Info-processing theory

all cognitive processes we use to organize, coordinate and perfrom goal-directed, intentional actions

Ex. focusing attention, inhibiting impulsive actions, organizing, etc

neo-Piagetian theories

Keep Piaget’s ideas on children trends in thinking and knowledge construction but adds findings from cognitive neuroscience and information processing theories

robbie case, kurt fisher

Vygotosky’s Sociocultural perspective

• Very opposite to Piaget

• believed that

1. Activities occur in a social and cultural context

2. Social interaction is the source of cognitive development 

3. Cognitive skills mediated by language; Language is the critical skill

Vygotoskys: Co construction

Mental processes are co-constructed:

• Participants interact → jointly construct solution, knowledge

• Strategy to arrive at solution social, then internalized.

Vygotoskys: Cultural Tools

Learning, acquisition and internalization of Cultural tools

• Cultural tools are used for problem solving

  • People have different tools available to them to solve problems based on their cultural context

  • ex. calculator, numbers, alphabet, beliefs, attitudes

Vygotosky: Use of Language

• believed that language was the most important cultural tool

• language is used to communicate with others

• most of our thoughts are language based

• private speech guides thoughts and actions

Piagetian view of Private Speech

Egocentric speech —> children talk to themselves during play

Collective monolouge —> children talk outloud without engaging w each other in convo

Socialized speech—> develops with maturation; children learn to listen and exchange (or argue) ideas

Vygotoskys’ view of Private Speech

• private speech guides behaviour

  • first through parent to child

  • then child to child

  • then child to self

• private speech is fundemental to cognitive development

• private speech shpuld be encouraged in classes as children work on difficult/novel tasks

progression of private speech (Vygotosky)

1. Social communication with self, aloud (audible)

2. Becomes whispers

3. Silent with lip movements

4. Internalized as inner speech (silent)

Scaffolding

• vygotosky

• support and guidance for problem solving

• older, more knowledgable individuals provide scaffolding

• may be language-based, observational, and/or guided modeling

• as childs ability increases, amount of scaffolding should decrease

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

• area between childs current developmental level and the level of development they can achieve next

• where learning occurs

• success can be reached through instruction, help/support froma teacher or adult, encouragment, etc but not independently

Limitations of Vygotoskys theory

• general ideas —> vygotosky passed before his work could be further developed

• students have carried on his work —> unsure if he would agree with these current theories