Child Development
Laura E. Berk 7th edition
Chapter 6
Cognitive
Development:
Piagetian, Core
Knowledge, and
Vygotskian
Perspectives
•
•
•
This multimedia product and its contents are protected under
copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:
Any public performance or display, including transmission of
any image over a network;
Preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in
whole or in part of any images;
Any rental, lease, or lending of the program.
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Goals of
Cognitive Development Research
• Chart typical course of development
• Examine individual
differences
• Uncover mechanisms
of cognitive development
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Basics of Piaget’s Theory
General theory
Considers all aspects of cognition
Constructivist approach
• Stages are invariant
• Stages are universal
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Schemes
• Are psychological structures
• Organized ways of making sense of
experience
• Change with age
 Action-based
(motor patterns) at first
 Later move to a
mental (thinking) level
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Assimilation & Accommodation
• Assimilation
 Using current schemes to interpret
external world
 Used during equilibrium
• Accommodation
 Adjusting old schemes,
creating new ones to
better fit environment
 Prompted by disequilibrium
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Adaptation and Organization
• Adaptation
 Building schemes through direct
interaction with environment
• Organization
 Internal rearranging
and linking of schemes
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage
• Birth to 2 years
• Building schemes
through sensory
and motor
exploration
• Circular reactions
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Sensorimotor Substages
Reflexive Schemes
Birth –1
month
Newborn reflexes
Primary Circular
Reactions
1 – 4 months Simple motor habits centered
around own body
Secondary Circular
Reactions
4 – 8 months Repeat interesting effects in
soundings
Coordination of
Secondary Circular
Reactions
8 – 12
months
Intentional, goal-directed behavior;
object permanence
Tertiary Circular
Reactions
12 – 18
months
Explore properties of objects
through novel actions
Mental
Representations
12 months –
2 years
Internal depictions of objects or
events; deferred imitation
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Object Permanence
• Understanding that objects continue to
exist when out of sight
• According to Piaget, develops in
Substage 4
• Incomplete at first:
A-not-B Error
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Mental Representations
Internal, mental depictions of
information
 Images: objects, people, places
 Concepts: categories
 Can manipulate with mind
 Allow:
 Deferred imitation
 Make-believe play
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Progress in Finding Objects Hidden
in Two Ways
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Deferred Imitation
• Piaget: Develops at about 18 months
• Newer research:
 6 weeks – facial imitation
 6 – 9 months – copy
actions with objects
 12 – 14 months – imitate
rationally
 18 months – imitate intended,
but not completed, actions
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Development of Categorization
• Perceptual
 Based on similar overall
appearance or prominent part
• Conceptual
 Based on common function
or behavior
 Later add event categories
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Evaluation of the
Sensorimotor Stage
Timing of:
How Piaget was • Object search,
right
• A-not-B,
• Make-believe play
• Timing of object permanence, deferred
How Piaget
imitation, categorization, problem-solving
might have been by analogy
wrong
• All occur sooner than Piaget thought
Some suggest infants are born with core knowledge in several
domains of thought
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Gains in Preoperational
Mental Representation
• Language
 Piaget believed it developed from
sensorimotor experiences
• Make-believe play
• Dual
representation
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Development of Make-Believe Play
With age, make-believe gradually
becomes:
• More detached from real-life
conditions
• Less self-centered
• More complex
 Sociodramatic play
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Benefits of Make-Believe Play
• Practice representational schemes
• Emotional integration
• Social, language skills
• Attention, memory,
logical reasoning
• Imagination, creativity
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Progression of Drawing Skills
1. Scribbles: during 2nd year
2. First Representational
Forms
 Label already-made
drawings: around age 3
 Draw boundaries and
people: 3–4 years
3. More Realistic Drawings:
preschool to school age
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Dual Representation
• Viewing a symbolic object as both
an object and a symbol
• Mastered around age 3
• Adult teaching can help
 Provide lots of maps, photos,
drawings, make-believe
playthings, etc.
