PSY312
Week 2
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Web address: Check it regularly
www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3psy312
Week 2 outline
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Vygotsky: a bit of background
 His sociological theory
 Some articles discussing it
 Piaget’s theory
Lev Vygoysky
Lev Vygotsky 1896-1934

Started out as a lawyer with no psychology
training, and was interested in the
psychology of art
 Lived during a time of great political
tension, and so his ideas were kept locked
up
Lev Vygotsky 1896-1934

Main concern: environment and people in
the child’s life.
 “Sociocultural” perspective, little emphasis
on “hidden” processes
 Vygotsky believed it was impossible to
study development in a vacuum.
Assumptions about Humans
 Distinguished
between LMFs and
HMFs
 LMFs serve as a basis for HMFs
 Example of the intentional reach
4 Levels of Development in Child’s
Environment
Ontogenetic level
1.
•
Individual’s development over the lifespan
Microgenetic level *
2.
•
Small changes in specific abilities over time
Phylogenetic level
3.
•
Changes at species level may affect what we do today
Sociohistorical level
4.
•
Generational differences in context, eg advent of computers
Main focus is on level 2
Definitions relevant to Vygotsky

Tools of Intellectual Adaptation
– What our culture offers us as a means to learning
 Collaborative Dialogues
– Dialogues between novices and experts where the expert
models the activity and transmits verbal instructions
 Zone of Proximal Development
– When a task is too complex for a child to master alone, but
can be accomplished with guidance and encouragement from
a more skillful partner
Definitions, Continued

Scaffolding or Mediation
– When an expert, who is instructing a novice, responds
contingently to a novice’s behaviour in a learning situation

Guided Participation
– Introduced by Rogoff
– Refers to when children’s modes of thinking are shaped
when participating with an adult in culturally relevant
activities
More Definitions…

Context-Independent learning
– Learning that has no immediate relevance to the present context,
i.e. learning that occurs in educational institutions
– Context-DEPENDENT learning makes us active members of
society

Cooperative Learning
– Situations where teachers arrange for their students to work
together
– Works for 3 reasons:

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More motivating
Explaining own ideas can make them more explicit, understood
Groups generate more ideas than individuals
The Collaborative Classroom

This method of teaching is spreading to entire
schools, and not just certain parts of the day
 4 features:
– Teachers and students have shared knowledge.
– They have shared authority
– The teachers act as mediators
– Heterogeneous groups of students
Collaborative classroom continued

Teacher facilitates discussions between students
 Classroom is arranged in a way to promote
discussion
 Older, more experienced students model for the
younger students
 Student acts as goal-setter, assignment designer,
and assesses themselves and their own work.
Potential Problems or Challenges

Classroom control
– Can be very loud

Curriculum planning
 Individual differences in students,
environment may not be nurturing for
everyone
– High achievers, low achievers, shy people
Research Examples

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Freeman & Somerindyke (2002) examined whether having
computers in a preschool classroom is helpful
20 children participated in a daycare where computers
were part of the curriculum
5 children emerged as computer “experts”, and were
sought out by other less experienced classmates
Vygotsky-type peer-mediated learning took place
– more knowledgeable students fostering the learning of the less-
knowledgeable students
Example # 2
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Aram & Levin (2002) examined parental scaffolding in
reading and writing
Believed that mother-mediated joint writing would help
predict literacy achievement in kindergartners, even more
than reading storybooks
Analyzed videotape of mothers and children writing
together, and mother got a score for degree to which she
helped
Better attention to the child’s ZPD was associated with
better literacy
Writing Situation #1

The following mother was working within
her child’s ZPD:
– “Mother encouraged or helped the child to retrieve and
phonological unit and link it with a letter name, for
example: Mother points out the /p/ sound in apple, and
asks for another word that starts with that sound, and
what the letter is. Then she asks how it is written, and
encourages the child to write it.”
Writing Situation #2

The following mother was working below her child’s ZPD:
“Mother wrote down all the letters of the word for the
child. Example: the boy sat in his mother’s lap holding a
pencil. She held his hand, murmured the word to herself,
and wrote the word by leading his hand. The child looked
at the written word and looked at his mother.”
Questions

Which situation may have been more helpful to
the child, and why?

Would this ALWAYS be the case?
Research Study #3

Levin et al. (1997) looked at potentially harmful
effects of maternal mediation in homework.
 Examined longitudinally the effects of maternal
help with homework on academic achievement,
how the mother felt about the help she gave, and
changes in the amount of help received between
grade 1 and grade 3
 Results show possible negative consequences of
maternal involvement
Levin et al (1997) continued…

Mothers helping with homework had no effect at all on
academic achievement.
 Mothers helped less over time, and felt like they weren’t
really being helpful
 Mothers felt responsible when the child showed no
improvement, and felt tense after a session where they
tried to help but couldn’t (child also felt tense!)
 Children with learning disabilities elicited the most help,
but these mothers felt the least helpful, and the most tense
Over-Scaffolding is not beneficial!
Vygotsky

