Week 12: Middle Childhood Cognition
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Conservation
Classification
Attention & memory
Metamemory
Social Cognition
Intelligence
Multiple Intelligences
Individual Differences
Cultural Context of Education
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Piaget saw age 7 as a major change within
Concrete Operations
from
preoperational thinking
to
more advanced operational thought
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Cognitive changes between early
and middle childhood:
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capacity for logical, systematic thinking
using multiple pieces of information
ability to perceive underlying reality
despite superficial appearances
domain-specific knowledge, expertise
information-processing capacity
control over attention & memory
metacognition
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Metacognition:
The capacity to think about
thinking.
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Elementary school children still face
cognitive limitations:
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Lack adults’ broad base of knowledge.
Sometimes have trouble using a
particular skill of set of skilsl as part of
larger problem-solving system.
Cannot reason maturely about abstract
hypothetical problems.
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Conservation Concepts
By age 10, most children understand
conservation of physical quantities such as:
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number
length
area
mass
displaced liquid volume
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Culture and the Emergence
of Conservation Concepts
1. In traditional cultures that lack formal schooling, a
lag of 1-2 years is frequently found. This does
not suggest their people have major cognitive
deficits, and depending on the culture they may
be advanced in some conservations.
2. Researchers conducting studies in other countries
may encounter communication problems.
3. Cultures lacking formal schooling do not provide
the same opportunities to learning about some
conservation concepts or test taking.
Contingent truth:
Knowledge that depends on
empirical observations, on
information gathered through
the senses.
Necessary truth:
Knowledge that is based on
logical necessity, apart from
information gathered through
the senses.
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An Information-Processing
Approach to Conservation
Information-processing theory offers an
explanation based on changes in mental
procedures (rules) children follow to
arrive at their solutions.
 Problem solvers do not consciously follow
these rules.
 They use them implicitly.
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Classification Skills
Hierarchical classification:
A classification system in which
items are categorized using a
hierarchy of subordinate and
superordinate classes.
Matrix classification:
A classification system in which
items are categorized
simultaneously along two
independent dimensions, such
as shape and color.
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Classification Skills
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Children begin to classify early in life.
Not until middle childhood do they use
classification effectively to organize
information.
Performance on classification tasks
improves because they overcome
centration.
Elementary school children still do not
entirely grasp the logical necessity of
classification structures.
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Information-Processing Abilities
Attentional Abilities
In directing their attention, school-aged
children become increasingly:
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systematic
organized
selective
flexible
Individual differences in attentional abilities
become apparent during these years.
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Information-Processing Abilities
Memory Abilities
Memory development during middle
childhood involves changes in:
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memory capacity
knowledge
memory strategies
metamemory
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Memory Capacity
Memory capacity involves the amount of
information that can be held in the
various memory stores.
 Long-term capacity is virtually unlimited.
 Short-term and sensory registers both
have limited capacity, which increases
from early to middle childhood.
 The increases are best described as
increases in functional capacity.
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Memory Strategies
Mnemonic
strategies
Intentional, goal-directed behaviors
designed to improve memory.
Rehearsal
The mnemonic strategy of repeating
information over and over.
Organization
The mnemonic strategy of arranging
information to be recalled into
meaningful categories.
The mnemonic strategy of creating a
meaningful connection between
items to be remembered, either
verbally or visually.
Elaboration
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Metamemory
Metamemory:
Knowledge about memory
and memory processes.
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Once children realize mnemonic strategies
improve recall, they are more likely to use
them.
Many 5- and 6-year-olds can think of only
one strategy; older children think of more.
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Predicting Memory Performance
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1. Children and adults all predict they
will remember more items than they
actually remember.
2. Younger children are particularly
optimistic.
By age 10 to 12 years predictions
correlate with actual performance
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Frog Jumping task
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Preschoolers are hopers
1st and 2nd graders are followers
Around age 10 years they become
averagers.
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Elementary school children can learn from both
didactic and cooperative learning experiences.
Didactic learning
experience:
Situation in which a
knowledgeable
teacher who has
already mastered a
problem teaches a
particular solution to
a learner.
Cooperative learning
experience:
A situation in which
learners at about the
same knowledge and
skill interact, share
ideas, and discover
solutions on their
own.
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Didactic learning experiences can be provided
by either adults or more knowledgeable peers.
Children become increasingly effective at
teaching one another with age.
Learning among peers is not always as
effective as learning from an adult.
Piaget’s theory applies more to cooperative
learning situations, focusing on what happens
inside the individual.
Vygotsky’s theory applies more to didactic
learning situations, focusing on what happens
between individuals.
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Several factors facilitate cooperative
learning among peers:
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Task should be concrete, rich in relevant
information, not too complex.
Information available must support at least
two different conclusions.
Peers must see reaching consensus as a
goal.
The children should know each other and
have smooth system of interaction.
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Middle Childhood Cognition (cont.)
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Intelligence
Multiple Intelligences
Individual Differences
Cultural Context of Education
Take out a piece of paper and write out
your definition of intelligence.
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Concept of Intelligence
Intelligence Testing
Intelligence Quotient:
A method of quantifying performance on
an intelligence test.
Originally:
I.Q. =
Mental Age
Chronological Age
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Intelligence Testing
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First intelligence test by Binet.