 Point out similarities to real
world
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Limitations of
Preoperational Thought
• Cannot perform mental
operations
• Egocentrism and animistic
thinking
• Cannot conserve
• Lack hierarchical
classification
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Egocentrism
Failure to
distinguish
others’ views
from one’s
own
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Animistic Thinking
Belief that
inanimate
objects have
lifelike qualities
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Limits on Conservation
• Centration
Focus on one
aspect and
neglect others
• Irreversibility
Cannot mentally
reverse a set of
steps
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Piagetian Class Inclusion Problem
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Follow-Up Research on
Preoperational Thought
Egocentric
Thought
• Can adjust language to others and take
others’ perspectives in simple situations
• Animistic thinking comes from incomplete
knowledge of objects
• Can do simplified conservation
Illogical Thought • Can reason by analogy
• Use causal expressions
Categorization
• Everyday knowledge is categorized
Appearance
versus reality
• Can solve appearance-reality tasks in
nonverbal ways
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Analogy Problems
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Evaluation of the
Preoperational Stage
How Piaget was Preschoolers do develop beginnings of
right
logical thinking
How Piaget
might have
been wrong
Logical thinking develops more
gradually than Piaget thought
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Achievements of the
Concrete Operational Stage
• Conservation
 Decentration
 Reversibility
• Classification
• Seriation
 Transitive inference
• Spatial Reasoning
 Directions
 Maps
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Use of Maps
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Limitations of Concrete Operational
Thought
• Operations work best with
objects that are concrete
 Problems with
abstract ideas
• Horizontal décalage
 Master concrete
operational tasks
gradually
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Follow-up Research on
Concrete Operational Thought
• Culture and schooling affect
performance on tasks
 Going to school gives
experience on
Piagetian tasks
 Relevant non-school
experiences of some
cultures can help too
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Piaget’s Theory:
Formal Operational Stage

Hypothetico-deductive reasoning
Deducing hypotheses from a general
theory
 Pendulum problem

• Propositional Thought
 Evaluating the logic of
verbal propositions
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Piaget’s Pendulum Problem
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Consequences of
Abstract Thought
• Self-Consciousness & Self-Focusing
 Imaginary audience
 Sensitivity to criticism
 Personal fable
• Idealism and Criticism
• Problems with Decision Making
 Inexperience
 Overwhelming options
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Follow-up Research on
Formal Operational Thought
• School-age children start developing
abstract thinking skills
 Problems with propositional thinking
 Logical necessity
 Careful thinking about major premise
• Formal operations may not be
universal
 Training, context contribute
 Often fall back on easier thinking
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Educational Principles
Derived from Piaget’s Theory
• Discovery learning
• Sensitivity to children’s
readiness to learn
 Developmentally
appropriate practices
• Acceptance of individual
differences
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Overall Evaluation
of Piaget’s Theory
Piaget’s change processes — assimilation,
accommodation, and organization — can’t
account for patterns of children’s changes
observed today
Cognitive development not always selfgenerating
Cognition not as broadly stagelike as Piaget
believed
Piaget’s theory still inspires research
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Core Knowledge Perspective
• Evolutionary perspective: infants start life
with innate, special-purpose knowledge
systems
 Core domains of thought
• Core domains prepare us
to rapidly develop key
aspects of cognition
• Development is
domain-specific
 Children as naïve theorists
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Suggested Domains
of Core Knowledge
•
•
•
•
•
Physical
Numerical
Linguistic
Psychological
Biological
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Violation of Expectation Method
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Development of
Infants’ Physical Knowledge
One solid object cannot move through
another
2 - 3 months
Size comparisons - notice when objects are:
• Too wide for openings
5-6 months
• Too tall for containers
7-8 months
Gravity, object support
6- 7 months
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Infants’ Numerical Knowledge
• Findings are mixed and controversial
• Infants may be able to:
 Discriminate quantities
and do simple
arithmetic up to 3
 Approximate largenumber values
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Theory of Children as Theorists
Children:
• Observe an event
• Explain, or theorize about its
cause
 Draw on innate concepts
• Test theory against
experience
• Revise theory
if needed
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Is Biology a Core Domain?
• Develops later than other domains
 Psychological explanations for
biological events
 Late development is
common around
the world
• More evidence is needed
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Evaluation of
Core Knowledge Perspective
Most serious consideration of beginnings of
thinking
Amount and nature of inborn knowledge
hotly debated
Suggests environment and experience work
together, but does not clarify how
Suggests cognitive development is
independent; little attention to learning with
others
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Cognition is based on:
• Social interactions
• Language
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Children’s Private Speech
• Piaget called this “egocentric speech”
• Vygotsky viewed it as foundation for all
higher cognitive processes
• Helps guide behavior
 Used more when tasks are difficult,
after errors, or when confused
• Gradually becomes more silent
 Children with learning and behavior
problems use longer
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Zone of Proximal Development
Tasks child cannot
do alone but can
learn to do with
help
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Social Interactions that
Promote Cognitive Development
• Intersubjectivity
• Scaffolding
• Guided
participation
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Vygotsky and Make-Believe Play
• Provides Zone of Proximal
Development
 Imaginary substitutions help
children separate thinking
from objects
 Rules strengthen capacity to
think before acting
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Vygotsky and Education
• Assisted Discovery
 Teacher:
 Guides learning
 Tailors help to
Zone of Proximal
Development
• Peer Collaboration
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Reciprocal Teaching
• Teacher and students take turns
leading dialogue
 Ask
 Summarize
 Clarify
 Predict
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Cooperative Learning
Small groups of classmates
work toward common goals
 Cultural variations
in ability to learn
cooperatively
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007
Evaluation of Vygotsky’s Theory
Helps explain cultural diversity in
cognition
Emphasizes importance of teaching
Focus on language deemphasizes
observation, other learning methods
Says little about biological
contributions to cognition
Vague in explanation of change
© Allyn & Bacon/ Longman 2007