Cognitive Developmental Theory

Cognition

  • The way of acquiring and processing knowledge 

  • Not directly observable

    • Can manifest in one’s words and actions but it is not cognition that we observe 

    • What we think and what we see is solely for us to know 

  • Thoughts

  • Senses

  • Experiences

  • The way of understanding the world 

What about emotions?

  • Emotion cannot be directly observed

  • Debate whether emotions are cognition remains prevalent in psychology

  • We presently believe it is separate

    • I think = cognition 

    • I feel = emotion

  • Emotions are reactive, cognition is processed and thought of 

What is learning?

  • In cognitive developmental theory, we are concerned with cognition in learning. Learning is a change in the way we see and understand the world. 

*Develop = changes

Jean Piaget

  • Proposed the first cognitive developmental theory

  • Interested about the epistemology of knowledge 

    • Epistemology = origin 

    • How do we know what we know now?

      • Rather than how much we know 

  • Used the clinical method 

    • In behaviorism, focused on scientific method, particularly experiments 

    • More qualitative approach 

1950s = cognitive revolution 

  • 40 years after behaviorism

  • Piaget’s work was released in the 1920’s 

    • Swiss 

    • Wrote his works in French 

    • Right after the behaviorism boom of 1913

*historical context can influence the dominating perspective

Assumptions

  • Innateness 

  • Universality 

  • Interaction 

Key Ideas

  1. Children are active and motivated learners 

  2. Children organize what they learn from their experiences 

    • Schemes: any organized, MEANINGFUL grouping of interrelated actions, images, feelings, or ideas

      • Can be causal 

      • Can be categorical and descriptive 

      • Can range from something simple to something complex 

      • Are interconnected, not necessarily distinct 

      • FRAMEWORK of understanding the world

      • MENTAL REPRESENTATION 

    • Organization: the mental process of arranging pieces of information to make them more UNDERSTANDABLE AND ACCESSIBLE 

  3. Interaction with the physical environment is critical for learning and cognitive development 

  4. Interaction with other people is also critical for learning and cognitive development 

  5. Children adapt to their environment

    • Gradual modification of schemes to take unto account new information from the environment

    • Assimilation: interpreting new information based on existing schemes 

    • Accommodation: modifying existing schemes to fit new information 

  6. A process of equilibration promotes progress towards increasingly complex forms of thought 

    • Reflex: automatic response to a stimulus

    • Scheme: any organized, meaningful grouping of interrelated thoughts and ideas

    • Operation: internal representation of an alteration in the relationships among objects 

      • Can mentally manipulate the world

      • Not dependent on what you see and sense in the physical world, can infer 

  7. Children think in qualitatively different ways at different age levels. 

    • Sensorimotor 

      • 0-2 years old 

      • Children understanding of the world are based largely on their interactions with it

      • Cognitive level: sensorimotor intelligence 

      • Skills learned: object permanence, goal-directed behavior

    • Pre-operational stage

      • 2-6 or 7 years old

      • Children can think and talk about things beyond their immediate experiences

        • Child can mentally represent the world in their mind 

        • Somewhat linked to object permanence; knows they exist even if they don’t see them

      • Cognitive level: symbolic thinking 

      • Skills learned: language, drawing, pretend play 

      • Limitations: egocentrism, animism, fantastical thinking 

        • Egocentric: believe their perspective is the perspective of everyone 

    • Concrete operational 

      • 6 or 7 to 11 or 12 years old 

      • Children are able to reason in logical, adult like ways about concrete, reality-based situations 

      • Cognitive level

      • MATH + CATEGORIZING 

    • Formal operational

      • 11 or 12 years old and onward

      • Children can now think logically about abstract, hypothetical, and contrary to fact situations 

      • Cognitive level: hypothetical and abstract mental operations

      • Skills learned: theoretical, hypothetical, and counterfactual thinking 

      • Metacognition