Cognitive Development
The way our thinking changes
from the womb to the tomb
Cognition
All mental activities associated
with thinking, knowing and
remembering.
Basically everything that goes on in our heads
Cognitive Development
• This field is dominated by Jean Piaget
– He discovered that individuals learn and think
differently throughout our lifetimes.
– Piaget was working on IQ test development when he
noticed that children tended to answer questions wrong
on tests in similar ways.
– He thought to himself, “maybe these kids aren’t stupid,
but instead think differently than adults.”
– Piaget said – “Hey, since they think
differently than adults – we have
to teach them differently “
• So he came out with a theory
of cognitive development
Isn’t he a smart
looking man??
Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory
• Piaget hypothesized that when it came to
thinking children had different SCHEMAS
than adults
• What is a Schema?
– A mental outlook or framework developed as a
child and used to solve problems or to organize
knowledge (our worldview)
– What??
• Think of it this way, our schema is our mental
map of the world based on our life experiences
• We use this mental map to make judgments
about situations we face daily
Schemas - an example
• When I think about Clay Matthews, I think he is
attractive, a Greek God and so much more…
• Thus, my schema or world view of football players
is that they should all look like that and this helps
me make judgments about the world and people
around me and situations I may face.
Schemas
• Think about what a high school teacher should
look like…
• The image popping into your head now is your
schema of high school teachers.
• You are probably thinking about some frumpy
boring guy with no style and bad breath
• Now if you meet me – and my youthful charm
and good looks – I would not fit into your schema
of high school teachers. How does this make
you feel?
• Your world probably doesn’t make much sense.
• Lets explore another example…
Piaget’s important concepts
• Assimilation
– interpreting new experiences into one’s existing
schemas.
•Accommodation
• adapting one’s current understandings (schemas)
to incorporate new information.
Lets look at how schemas, assimilation, and
accommodation work through a few examples…
• The first time a kid saw a dog
he might point and say “what
is that?”
• I tell him that is a dog
• He looks at the dog, sees four
legs and a tail and thinks to
himself – ok a dog
• Now he has a schema (a
mental map) for a dog – four
legs and a tail
• The next week he is hanging out
at the park near our house and
he sees an animal
• He says to himself “hmmmm –
four legs and a tail – must be a
dog” and he goes on to call it a
dog.
• This is called
assimilation
– Incorporating new experiences
into existing schemas
• Now, every animal he sees that
has four legs and a tail, he will
call a dog because it fits in his
schema of a dog.
• Now lets say I tell a child that what
he sees is really a cat, which looks
like a dog, but much smaller.
– He understands and is confused…but
he trusts what you say…
• Then he is hanging out at Tysons
and he sees a lady with a Chihuahua
(a small dog)
• He sees the dog – thinks four legs,
tail, small – must be a cat.
• I will correct him and say that
sometimes dogs can be small too
• He has to do what now??

The child has to ACCOMMODATE (change) his
schema for dogs to fit both big and little ones.

Lets get back to the teacher example

So, like I said earlier, if you are lucky enough to
have me as your teacher, your schemas of teachers
may be thrown a little out of whack

I will insist that I am a high school teacher, but all
you see is my youthful charm and movie star looks.


I would not fit into your frumpy, bad breath schema of
teachers.
You would be forced to change, accommodate, your
schema of high school teachers to fit both frumpy
and movie star resembling teachers
Can you think of other examples??
Back to Piaget and his
theory of development
Piaget believed that children develop
cognitively in a series of stages,
each one built on the one prior to it.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive
Development
• Sensorimotor
• Preoperational
• Concrete Operational
• Formal Operational
Piaget’s stages are broken down by age
and they go in a specific order
Sensorimotor Stage (0 to 2)
• Babies learn and start to develop
schemas (their worldview)
– They do this by sensing the world through
their senses (most important is taste)
• Babies develop object permanence
– The realization that objects continue to
exist even when you cannot see them
– At first babies do not have this
– This is why babies love peek-a-boo
• When babies finally develop
object permanence, they enter
the next stage
Preoperational Stage (3-7)
• During this stage kids lack
basic logical operations skills
• During this stage children are
egocentric
– They think the world was created
solely for them
– Inability to see the world through
another’s perspective
– Should be gone by age 5
Preoperational Stage Cont.
• Children do NOT yet understand the concepts
of conservation
– That objects remain the same even when their
shapes change
• Usually occurs toward the end of this stage
Concrete Operational Stage (7-11)

Children begin to look at the world more logically
and can piece together logical statements



Children can, use analogies, and perform
mathematical transformations (8+4=12 is the same
as 12-4=8) = known as reversibility


God is love, love is blind, Stevie Wonder is blind thus…
Stevie Wonder must be god (not really, but you get the
point)
the mental process of understanding that numbers and
objects can change and then can return to their original
state
Children can not yet think about abstract concepts
such as parallel lines, god or calculus

“If A is greater than B and B is greater than C, is A
greater than C?”
Formal Operational Stage
(12 and up)
• We start to use abstract thinking
– Can weigh or think about several objects
at once
– Can understand consequences about
decisions
– Can think hypothetically
– Can think in “shades of grey”
• Also, in this stage we can learn to
think about the way we think
– Called Metacognition
– Piaget said that not all of us reach this
stage
How does Cognition Change as
we get older??
There are definite differences between
recognition and recall.
– Recognition remains stable
• (seeing then remembering).
– Recall declines with old age
• (just remembering with no external clues).
Do old people get stupid?


Cross-sectional studies show
decline.
Longitudinal Studies show
consistency.
What is the difference?
Cross-sectional studies: study with
people of different ages studied at the
same time.
Longitudinal Studies: same people
studied and retested over a period of
time.
But there are different types of
intelligence.
 Crystallized



one’s accumulated knowledge and verbal skills
What we know
tends to increase with age.
 Fluid



intelligence
Intelligence
one’s ability to reason speedily and abstractly
Our ability to get things done
tends to decrease during late adulthood.
Criticism of Piaget’s Theory
• Recent research has shown that Piaget
greatly underestimated children’s
capabilities.
– Object permanence may start sooner
• Children sometimes develop skills of one or
more stages at the same time
– Not in stages but more continuous process
• Piaget ignored cultural influences
– Kids in different cultures do go through the
stages but at different ages dependent on
culture
• Some people never develop formal reasoning
skills
Partner Activity
• With a partner, create a poster explaining
Piaget’s stages
• Include a brief description, the name of the
stage and a picture
20 point activity