Cognition and Development

What is Piaget’s theory of cognitive development?

A child’s intelligence and intellect change and grow as they actively construct mental model of the world around them

What are characteristics of schemas, assimilation, accommodation, equilibration, and stages of intellectual development

Object permanance, consveration, egocentrism, and class inclusion

Why does Piaget believe development is a continous process?

Continuous process driven by biological maturation and child’s active interaction with environment

What are schemas?

Mental frameworks, representations, or “units of intelligence” used to organize and understand the world

What is a baby’s earliest schema?

Innate physical reflexes, i.e sucking or grasping

How do children’s schemas develop as they grow and gain experience

Physical schemas evolve into more complex, deliberate, and internal cognitive operations

What is assimilation?

Process of fitting new environmental experiences or information into their already existing schemas

What is an example of assimilation?

A baby who has schema for sucking may try to put every new object they encounter into their mouth, assimilating the new objects into their pre-existing reflex

What is equilibration?

The dynamic process of maintaining cognitive balance

What is example of equilibration?

When a child assimilates new info into their existing schemas, they are in pleasant state of cognitive balance (equilibration)

What is disequilibrium?

When new information or experiences are encountered but cannot be assimilated because of contradicting schemas, it creates uncomfortable state of mental imbalance

How does disequilibrium motivate children?

Helps motivate to learn and adapt to restore balance

How to restore equilibrium?

Driven to explore and learn new things so they can assimilate or accomodate new info and return to pleasant state of balance

Accommodation

Occurs when new experiences are radically different from existing schemas, so the individual must create new schema or alter existing one to incorporate new info

How many stages of intellectual development does Piaget argue there are?

Four

What is the first stage of development (Piaget)

Sensorimotor stage - birth to 2 years : learning occurs rapidly through matching sensory perceptions to motor actions and experiences

What is the key developmental milestone in the first stage of development?

Object permanence - the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are not being perceived or acted upon

What happens at the end in the first stage of development?

Children transition towards early representational thought, using images or symbols to represent objects

What is the second stage of development (Piaget)?

Pre operational stage - 2 to 7 years : Child’s thinking is heavily influenced by how things visually seem rather than logic

What is the first characteristic of pre operational stage?

Egocentrism : Children can only see the world from their own perspective and are incapable of understand other people’s pov or feelings

What is the second characteristic of pre operational stage?

Lack of conservation : Do not have the logical understanding that changing the physical appearance of an object does not change its mass. volume, or number

What is the third characteristic of pre operational stage?

Animistic thinking : Belief that inanimate objects are alive

What is the third stage of development (Piaget)?

Concrete operational stage - 7 to 11 years : children develop logical thought processes (operations) but can only apply this logic to physical, “concrete” objects that are present

What is the first key milestone of the concrete operational stage?

Conservation : Master the concept of conservation

What is the second key milestone of the concrete operational stage?

Decentering : Overcome egocentrism and can increasingly see situations from other povs

What is the third key milestone of the concrete operational stage?

Class inclusion : Develop the ability to classify objects into multiple categories simultaneously, understanding that subsets belong to larger overarching classes (e.g., understanding a Pointer is a dog and mammal)

What is the fourth and last stage of development (Piaget)

Formal operational stage - 11+ years : Development of abstract reasoning. Children can manipulate ideas and hypothetical concepts without needing physical objects in front of them

Is the fourth developmental stage uniform?

No, it is reached at different ages and some may never fully achieve formal operational thinking across all areas of ability → suggests it is less genetically determined than earlier stages

How did Piaget’s theory revolutionize educational practices?

Led to development of activity-oriented classrooms that emphasized discovery learning by interacting with their environment

Does Piaget underestimate the role other people’s influence in learning?

Yes, Piaget believes the child to be independent in constructing knowledge alone

How is Piaget’s viewpoint flawed?

Not all children are internally motivated to learn to avoid disequilibrium, external factors motivate and language is important

Were Piaget’s expirmental methodology valid?

No, it lacked validity which lead to underestimating children’s cognitive abilities

Who was Lev Vygotsky?

Russian Psychologist who believed a child’s cognitive development is fundamentally a social and cultural construct

How does Vygotsky’s belief of child cognitive development differ from Piaget’s?

Vygotsky views the child as an apprentice while Paget views as an independent “scientist”

What is the first distinct cognitive development level of Vygotsky?

The Cultural Level : Children benefit from knowledge of previous generations through interaction and caregivers. “Inherit” cultural/ technological tools (clocks/bikes), psychological tools (language/symbols), and cultural values

What is the second distinct cognitive development level of Vygotsky?

The Interpersonal Level : Cognitive development first occurs on social level between two people then internalized on an individual level (interpsychological → intrapsychological)

What is Vgotsky’s belief of the most essential cultural tool for cognitive development?

Language

What is Vygotsky’s concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)?

Distance or gap between child’s independent ability level and their potential ability level when in collaboration with peers

What is the process of scaffolding?

