cognition and development

what is cognition

mental processes → how we think about and process the world

what is cognition development

the way these processes change throughout our lives

what does piaget think about cognition development

• children don’t just possess less info than adults, they also think in different ways to adults
  → seen as ‘lone scientists’

• before this, there was a general consensus that children were only different in the amount of knowledge they have

• children have to learn to think

name the 3 ways knowledge develops (piaget)

1. schemata

2. assimilation

3. accomodation

explain schemata (piaget)

• internal template/mental representation of the world

• babies have innate schemas like sucking and gripping
  → allows them to explore the world
  → allows more schemas to be built up and gain more knowledge from environment

explain assimilation (piaget)

• when we gain new or more advanced info abt pre-existing scheme

• new info doesn’t oppose schema so can be assimilated and added to schema
  
  → e.g. child has a pet dog and therefore has a dog schema. when they meet a new dog breed, they can assimilate to their dog schema

explain accommodation (piaget)

• when we receive new info which opposes pre-existing schemas

• to understand, we need to create new schemas
  
  → e.g. child has a pet dog. when they meet a cat, they try to fit it in the dog schema. however, when it meows not barks they need to create a new schema to hold info

what are piaget’s 2 motivations to learn?

• disequilibrium

• equilibriation

explain disequilibrium (piaget)

• uncomfortable feeling child has when world doesn’t make sense

• gained new info that can’t be explained by existing schemas

• have to restore comfortable feeling through accommodation/assimilation

explain equilibration (piaget)

• preferred mental state

• achieved when all new info makes sense

• schemata don’t have to be added, challenged or created

• current experience matches our current schema

name 2 strengths of piaget

1. real life applications
   revolutionised educational practices
   before 1960s, children used to sit silently at desks and copy work from board
   → replaced by activity based environments like sandpits
   very prominent in montessori education for pre-school children
   → where children are encouraged to learn through discovery and create their own understanding
   flipped learning also used in further education
   → given material to learn alone and then focus on exam skills
   

2. supporting evidence
   children aged 9-12 in groups of 4 asked to study how objects move down a slope
   understanding measured before and after discussion
   while all children increased knowledge about topic, they hadn’t all come to the same conclusions
   supports concept children learn and form own personal mental representations despite same environment

name 2 limitations of piaget

1. underplayed role of others- vygotsky
   did acknowledge the role of both peers and teachers in learning and saw them as sources of info
   → e.g. teacher facilitates situation for learning to occur
   however, he thought that learning primarily happened in mind of individual (lone scientists)
   other people not important
   → vygotsky’s theory emphasises need for others
   

2. methodology
   majority of research done on middle class ppts who may have been more motivated to learn than others
   gives biased sample
   his theory suggests all children have the drive to rid themselves of disequilibriation
   however, not all children care as much to find out why things don’t fit schemata
   should use more representitive sample with diff classes, races and cultures

what are piaget’s stages of cognitive development? (diff to his theory)

• 4 stages of intellectual development

• each stage signifies a different ability in reasoning

• child has to complete one stage before moving onto the other

• sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operations, formal operations

explain the sensorimotor stage of development

• 0-2 years

• baby’s focus is on physical sensations and development of motor skills

• schemata include sucking and gripping

• learn control of their body through trial and error and eventually can move objects

• child under 8 months lack object permanence, over 8 months they understand it still exists

• learning that they are separate from others and basic language

explain the pre-operational stage of development

• 2-7 years

• toddler is mobile and using language

• errors occur in language

• behaviour characterised by:

  • ego centrism

  • lack of conservation

  • lack of class inclusion

explain egocentrism (piaget)

• children are self centrered and assume everyone sees things the same way they do

• unable to hold beliefs of another persons perspective

• 3 mountains task:

  • children shown models of 3 mountains with 3 diff features

  • doll was placed facing the scene but with a different view as the child

  • pre-operational children were shown a range of photos and asked what the doll saw

  • often chose photo of what they saw rather than the doll

explain lack of conservation (piaget)

• children lack ability to realise that although an object might look different over time, it’s the same object

