Developmental Psychology Grace Rivera PSYC 307 100 Fall 2015 Today 9 23 and 9 25 continue with the first year Cognitive development No class Monday 9 28 Next after that Social Emotional development Cognitive Development What is cognition ability to think remember and learn The study of mental activity and how the mind works Cognition develops over the lifespan we learn more but also differently over time Importance of Schemas Schema A mental concept that organizes and interprets information from experiences with objects and events Children think and organize the world meaningfully but differently than adults kid logic Schemas are inaccurate early in childhood Become more adult like with experience Cognitive Development Assimilation fit new info into existing schemas Accommodation adapting schemas to include new experiences Cognitive Development Cognitive development The emergence of the ability to think and understand Two of Piaget s observations Cognitive development happens in stages Same aged children make similar errors These errors differ from those made by other aged children Children actively seek knowledge they re not passive Piaget Cognitive development is based on modifying knowledge structures to adapt to one s needs Adaptation responding to the demands of the environment to meet one s goals Organization tendency to integrate simple bits of knowledge into coherent and complex operations or mental strategies Operations mental strategies from simple activities e g reflexes to complex goal directed activities look graspsuck Piaget s Stage Theory Sensorimotor Stage 0 2 Physical Exploration Preoperational 2 7 Egocentric Symbolic Reasoning Concrete Operational 7 11 Concrete Thinking Logical reasoning Formal Operational 11 adulthood Abstract Reasoning Sensorimotor Stage First stage of cognitive development Birth to 2 yrs Schemas for only sensory motor functions Sensory info Seeing hearing Motor info Grasping sucking Infants use their senses and motor abilities to interact with objects in the environment and learn about the world Has 6 sub stages increasing from simple and complex reflexes to more purposeful actions Stages 1 and 2 Interaction of sensation perception and cognition First two stages of sensorimotor intelligence involving the infant s own body Stage 1 Birth 1 month Stage of reflexes grasping sucking listening Stage 2 1 4 months First acquired adaptions or habits start coordinating the reflexes eg grasp bottle Stages 3 and 4 Interaction between baby and something else Responds to people toys anything they can touch and move Stage 3 4 8 months Attempts to make interesting things last eg shake a rattle Stage 4 6 12 months New adaptation and anticipation means to the end have a goal Becoming more deliberate cause and effect Stages 3 and 4 Object Permanence Realization that objects or people continue to exist when they are no longer in sight Video Object Permanence Object permanence Peek a boo is fun from about 7 to 12 months At about 8 months infants search immediately removing the cloth after the object is covered but not if they have to wait a few seconds By 2 years children fully understand object permanence Stages 5 and 6 Involves active exploration and experimentation exploration of range of new activities and variations in responses as way of learning Becoming more goal directed and creative Stage 5 ages 12 18 months A little scientist using trial and error Stage 6 ages 18 24 months Can move beyond trial and error to anticipate and pretend using imagination Preoperational Stage Second stage of cognitive development Ages 2 to 7 Use create symbols to represent absent item Use words to represent objects Schemas become more sophisticated Do not have conservation Preoperational Stage Conservation Ability to understand that changing the appearance of something does not change its volume or mass number length Piaget believed that children gain this ability toward the end of the preoperational stage 6 years Video Conservation Preoperational Stage Egocentrism Failure to understand that the world appears differently to different observers Video False belief test Theory of Mind Ability to realize that other people have minds and those minds represent the world in different ways Concrete Operational Stage Third stage of cognitive development About ages 7 through 11 Have conservation Can sort objects into classes or series Can perform simple logic math problem solving Difficulty with abstract concepts e g freedom Video Deductive Reasoning Formal Operational Stage Fourth stage of cognitive development 11 years and up Can think hypothetically foresee consequences Imagine possibilities beyond present Think logically about abstract ideas Question social institutions Cognitive Development Critiques of Piaget Development may not occur in distinct stages Not like graduating from kindergarten to first grade but more like a change of seasons Piaget underestimated young children Motor skills interfered with performance on Piaget s tasks Have to give infants tasks that allow them to show what they know Vygotsky How do we learn Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development Vygotsky s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development Social interaction leads to continuous changes in children s thinking that depend heavily on culture Children construct their knowledge The community provides knowledge and identity Child s cultural context and tools guide development Language is central to cognitive development Vygotsky s Theory of Cognitive Development The Zone of Proximal Development ZPD The range of tasks that are too difficult for child to master alone but that s he can master with the guidance and assistance of more knowing others ZPD lower limit the level of skill reached by the child working independently ZPD upper limit the level of additional Vygotsky s Theory of Cognitive Development Guided Participation and Cultural Contexts Children are apprentices in thinking through their guided participation in social and cultural activities Parents guide children s learning opportunities through decisions about how much and when to expose children to books television child care chores etc May occur when adults and children share activities Occurs during routines and play involving cultural traditions and practices Guided participation is widely used but varies across cultures according to cultural norms what content is to be learned by whom Vygotsky s Theory Vygotsky s theory is a Social