Developmental Psychology Lecture - Cognitive Development
Piagetian Theory and Constructivist Approaches: Comprehensive Study Notes
Constructivist Theories
Cognitive Constructivism (Jean Piaget)
Core concepts: learning is an active process in which the developing child builds cognitive structures (schemas) to understand and respond to the physical environment. The impact of experience depends on the child’s developmental maturity.
Key processes: schema (mental framework for organizing knowledge), assimilation (applying an existing schema to a new object or situation), accommodation (modifying an existing schema or creating a new one to fit a new object or experience), and equilibration (the drive to achieve balance between schemes and experiences).
Principles: learning should be active, holistic, and authentic; schemas evolve with development; structure of existing knowledge shapes access to new knowledge.
Psychological tools: language and other tools provided by the social world;
The More Knowledgeable Other (MKO): guidance from someone more knowledgeable.
Scaffolding: support that gradually withdraws as competence increases, including tutoring.
Social interaction plays a central role in cognitive development; knowledge is co-constructed through social activity and language.
Social Constructivism (Lev Vygotsky)
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): the difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can achieve with guidance.
The MKO and scaffolding are central to moving a learner through their ZPD toward independent mastery.
Emphasis on cultural tools and social interaction as drivers of cognitive development.
Connections to Earlier and Later Work
Both perspectives view learning as an active process and emphasize development over maturation alone.
Piaget provides a stage-based account of biological and cognitive maturation; Vygotsky emphasizes social artifacts and guided participation within cultural contexts.
Piagetian Theory: Overview
Piaget (1896–1980) was a Swiss psychologist who studied cognitive development in children for many years, starting with infants. He developed methods to observe infant cognition and proposed that children’s cognitive lives are meaningful objects of study.
Core idea: development involves the child constructing increasingly sophisticated mental structures (schemes) through interaction with the environment.
The effect of experience on knowledge depends on the child’s current level of maturation; cognitive structure grows in complexity and organization with development.
Piaget carefully charted day-to-day changes in his own children to build a theory of qualitative changes in thinking.
Basic Ideas About Cognitive Development
Development is universal, biologically constrained, and driven by adaptation rather than sheer maturation.
Cognitive structures are not inherited; they develop through functioning in the environment.
The structure of existing knowledge shapes access to new knowledge. As simple schemes adapt to a structured world, representations become more organized.
The mechanism of cognitive development is internal reorganization through interaction with the environment, leading to qualitative changes in thinking.
Key Concepts: Schema, Equilibrium, Assimilation, Accommodation
Schema: a mental framework or building block of knowledge that helps children organize and interpret information from the environment; new schemas are added and old schemas are modified as the child matures.
Equilibrium: a state of cognitive balance where existing schemas adequately explain new experiences.
Disequilibrium: a cognitive imbalance triggered when existing schemas cannot explain new information, creating a need for adaptation via assimilation or accommodation.
Assimilation: applying an old schema to a new object or situation.
Accommodation: modifying an old schema or creating a new one to fit a novel object or experience. Children oscillate between assimilation and accommodation, but accommodation ultimately drives cognitive change.
Stage Theory of Cognitive Development
Piaget proposed that development proceeds through qualitatively different stages, each occurring in a predictable order and typically within a specific age range.
Stages build on one another and are universal across cultures, reflecting fundamental aspects of human nature.
Each stage is characterized by shifts in the way information is organized and understood, not merely by the amount of knowledge.
The Four Stages of Cognitive Development
1) Sensorimotor Stage (0–2 years)
Infants know the world through sensorimotor experiences and motor actions.
Reflexes evolve into more flexible, coordinated schemes through assimilation and accommodation.
Six substages describe progressive changes in perception, action, and cognition.
Substages of the Sensorimotor Period
Substage 1 (0–1 month): Reflexive, uncoordinated reflexes; responses are random and wired-in.
Substage 2 (1–4 months): Primary circular reactions; repetition of a body-centered action (e.g., thumb-sucking) that becomes more organized and longer-lasting.
Substage 3 (4–8 months): Secondary circular reactions; intentional actions to repeat interesting environmental effects; visual tracking and anticipation begin.