• liquid conservation task:

  • child is shown 2 identical glasses with same amount of water

  • child agrees both glasses have the same amount of water

  • researcher pours one glass into taller and thinner glass

  • they ask which has more liquid or are they the same

  • pre-operational children say taller glass since the level is higher

explain lack of class inclusion (piaget)

• children haven’t fully developed understanding that an object can be part of a larger class and several subsets

• e.g. lab, poodle, shitzu are all breed of dogs and children fail to realise subsets

• research:

  • showed children pictures of dogs and cats (more dogs than cats)

  • asked if there are more dogs or animals

  • they replied more dogs

explain concrete operations stage of development

• 7-11 years

• most children have mastered previous skills

• can think logically and apply that to diff situations
  → e.g. if i eat too many sweets i might get sick again

• also gained skill of reversability (2×4=4×2)

• however, unable to think in abstract terms (e.g. hypothetical sitations, philosophical ideas, etc, things that are not physically present)

explain formal operations stage of development (11+)

• children are able to reason about things outside their experience

• have all the things children lack in previous stages

• able to follow a hypothetical argument through:

  • premise: all yellow cats have 2 heads. i have a yellow cat called charlie

  • question: how many heads does charlie have?

  • answer: 2

  • formal operational children can understand that answer, concrete operational children couldn’t as they get too distracted by their knowledge cats don’t have 2 heads

explain piaget’s research into object permanence

• hid object under cover and observed infant reactions

• children up to 5 minths didn’t search for object they were originally interested in

• by 8 months, same children searched for it

• repeated measures- good methodology

name a strength of piaget’s stages of development

1. supporting evidence
   use any evidence i haven’t previously used
   e.g. 3 mountains, liquid conservation, cats and dogs, yellow cats
   → replicated with similar results which improves reliability
   shows cognitive ability of children

name 3 limitations of piaget

1. contradictory evidence for object permanence
   baillargeon suggests that infants as young as 3-4 months display object permanence
   

2. methodology
   samples were small and biased→ middle class children at university
   not representitive or generalisable to rest of population
   carried out his own research to construct and support theory
   → high chance of researcher bias affecting results which decreases validity
   

3. contradictory evidence for egocentrism
   research created child friendly version of 3 mountains task
   constructed model brick wall in shape of a cross
   researchers had 3 dolls: 2 police and 1 boy
   child was asked to position the boy so police men couldn’t see him
   children as young as 3.5 could position him 90% of the time with one not being able to see him
   4 years olds could do it without both seeing

explain vygotsky’s view of children as young apprentices

• felt cog development was mainly dependent on social and cultural experiences

• interaction with others is vital for them to make sense of environment

• this has 2 processes involved: interpsychological and intrapsychological

• they gain knowledge from more knowledgeable others such as parents, teachers, peers, aka experts

explain the 2 processes vygotsky suggest

stage 1: interpsychological
parent explains to child how to work out multiplication questions

stage 2: intrapsychological
after practicing with adult, child talks through steps in their head and solves the problems independently

explain vygotsky and speech

• lang is a key signifier for process of learning

• referred to private speech
  → when a child talks to themselves while carrying out a task, repeating instructions given to them by parents and teachers

• and inner speech
  → when children talks tasks through themselves and thinks for themselves

explain vygotksy and the zone of proximal development (zpd)

• gap between child’s current ability and potential ability if they get assistance

• believed a child’s cognitive capabilities developed faster if they were frequently around MKOs
  → more social interaction

• helped to cross ZPD by scaffolding

explain vygotsky and scaffolding

• social support expert uses to help child cross ZPD

• involves:

  • encouragement

  • prompting

  • demonstrating

• temporary structures used to support child until they gain new ability and competent enough to carry out without help
  → e.g. when a child is learning to ride a bike, adult will show basics and run alongside child providing support and encouragement until child can do it alone

give 3 strengths of vygotsky

1. supporting evidence for zpd
   had 2 groups of kids (4-5) perform an estimation task
   had to estimate number of sweets in a jar
   one group did task alone and the other received advice/guidance on how to estimate
   found group who received support performed significantly better
   → developed more advanced skills through expert
   

