Chapter 6
Traditional Approaches to Cognitive Development
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Cognition – act of knowing or perceiving
3 basic approaches to study of cognition: Piagetian approach, information
processing approach, psychometric approach
Piagetian – broad passed patterns and qualitative changes
Information processing approach – examines progressive steps that occur when
individual uses information
Psychometric – measures quantitative changes in intelligence
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development
 Four stages: sensorimotor (birth – 2), preoperational (2-7), concrete operational
(7-12), formal operational (12 onward)
 Sensorimotor stage requires movement to be associated thinking, moves from
body centered to object centered, thinking is at stimulus response level
 Preoperational – thinking can occur independently in the mind, however lack
flexible thinking and logic and often ends up at wrong conclusion, use of
symbols, transductive reasoning – erroneous cause and effect thinking, syncretism
– linking ideas that aren’t related, egocentric view point, animism – assumption
that inanimate objects that resemble people or animals have feelings, centering –
focus of attention on one detail with inability to shift attention to another
concept/object
 Concrete operational – flexible & logical thought are possible but only in relation
to tangible objects, hierarchical classifications, class inclusion relationships –
objects can fit into different levels of hierarchy simultaneously, seriation – ability
to organize things from big to small, etc., four important mental processes:
reversibility – all actions have an opposite e.g. subtraction & addition, identity or
nullifyability – do something and then do the opposite net effect is no change,
associativity – same outcomes can be arrived at by different means, combinativity
– concepts can be combined to form broader categories, can only deal with 2
variables at a time
 Formal operational – abstraction and hypothetical thought – does not require the
individual to experience the topic being thought about, begins with ability to
formalize thought in some situations but not others, ends with ability to perform
inductive and deductive reasoning to construct and evaluate theories,
understanding implied meaning, introspection (thinking about thought), abstract
thought, combinatorial thinking (consider all facts), logical reasoning correct
conclusion using induction and deduction), hypothetical reasoning (formulating
and examining hypothesis)
Effects of Adolescent Thought on Personality & Behaviour
Idealism
 Ability to grasp what is and what could be, and ability to rationalize though make
them idealistic
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Support the “underdog” – d/t own internal turmoil & insecurities allows them to
associate with the weak/oppressed
Long term values
 Start to see themselves as adults, develop life plan and be concerned with future
Hypocrisy
 What they do and say often not the same – therefore hipocrits
 May be related to intellectual maturity whereby individual lacks ability to apply
general theory to specific practice
 Pretending to be what they are not – may lead to not being able to live up to
expectations e.g. parental, societal, leading adolescent to avoid contact
Pseudostupidity
 Tendency to make situations harder than they are leading to failure
 Ability to perform formal operations allows them to think of alternatives but this
ability is not fully controlled
Egocentrism
 Imaginary audience – adolescents’ ability to think about themselves and their
thoughts lead to idea that everyone else must be thinking about their thoughts as
well – feel they are always “on stage” – leads to extreme self consciousness
 Personal fable – belief that their experiences are totally unique from anyone else’s
 May lead to feeling of invincibleness, or it can’t happen to me
Introspection
 As become more able to think abstractly, feel everyone is observing them
 Development of personal fable makes them think they are deeper and more
sensitive than others
 These points lead to introspection – thinking about own thoughts
 Close examinations of interactions with others
Self concept
 Introspection allows for development of self identity
 Formal operational thinking allows them to develop assumptions about
themselves
Critique of Piaget’s Theory
 Children (sensorimotor, preoperational) more cognitively advanced than Piaget
thought
 Infants are actually hard wired for certain knowledge – don’t have to learn from
scratch
 Formal operational thought does not develop at the same time in different
individuals, and in some cases may be very delayed (Low SES) or not occur at all
(retarded)
 Most students are not beyond concrete operational stage by end of high school
 Individuals that can use formal operations don’t do so consistently – affected by
anger, being upset, being rushed
 Piaget believed that although people would continue to learn, all the “hardware”
they would ever have would be in place by mid-adolescence – current researchers
disagree
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Dialectics – can integrate 2 or more conflicting pieces of information, formal
thinkers tend to assume one argument is right and the other is wrong
Dialectical thinker understands many aspects of the world are interconnected
Arlin suggested a 5th stage of cognitive development called problem finding stage
This stage characterized by creative thought, envisioning of new questions, new
problem solving methods
Formal thought is dependent on social experience, full attainment of formal
thinking is not guaranteed
Various cultural backgrounds show variability in abstract reasoning abilities
Factors such as maternal intelligence, sociodemographic status, and the quality of
the home environment relate to cognitive development
Parents and schools that foster exchange of thoughts, ideational exploration,
academic and occupation ambition, problem solving, abstract reasoning all lead
to better cognitive development
Formal operational tests only test what individual is capable of doing not what
they will do – influenced by boredom, fatigue, motivation – all affect cognitive
performance