cognition and development

• cognitive devlopment


  the development of mental processes

  -thinking + reasoning
• schemas


  unit of knowledge

  -each containing our understanfing of an object/ person ect

  -become more complex as we aquire more info
• assimilation


  when we add information to an existing schema or apply a schema to a new situation
• accommodation


  when an existing schema has to change because incoming information conflicts with what is already known
• equilibriation


  a mental balance between what is already known and incoming information
• disequilibrium


  creates the motivation to learn

  result of not knowing something
• piagets theory of cognitive development


  -children do not simply know less than adults, children just think entirely different to grown ups

  -divided childhood into stages, each representing the development of new ways of reasoning
• piagets idea of schemas


  children are born with a small number of schemas just enough to allow them to interact with other people

  -in infancy we construct new schemas

  -one of them is a 'me schema' in which all the childs knowledge abouth themselves is stored
• motivation to learn: disequilibrium + equilibriation


  -key element of piagets theory is motivation to learn

  -we are motivated to learn when our existing schemas do not allow us to make sense of something new

  -leads to disequilibrium

  -to escape this we have to adapt to a new situation and learn

  -by doing this we achieve equilibriation= prefered mental state
• piaget - 2 processes of learning to adapting to a new situation so we can understand it

  -assimilation

  -accommodation
• assimilation process


  -takes place when we understand a new experience and equilibriate by adding new information to our existing schemas
• accommodation process


  -takes place in response to dramatically new experiences

  -the child adjustsby either changin current schema or forming new ones
• Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development: AO3 research support

  -piagetsidea that children form their own mental representation of the world

  -Howe et al study of 9-12 year olds placed in to groups of four to investigate and discuss the movement of objects down a slope

  -each child picked up different facts and reached different conclusions

  -each child formed an individual menal representation
• Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development: AO3 Real-world application:


  -piagets findings applied to teaching

  -idea that chidren learn through exploring their enviornment and forming their own mental representations

  -children read up on content forming their own basic mental representations of the topic before the lesson

  -positive impact on socety
• Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development: AO3 Counterpoint:

  P- Piaget's theory has certalnly influenced modern practice in teaching and learning. However, there is no firm evidence showing that children learn better using discovery learning.

  E- In a recent review, Ard Lazander and RuthHarmsen (2016) concluded that discovery learing with considerable input from teachers was the most effective way to learn, but it seems that input from others, not discovery per se, is the crucial element of this effectiveness.

  E- This means that discovery learning is less effective than we would expect if Piaget's theory of learning was correct.
• Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development: AO3 The role of others in learning:

  P- One limitation of Plaget's theory is that he underestimated the role of others in learning.

  E- Piaget saw other people as useful to learning in the sense that they are potential sources of information and learning experiences. Howevet, he saw learning itself as an individual process.

  E- This contrasts with other theories in which learning is seen as a more social process, supported by more knowledgeable others. In particular Lev Vygotsky saw knowledge as existing first between the learner and the more experienced other and only then in the mind of the learner. There is strong evidence to support the idea that learning is enhanced by interaction with others, and this is perhaps better explained by alternative theories.

  L- This means that Piaget's theory may be an incomplete explanation for learning because it doesn't put enough emphasis on the role of other people in learning.
• Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development: AO3 its testable

  P-Piaget's theory is also testable.

  E-Piaget's theory can be tested objectively at different stages, in order to ensure that people can be tracked at certain ages.

