Freud - ontogeny of personality
Piaget - ontogeny of intelligence
• Development of intelligence (vs. measurement)
• Knowledge is the result of sensory input and action
• Schema: unit of organization of knowledge
• Schemata are undergoing constant revision
• Genetic (developmental) epistemology
– Neither nature nor nurture are sufficient explanations
of knowledge
Contrast Between Piaget’s Views of
Knowledge and Those of Other Thinkers
• KANT: Children born with basic categories of time,
space, number, and causality.
• BORING: Intelligence is what an intelligence test
measures.
• PIAGET: Sought to discover how concepts of time,
space, number. causality and intelligence develop.
Schema: Structure that adapts
• Organization of knowledge changes with experiences.
• Relationships between schema change.
• The basic unit of knowledge.
• Knowledge neither innate (cf. Chomsky) nor the
aggregate of different behaviors (e.g., Skinner).
Schemata change continuously by:
• Adaptation: modification of schemas by experience.
• Assimilation: quantitative enrichment (generalization),
e.g. calling a goat a “doggie.”
• Accommodation: qualitative enrichment (discrimination),
e.g. calling a dog an “animal”.
• Equilibrium: process whereby schemata minimize
conflict between assimilation (responding to new stimulus
in old way) and accommodation (changing response in
accordance with demands of new input).
Schema of Sucking Reflex
• At birth:
•
•
•
•
Turning of the head when cheek is stimulated
Opening mouth when lips are stimulated
Sucking when inside of mouth is stimulated
Swallowing when liquid reaches throat
• After a few weeks:
• Searching for the breast when child is against mother's
body
• Sucking movements in anticipation of feeding
• Non-nutritive thumb sucking
• Sucking on spoons and blocks
Development Of Imitative Schemata
• Pseudo-imitation: Parent imitates child who
continues activity in question
• Partial imitation: Parent opens and closes eyes.
Child only opens eyes.
• Full imitation: Child attempts to perform all features
of activities modeled by adult, e.g., dancing, athletics.
Stages of Cognitive Growth
A shift from perception of the here and now to abstract
reflection about the world.
• Sensory-Motor Period: (0-2 years)
– Integration of sensory information, separate motor movements
• Preoperational Period: (2-7 years)
– Development of representational strategies
e.g., by addition of counting
• Concrete Operational Period: (7-11 years)
– Emergence of specific problem solving skills
e.g., multiplication skills
• Formal Operational Period: ( 11 years and onward)
– Emergence of general problem solving skills
e.g., set theory
Sensory-Motor Period
William James: "bloomin, buzzin, confusion"
• Unintegrated sensations and movements
• No object constancy
– no distinction between stable and changing objects.
– no object permanence. Has to learn to search for a
previously present object.
• No (or poor) differentiation of self from others.
Cognitive development at end of
Sensory-Motor period:
• Object permanence
• Complex instrumental behavior
• Simple imitation
• Ability to generate images
• Beginnings of language
• Representational Ability: Child could previously interact with
environment only through direct sensory contact; now she
can carry aspects of world in her head.
Pre-operational Period
• Pre-operational intelligence is intuitive; child cannot make
logical statements
• Ego-centric thought
-Can only take one point of view
-Child can only respond to one dimension at a time (that
which it perceives)
• No operations - Child responds solely on basis of perceptions
and representations
• Magical demonstrations convincing - child a prisoner of her
immediate perceptual experience.
• No conservation (length, liquid volume, solid volume)
– Can’t say “clay is thinner but wider”
• Animistic view of world
– Cloud, streams, bicycles are alive
– Walls, trees, tables are not
• Name of a thing an intrinsic property (cf. Romeo: “a rose by
any other name would smell as sweet”)
• Moral judgments don’t allow for intent
Pre-operational Period
• Pre-operational intelligence is intuitive; child cannot make
logical statements
• Ego-centric thought
-Can only take one point of view
-Child can only respond to one dimension at a time (that
which it perceives)
• No operations - Child responds solely on basis of perceptions
and representations
• Magical demonstrations convincing - child a prisoner of her
immediate perceptual experience.
• No conservation (length, liquid volume, solid volume)
– Can’t say “clay is thinner but wider”
• Animistic view of world
– Cloud, streams, bicycles are alive
– Walls, trees, tables are not
• Name of a thing an intrinsic property (cf. Romeo: “a rose by
any other name would smell as sweet”)
• Moral judgments don’t allow for intent
Pre-operational Period
• Pre-operational intelligence is intuitive; child cannot make
logical statements
• Ego-centric thought
-Can only take one point of view
-Child can only respond to one dimension at a time (that
which it perceives)
• No operations - Child responds solely on basis of perceptions
and representations
• Magical demonstrations convincing - child a prisoner of her
immediate perceptual experience.
