Child Psychology 560 Cognitive Development 2 02 27 2014 What Drives Cognitive Development A First Look into the Theory of Piaget Let s Brainstorm Think about what a one year old knows about a ball Write down your thoughts o o o You play with it Bounces Round Who is Jean Piaget Forefather of Stage Theory of Cognitive Development Started off in biological sciences o Specifically with mollusks Worked in a mental health institutions o Then worked with children tested them by IQ how children reason with the world Consistency of why children give the wrong answer What happens at different ages that make children think this way understanding children s reasoning How do species adapt to their environment Ex Can you be in Madison Wisconsin and the US all the same time If you ask a young child you might get the same answer yes or you might not Influences on Development Piaget s Thoughts Biological Maturation o o o Social Experiences o o o Not a lot we can do about this natural pattern of growth physically and mentally Important for children to have an optimum environment Periods of time in development that put a child in a position to think differently Discovery period for cognitive development Child depends on learning from others and communicating to learn about the environment Everything doesn t have to be reinvented Activity o o Children beginning from birth begin to actively participate in the world Curious beings that go out and try to experience the world Axioms of Piaget s Theory Organize what we know into coherent system schema o o o Development Adaptation to reality o o A set of physical actions mental operations concepts or theories used to organize and acquire information about the world Ex We all have a schema for going to a restaurant We don t always organize correctly because we don t have all the information to but we will still organize Learning is inside the individual An adaptation to an individual s reality Adapt through scientific problem solving o Test things out early on through trial and error o As a way to better understand our world Active construction of reality o Ex What happens if I drop my rattle I hear a noise Not passive actively trying to understand what is happening in their world Cognitive development is organismic o o Internal in an individual Dependent on biological maturation ex caterpillar to butterfly Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni Children s book Axiom s of Piaget s The Mechanisms of Development Thinking by our ability to organize information and adapt new information into our schemes o What Happens to New Information Assimilation Fitting new info into current scheme Accommodation New info comes in alter existing scheme or create a new one Ex What makes a cow a cow vs a dog a dog o A four legged creature with an udder is not a dog it s a cow Mentality strive for cognitive equilibration Piaget Overview of Learning Looked at as a balancing scale One end of the scale Integrating reality into one s own view Assimilation Other end of the scale Changing one s view to better match reality Accommodation Center balance Source of Continuity equilibration Fish is Fish picture http 2 bp blogspot com NGMCYtT20Hs T8IH4JKKSaI AAAAAAAAYiw xjLAnwl5THY s1600 il 570xN 323258118 jpg He is assimilating species starts off looking as me o Some accommodation o Starting off with what he knows and letting all the new things fit in based off of what he already knows Being able to go out on land is not part of the fish s reality Equilibration o Water is the best world for me I should focus on what is down here because I can t experience those things What do you know about a ball When you are 1 Some of the classes thoughts o Rolls bounces round smooth different games hold it suck it throw it doesn t break kick it thing Beach ball All these things fit with what I know Tennis ball Also don t have to change what you already know assimilate to what we said a ball was Golf ball also fits with what we know about a ball Although not smooth so we need to change what we know not all balls are smooth Some hurt more some hurt less some are small and some are big accounting for some information by accommodation changing some of the schema Football not round we need to accommodate and say not all balls are round Is this a ball a picture of princesses at a ball dancing o We use the same words to mean different things Final Thoughts The process of cognitive development is like a pendulum We are in a constant state of taking in new information Piaget s Stage Theory Thinking behavior reflects a particular underlying structure o Based on one s biological development what we know is dependent on our own biological development Discontinuous Stages are distinct hierarchical qualitatively different Application is broad ages content Transitions between stages brief Invariant Sequence o Stages are characterized like this don t go back stages aren t at two stages at a different time since information is qualitatively different Piaget s State Theory of Cognitive Development Quick Overview o Sensorimotor Birth 2 years old o o Preoperational thought 2 7 years old Understanding that something can represent something else Children engage in egocentric behavior Concrete Operations 7 11 years old o From reflexive actions to more coordinated movements Engage in their ability to think more logically about concrete things Formal Operations 11 years Thinking of things more abstractly Sensorimotor Stage o Infants know the world through their senses and their actions o Ex sucking is a reflex you are born with but then it becomes more controlled Circular reactions with children repetitive reactions Primary Act Engaging sense of reactions noting the effect that it has on their own body Ex playing with voices Repeat the actions and keep going Secondary Act Note the effect on the own body or in relation with what is happening in the world Note specific cause effect relation between action and outcome Ex bat at something above them in their crib noting cause and effect Reactions become more sophisticated Tertiary Act Act Note effect Deliberately vary actions targets Note effect Represent causal relations between actions and effects o Noting differential outcome on a particular event Development of Mental Representations Object Permanence Idea of does an object exist even if you cannot see it A not B Error Show a baby an object place it under a basket if A baby lifts the blanket they show object permanence B If placed