2. supporting evidence for scaffolding
   longitudinal study observed 45 children at intervals
   → age 16 months and 54 months
   found as children got older, they required less help from parents to carry out certain tasks
   → e.g. using cutlery
   → supports use of scaffolding techniques helping children learn
   

3. real life applications
   effective classroom procedures developed
   → e.g. peer tutoring, 1-2-1s, reading buddies
   supporting evidence for effectiveness on reading buddies found 7 year olds who were tutored by 10 year olds (plus normal lessons) progresses further than control group (normal lessons)
   supports validity of theory and helped enhance development

name a limitation of vygotsky

lack of beneficial interactions identified
argued some social interactions may not be beneficial to child’s learning
may just confuse or frustrate them
some people may use superior knowledge to try and control/manipulate others
→ e.g. older peer getting child to bully others or speak rudely to people

other explanations- piaget

what did baillargeon think about object permanence?

• infants understand object permanence

• they just don’t have motor skills to acquire hidden object/lose interested when distracted

• violation of expectation research (VOE)

explain violation of expectation research

• aimed to see if children are aware of object permanence by seeing if they pay attention to impossible or possible event longer

• used infants aged 5-6 months

• had 2 events: familiarisation event and test event

• found children looked at possible events for 25 seconds and impossible event for 33 seconds

explain baillargeon’s familiarisation event

• infants shown tall and short rabbit disappearing as they passed behind a screen

• fits expectation of object permanence

• rabbits appear when they’re meant to

explain baillargeon’s test events

1. possible condition
   watched short rabbit pass behind a screen with window
   due to height of the window, the rabbit wasn’t able to be seen until it reappeared
   tall rabbit passed and this could be seen through the window due to height
   → expected events as they fit with object permanence
   

2. impossible condition
   tall rabbit passed behind a screen but couldn’t be seen through window
   → goes against object permanence

violation of expectation conclusions

• infants surpised by impossible events as they knew rabbits should appear behind windows
  → babies do understand object permanence

explain baillargeon’s theory of infant physical reasoning

• humans are born with physical reasoning systems which give us a simple understanding of the world and the ability to learn about it quickly

• we have object permanence skill since birth

• suggests that during first few weeks, infants identify event categories (the way objects interact with each other)

give an example of physical reasoning systems

• when an object blocks view of another

• infants understand that from a young age because of their basic knowledge of object persistance (shown in rabbit study)

• because of this, unexpected event draws more attention as their physical reasoning system makes them want to understand the physical world

name 2 strengths of baillargeon

1. better understanding of infants
   voe technique allows us to control things piaget didn’t
   piaget thought that when infants didn’t look for hidden object, it was because they thought it no longer existed
   → however, infants could’ve just been distracted
   voe method allows to control this possibility as distractions weren’t present
   → controls extraneous variables
   evidence suggests they have innate abilities like distance perception
   → suggests they have cognitive capabilities, supports PRS
   

2. explains universibility of physical understanding
   obvious that very basic skills and awareness are understood by majority of human population
   → if you drop a ball, we know it will bounce
   this basic/simple understanding being universal means we can conclude it is innate
   no matter where we are born or how we are raised we understand → no cultural differences
   provides support for PRS being innate
   → if piaget was right then some wouldn’t learn

name 2 limitations of baillargeon

1. researcher bias
   did research around her own theories, which means she may have interpreted findings to ensure they fit
   for example, she may have interpreted surprise wrongly to fit her theory
   → especially since infants can’t express surprise in another way than looking
   she may have overinflated results to fit research, decreasing validity
   

2. methodology
   because infants can’t articulate anything, she had to assume about behaviour
   → e.g. VOE tasks only show that they notice a difference
   findings may be inflated to appear more impressive than they actually are
   → support her own view
   could be lots of other reasons than shock that they looked at the impossible event for longer
   → e.g. familiarity with the event
   hard to conclude and inferences needed to be made