Cognitive development 2

• Strengths of Piaget

  • Developed a wide array of information across different domains under one theory
  • Stimulated a vast number of research studies (he established that children are not passive)
  • Supportive evidence (from Piaget and others)
  • Pushed cognitive theory forward
• Criticisms of Piaget's theory

  • Competence or performance? (they could not do the physical requirement not their understanding)
  • Does development really occur in stages? (development change is continuous not discontinuous)
  • Concepts of assimilation and accommodation are too vague
  • Definitions of how infants transition between stages is too vague
  • Proposed universality of stages (Rogoff, 1998) – in some cases children progress faster or progress differently without some stages
  • Development may not be domain general (Gopnik & Wellman, 1994)
• Since Piaget, researchers have modified some of his experiments including changing the question/task
• They have shown that his findings can be replicated but younger children can achieve greater success with modified versions of the tasks (Beilin, 1971, 1978)
• Post-Piaget criticisms


  • Little evidence for distinct 'stages', with development now believed to be more gradual than stage-like (Flavell, 1992)
  • Children's abilities are related to experience and culture (Fahrmeier, 1978: Hausa tribe children do not receive formal education - cannot conserve until 11 years of age although Piaget says it should happen at 7 years of age)
• Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)


  • Primary outcome: object permanence approx. 8-10 months
  • Test 1: Blanket and ball paradigm
  • Test 2: A not B location test
• Empirical evidence criticising Piaget's stage theory

  • Bowler (1965): Evidence of size constancy in 1 – 2 month old's
  • Baillargeon, Spelke and Wasserman (1985) & Baillargeon, 1987: Drawbridge task
  • Baillargeon & De Vos (1991) – young infants at a much younger age understand the properties of the surrounding world
• Preoperational stage (2-7 years)

  • Primary outcome: reduction of egocentrism
  • Test: Three-mountains task
• Hughes (1975) hide-seek policeman game: 90% children aged 3-5 now pass
• Concrete operational stage (7-11 years)


  • Primary outcome: conservation – semantic understanding
  • Test: Conservation tasks
• McGarrigle & Donaldson (1974) - In the coin task, children witnessed a 'naughty teddy' mess up the coins. Success rates tripled: Children more much better at conserving after watching the 'accidental transformation'
• Moore & Frye (1986) - Children (6 yrs) respond in a similar fashion in each condition
• Variation in how we learn to conserve – dependent on the metric being assessed (e.g. number (6 yrs), liquid, length or mass (6-7 yrs), weight (9 yrs) and volume (11 yrs)
• Gelman (1972) - Magic Mice Paradigm. 3-yr olds. Choose the winning and losing plate of mice (which had more). Demonstrate ability to identify 'winning' plate despite layout changes
• Formal operational stage


  • The pendulum task - work out which factor was most important in determining
  • If a card has a vowel on one side, then it has an even number on the other. Questions over negative strategy (e.g. Watson & Johnson –Laird, 1972)
• Russel (1982): Role of social constructivism on conservation. Being more vocal plays a role in this
• Vygotsky's perspectives on cognitive development

  • Ontogenetic (changes across the lifespan)
  • Microgenetic (short-term changes)
  • Phylogentic (evolutionary changes)
  • Sociohistorical (cultural changes over time)
• Vygotsky's theory


  • Children are born with few mental functions which are gradually transformed by their culture
  • Cognitive abilities do not develop on their own, but with the help of adults - by sharing an activity with a more experienced partner (who provides scaffolding)
  • The social world determines the structure and pattern of internal cognition (not cognitive structures as Piaget believed)
• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)


  • Independent performance + Assisted performance
  • The child internalises knowledge learned in a social context, decontextualises it, then adult gradually withdraws support until child able to take over the activity alone
• Role of language in Vygotsky's theory


  • The primary method through which adults pass their knowledge onto children
  • Develops into a powerful tool in its own right
  • Cultural differences in language syntax can affect cognitive development
• Piaget vs Vygotsky


  • Piaget: children pass through a series of stages of intellectual development before they are able to reason and think logically. Teaching is only effective if the child is 'ready'
  • Vygotsky: Development is continuous, not stage-like. Cognitive development is critical through social interaction, especially with adults
• Piaget's theory was a maturation one, while Vygotsky suggests development is continuous
• Both Piaget and Vygotsky were constructivists, but Vygotsky believed the child constructs knowledge through interactions with people as well as objects
• Unlike Piaget and Vygotsky, nativists (e.g. Fodor/Chomsky) argue that the cognitive system is fixed and composed of highly constrained input modules which change little with age and experience
• Piaget's idea was that cognitive change occurs across all domains, whereas others (e.g. Karmiloff-Smith) believe change can be domain specific
• Vygotsky's view is that development is limited to the knowledge and experience of the 'tutor'
• Piaget highlighted the concept of stages but gave little recognition to social interaction, while Vygotsky placed importance on social interactions but disagreed with cognitive stages
• Piaget gave a theory to test which makes it easier to disprove unlike Vygotsky's work
• Howard Beilin


  American psychologist who conducted research on children's cognitive development, with a particular focus on memory and problem-solving. His research built on Piaget's work and challenged some of Piaget's assumptions about children's cognitive abilities.
• Cognitive development

  The study of how children's thinking and understanding changes over time
• Reasons to study cognitive development

  • Behaviour or thinking that appears dysfunctional may be attributable to the child's stage of cognitive development
  • Allows us to understand how children conceptually represent the world around them
  • To know what's abnormal, we have to know what's 'normal'
• Jean Piaget


  A psychologist who proposed a theory of cognitive development (1896-1980)
• Piaget's theory

  • Previous theories (behaviorism and psychoanalysis) viewed the child as passive
  • Influenced by Darwinism and considered biological evolution
  • Early work documenting his own 3 children to profile development
  • Emphasized learning through active exploration
• Piaget's theory is considered the most important cognitive theory to emerge from the study of human development
• Constructivist theory


  A theory based on analogies with biological evolution and adaptation, where human infants are born with the ability to adapt to their environment
• Key aspects of Piaget's constructivist theory

  • Schemes (singular = schema)
  • Developmental processes: Assimilation, Accommodation, Equilibration
  • Stages of development: Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational
• Goal of cognitive development

  Logical, abstract and disembedded thinking
• Schemes


  Basic unit of understanding, a cognitive structure that forms the basis of organising actions and mental representations so that we can understand and act upon the environment
• Types of schemes

  • Reflexive actions (sucking, looking, grasping)
  • Internal mental representations (operations) rather than physical activity
• Behavioural schemes


  An infant's knowledge of objects is limited to what they can represent through overt actions (0-2yrs)