CHD2220 Exam 3 Lecture and Etext notes Murray Krantz Chapters 9 10 12 13 Chapter 9 Cognitive and Language Development in Early Childhood Preoperational Stage of development Piaget uses operational to refer to logical systems of thought that eventually emerge in middle childhood Preschoolers are incapable of logical thought systems reasoning hence the term preoperational o Ex children ages 3 6 are unable to relate things or think backwards such as the fact that subtraction is the opposite of addition Preoperational development operational logical systems of thought which emerge in middle childhood o ex Age 7 or 8 understand all horses are animals but all animals are not horses o addition is reverse of subtraction preoperational preschoolers are incapable of advanced forms of reasoning o he emphasizes on limitations not their strengths Symbolic Function ability to use symbols to represent or stand for perceived objects and events and is a major turning point in cognitive development Identified by the end of the second year Deferred Imitation children observe the behavior of a model and imitate that behavior after a delay or when the model is not present Requires storage and retrieval from memory o Ex an infant may imitate their father s use of a spoon after he has left but would not be able to do so hours or days later specific goals o Enhances in perception memory and improvements in motor capacity enable more precise imitation o Children are best able to show superior deferred imitation when the model s behavior helps the model achieve Symbolic pretend play pretending that an object is something other than it really is o Ex child pretending to drink out of an empty cup pretending a doll is a real person Pretend skills distinct cognitive skills required to initiate and sustain pretend play course of development o Shifting context 2 and 3 yr old children require support from play setting to initiate and sustain their pretense pretending to eat in a kitchen Older children however are able to shift the context and performing routine behaviors outside of typical setting transforming an abandoned car into a kitchen o Substituting Objects children substitute one object for another in their pretend play By age 3 they can transform any object into the props they need for their play and well as incorporate imaginary guests o Substituting other agents for Oneself Children gradually use objects like dolls as agents in their pretend play As they grow older the objects take a more active role until they become their own agent and child gives them human like qualities and has conversations with them dolls have a human like role o Sequencing and Socialization of Pretend Episodes children coordinate acts of pretense into sequences of increasing length and complexity throughout preschool years Ex hair combing may sequence into complete grooming of pretend object Also begin to incorporate behaviors for agents which reflect conventional roles ex can identify what police do and what their job doesn t do ex catch crooks vs milking cows Mental images are another way in which symbolic function is expressed They account for mental representations of external objects or events Enables children to think about things when they aren t present or events before during or after they take place and therefore can integrate experiences Centration Piaget s notion that preschool aged children tend to focus their attention on minute and inconsequential aspects of their experience Ex will remember nothing about his babysitter other than her bright colored earrings Preconcepts disorganized illogical representations of the child s experiences establish a foundation for the eventual emergence of logical concepts in the subsequent stage of cognitive development o Ex representation of the zoo may include many relevant images such as animals but also includes irrelevant images of popcorn and events unique to one s family Induction we derive general principles from particular examples Deduction we use general principles to predict particular outcomes Piaget believed that preoperational children are incapable of thinking inductively and deductively o Transduction Transductive reasoning reasoning with the unsystematic collections of images which constitute their preconcepts private and meaningful only within her preconceptual understanding of the story This type of reasoning usually has a good amount of illogical reasoning and is poorly organized because the pre concepts are imperfect representations of the world Can only reason with snap shots of experiences Preoperational children use this type of reasoning since they can t use inductive or deductive reasoning Syncretism process by which bits and pieces of information and experience come together to form the pre concept Pre school kids are fun because they are goofy which is usually based on syncretic processes which are unorganized and self centered Pre concepts disorganized illogical representations of child s experiences It is derived from a centrated perception More logic begins working into the pre concept of the mind and usually has a lot to do with experience Pre conceptual understanding of everything One of the most important pre concept is that of the self The first concept of the self is the self pre concept Start systematically recording information they see in their world Egocentrism ability to conceptualize the perspective of other individuals o Preoperational child is unable to do so have difficulty seeing the world the way others see it Three mountain problem Piaget s experiments with children between 4 and 12 who were shown a 3 D model of a mountain scene They were each asked to observe the model from their perspective and were then asked to describe the doll s point of view from different angles Used to illustrate Egocentrism Children under 8 demonstrated egocentrism and described their own view as that of the doll there has been modified research that has identified some non egocentric responses Irreversibility preschoolers cannot mentally reverse their transductive sequences of thought be able to recognize they have a sister but not that their sister has a sister limitation of preoperational thought considered a liability in problem solving child can take something apart but not put it back together Limitations that affect child s reasoning Classification tendency to group objects on basis of particular sets of characteristics Organized on the basis of
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