Navigating ZPD, a knowledgable peer gives guidance and support instead of direct solution

How does Vygotsky determine effective scaffolding

1. Ensuring the task is easy initially

2. Gaining and maintaining child’s interest

3. Demonstrating task

4. Keeping child’s frustration under control

5. Stressing elements that will help create solution

What are the limitations of Vygotsky’s belief?

Difficulty in measuring concrete outcomes, ignores emotional and biological factors, and theory is only useful in educational setting

What the theory of nature in nature vs. nurture

Vygotsky - Nature based theory: social environments and guided tutoring accelerates child’s learning beyond independent maturational limits

What is Renee Baillargeon’s idea of infants’ abilities to understand the physical world?

Infants have an understanding of the world of physical world, including object permanence, much earlier than Piaget believes

What is the theory of nurture in nature vs. nurture

Piaget - Nurture maturational theory: children cannot perform certain mental processes until a biologically predetermined age

What is Baillargeon’s theory of Violation of Expectation

Infants will look for a longer period of time at things they have not experienced before or things that are unexpected

What is social cognition?

Mental processes by which individuals process, understand, and make sense of information relating to themselves and others within their social world

What is the major element of developing social cognition

perspective taking : the ability to assume another person’s viewpoint and understand their thoughts, feelings, and intentions

What role-taking theory did Robert Selman (1980) devise to explain how young children develop the understanding that other people have different experiences and feelings?

Interpersonal dilemmas : presenting children with scenarios that help them consider and understand different characters’ viewpoints, thoughts, and intentions

What does Selman’s role-taking theory explain?

As children mature, they have an age-related shift from egocentric viewpoint to broader cultural and moral understanding, realizing that people can react differently to the same exact situation

What is stage 0 of Selman’s role-taking theory?

Egocentric viewpoint (ages : 3-6) understands people can have different viewpoint from themselves but does not see the cause and effect relationship of reasons and social actions

What is stage 1 of Selman’s role-taking theory?

Social informational role taking (ages 6-8) children are aware people can process different viewpoints but can only focus on one perspective at a time

What is stage 2 of Selman’s role-taking theory?

Self reflective role taking (ages 8-10) Children can

What is stage 3 of Selman’s role-taking theory?

What is stage 4 of Selman’s role-taking theory?

Social and conventional system role taking (ages 12-15) Realization that third party perspective-taking can be influenced by larger societal and cultural values

How does Selman’s theory align with Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory?

Selman’s egocentric viewpoint mirrors Piage’s pre-operational stage. Perceiving the world from more than one viewpoint is a central feature of both Piaget’s concrete operational stage and Selman’s later role- taking stages

What is Theory of Mind?

Cognitive ability to attribute mental states, such as beliefs, intentions, motives, desires, and emotions to oneself and to others - cognitive shift away from childhood egocentrism

How is Theory of Mind assessed?

False belief tasks : tests whether child can understand another person’s belief that child knows is incorrect

How is Theory of Mind an explanation for autism?

Psychologist Uta Frith proposed that individuals with autism suffer from “mind blindness” - specific deficit or lack of a theory of mind

What is autism?

Developmental disability characterized by difficulties in social communication, building relationships, and using abstract concepts

Why do those with autism struggle with social interaction, poor joint attention, and inability to process facial expressions, and lack of pretend play?

Cannot easily understand mental states of others and struggle to understand social situations, intentions, and emotions

Who conducted the Sally-Anne study?

Conducted by Simon Baron-Cohen, Leslie, and Frith, 1985)

What is the Sally-Anne study?

Test 3 groups (autism, down syndrome, and normally developing children) to assume where Sally will look for a marble she placed in her basket after Anne moved it away unknowingly. Lack of Theory of Mind in children with autism → unable to predict behavior of others ( only 20% were correct )

What is Leslie’s idea of Theory of Mind Mechanism?

It biologically matures by age 2 in neurotypical children but those with autism is hindered from physiological damage

What is mirror neuron system and what is it linked to?

Brain cells/ nerves that activate when observing others’ actions to help experience empathy. This dysfunction links as the biological basis for lack of Theory of Mind in autism

How were mirror neurons discovered?

Professor Giacomo Rizzolatti (1990s) and colleagues noticed neurons in premotor cortex of macaque monkeys fired both when monkeys reached for food just as they watched researchers do it

What is one key area to understand the role of mirror neuron system in social cognition?

Empathy and understanding others’ feelings. Despite previous theory of logical thinking to interpret others’ behaviors, it is suggested humans understand by feeling, “experiential understanding”

What is second key area to understand the role of mirror neuron system in social cognition?

Understanding intentions. System can decode the motivation driving an observed action

What is third key area to understand the role of mirror neuron system in social cognition?

“Broken Mirror” explanation for autism. Biological explanation of condition in social communication and interaction deficiencies (ASD), supported by fMRI study