• No conservation (length, liquid volume, solid volume)
– Can’t say “clay is thinner but wider”
• Animistic view of world
– Cloud, streams, bicycles are alive
– Walls, trees, tables are not
• Name of a thing an intrinsic property (cf. Romeo: “a rose by
any other name would smell as sweet”)
• Moral judgments don’t allow for intent
Pre-operational Period
• Pre-operational intelligence is intuitive; child cannot make
logical statements
• Ego-centric thought
-Can only take one point of view
-Child can only respond to one dimension at a time (that
which it perceives)
• No operations - Child responds solely on basis of perceptions
and representations
• Magical demonstrations convincing - child a prisoner of her
immediate perceptual experience.
• No conservation (length, liquid volume, solid volume)
– Can’t say “clay is thinner but wider”
• Animistic view of world
– Cloud, streams, bicycles are alive
– Walls, trees, tables are not
• Name of a thing an intrinsic property (cf. Romeo: “a rose by
any other name would smell as sweet”)
• Moral judgments don’t allow for intent
Pre-operational Period
• Pre-operational intelligence is intuitive; child cannot make
logical statements
• Ego-centric thought
-Can only take one point of view
-Child can only respond to one dimension at a time (that
which it perceives)
• No operations - Child responds solely on basis of perceptions
and representations
• Magical demonstrations convincing - child a prisoner of her
immediate perceptual experience.
• No conservation (length, liquid volume, solid volume)
– Can’t say “clay is thinner but wider”
• Animistic view of world
– Cloud, streams, bicycles are alive
– Walls, trees, tables are not
• Name of a thing an intrinsic property (cf. Romeo: “a rose by
any other name would smell as sweet”)
• Moral judgments don’t allow for intent
Pre-operational Period
• Pre-operational intelligence is intuitive; child cannot make
logical statements
• Ego-centric thought
-Can only take one point of view
-Child can only respond to one dimension at a time (that
which it perceives)
• No operations - Child responds solely on basis of perceptions
and representations
• Magical demonstrations convincing - child a prisoner of her
immediate perceptual experience.
• No conservation (length, liquid volume, solid volume)
– Can’t say “clay is thinner but wider”
• Animistic view of world
– Cloud, streams, bicycles are alive
– Walls, trees, tables are not
• Name of a thing an intrinsic property (cf. Romeo: “a rose by
any other name would smell as sweet”)
• Moral judgments don’t allow for intent
Pre-operational Period
• Pre-operational intelligence is intuitive; child cannot make
logical statements
• Ego-centric thought
Can only take one point of view
-Child can only respond to one dimension at a time (that
which it perceives)
• No operations - Child responds solely on basis of perceptions
and representations
• Magical demonstrations convincing - child a prisoner of her
immediate perceptual experience.
• No conservation (length, liquid volume, solid volume)
– Can’t say “clay is thinner but wider”
• Animistic view of world
– Cloud, streams, bicycles are alive
– Walls, trees, tables are not
• Name of a thing an intrinsic property (cf. Romeo: “a rose by
any other name would smell as sweet”)
• Moral judgments don’t allow for intent
Pre-operational Period
• Pre-operational intelligence is intuitive; child cannot make
logical statements
• Ego-centric thought
-Can only take one point of view
-Child can only respond to one dimension at a time (that
which it perceives)
• No operations - Child responds solely on basis of perceptions
and representations
• Magical demonstrations convincing - child a prisoner of her
immediate perceptual experience.
• No conservation (length, liquid volume, solid volume)
– Can’t say “clay is thinner but wider”
• Animistic view of world
– Cloud, streams, bicycles are alive
– Walls, trees, tables are not
• Name of a thing an intrinsic property (cf. Romeo: “a rose by
any other name would smell as sweet”)
• Moral judgments don’t allow for intent
Egocentric Thought
What does the doll see?
Conservation of Liquid
Conservation of Amount
Which row has more pennies?
Are both sticks the same length?
Do both blobs have the same amount of clay?
Conceptual Ability
Put together those items that are alike.
“Sticks in Order”
Concrete Operational Period
• Child cannot grasp logical operations.
• Child understands concrete (but not abstract) rules that apply to
specific situations.
• Concrete child can:
– adopt perspective of viewer
– alternate thoughts about two or more dimensions of an
object
– understand conservation of length, volume, etc.
– sort by category (concretely, not abstractly)
Concrete vs. Formal Operations
Build a new tower on the floor that is as
high as the tower on the table
Formal Operations
• Child generates hypotheses
• Can think about thinking
• Concerned with beliefs - values
• Can argue if A is true, then B must follow.
• Can argue “other things being equal”.
Will a falling
ball stop in
midair?
Will a falling
ball pass
through a solid
object?
(Liz Spelke)
“Magic Show”:
How many Mickey
Mouse dolls does
the infant expect?
1 + 1 = 3 causes
more looking time
than 1 + 1 = 2.
(Karen Wynn)
“Magic Show”:
How many pieces of
eggplant does the
monkey expect?
1 + 1 = 3 causes more
looking time than 1 + 1
= 2.
(Marc Hauser)