cognitive development

• Key Researcher: Piaget 1930s-1980s

  • believed children think differently to adult and go through 4 universal stages of development
• Schema- A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. They are developed from experience.
• Assimilation- A form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information and incorporate it into an existing schema.
• Accommodation-when we acquire new information that changes our understanding of a topic so we form new schema and/or radically change existing schema.
• Piaget said that the motivation for accommodation is because we want to be in a state of equilibrium
• when we don't understand something we experience a state of disequilibrium. Since the balance between what we know and what we are experiencing is unbalanced (not in harmony)
• Outline what Piaget meant by the word schema (3 marks)

  According to Piaget schema is a mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing which are developed from experience. Piaget believed that children are born with a small number of schema which are developed into the 'me-schema' in infancy when the child gains knowledge about themselves.
• Distinguish between assimilation and accommodation (4 marks)

  Learning and adapting to new information involves the processes of assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is a form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information and incorporate (assimilate) it into an existing schema. Whereas accommodation is when we acquire new information that changes our understanding of a topic so we form new schema and/or radically change existing schema.
• Key words: schemas, assimilation, accommodation, equilibration
• key tip: assimilation (has a double 's' stands for same schema) a new schema isn't formed
• disequilibrium is an uncomfortable psychological state
• cognition refers to all our mental processes. These include memory perception, language and thinking development
• One strength of Piaget’s theory is research support for the formation of unique mental representations.

  Howe et al. demonstrated this in a study in which children aged 9–12 years were placed in groups of four to investigate and discuss the movement of objects down a slope. all the children were found to have increased their understanding. Instead each child had picked up different facts and reached slightly different conclusions.

  This means that each child had formed an individual mental representation of how objects move on slopes – as Piaget would have expected.
• Piaget suggested that people of all ages acquire new knowledge to escape the unpleasant sensation of disequilibrium- desire to learn is innately motivated.

  However, it has been suggested that Piaget overstated the role of motivation in learning because he studied an unrepresentative and highly intelligent sample of children

  these children were arguably more motivated to learn than most.
• Intellectual development: key words- object permanence, conservation, egocentrism, class inclusion
• Sensorimotor stage 0-2 years: Piaget- baby’s early focus is on physical sensation and movement. Babies learn by trial and error that they can deliberately move their bodies, and eventually that they can move other objects. baby develops an understanding that people are separate objects and they acquire a basic sense of language. around eight months baby understands object permanence. Piaget observed babies and noted that before eight months, babies immediately switched their attention away from the object once it was out of sight. from around eight months they would continue to look for it.
• Pre-operational stage (approximately 2–7 years) is the stage of cognitive development in which children begin to understand abstract concepts and to think logically.
• Pre-operational stage (approximately 2–7 years):

  Conservation- understanding that quantity remains constant even when the appearance of objects changes.

  Egocentrism-see the world only from one’s own point of view

  Class inclusion- children begin to understand classification – the idea that objects fall into categories. So, most pre-operational children can classify pugs, bull terriers, and retrievers as dogs.
• Stage of concrete operations (approximately 7–11 years)

  > most children can conserve and perform much better on tasks of egocentrism and class inclusion

  >still struggle to reason about abstract ideas and to imagine objects or situations they cannot see
• Stage of formal operations (11+)

  , children became capable of formal reasoning. This means that children become able to focus on the form of an argument and not be distracted by its content. Formal reasoning can be tested by using the pendulum task
• Sensorimotor stage

  0–2 years
• Pre-operational stage

  2–7 years
• Conservation

  2-7 years
• Egocentrism & three mountains task

  2-7 years
• class inclusion

  2-7 years
• Stage of concrete operations

  7-11 years
• stage of formal operations

  11+
• 2-7 years

  pre-operational stage, conservation, egocentrism & three mountains task, class inclusion
• Sensorimotor stage (approximately 0–2 years)- Piaget observed babies looking at objects and watched as the objects were removed from sight. He noted that before eight months, babies immediately switched their attention away from the object once it was out of sight. However, from around eight months they would continue to look for it.
• Conservation- Piaget placed two rows of eight identical counters side by side. Even young children correctly reasoned that each row of counters had the same number. when the counters in one of the rows were pushed closer together, pre-operational children struggled to conserve, usually said there were fewer counters in that row.
• Conservation- liquid conservation procedure Piaget- two identical containers (A&B) were placed side by side with the contents at the same height, most children spotted that they contained the same volume. if the liquid was poured into a taller, thinner vessel (C), younger children typically believed there was more liquid in taller vessel.
• Zone of proximal development (ZPD)- The gap between a child’s current level of functioning and what they can potentially do with the right help.
• Scaffolding- Process of helping a learner cross the ZPD, given their stage of development
• Levels of scaffolding- 5 (most help) = demonstration. 4 = Preparation for child. 3 = Indication of materials. 2 = Specific verbal instructions. 1 (least help) = General prompts.
• ccording to Vygotsky learning involves crossing the zone of proximal development. This requires scaffolding provided by adults and more experienced peers.
• what is Piagets theory of conservation

  Conservation is the cognitive ability to appreciate that the quantity of an object remains the same, even when its appearance changes.

  For example, in the liquid conservation task, after showing pre operational children two identical beakers with the same volume of liquid and then pouring liquid into a thinner, taller beaker, most of the children reported that there was more liquid in the taller beaker.
• Discuss Selman's research on perspective-taking.

  Perspective-Taking = The cognitive ability to take on the viewpoint or perspective of another person in both physical and social situations. ‘Physical’ examples may include Piaget and Inhelder’s 3 Mountains Task (testing egocentrism), whereas ‘social’ examples include being able to take on multiple perspectives in an argument or conversation.

  In developing 4 stages of perspective-taking

  Selman (1971) assessed 60 children (10 boys and 10 girls, each of ages 4, 5 and 6) using perspective-taking tasks. These included the ‘Holly and her kitten’ task, which involved identifying the emotional states of Holly, her father and her friend, whose kitten is stuck up a tree. Holly must therefore make a decision, after promising her father not to climb trees, to rescue the kitten or not.
• Outline Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development. A01

  Vygotksy suggested learning was a social process, where children acquired new knowledge and more advanced reasoning skills, from more-advanced others, who were called ‘experts’ - through scaffolding

  • Language was seen as a crucial cognitive skill, which developed depending on social and cultural factors (i.e. a domain-specific approach to explaining development).

  • Vygotsky suggested some aspects of knowledge could only be acquired through certain interactions with ‘experts’. The knowledge is first ‘intermental’ and becomes ‘intramental’ as the learner crosses the zone of proximal development.

  The Zone of Proximal Development = The distance between actual developmental level (determined by independent problem solving) and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers”.
• Describe what Piaget meant by equilibration.

  Equilibration refers to the process of restoring cognitive balance. It follows a state of disequilibrium or cognitive imbalance where new information is inconsistent with existing schema or understanding.

  Equilibration results from the processes of accommodation, whereby an existing schema changes due to this new information, and assimilation, whereby new information is added to an existing schema. [4]