Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Cognition
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Cognition
• Cognition: the activity of knowing
• Typical of humans throughout lifespan
• Changes across the lifespan
• Piaget and Vygotsky
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Piaget
• Genetic Epistemology
– How we come to know reality
• Clinical Method
– Question and answer technique
– Used to discover how children reason
• Intelligence: How well we adapt
– Schemes/cognitive structures
– Represent reality
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Piaget
• Assimilation
– Using existing schemes to interpret new
experiences
– E.g., Birds are things that fly
• Accommodation
– Modifying schemes to fit new experience
– E.g., Butterflies are different than Birds
even though they both fly
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Piaget
• Adaptation
– Adjusting to the environment
– Using assimilation and accommodation
• Intelligence = Adaptation
• Constructivism
– Children construct own reality
– use their experiences (schemes)
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Piaget
• Four stages/changes in ability to reason
– Sensorimotor: birth to 2 years
– Preoperational: 2 to 7 years
– Concrete operations: 7 to 11 years
– Formal operations: 12+ years
• Invariant sequence
• Rates may vary
• Requires maturation and experience
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Piaget
• Sensorimotor Stage
– Newborn uses reflexes to understand
world
– Eventually - mental representation
• Object Permanence
– Symbolic Capacity
• Language
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Figure 7.4
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Preoperational Stage
• Ages 2 – 7: preschool
•
•
•
– May have imaginary companions
Egocentric thinkers
Problem solving limited
– Classification and Seriation problems
Lack conservation
– Perceptual salience
– Irreversible thinking
– Centration
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Concrete Operations
• Age 7-11
• Can conserve
• Decentration
• Reversible thinking
• Logical thinking (limited to reality)
– Seriation and classification
– Transitive thinking:
• “ If J is taller than M, and M is taller than
S, who is taller – J or S?”
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Formal Operations
• Adolescence/puberty
• Logical thinking about ideas
– Hypothetical and abstract thinking
– Hypothetical-deductive reasoning
• Decontextual thinking
– Ability to separate prior knowledge/beliefs
from new evidence to the contrary
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Formal Operations 2
• Adolescent egocentrism
– Differentiating own thoughts from others’
• Imaginary audience
–Also, learning to present themselves
to a real audience
• Personal fable
–“No one has ever felt like this before!”
–“I drive better when I’m drunk!”
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Cognition in Adulthood
• Formal operations requires
– Normal intelligence
– Higher education (scientific thinking)
• Lower performance on formal operations
• Use only in field of expertise
• Postformal thought
– Relativistic thinking: Labouvie-Vief
– No absolute answer in many situations
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Piaget
• Contributions
– Stimulated much research
– Correct about cognitive development
• Challenges
– Underestimated competencies
– Focused on performance not competence
– Domain growth rather than stages
– Social influences left out
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7
Vygotsky
• Emphasized the sociocultural context
– Culture effects how and what we think
• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
– Accomplishment with guidance
– Where lessons should be aimed
• Guided participation learning
• Private speech/ guides behavior (3&4 yr olds)
Life-Span Human Development, Fifth Edition, Carol K. Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider
Chapter 7