Cognitive Development. Basic Principles of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development Schemes (Schemas, Schemata) Assimilation Accomodation Equilibrium

Cognitive Development

Basic Principles of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

• Schemes (Schemas, Schemata)• Assimilation• Accomodation• Equilibrium /Disequilibrium• Organization• Symbolic Capacity• Operations

Sensorimotor Period ( birth to 18/24 months)

• Gain knowledge of the world through developing sensory and motor activity. • Object permanence.

Preoperational Period (ages 2-7)• Begins to use mental representations of their world, although not

always logical or well organized. Includes development of:– Egocentrism– Centration– Magical Thinking– Animism– Appearance is Reality– Irreversibility

Concrete Operational Stage (age 7-11)

• Thought is more logical, flexible, and organized when dealing with concrete, tangible information.


• Reversibility• Decentration• Mental Rotations• Seriation


• Class Inclusion• Transitive Inference (Transitivity)• Conservation

– Horizontal Decalage• Number, length, liquid quantity, mass, weight, volume

• Spatial Skills increase

Role of Play in Cognitive Development

• Functional Play• Constructive Play• Pretend Play• Formal Games w/ Rules

Formal Operations

• Abstract / Hypothetical Thinking

How is your thinking different today from what it was like as a high school student?

Elkind’s Immature Characteristics of Adolescent Thought

• Immaturity of thinking manifests itself through:– Idealism and Criticalness– Apparent Hypocrisy– Argumentativeness– Indecisiveness

Elkind’s Immature Characteristics of Adolescent Thought

– Adolescent Egocentrism• Self-consciousness

– Imaginary audience• Specialness and Invulnerability

– Personal fable » (Illusion of invulnerability)

Post Formal Thought

• A willingness to shift gears or take a different approach depending on a specific problem– Can easily shift between abstract and concrete thought

• Ability to draw on personal knowledge and experience to find the best possible solution from multiple possibilities (pragmatism)

Post Formal Thought

• An awareness of the contradictions of life• Willingness to try to include conflicting or contradictory

thoughts, emotions, or information– A flexible integration of cognition and emotion

• An enthusiasm for seeking new questions, problems, and framework for understanding experience

Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development

• Saw cognitive development as an apprenticeship in which children advance by interaction with others more mature.

• Zone of Proximal Development

• Private Speech

Information Processing

• Human thinking is understood along a computer model.– Mental Hardware – Mental Software

Information Processing• Memory

– Our ability to encode, store, and retrieve information• Children as young as 2 1/2 months old seem to have memory,

forget, then remember with cues.• Develop autobiographical memory for significant events.

– Childhood (Infantile) Amnesia


• Attention – Begins early

• Habituation occurs to familiar stimuli.• Dishabituation occurs after a change in stimulus.


• Attention increases and changes during childhood:– Length of attention– Increase in selective attention. • Cognitive inhibition


– Planning improves• Able to adapt their attention to the temporary requirements of

different situations.• Decisions about how to proceed with projects from start to

finish.• Cognitive regulation still lacks.

– Ability to multitask increases

Information Processing:Middle Childhood

• Systematic attention – Ability to plan and carry out systematic perceptual searches

(attention to detail)


• Four hypotheses as to why changes occur:1. Changes in basic capacities2. Increased knowledge base about the world

- Crystallized Intelligence


3. Changes in memory strategies:– Rehearsal– Elaboration

» Imagery» Mnemonics» Chunking» Deep Processing


4. Increased knowledge about memory• Metacognition (knowledge of human mind and the range of

cognitive processes)– Metamemory (understanding of our own memory)

(A reversal of these contribute to decline of information processing in old age)

Information Processing During Adolescence

• Increase in Content Knowledge• Metacognition continues to expand• Metamemory increases with more effective use of memory strategies• Cognitive Self Regulation improves• Information processing ability increases (although it may not be used)

Cognitive Development in Adulthood

• Development is multidirectional • Patterns of change vary between people.• Abilities show plasticity in that they may be modified during

any point in adulthood, under the right conditions.


• Schaie suggests that in early adulthood, individuals:– switch from acquiring knowledge (what I need to know), – to applying knowledge (how to use what I know), – to a search for meaning and purpose, (why I should know) especially as they enter their careers.


• Slower processing speed makes it harder for middle-aged individuals to multi-task.

