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Cognitive Development
The development of mental processes, mostly thinking, reasoning, and understanding. This topic focuses on Childhood.
Schema
Beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processes, developed from experience
Assimilation
A form of learning where we acquire new information on a subject that does not wildly change it, thus, we assimilate it into our existing schema
Accommodation
A form of learning where we acquire radical new information on a topic where we have to create a new schema, or radically change an existing one.
Equilibration
Once undergone accommodation or assimilation, we are in equilibration, everything is balanced
Stages of Intellectual Development (Piaget)
Stages all children go through to develop understanding of the world
Sensorimotor Stage
0-2 Years, babies learn through trial and error and acquire basic language. Around 8 months, Babies form Object Permanence.
Pre-Operational Stage
2-7 Years. Toddler is mobile and can use language, but lacks adult reasoning. They lack conservation and are egocentric. Also, they can begin to understand class inclusion, but not fully.
Stage of Concrete Operations
7-11 Years. Children have better views on class inclusion and egocentrism, but they struggle to understand hypothetical ideas
Stage of Formal Operations
11+. Children become capable of reasoning formally. They can understand the form of an argument, not just the content, and they can understand abstract ideas.
Object Permanence
Knowing that when something is out of sight, it still exists
Conservation
Knowing that quantity remains the same when the appearance of an object changes, e.g water in differently shaped vessels
Egocentrism
Children’s tendency to only see the world from their point of view. Lacking the ability to take other’s perspectives
Class Inclusion
Being able to know that classes of objects have/can be subsets of larger classes. Pre-Operational children struggle to put things in more than one classes, e.g ‘dogs’ and ‘animals’
Zone of Proximal Development
The gap between a child’s current ability (unaided) and their potential (With the help of a more expert other)
Scaffolding
Helping the learner cross the ZPD, advancing as much as they can. Less scaffolding as the learner improves
Knowledge of the Physical World
Our understanding of how the world works, e.g object permanence. There is debate as to when children learn this.
Violation of Expectation Research
Research that investigates infant knowledge of the world. They may expect certain things to happen, and show surprise when it doesn’t
Social Cognition
Mental processes we use in social interaction, e.g deciding how we behave in a social situation
Perspective-Taking
Being able to understand the role/point of view of another human being in a social situation
Theory of Mind
Our personal understanding of what others think and feel
Autism
A spectrum disorder. Autistic people face challenges with social interaction/communication, and repeated/restrictive behaviours. It can cause learning disabilities in some
Mirror Neurons System
Consists of mirror neurons in several areas of the brain. They fire in response in our own actions and to the actions of others. They allow us to interpret intention and emotion of others
Piaget- Conservation Test
Water in 2 same containers
One is fully poured into a taller (thinner) container
If subject says the taller container has more water, the dumb-ass has no skills of conservation
Piaget- Egocentrism Test
Three mountains
A doll is placed in a set
The child is asked to see what the doll sees (E.g a mountain, house, etc)
If the child can’t see from the doll’s perspective, dumb-ass is egocentric
Baillargeon (1987 - VOE)
3 month old children
Looked at a possible and impossible event
Children stared longer at the impossible until habituated
Suggests object permanence develops sooner than Piaget suggested
Selman- Perspective Taking
30 Boys, 30 Girls
20 4, 5, and 6 Year Olds
‘Holly’s dad does not want her to climb trees. Holly’s kitten is stuck up a tree’
Child was asked to describe how each person feels after Holly does/doesn’t climb the tree
Level of Perspective Taking correlates with age
Wimmer and Perner- False Belief
Maxi puts chocolate in a blue cupboard and leaves
Maxi’s mother puts Maxi’s chocolate in the green cupboard
When Maxi comes back, where will he look?
3 Year old Dumb-asses say Green
4 Year old geniuses say Blue
Baron-Cohen- Sally-Anne Study
Sally puts her marble in a basket and leaves
Anne, the bitch, puts it in a box
Where will Sally look?
85% of the control group were correct
4 Autistic Children were correct (4/20)
Rizzolatti et al - Mirror neuron discovery
Studying electrical activity in a monkey’s motor cortex when a researcher reached for food in view of the monkey
The monkey’s cortex activated the same way for this as if the monkey did it themselves
The same brain cells that fired for each event
Gallese and Goldman - Intention of mirror neurons
Suggests they activate not just for observed action but also intention
They suggested we stimulate others’ actions in our motor system and experience their intentions using neurons
Ramachandran - Evolution in mirror neurons
Suggests mirror neurons are so important they shaped human evolution
Without cognitive abilities we would be unable to live in large groups with complex social roles
Oberman and Ramachandran - Broken mirror
Neurological deficits that include dysfunction in the mirror neuron system prevent a developing child imitating and understanding social behaviour in others
Manifests in infancy when children mimic adult behaviour less
This can lead to challenges in social communication as children and struggle with empathy
Note 
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