1How were Chinese characters made?(thanks to Mai for these great examples of the iconicity of Chinese characters!)One fingerOneTwo fingers Three fingersTwo Three• Mountain• Rain - from clouds2• Fire• DogSome findings in the ScaleModel Task(come to class to see actual real live children on video doing this task! =)• 2.5-year-olds fail.• 3-year-olds succeed.• 2.5-year-olds succeed if told model isshrunk version of the room in which theywill search ("shrinking machine").• Overall, children are more likely to succeedif the model is more similar (identical) tothe room in which they perform the search.3Piaget on Scale Model Task• 2-year-olds are only beginning to develop symbolicrepresentations. By the age of 3 this ability allows them tosee the model as a representation of the real room.• Younger children can succeed in the “shrunken-room”experiment because it turns the problem into a completelyconcrete one -- there are no representations, no symbols,only “one” room.• The similarity of the model to the real room helps childrensucceed in the task because at this stage children are stillinfluenced by perceptual features -- their representation ofthe model is not abstract enough.Information Processing on Scale Model Task• Succeeding at the task requires maintaining two differentrepresentations of the same object at the same time.• 2.5-year-olds fail at the task because they lack thecognitive resources (memory, attention, or executivecontrol) to maintain these two representations.• The “shrinking-room” room experiment requires lessresources -- one representation of the room is enough.• Similarity between the model and the actual room makesthe task easier because it helps children do the mappingbetween things in the model and things in the room, sincechildren are often affected by perceptual similarity inanalogy tasks.4•Child as social being. Cognitive development occurs through interactions between child and other people. Cognitive development occurs within a broadcultural context which includes cultural tools. Children are teachers and learners, products of theircultures.Change occurs through:Guided ParticipationIntersubjectivity (Joint Attention, Social Referencing)Social ScaffoldingSociocultural TheoriesInformation Processing on Scale Model Task• The idea of using a model to represent a physical entity isa product of culture. Models are cultural tools.• Children learn to use models to represent real places byinteracting with others who use models in that way.Younger children fail because of lack of experience.• Younger children succeed in the shrinking room becausethe model is not being used as such. There is no culturaltool being used.•(a bit of a stretch) The greater similarity in the rooms helpchildren with intersubjectivity, when the experimenter saysit is in “the same place”, it is easier for them to understandwhat the experimenter