Substage 4 (8–12 months): Goal-directed behavior; cause–effect understanding; development of object permanence; A-not-B error may appear.
Substage 5 (12–18 months): Tertiary circular reactions; mini-experiments and trial-and-error problem solving; continued improvement in A-not-B task performance.
Substage 6 (18–24 months): Beginnings of mental representations; pretend play, deferred imitation, and more complex symbolic activities.
Circular reactions: repetitive actions driven by attempts to repeat results (primary, secondary, tertiary).
Object permanence: understanding that objects continue to exist even when not perceived; A-not-B error reflects limitations in infants’ ability to update representations.
2) Preoperational Stage (2–7 years)
Emergence of symbolic thought and language; children think in images and symbols rather than logical operations.
Key features: symbolic representation, pretend play, and language development.
Limitations: egocentrism (difficulty taking another’s perspective), difficulties with appearance–reality distinctions, and failures of conservation and reversibility.
Animism: belief that inanimate objects have human feelings and intentions (a hallmark of early preoperational thinking).
Appearance–reality distinction: children often confuse appearances with reality; this distinction becomes sharper with development.
Conservation errors (inability to understand that certain properties remain the same despite changes in appearance) and rigid classification (tendency to focus on a single dimension).
By mid-to-late this stage, children begin to demonstrate some decentration and can engage in more complex classification tasks, though full conservation and logical operations are not yet mature.
Egocentrism: inability to view the world from another’s perspective; Piaget and Inheldy (1956) highlighted this tendency; later research (e.g., Hughes’ Policeman Task) showed improvements with development and social context.
Animism stages (Piaget): four stages describing how belief in living properties of objects progresses from nearly all objects being alive to only moving objects being alive, to only spontaneously moving objects, and finally to recognizing plants/animals as alive.
Cultural context matters: some societies show earlier or later conservation and cognitive milestones depending on experiences and schooling.
3) Concrete Operational Stage (7–12 years)
Development of stable mental operations; thinking becomes more logical and organized around concrete objects and events.
Key capabilities: conservation, reversibility, decentration, seriation, classification, inductive reasoning, and ability to focus on more than one aspect of a situation simultaneously (decentering).
Conservation: children can now understand that quantity, mass, length, area, volume, and other properties remain the same despite perceptual changes.
Class inclusion and seriation: understanding sets and subsets; arranging objects along a dimension; improved hierarchical classification.
Mathematical operations: concrete operations as organizing systems; basic arithmetic like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division become more coherent with concrete objects.
Culture influences: cross-cultural research found variations in the timing of conservation and other tasks depending on schooling and cultural practices (e.g., Dasen’s work on Aboriginal vs. Swiss children).
Why concrete? Abilities are tied to concrete objects and actions; abstract operations (e.g., x + 2y = z) require formal operations not yet developed.
4) Formal Operational Stage (12–18 years)
Emergence of abstract thought, hypothetico-deductive reasoning, and systematic problem solving.
Systematic thinking: ability to vary one independent variable at a time, to consider all possible combinations, and to isolate variables while controlling others.
Deductive reasoning: adolescents can focus on the logical structure of arguments rather than content; premises determine conclusions when the structure is valid.
Metacognition and reflective abstraction: adolescents can think about their own thinking, notice inconsistencies, and develop new knowledge by reflecting on cognitive processes.
Abstract thoughts: reasoning beyond concrete experiences, imagining multiple possibilities and future outcomes.
Example: Pythagoras theorem, where the relationship a^2 + b^2 = c^2 is foundational in understanding right triangles (abstract mathematical thinking).
Concrete Examples and Task Illustrations
Piaget’s experiments and tasks include the liquid conservation task, number conservation, area and mass conservation, and the classic A-not-B task for object permanence.
In the Five-Flask problem (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958), children observed colorless liquids in five flasks and reasoned about which mixtures would yield a yellow liquid, illustrating changes in systematic thinking across stages.
The policeman task (Hughes, 1975) demonstrates the development of perspective-taking and decentering through a child hiding a doll from a policeman; about 90% of 4-year-olds and older succeeded, showing advanced perspective-taking abilities earlier than Piaget’s original three-mountain task suggested.
