Developmental Psychology

• Cognitive Development Theories

  • Piaget's stage theory
  • Sociocultural theories
  • Core-Knowledge theories
  • Information processing theories
  • Dynamic-system theories
• Theory


  An idea that explains something; a set of guiding principles

  Why theories?Provide a framework to understand specific behaviors

  • Raise fundamental questions about human nature
  • Generate new directions for research
• Cognitive Development


  The study of the development of general "thinking-related" processes like remembering, problem-solving, and decision-making. Cognition seeps through all areas of psychology. Includes learning math and social skills.
• Piaget


  • Jean Piaget, 1896-1980
  • Piaget thought children were smarter
  • Believed they were active and motivated in their own learning / desire to interact with the world
• Piaget & Early Education

  • Inspired by John Dewey & Maria Montessori
  • Maria Montessori encouraged hand held learning in young children, Piaget loved this
• Piaget Overview - Stage Theory

  1. Development happens in discrete, discontinuous, qualitatively different stages

  2. Very little transitional period, you don't fall back onto previous phase, you move on
• Piaget's Stages

  • Sensorimotor (0-2 years)
  • Preoperational (2-7 years)
  • Concrete Operational (7-12 years)
  • Formal Operational (12+ years)
• Piaget believed we can learn a lot from children's successes; but can learn even more from their mistakes
• Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)


  • Children use their sensory and motor
  • They don't have object permanence. Out of sight, out of mind
  • Babies start to pass this test from 8 months, but Piaget believed that their object knowledge remains "fragile"
  • A-not-B error: infants perseverate to find object in previous location
• Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)


  • Symbolic representation: language & mental imagery
  • Piaget believed that children of this age assume that other people see, hear, and feel exactly the same way the child does
  • Egocentrism - an inability to see a situation from another's perspective
  • Parallel play
  • Centration - focus on a single, perceptually salient feature while ignoring other relevant information
• Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)


  • Children can reason logically about concrete objects and events
  • Characteristic "Mistakes": children cannot learn how pendulums swing
• Which factor matter for how long it takes for a pendulum to complete its arc?
• Factors that matter for pendulum arc time

  • Weight
  • Height of drop
  • Length of string (correct)
• Formal Operational Stage (12+years)


  • Children have reached adult-like stages of reasoning
• Stage theory - continuity within each stage


  1. Within each stage, children are forced to assimilate new information into existing schemas and adjust the schemas so that they, in turn, can accommodate the new information

  2. Assimilation: translate new concepts to fit existing concepts

  3. Accomodation: Adapt current concept to fit new information

  4. Equilibration: the process of balancing assimilation & accommodation => stable understanding
• Assimilate new concept of cat into previous definition. She has to change what her concept of cat is and accommodate what dog is.
• Piaget's basic assumptions about children's nature

  • Children are mentally active from birth
  • Children can learn many things on their own
  • Children are intrinsically motivated to learn
• Piaget is a

  Constructivist: Children shape their own learning!
• Critiques on Piaget

  • Vague about the mechanism behind change
  • Children more competent than Piaget recognized (e.g., object permanence by 3.5 months)
  • Understated socio-cultural factors
  • Children's thinking is not as uniform and consistent as Piaget proposed
• Discrepancy between Piaget's claims and empirical findings

  Competence / Performance Distinction: The ability to demonstrate knowledge may be masked by the demands of the task, unrelated to the knowledge itself
• Object permanence in 3 ½ and 4 ½ month-old infants
• Core Knowledge Theories


  • Focus: We are born with innate knowledge in specific domains / content areas
• Two types of core-knowledge theorists

  • Nativists: innate, domain specific knowledge 75% learning mechanisms 25%
  • Constructivists: learning mechanisms 75% domain specific knowledge 25%
• Core Knowledge Domains

  • Objects
  • Action
  • Number
  • Space
  • Social
• Objects

  • Infants are born with principles for reasoning about objects
  • Continuity (object permanence, things don't just disappear)
  • Solidity
  • Support
• Continuity: things continue to exist, even when hidden from sight


  An example study - the carrot study! (Violation of expectations)
• Solidity: things can't pass through one another


  An example! The rotating screen!
• Contacts / Support: unsupported objects will fall


  1. month old babies have some rudimentary understanding of contact / support
• Number - Approximate Number System (ANS)


  • If they are habituated to 8 dots or 16 dots
  • 6 month olds can discriminate 1:2 ratio but not 2:3 ratio
• Contradicts Piaget's belief that children don't have expectations about numbers
• Number - Approximate Number System (ANS) Experiment


  • Left: changing number
  • Right: same number
  • If they can differentiate the two numbers => look longer on the changing stream
  • If can't => spend same time looking at both steams
• Language helps infants develop number sense
• Socio-cultural Theories

  • Focus: Environmental influence on child development implication for educational practices
• Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural theory


  • Assumptions: Children learn from others
  • Adults / experienced learners are crucial in children's learning
  • Development is continuous
• Vygotsky vs Piaget


  In contrast to Piaget, who emphasizes on the active role children play in their own learning
• Vygotsky's sociocultural theory


  • Visualizing the zone of proximal development
  • Social Scaffolding: teachers provide a temporary framework to support student's learning
  • Join Attention: social partners intentionally focus on a referent
• Information-processing theories

  • Focus: Mechanisms behind change / development
  • Cognitive system ~= computer processing system
• Executive function


  • The general ability children develop to plan, decide, inhibit, and monitor their own action in relation to a set goal
  • Inhibitory Control: the ability to resist temptation / delayed gratification test
• The Marshmallow Test - one now or two later
• Delayed gratification


  • Doesn't predict behavior problems
  • Predicts academic achievement
  • Matters more for children with non-degree mothers