• Cognitive inhibition becomes more difficult, at times promoting greater distractibility.


• Less information is retained in working memory. – Largely due to a decline in use of memory strategies.

• Onset of cognitive debilitating diseases such as Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease


• Speed of cognitive processing slows with age. Two views:– The neural network view says that as neurons in the brain die,

breaks in the neural network occur.• The brain adapts by forming bypasses which go around the

breaks but are less efficient.


– The information loss view suggests that older adults experience greater loss of information.

Theory of Mind

• A child’s awareness of his/her mental processes and the processes of others– By age 2 to 3

• Realizes people see what is in front of them not what is in front of the child (perceptions)

• Knows that if someone wants something they will try to get it (desires)

• Can distinguish between positive and negative emotions

Theory of Mind

• 4 to 5 years of age– Realization that people can have false beliefs• Understand that the mind can represent objects and

events accurately or inaccurately

Intelligence

• The ability to solve problems and to adapt and learn from experience

• IQ tests • Dynamic Testing

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

• Verbal skills• Mathematical Skills• Spatial Skills• Bodily-kinesthetic Skills

• Musical Skills• Interpersonal Skills• Intrapersonal Skills• Naturalistic Skills

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

• Componential Intelligence– information processing (analytical)

• Experiential Intelligence– Problem solving and creativity

• Divergent thinking• Convergent thinking

• Contextual Intelligence– “street smarts”– ability to adapt

Emotional Intelligence• The ability to

– Perceive and express emotion accurately and adaptively • (taking the perspectives of others)

– Understand emotion and emotional knowledge • (role emotions play in friendship and knowledge)

– Feelings to facilitate thought • (role of mood and decision making or creativity)

– Mange emotions in oneself and others • (being able to control one’s anger)

Does Intelligence Increase or Decrease?

• Fluid Intelligence– The ability to actively think and reason (abstractly)

• Crystallized Intelligence– Knowledge base

Extremes of Intelligence

• Giftedness– IQ of 130 or above– Usually show special abilities in areas valued in society such as math,

performing or visual arts, or leadership– Often identifiable by age 18 months due to advanced language skills

Extremes of Intelligence• Mental Retardation

– Significantly below average intellectual functioning with limitations in areas of adaptive behavior such as self-care and social skills

– Must occur before age 18 to be diagnosed– 4 levels

• Mild (50 – 70) 85%• Moderate ( 35 – 49) 10%• Severe (20 – 34) 4%• Profound ( 19 and below) 1%

Language Development• Crying• Cooing (vowel like sounds) begins at 1 to 2 months.• Babbling (strings of consonant sounds) begins around 6 months• Intonation (changes in pitch) and gestures start between 8 and 12

months. (Evident in both hearing and deaf)

Language Development• Around 1 year, children use their first words, usually consonant-vowel

pairs such as dada or wawa.• 13 months: understand about 50 words but cannot say• 18 months:

– vocabulary spurt– Begin using holophrases: single words which convey a sentence

worth of meaning

Language Development• 2 years:

– vocabulary of around a few hundred words– telegraphic speech : two word combinations

• Between ages 2 and 3:– transition from simple sentences expressing a single proposition to complex

sentences.• By age 6:

– know around 10 to 15 thousand words

Theories of Language Development

• Learning Perspective– Language development is the result of:

• Observational Learning• Modeling• Imitation• Reinforcement


• Nativist (Biological) Perspective– Emphasizes the biological side of language development

• Chomsky believes that children are born with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD)


• Supported by:– Language areas of the brain

• Broca’s area (word formation)• Wernicke’s area (word comprehension)• Arcuate Fasciculus

– How rapidly children acquire an incredibly complex communication system


• Interactionist Perspective– Both biologically based competencies and their language

environment interact to achieve language development

Learning• Most infants intrinsically seem motivated to learn about and master

their environment (mastery motivation)• Achievement motivation differs for each child.

– Mastery orientation– Learned helplessness– These attitudes often continue into adolescence and beyond

Learning• Factors contributing to declining educational achievement :

– Family environment and characteristics– Cognitive growth and self perception– Feedback– Peer pressure– Moving into middle school while going through puberty– Absence of goodness-of –fit in many middle school situations

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Cognitive Development. Basic Principles of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development Schemes (Schemas, Schemata) Assimilation Accomodation Equilibrium