  E-This allows for tracking psychological development and therefore identifying if someone is delayed, which can help with potential diagnoses of disorders such as an intellectual/learning disorder

  L-Thus, this allows for us to help spot any delays and therefore refer children for a diagnosis which could have application and value in informing treatments and/or help for them.
• stages of intelectual development

  -four stages

  -each stage is characterised by a different level of reasoning ability

  -all children develop through the same sequences of stages

  -sensoriomor, pre-operational, concrete operational, formal operational
• sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)


  -infant learns to co-ordinate sensory input and motor actions

  -develops object permenance at around 8 months

  -child learns by trial and error that they can deliberatley move their body
• object permenance definition


  a childsunderstanding that objects that are no longer visible to them still exisits
• Bower + wishart- object permenance - contradiction


  -found in infants aged 1 to 4 months continued to reach for an object up to 90 seconds after the lightd had been turned out

  -children have objet permenance before they are 8 months

  -however children did have up to 3 minutes to complete this task, questions whether it was accidental
• piaget- object permenance - support

  -observed babies looking at obhects as they were removed from sight

  -before 8 months- babies immediatley switched their attention when out od sight

  -after 8 months - babies continued to look
• class inclusion definition

  the relation between two classes where all members of one class are included in the other
• piaget + inhleder- class inclusion support

  -showed 7-8 year olds pictures of 5 dogs and 2 cats

  -asked if there was more dogs or animals?

  -children tended to report there were more dogs

  -could not comprehend that dogs are categorised as both
• siegler + svetina - class inclusion contradiction

  -tested 100 5 year olds from slovenia, each undertook 3 sessions of ten class inclusion tasks

  -scores across the 3 sessions improved suggesting they had aquired a real understanding of class inclusion

  -contradicts piagets ageing, as children under 7 can understand class inclusion
• conservationdefinition


  the ability to distinguish between reality and apperance

  example- to understand thatquantity is not changed even when the display is transformed
• piaget + szeminska -conservation - support

  -quantity remains constant even when apperance changes

  -2 containers ( same ammount of liquid and height) - saw they had the same volume

  -when liquid formed into a taller, thinner glas

  -child thought more was in thinner glass

  -before 7 years old children did not understand class inclusion, 5 year olds thought there was more in the thinner glass
• McGarrigle and Donaldson - conservation - contradiction

  -children aged 4-6 can conserve as long as they are not put off in the way they are asked

  - repeat of piagets counters tudy - 72% said there was same number of counters as before they were pushed together
• egocentrism


  seeing things from your own viewpoint and being unaware og other possible viewpoints
• piaget + inhelder - egocentrism

  -3 mountains were shown with either a cross, house or snow on them

  -a doll was placed opposite side of the model to the child

  -child was asked what the doll would see from a range of pictures

  -pre op child (age 4) would find this difficult and would chose thier own POV
• Hughes - egocentrism - contradicition


  -policemen study

  -simmilar to 3 ountains task, 3 dolls

  -in a complex situation, 90% of 4 year olds were able to take on a dfferent point of view

  -suggests that piagets mountain task didnt make sense
• pre operational stage (2-7 years


  -child is egocentric

  -children can classify objects into categories but struggle when there are sub groups - class inclusion

  -children rely on what they see- conservation tasks show that a pre-operational child fails to see that volume cant change
• concrete operational stage (7-11)

  -children can conserve and perform better on egocentric tasks and class inclusion

  -piaget called these concrete operations

  -better reasoning abilities that can be applied to physical objects
• stage of formal operations (11+)

  -alble to foucs on the form of the arguement and not the content

  -capable of scientific reasoning and appreciate abstract ideas

  -formal reasoning
• formal reasoning


  ability to focus on the form of the arguement and not distracted bythe content
• smith et al - formal reasoning - support


  -tested formal reasoning by means of syllogisms

  -'all yellow cats have 2 heads, i have a yellow cat charlie, how many heads does charlie have?'

  -correct answer was two

  -younger children got became distracted by content
• bradmetz - formal reasoning - contradiction


  -assesed formal operational thinking in 62, 15 year olds

  -using pigaets methods

  -1/62 proved capable of formal thinking

  -much more succesful at age 20
• vygotsky's theory of cognitive development


  -childrens reasoning capabililities develop in a sequence that are different at different ages

  -learning is a social process

  -aimed to explain how mental functions arise outof childrens social experiences
• zone of proximal development


  is the differencebetween what a child can do independently and what they can do with help from a more knowledgeable other
• scaffolding


  the equipment to aid learning