Cognition and Development: Piaget and Vygotsky
Chapter 7: Cognition
Piaget’s Constructivist Approach
Piaget studied children using the clinical method.
Description: A flexible question-and-answer technique used to discover how children think about problems.
Included naturalistic observation, mainly of his own children.
Contemporary researchers view the clinical method as imprecise.
Reason: Does not involve standardized questioning.
Piaget’s View of Cognitive Development
Piaget held an interactionist perspective on nature and nurture.
Concept: Children actively create knowledge by building schemes from their experiences (nurture) using two inborn (nature) intellectual functions.
Definition of Intelligence: Piaget defined intelligence as "…a basic life function that helps an individual adapt to its environment."
Piaget’s View of Cognitive Development cont’d
Schemes: Organized patterns of action or thought that individuals construct to interpret their experiences.
Defined as a set of rules or procedures that can be repeated and generalized across situations.
Scheme Example: Going to the Movies
A child's mental process when attending a movie includes:
Choose a movie to see.
Check nearby theater's showtimes.
Buy a ticket.
Enter theater.
Get snacks/drinks.
Give ticket to ticket taker.
Find the theater.
Choose a seat.
Watch previews.
Watch the movie.
Gather items and leave.
Piaget’s View: Key Terms
Organization: Combining existing schemes into new or more complex schematic representations.
Infant/toddler schemes: Example includes the development of grasping/reaching skills that are then employed to access a favorite toy.
Adaptation: Allows developing individuals to adjust to environmental demands through two complementary processes:
Assimilation
Accommodation
Piaget's View: Cognitive Conflict Stimulates Development
Equilibrium:
Definition: State where current understanding of the world is consistent with external data.
Example: Small furry animals with fluffy tails are called cats; they meow and smell nice.
Disequilibrium:
Description: Occurs when new information does not fit with current understanding, causing discomfort for the child.
Example: A small furry creature has a fluffy tail but does not meow and smells strange, leading to confusion.
Assimilation and Accommodation:
Process of resolving confusion through organization and adaptation.
Example: The child decides the creature must be a skunk, a different kind of animal entirely.
New Equilibrium:
Definition: A new way of understanding the world has emerged from the previous disequilibrium.
Example: The child recognizes skunks and cats as different types of animals.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Piaget identified four distinct stages:
Sensorimotor Stage: Birth to approximately 2 years.
Preoperational Stage: Approximately 2 to 7 years.
Concrete Operations Stage: Approximately 7 to 11 years.
Formal Operations Stage: Approximately 11 years and beyond.
Strengths and Contributions of Piaget’s Theory
Piaget's work posed critical questions that continue to influence cognitive development studies.
Flavell (2001, p. 8): “Theories of cognitive development can be divided into B.P. (Before Piaget) and A.P. (After Piaget).”
His research demonstrated that infants and children are active participants in their own development and that their thought processes qualitatively differ from older children and adolescents.
Piaget's basic descriptions of cognitive development were largely accurate.
Critiques of Piaget’s Theory
Underestimation of abilities: Claims that Piaget underestimated cognitive abilities of infants and young children.
Stage Development Claims: Criticism revolves around the assertion of broad stages of development existing.
Explanation of Development: Lacking adequate explanation of the developmental processes.
Social Influences: Limited attention to the impact of social contexts on cognitive development.
Modern Constructivist View: Neuroconstructivism
New knowledge construction occurs within the context of existing knowledge and is limited by both genetic and environmental factors.
Asserts that cognitive-related neural structures in the brain develop and change due to experiences.
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Perspective
Vygotsky observed that cognitive development happens within a sociocultural context.
Cognition evolves from social interactions the child engages in.
Cognitive development is culturally relative and varies from one society to another.
Children acquire mental tools by interacting with parents and other experienced individuals within their culture.
Vygotsky’s View of Social Interaction and Cognitive Development
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD):
Definition: The gap between what a learner can accomplish alone and what they can achieve with a more-skilled partner's guidance.
Implications:
Knowledge is not a fixed entity.
No single test can accurately reflect a person's knowledge range.
Development is characterized by movement toward the upper range of the ZPD.
Vygotsky’s View of Social Interaction and Cognitive Development cont’d
In many cultures, children learn through guided participation.
Actively participating in relevant cultural activities leads to cognitive skill development with aid and support from parents and other guides.
Scaffolding:
Concept proposed by Bruner (1983): Parents provide structured assistance to children's development.
Tools of Thought
Vygotsky asserted:
Language shapes thought significantly.
Thought transformation occurs when individuals start thinking in words.
Preschool children, particularly three- and four-year-olds, often engage in individual private speech.
Definition: Speech directed at oneself that aids in guiding thought and behavior.
Importance: Acts as a critical precursor in developing mature thought and is a precursor to adults' silent thinking-in-words.
Emphasizes that heavy participation in private speech greatly contributes to effective problem-solving performance.
Language Shapes Thought
Roberson et al. (2005) conducted a study examining color memory in speakers from various cultures:
Participants included Berinmo speakers from New Guinea, Himba speakers from northern Namibia, and English speakers.
The Berinmo and Himba languages utilize five color terms aligning roughly with black, white, red, yellow, and green.
Findings: Participants exhibited superior memory for color chips named within their language and demonstrated increased confusion for color chips labeled with the same term.
Critiques of Vygotsky’s Theory
Critics argue that Vygotsky places excessive emphasis on social interaction.
Suggest that he assumes all knowledge and world understanding is exclusively transmitted through social means.
Comparing Piaget and Vygotsky
Vygotsky's Sociocultural View
Development of animal and human processes are fundamentally different.
Cognitive development is influenced by different social and historical contexts.
The unit of analysis is the social, cultural, and historical context.
Cognitive growth is a result of social interactions (guided participation in the ZPD).
Knowledge is co-constructed by children and their partners.
Social processes evolve into individual psychological processes (e.g., social speech transforms into inner speech).
Adult guidance is crucial as they possess the cultural tools for thinking.
Learning occurs prior to development (tools learned with adult help internalize).
Training can mediate development.
Piaget's Cognitive Developmental View
Development processes between animals and humans are fundamentally similar.
Cognitive development is largely universal.
The unit of analysis centers on the individual.
Cognitive growth primarily results from the child's independent exploration of their world.
Knowledge construction occurs autonomously by children.
Individual, egocentric processes evolve into social ones (e.g., egocentric speech turns social).
Peers play an important role, where cognitive conflict from diverse perspectives is manageable.
Development precedes learning (children require certain cognitive structures for mastery of specific concepts).
Training is largely ineffective for expediting development.