Revised as the Stanford-Binet.
Wechsler scales now more widely used.
Wechsler introduced deviation IQ to replace
mental/chronological age ratio.
I.Q. =
Mental Age
Chronological Age
X 100
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Gender and Subtest Scores
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Women- best performance as group
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Verbal, vocabulary and rote learning
Men- spatial visualization- math
Issue related to the tendency of parents
+ teachers to encourage males in these
areas
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Biology and IQ
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Same person (tested twice) .95
Identical twins—Reared together .86
Identical twins—Reared apart .76
Fraternal twins—Reared together .55
Fraternal twins—Reared apart .35
Biological siblings—Reared together .47
Biological siblings—Reared apart .24
Unrelated children—Reared together—Childrens .28
Unrelated children—Reared together—Adults .04
Cousins .15
Parent-child—Living together .42
Parent-child—Living apart .22
Adoptive parent–child—Living together .19[52]
Concept of Heritability
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Proportion of Individual differences that
can be attributed to genes.
Depends on variability in gene pool and
variability in the environment.
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Broadening the Definition
of Intelligence
Academic intelligence:
Intellectual capacity as measured by performance
on tasks typically encountered in school or on
standard IQ tests.
Practical intelligence:
Intellectual capacity as reflected in successful
performance in natural, everyday, nonschool
settings.
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Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Linguistic
Understanding & using language.
Musical
Skill in the creation of music.
Logicalmathematical
Spatial
Logical thinking & reasoning about
quantities.
Understanding how patterns & objects
are laid out in space.
Skill in anything involving complex body
movement
Bodilykinesthetic
Intrapersonal
Interpersonal
Understanding one’s own feelings &
motives.
Understanding feelings & behaviors of
others.
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Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
Whereas Gardner focused on types of intelligence,
Sternberg analyzed factors that contribute to
making a behavior intelligent or not.
Componential
element
Information-processing skills using in
solving problems.
Experiential
element
Prior knowledge that affects how a
person approaches a problem.
Contextual
element
The set of circumstances in which a
choice is made or an action is taken.
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Explaining IQ Differences
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There is evidence for both genetic and
environmental influences on IQ.
The hereditary influence involves many
genes.
Reaction range refers to the range of
possible outcomes from a set of genes,
depending on the environment.
Some evidence for genetic influences
comes from adoption studies.
IQ reaction range seems to be about 2025 points.
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The Stability of IQ
Stability of IQ increases with age, probably
reflecting relatively stable influences of
both genes and environment.
 By elementary school years, intelligence
tests seem to measure relatively stable
aspects of cognitive functioning.
 As children grow older, IQ tests become
increasingly good predictors of adult IQ.
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How Meaningful Are IQ Scores?
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Ever since IQ scores were introduced,
people have debated their value.
The controversy centers on issues of
cultural bias and the question of just
what an IQ score can predict.
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The Issue of Cultural Bias
Cultural bias can affect IQ tests many
ways:
 language fluency
 knowledge of cultural references
 cultural differences in definitions of
intelligence
 setting in which test is given
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IQ change for southern African American children
moving for the south to Philadelphia
1st
2nd
4th
6th
9th
Phil. Born with Kindergarten
96.7
95.9
97.2
97.5
96.6
Phil. Born no Kindergarten
92.1
93.4
94.7
94.0
93.7
86.5
89.5
91.8
93.3
92.8
86.7
88.6
90.9
90.9
86.3
87.2
89.4
88.2
90.2
Southern born, moving to Phil.
1st
2nd
3rd – 4th
5th – 6th
7th – 9th
87.4
Lee (1951)
The Issue of Cultural Bias
To overcome problems of culture bias, some
psychologists have tried to develop IQ tests
that are:
 culture-free (entirely free of culture-based
content, or
 culture-fair (appropriate for all the cultures in
which it is used).
Attempts to develop these have not generally
succeeded.
IQ tests offer effective comparisons within the
same culture or subculture.
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What IQ Scores Can Predict
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In general, IQ tests are fairly good
predictors of success in school.
Childhood IQ may predict long-term
success in occupations that require
abstract thought.
Adult IQ scores are good predictors of
success in job-training programs but not
of actual job performance.
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In most parts of the world, children start
formal education between ages 5-7.
The transition to formal education is not
always easy.
Many have difficulty applying their
informal knowledge to more formal
classroom tasks.
Decontextualized thought:
A cognitive skill needed to solve problems
that are abstract, self-contained, and
removed from any immediate context.
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Cultural Mismatch
The format of social interaction expected at school may be
unfamiliar to children from different backgrounds.
 White middle-class preschoolers are accustomed to being
asked questions at home, test questions to which the
adult knows the answers (“What color is that?” “What do
cows say?”).
 A study found that black lower-class preschoolers heard
more functional questions at home:
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analogy questions (“What’s that like?”)
story-starter questions (“What happened to him yesterday?”)
accusation questions (“What’s that all over your face?)
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Cultural Differences in Math Achievement
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United States children do worse than
children in many other countries on math
& science measures.
No one suggests American children have
learning deficiencies compared to
children in other countries.
Researchers and teachers assume
cultural differences in values & classroom
practices must be the cause.
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