Cognitive Development What is cognitive development Cognition thinking learning communicating memory Cognitive Development how cognition changes over time from infancy through adolescence and into adulthood Piaget Jean Piaget 1896 1980 First to study cognitive development Led to it becoming a field of study Identified stages toward adult like thinking Specific transition points followed by stable periods Domain general Piaget Emphasized physical interaction with the world Children s understanding of the world is different from adults because they have more limited experience with it But children are active learners They seek info and observe consequences of their actions Some current research supports his claims while some criticizes Piaget Assimilation and Accommodation How experience affects our thinking and understanding of the world Assimilation Absorbing new experiences into current schemas Doesn t change current belief Accommodation When the new knowledge no longer fits beliefs schema must be altered and beliefs must change to make them more compatible with the experience Assimilation Accommodation Piaget s Stages of Development Sensorimotor birth to 2 years Lack of mental representation No object permanence Out of sight out of mind Take things as they see them This is why Peekaboo is so fun for them Piaget s Stages of Development Preoperational 2 7 years Symbolic behavior Language drawings objects Ex using a banana as a phone playing house Mental representation Pretend imagination Egocentrism The world revolves around me Can t see the world from others points of view Cannot do mental transformations Ex Conservation experiments Conservation Experiments Piaget s Stages of Development Concrete Operational 7 11 years Can perform mental transformations Successful in conservation tasks Can also categorize ex sort coins by size Can do this in physical situations but not abstract hypothetical Piaget s Stages of Development Formal Operational adolescence Sophisticated thinking Can reason in hypothetical situations Logic If then If I am late to school then I will get sent to the principal s office Either or Mom says I can either go to the game tonight or go to the sleepover tomorrow night Abstract questions What happens when we die Criticisms of Piaget s Theories Piaget was a landmark in psychology Development is continuous and not so stagelike Development is less general than he thought You can be in multiple stages at one time for different tasks Criticisms cont d His studies rely on children s ability to verbally report on tasks Maybe they can do the task but don t have the verbal skills to say so But these studies are hard to replicate with less language demanding tasks He used biased samples Educated westernized populations And mostly his own children Criticisms cont d However there were many contributions of his work Viewing children different from adults Viewing learning as an active process Defining general cognitive processes and their development Vygotsky Lev Vygotsky 1896 1936 Emphasized social and cultural influences on learning Skills are learned and mastered at different rates no stages Vygotsky Scaffolding Parents provide structure and help for learning then slowly remove structure Zone of Proximal Development Phase when children are receptive and ready for learning something new but aren t yet successful at new skill Ready to make use of scaffolding Modern Theories of Development Emphasis on general cognitive abilities acquired knowledge not innate Experience based Emphasize child s interaction with social world as primary source of development More domain specific No overlapping cognitive skills Knowledge base of one domain is different from that of another Landmarks of Early Cognitive Development Physical reasoning Objects have different properties like being solid or being heavy Categorizing similar objects by kind Crucial for development because it helps us organize the world Numbers math Learning the difference between quantities Landmarks cont d Concept of self vs others Rouge test Theory of mind ability to understand that others perspectives can differ from theirs False belief task Develops closer to age 4 or 5 Cognitive Changes in Adolescence Brain is not fully developed which results in Impulsivity in teens Susceptibility to peer pressure Brain isn t ready to make adult like well reasoned decisions Debate on whether these behaviors are cultural or biological Some cultures don t have these problems with adolescents Adolescence cont d Personal Fable belief that adolescents are living out a story that others are watching Feel special which leads to a sense of invincibility This is also debated because it has been shown not to be true for everyone Attitudes Toward Knowledge in Adolescence Struggle with not having black and white answers to every question Takes a while to find their own perspective on issues and respect opposing perspectives Cognition in Adulthood Brain matter decreases in certain areas Memory loss can occur but how much can differ for each individual Relevant and recognition memory remain intact Crystallized intelligence accumulated knowledge and experience is maintained Speed of processing decreases What are the main take home points from today s lecture Summarize the main points for the following topics this means write it down use your notes Piaget s theory of development Vygotsky s theory of development Most important cognitive changes in early development Most important cognitive changes in adolescence adulthood Now compare your answers with somebody else Piaget s theory of development Children think very differently from adults There are different types of cognitive skills that develop at different times Vygotsky s theory of development Skills are learned at different rates for different individuals Children initially need more structure for learning and less as they begin to master a skill Most important cognitive changes in early development Being able to organize your world categorizing numbers object properties Knowing that you are different from others and people can think differently Most important cognitive changes in adolescence and adulthood Your brain is still changing and developing well beyond childhood Some skills continue to increase while some begin to decrease