VS.
Believed cognitive
development varies across
cultures
 Cognitive growth stems from
social interaction, guided
learning in the ZPD
 Social processes become
individual-psychological
processes
 Adults are especially
important as agents of
change
Piaget
Jean Piaget
General List of Piaget’s Beliefs and
Definitions
Coined term “Genetic Epistemology”, which refers to
advent of knowledge
 Believed in stage-like, discontinuous development
 Processing is domain-general
 Child is intrinsically Active
 Specific achievements needed to move through stages
 Stages are universal, no cultural variation
 Order of stages is fixed
 Development is characterized by changes in “Structures”
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Piaget Continued
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Development is self-mediated, NOT adultmediated
Hierarchization
2 Functional Invariants:
Organization = inborn tendency to combine and
integrate available schemes (or structures) into
coherent systems or bodies of knowledge
Adaptation = inborn tendency to adjust to the
demands of the environment
– Comprised of Assimilation and Accommodation
Example of Functional Invariants

Have an idea about birds in general
– Can fly, Have feathers, Some sing

Have idea about specific birds
– Canaries can sing, Pigeons and seagulls are disgusting, Robins
have red breasts, and all swans are white

Event not in agreement with current structures;
Disequilibrium results
– See a black swan

How to resolve?
– Could ignore it if not ready to change
– Could assimilate it into structure by calling it another name
entirely
– Could accommodate structures to include black swans
PIAGET’S STAGES
Stage
Definition
Sensorimotor (0-2 years)
Infants are relying on behavioural
schemes as a means of exploring
and understanding the environment.
Preoperational
(2-7 years)
children are thinking at a symbolic
level, but are not yet able to use
cognitive operations
Concrete Operations
(7-11 years)
children acquire cognitive
operations, can use them, and they
think more logically about real
objects and experiences
Formal Operations
(11-12 + years)
individual beings to think more
rationally and systematically about
abstract concepts and hypothetical
events
The Sensorimotor Phase (0-2)

Substage 1: basic reflexes (0-1 Months)
–

Substage 2: Primary Circular reactions (1-4 months)
–
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Goal-directed behaviour
Substage 5: Tertiary Circular reactions (12-18 months)
–
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Effect of own movements on external environment
Substage 4: Coordination of Secondary circular reactions (8-12 months)
–
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All coordination of movements in own limbs
Substage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months)
–
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All focussed on basic reflexes
Trail and error, still limited to actions on objects
Substage 6: Mental Combinations (18-24 months)
–
Covert problem-solving, use of symbols
Sensorimotor, con’d
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Piaget believed that imitation was a key development
during this period
Infants could not imitate until they were 8-12 months old
specific things were happening at each of the 6 substages
with relation to imitation
Development of Imitation
Substage
Level of Imitation
Reflex Activity (0-1 month)
Reflexive imitation of motor
responses
Primary circular reactions (1-4
months)
Repeating own actions for own
sake; someone may mimic
Secondary circular reactions (4-8
months)
Same as above; maybe realizing
action has a consequence
Coordination of secondary circular
reactions (8-12 months)
Gradual imitation of novel
responses
Tertiary circular reactions (12-18
months)
Systematic imitation of novel
responses; some deferred
Mental combinations (18-24
months)
Total deferred imitation
Development of Object Permanence
Substage
Level of Object Permanence
Reflex Activity (0-1 month)
Infant can track a moving object,
but ignores disappearance
Primary circular reactions (1-4
months)
Infant looks where object
disappeared, but loses interest
Secondary circular reactions (4-8
months)
Infant will search for partly, but not
fully, concealed object,
Coordination of secondary circular
reactions (8-12 months)
Searches for objects where they got
them before: A-not-B error
Tertiary circular reactions (12-18
months)
Search for objects that were
displaced in front of them
Mental combinations (18-24
months)
Search for objects surreptitiously
displaced
Preoperations (age 2-7)
 Operations:
General cognitive schemes
that describe how children act on the
world
 Occurs in two substages
– Preconceptual thought (2-4 years)
– Intuitive thought (4-7 years)
Preconceptual Thought

In this stage, use symbolism to let one object
represent another
– Role of language
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Pretend play was crucial to Piaget
They can follow someone else’s pretend idea
Plan and prepare games
Play allows context for language, problem solving,
promotes social development
Foster emotional development by allow them to
resolve conflicts
Preconceptual thought

Preconceptual deficits include animism and
egocentrism (inability to take perspective of
another)
 Also unable to make appearance/reality
distinction
 Difference between preconceptual and
intuitive minimal, operations still not used,
but egocentrism and animism are decreased,
but child still relies on centered intuition to
interpret the world
Preoperations con’d: Intuitive thought

Intuitive thought most characterized by
failure of conservation
– Mass VS liquid VS number VS volume
 Child dwells in a perceptual world, where
they are easily misled, called centration
 Water-Level task deficits
Water Level Task
Draw where the line would be if the glasses were half full
of water
Answer by Preoperational Child
They are misled by the tilt of the glass!!
Preoperations con’d