The appearance–reality distinction and animism illustrate how young children interpret appearances as reality and ascribe life or intention to inanimate objects; these judgments progressively refine with age and education.
Cognitive Operations and Mechanisms
Assimilation and accommodation drive change in schemas; processes are cyclical and interactive, producing qualitative shifts in thinking.
Equilibration fosters progression from lower to higher levels of cognitive organization as new experiences create disequilibria that require adaptation.
In concrete operational thought, operations are organized mentally and applied to concrete problems, enabling more precise and logical reasoning than in the preceding stage.
In formal operational thought, individuals can manipulate abstract concepts independently of concrete objects, enabling advanced theoretical reasoning, hypothesis testing, and meta-cognition.
Culture, Education, and Development
Culture and schooling influence cognitive development: differences in when particular cognitive abilities emerge (e.g., conservation) across cultures or educational contexts.
Greenfield (1966) and Dasen (1994) highlight the role of schooling and culture in shaping when certain cognitive competencies appear.
Critical Perspectives and Limitations
Piaget’s theory has been criticized for underestimating early abilities and overemphasizing stage-like progression; some researchers found earlier mastery of certain concepts than Piaget proposed.
Cognitive development can vary across domains; children may be more advanced in language or reading than in other areas.
Some studies indicate acceleration or variability in development; cultural and social factors are often neglected in classic Piagetian views.
Methodological issues: small or biased samples, limited controls, and Western, middle-class bias in some studies.
Modifications, Alternatives, and Notable Studies
Borke (1975) introduced a more familiar three-mountain task with Grover the Sesame Street character, showing that context can affect perspective-taking.
Shatz & Gelman (1973) found that 4-year-olds adjust their speech when talking to different audiences (2-year-olds vs. adults), highlighting social-cognitive sensitivity.
Epley, Morewedge, and Keysar (2004) showed that both adults and children often begin with egocentric interpretations but can revise beliefs with additional information or consideration of others’ perspectives.
Summary of Key Terms and Concepts
Constructivism, Cognitive Constructivism, Social Constructivism; Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD); More Knowledgeable Other (MKO); Scaffolding.
Schema; Assimilation; Accommodation; Equilibrium; Disequilibrium.
Stage theory; Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, Formal Operational stages.
Object permanence; A-not-B error; Primary/Secondary/Tertiary Circular Reactions.
Egocentrism; Appearance–Reality distinction; Animism; Conservation; Classification; Seriation.
Formal operations; Deductive and inductive reasoning; Systematic thinking; Metacognition; Reflective abstraction.
Cultural and educational influences on cognitive development.
Notable Formulas and Numerical References
Pythagorean Theorem (example of abstract reasoning):
a^2 + b^2 = c^2
Some conservation tasks involve comparing quantities across transformations (number, length, mass, area, volume, and weight), where the initial and transformed displays are analyzed to determine if the property remains the same.
Additional Resources and Notes
Recommended supplementary videos and readings are listed in the original slides for visual demonstrations of specific concepts (assess their availability if needed).
When preparing for exams, focus on being able to describe each stage with its hallmark abilities, typical ages, and core cognitive operations, as well as the processes of assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration and how these contribute to stage progression.
Connections to Real-World Relevance
Understanding ZPD and scaffolding informs effective teaching practices and how to structure support for learners at different levels.
Recognizing the universality and cultural variability in cognitive development helps educators adapt expectations and curricula to diverse student populations.
Awareness of metacognition and reflective abstraction highlights the importance of teaching students to think about their own thinking and to monitor understanding across disciplines.
Quick Reference Timeline
Sensorimotor: 0–2 years (substages 1–6) – object permanence, primary/secondary/tertiary circular reactions.
Preoperational: 2–7 years – symbolic thought, egocentrism, animism, appearance–reality confusions.
Concrete Operational: 7–12 years – conservation, reversibility, decentration, seriation, classification, basic math.
Formal Operational: 12–18 years – abstract thought, hypothetico-deductive reasoning, systematized problem solving, metacognition.