PSYCH 2410 1st Edition Lecture 8Outline of Piaget RevisedI. Evaluating Piaget’s TheoryII. Evaluation of Piaget’s ClaimsOutline of Theories of Cognitive Development I. Information-Processing TheoriesII. Core Knowledge TheoriesIII. Sociocultural TheoriesTheories of Cognitive DevelopmentI. Information-Processing Theories- Children undergo continuous change- Focused on describing how cognitive change occurs- Computer Analogyo Hardware: memory, processing speedo Software: knowledge, strategy These develop with age - Nature and nurture- Child as a problem-solvero Ex: pulling a string to get a toyo Task analysis: goalobstacle strategy- Problem Solving Requires…o Planning Lack of inhibition (kids get distracted) Young kids are overoptimistico Analogical Reasoning In infants: (when solving the pull-cloth-to-get-toy problem)- At 10 months requires “surface similarity”- By 13 months can generalize knowledge even to superficially different problems In children: (when comparing two objects)- 6 years cite superficial similarities- 9 years cite deeper relationshipso camcorder and tape recorder- Basic Processes: Hardwareo Memory Encoding-committing to memory Children are worse at encoding than adults- Don’t always encode all relevant informationo Balance-scale problem Speed of processing improves with age- Controversy over why it improveso Due to experience and learning alone; practiceo Biological maturation increases speed- Acquiring and Managing Information: Softwareo Strategies: techniques to improve encoding Rehearsal Selective attention Utilization Deficiency - New strategies often result in poor performance- Cost-benefit analysis to determine strategyo Content Knowledge All the information you learn from experience Facts, knowledge about the world Greater knowledge of a topic improves recall Greater knowledge makes it easier to relate new information to existing knowledge - Draw connectionsII. Core Knowledge Theories- Domain Specificityo Specific mental facilities that respond to environmental input related to a particular domain- Principleso Innate cognitive capabilities o Domain specificity: innate knowledge bundled into particular areaso Domains only for info that is ubiquitous throughout species evolutionary history and which is adaptiveo Informal theories organize information within a domaino Emphasizes nature with a little bit of experience - Informational theorieso Naïve physics Object principles: guide infants’ expectations about how objects behave in the world- Solidityo How solid objects work (Spelke)o Study: habituation method; watch dropping ball until they habituate to ito Floor is added mid way through and box is coveredo Infants show proper response- Cohesiono Infants expect objects not to fall apart when moved Surprised by sand- Spatiotemporal Continuityo An object cannot blip out of existence and reappear at another location without traversing the space and time between o Ex: ball rolling behind two screenso Naïve psychology o Naïve biology We learn so rapidly that there’s no way we aren’t born with some knowledge- Assume continuous development: infants similar to adults in basic and important ways- Some core knowledge domains are thought to be present at birth- Infants know quite a lot about objectso Piaget thought we had a lot of imitationsIII. Sociocultural Theories- Principleso Development occurs via social interactiono Emphasizes use of cultural toolso Vygotskyian Theory Children as teachers and learners Children as products of culture Interested in how change occurs- Guided participation an social scaffoldingo Knowledge individuals guide less knowledgeable individualso Intersubjectivity: shared communication Joint attention: when infant and social partners focus on a common object/referent- Develops by 9 months- They associate word they hear with object they are looking at- Baldwin research Social referencing: children look to social partners for guidance on how torespond to unfamiliar events Zone of proximal development: range of performance between what children can do on own, and what they can do with optimal support- Give them tools, just don’t solve it- Best support occurs at the level just beyond child’s abilitiesSUMMARY:- Theories are not mutually exclusive- Theories constantly changing to incorporate new data- No single theory accounts for all of cognitive development, nor should we try to seek oneo Overarching theories aren’t as
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