Intuitive thought most characterized by
failure of conservation
– number VS mass VS volume

Child dwells in a perceptual world, where
they are easily misled, called centration
 Water-Level task deficits
 Classification, whole/part relations, class
inclusion deficits are another series of
problems
Class Inclusion Problem
Are there more blue dots or more round dots?
What would a preoperational child say?
Concrete Operations (age 7-12)
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Children are no longer intuitive perceivers; they now show
decentration, and look at all aspects of a display to solve
problems (can solve conservation tasks; water-level task)
Can use operations (conservation, classification)
Show mental seriation through relational logic (mentally
putting things in order)
Show transitivity
However, cannot yet think hypothetically, or in abstract
ways
Fail second version of water-level task
Formal Operations Water Level Task
If I turn the glass upright, where will the water be?
Formal Operations (age 12 +)

Children now think hypothetically, and in the
abstract
– Third eye example
Test your formal operations!!
(Shaffer, 1973)

Complete the following assignment:
– Suppose that you were given a third eye, and
that you could choose to place this eye
anywhere on your body. Draw me a picture to
show me where you would place this extra eye,
and then tell me why you would put it there.
Results

Younger children (most put eye on forehead)
– Jim (9 ½ ) I would like an eye beside my two other eyes so that if
one of them went out, I could still see with two
– Tanya (9 ½ ) I want a third eye so I can see you better.

Older children
– Ken (11 ½ ) (draws eye at end of tuft of hair) I could revolve the
eye to look in all directions!
– John (11 ½ ) (draws eye in palm of hand) I could see around
corners, and I could see what cookie I would get from the cookie
jar.
Older children’s answers were more creative, and they had more
fun; Younger children didn’t want to pretend, thought it was
silly!
Formal Operations (age 12 +)
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Children now think hypothetically, and in the abstract
– Third eye example

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Can use hypothetico-deductive reasoning; that is generate
hypotheses and test them in a systematic fashion
Piaget believed that this was the final stage, and that no
development occurred after this
We know he was wrong about some
things…how wrong?
Challenges to Piaget

Very small sample sizes of observation
– Usually observations of his own children

Grossly underestimated capabilities of infants and
young children
– Baillargeon’s work with very young infants
– Hala & Chandler’s study of children’s deception of
another

Overestimated abilities of concrete operations
children, and of all adults (formal operations)
– Some high school students, and even adults have
trouble with second Water Level problem
– Knowledge base is important
Challenges to Piaget’s theory

Did not distinguish competence from
performance
 Is development really stage-like?
 Does Piaget explain cognitive
development?
 Too little attention to social and cultural
influences
Quick Quiz: Say what stage is
represented in each of the following:
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“You killed him” Ben sobs as his mother destroys a clay
pigeon while trap shooting.
Sarah flattens her hand on her playdough, making it into a
pancake, and says “look! Now I have more!”
Judy blissfully contemplates how nice it would be if there
were no racial prejudice
After seeing his brother throw a ball behind the sofa,
Sammy looks for it in his toybox
John successfully arranges his seashells in order from
largest to smallest
Neo-Nativist theories

Believe that we are born equipped to
interpret the world
 Used idea that children everywhere develop
similarly and at the same rate
 Baillargeon
 Wynn
 We are symbolic from birth, which is a very
different idea from Piaget!
“Theory” Theories
Actually believed a lot of Piaget’s ideas
about schemes and constructing knowledge
 Believed we are born able to make sense of
certain things, with some innate knowledge
about objects and speech sounds
 But we still need to construct reality by
testing the theories we have about it.
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Important Contributions
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Founded the discipline of cognitive development
Innovative ideas about child being active
Actually tried to explain how development worked
His descriptions of broad sequences of
developmental trends were probably right
His ideas have had major implications on how we
think about social and emotional development and
offered practical implications for educators
He asked important questions and drew a lot of
research along with new theories
Piaget and Education

Tailor education to children’s readiness to
learn
– Build on existing schemes

Be sensitive to individual differences
– Encourage individual or small groups work

Promote discovery-based education
– No lecturing, use crafts, puzzles and games
Vygotsky

Believed cognitive
development varies across
cultures
 Cognitive growth stems from
social interaction, guided
learning in the ZPD
 Social processes become
individual-psychological
processes
 Adults are especially
important as agents of
change
VS.

Piaget
Cognitive development is
universal across cultures
 Cognitive development
stems from independent
explorations where children
construct own knowledge
 Individual processes become
social processes (eg
imitation)
 Peers are important agents of
change
Quick Quiz!!

Who said “Children develop in spite of adults, not
because of them”?
Who thought infants would derive much enjoyment
playing alone with a mobile in their crib?
Are parents always qualified to scaffold their children’s
learning? Are all instances of scaffolding beneficial?
Who would have agreed the most with the following
statement: “Don’t tell me, show me”?
Who’s theory is better?
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Trick Question!!
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Questions to think about

What do Vygotsky and Piaget have in
common re education?
 What is the main difference?
 If you had to pick a cognitive phenomenon,
like language or memory, how would each
say it develops?