Cognitive
Development I
What is Cognition?
• Knowing
• It involves:
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attending
remembering
symbolizing
categorizing
planning
reasoning
problem solving
creating
fantasizing
Cognitive Development
according to Piaget
Cognitive Development
according to Vygotsky
Piaget
• From the mouths of babes
• Lions and Mailmen
Piaget
• From the mouths of babes
• Lions and Mailmen
• Piaget’s sample size
• Basic drive to make sense
of the world
• Passive vs Active
Key points in Piagetian Theory
• Scheme/schema- an internal framework
that organizes information and provides
structure for interpreting that information
• Adaptation- to make sense of the world,
something in us must change
• Assimilation- world interpreted through
existing schemes. Focus on similarities
• Examples- Daddy, kitty cat
2
• Accommodation- schemes changed or Types
developed to fit new information. Focus
on differences
• Examples- mail man, lion
What is a tree?
Cognitive Change- What is the Source?
• Where does cognitive
change come from?
• Internal process
• Purpose of adaptation is
to preserve what we
know and what we are
experiencing
Cognitive Change- Who is the Agent of Change?
• Socially, peers are
important agents of
change
• Play (same age) helps
develop problem solving
skills- trial and error
Cognitive Change- Influence of Language
• Doesn’t really matter
for cog dev
• Cog dev language
•language is a form of
Cognitive Change- Influence of Culture
• Little to no influence
• Cog dev. occurs in
stages
• ALL children go
through same stages
4 primary stages of cog dev
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Sensorimotor Development (0-2 years)
• Begins with reflexive behavior and
ends with planful or intentional
actions and symbolic thought.
Primarily focused on NOW
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Pre-operational (2-7 years)
• Pre-conceptual (2-4 years)Distinguished by symbolic logic
(language), egocentrism (can’t
take another’s perspective),
animism.- Magical beliefs
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Egocentrism video- QuickTime
4 primary stages of cog dev
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Pre-operational
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Intuitive (4-7 years)•
Distinguished by categorization- limited to immediately
relevant stimuli features. By the end can categorize
into multiple features-Think “blocks” or Hobby
collections
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Beginnings of perspective taking (theory of mind)-
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At the end you see the very beginnings of
“conservation” with training, but “centration” occurs
frequently without
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Mental manipulations on the HERE and NOW, but lack
“reversibility”
• Where would you put your
third eye?
4 primary stages of cog dev
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Concrete operations (7-11 years)
• Mental manipulations- more complex.
• Has deductive reasoning about
concrete events but not abstract
thoughts and examples.
• Conservation video
• Can complete all other conservation
tasks- number, length, mass, weight,
volume… displacement (“which is
more??”)
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Indicative of decentration and
reversibility
Conservation (and lack of) in Action
4 primary stages of cog dev
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Formal Operations (11+)• Characterized by abstract thought,
abstract reasoning, hypotheticaldeductive reasoning.
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Pendulum problem
Deductive Reasoning
Mental manipulation of imaginary
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Propositional thought
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Object in my hand
Are either one, both, or none true?
Either the clasp in my hand is green or
it is not green.
The clasp in my hand is green and it is
not green
4 primary stages of cog dev
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Formal Operations (11+)• Characterized by abstract thought,
abstract reasoning, hypotheticaldeductive reasoning.
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Pendulum problem
Deductive Reasoning
Mental manipulation of imaginary
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Propositional thought
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Adolescent egocentrism- Imaginary
Audience and the personal fable
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Object in my hand
Pimples
“you just don’t understand”
Once formal operations always formal
operations?
Sensorimotor Stages
Sensorimotor
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Reflexes (birth-1 month)- spontaneous,
involuntary, respond to novelty with
programmed response.
• For example, put something in the
infants mouth, she will begin sucking
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Primary circular reactions (2-4 mo)
• Discovers behavior by chance.
• Accidental behavior; but if reinforced
it’s repeated (hence, “circular”).
• Actions are centered on infants own
body. i.e. Sucking a thumb when
placed in his mouth.
Sensorimotor stages
• Secondary circular reactions (4-8 mo)
• Behaviors still discovered by chance.
• But, centered outside the body.
• Actions are on objects and intended
to achieve goals. e.g. foot on the
mobile.
• Does not understand object
permanence by seeking out object
Sensorimotor Stages
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Coordination of secondary circular reactions
(8-12 mo)
• characterized by intentional/purposeful
behavior: anticipating/adapting to “get”
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Combines two previous behaviors into more
complex behavior (crawling). Tool Use
• Early- Not consistent in understanding and
searching out hidden objects.
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Though “Object Permanence” is beginning to
form-“Peekaboo”.
• Late- Will search for fully hidden objects,
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Sometimes victim to the A not B error.
A-not-B error
Fail
Pass
Sensorimotor stages
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Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 mo)
• Characterized by the invention of new
problem solving methods with objects.
Will experiment or use trial & error.
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Doesn’t make the A not B error. But will
make error if object displacement is not
seen.
Symbolic Problem Solving (18-21 mo)
• Can perform mental manipulations for
simple problems.
• Can problem solve mentally.
• Object permanence is fully developed.
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NO A not B error, even if object
displacement is implied.
See Website for Imitation According to
Piagetian Stages
• Bring any questions about
Piagetian Imitation to Review
Session.
• Piagetian Imitation WILL be on the
exam.
Sensorimotor Stages