COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT,
PART 1
Cognition – Mental processes by
which knowledge is acquired,
elaborated, stored, retrieved, and
used to solve problems.
Cognitive Development – Refers
to the changes that occur in
children’s mental skills and
abilities over time.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Scheme – (Schema for singular,
Schemata for plural)
An organized pattern of thought or
action that one constructs to interpret
some aspect of one’s experience.
Represent the way that people
organize and understand the things
around them.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Symbolic schemes – internal mental
symbols that one uses to represent
aspects of experience.
Cognitive operation – an internal
mental activity that one performs on
objects or thoughts.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Assimilation – The process of
interpreting new experiences by
incorporating them into existing
schemes.
Accommodation – The process of
modifying existing schemes in order
to incorporate or adapt to new
experiences.
Examples….
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Stage 1: Sensorimotor Stage (Birth-2yrs)
Stage 2: Preoperational Stage (2-7yrs)
Stage 3: Concrete Operations (7-11yrs)
Stage 4: Formal Operations (11-on)
Invariant developmental sequence!
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
6 substages to Sensorimotor Stage:
Stage 1 (0-1mo) – Reflexes
Stage 2 (1-4mos) – Primary Circular
Reactions
Stage 3 (4-8mos) – Secondary Circular
Reactions
Stage 4 (8-12mos) – Purposeful
coordination of
secondary
schemes
Stage 5 (12-18mos) – Tertiary Circular
Reactions
Stage 6 (18-24mos) – Mental Solutions
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Object Permanence – knowledge
that an object continues to exist
independent of our seeing, hearing,
touching, tasting or smelling it!
Stage 1 – Tracks, then ignores
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Object Permanence – knowledge
that an object continues to exist
independent of our seeing, hearing,
touching, tasting or smelling it!
Stage 4 – Search for objects that
disappear in last place found
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Object Permanence – knowledge
that an object continues to exist
independent of our seeing, hearing,
touching, tasting or smelling it!
Stage 1 – Tracks, then ignores
Stage 2 – Looks where it
disappeared
Stage 3 – Search for partially
hidden
Stage 4 – Search for objects that
disappear in last place found
Stage 5 – Follows series of visible
displacements
Stage 6 – Fully developed
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
A. Imitation
1. What Piaget thought
2. New evidence
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
A. Imitation
1. What Piaget thought
2. New evidence
B. Deferred imitation
1. Definition – ability to
reproduce a modeled activity
that has been witnessed at
some point in the past.
2. New evidence
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
The Preoperational Stage:
2-7 Years, Preconceptual Period
(2-4 Years)
A. Accomplishments
1. Symbolic Function
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
The Preoperational Stage:
2-7 Years, Preconceptual Period
(2-4 Years)
A. Accomplishments
1. Symbolic Function
2. Begin Pretend Play
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
The Preoperational Stage:
2-7 Years, Preconceptual Period
(2-4 Years)
A. Accomplishments
1. Symbolic Function
2. Begin Pretend Play
B. Errors
1. Animism
2. Precausal or Transductive
reasoning
3. Egocentrism
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Egocentrism
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Egocentrism
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Egocentrism
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
The Preoperational Stage:
2-7 Years, Intuitive Period
(4-7 Years)
A. Accomplishments
B. Errors
1. Classification
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
The Preoperational Stage:
2-7 Years, Intuitive Period
(4-7 Years)
A. Accomplishments
B. Errors
1. Classification
2. Conservation
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
The Preoperational Stage:
2-7 Years, Intuitive Period
(4-7 Years)
A. Accomplishments
B. Errors in Conservation : Mass
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
The Preoperational Stage:
2-7 Years, Intuitive Period
(4-7 Years)
A. Accomplishments
B. Errors in Conservation : AREA
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
The Preoperational Stage:
2-7 Years, Intuitive Period
(4-7 Years)
A. Accomplishments
B. Errors in Conservation: Liquid
Errors in Conservation
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
The Concrete Operational
Stage: 7-11 Years
A. Accomplishments
1. Logical Reasoning
2. Reversibility
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
The Concrete Operational
Stage: 7-11 Years
A. Accomplishments
1. Logical Reasoning
2. Reversibility
3. Seriation
4. Transitivity
B. Still having trouble….
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
The Formal Operations Stage
(11 Years and Up)
Mental actions performed on
ideas and propositions.
Can reason logically about
hypothetical processes and
events that may have no
basis in reality.
- Deductive reasoning
- Does everyone reach this
stage?
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Overview (overheads)
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Evaluating Piaget
Contributions:
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Evaluating Piaget
Present conservation of number
experiments
Criticisms
1. Underestimated abilities
2. Competence/performance
3. Stages
4. How do they progress?
5. Ignored social & cultural
influences
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Core Knowledge Perspective
A view that assumes infants begin life
with innate special-purpose knowledge
systems.
• Physical Knowledge
• Numerical Knowledge
• Linguistic Knowledge
• Psychological Knowledge
• Biological Knowledge
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Core Knowledge Perspective
A view that assumes infants begin life
with innate special-purpose knowledge
systems.
Evaluation of this perspective?
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Perspective
Sociocultural Theory – Vygotsky’s
perspective on cognitive development,
in which children acquire their culture’s
values, beliefs, and problem-solving
strategies through collaborative
dialogues with more knowledgeable
members of society.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Perspective
Zone of Proximal Development: the
range of tasks that are too complex to
be mastered alone but can be
accomplished with guidance and
encouragement from a more skillful
partner.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Perspective
Zone of Proximal Development: the
range of tasks that are too complex to
be mastered alone but can be
accomplished with guidance and
encouragement from a more skillful
partner.
Guided participation – adult-child
interactions in which children’s
cognitions and modes of thinking are
shaped as they participate with or
observe adults engaged in culturally
relevant activities.
Context independent learning
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
The Role of Language in Cognitive
Development
Piaget’s Theory of Language & Thought
Suggested Language reflects child’s
existing knowledge, not construction of
new knowledge.
Vygotsky’s Theory of Language & Thought
Suggested private speech helps children
plan strategies.
Who is correct?
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
The Role of Language in Cognitive
Development
Who is correct?
Recent Research Suggests: