Cognition And Development

• Accommodation


  When we are exposed to new information which radically changes our existing knowledge, and so to deal with this information, we accommodate it by forming a new schema
• Assimilation


  When we are exposed to new information which does not radically change our existing knowledge, and so we assimilate (incorporate) it into an existing schema
• Disequilibrium


  The unpleasant emotions associated with not being able to fully understand a new situation, which motivates us to learn and explore our environment to improve our understanding and develop our schemas
• Equilibrium


  The desired mental state where our new (accommodation) or existing (assimilation) schemas are complete and we can fully understand a new scenario
• Schema


  A mental framework of knowledge and beliefs about a specific place, object, person or time. Schemas influence our cognitive processing, by providing 'short-cuts' (allowing us to process large volumes of data quickly and efficiently, hence avoiding sensory overload), but can also lead to perceptual errors through distorting sensory stimuli.
• Some schemas are innate e.g. all babies are born with the schema for sucking and gripping (innate reflexes)
• Schemas become more sophisticated with time, allowing us to understand more aspects of and increasingly complex situations
• Object permanence


  The cognitive ability to appreciate that an object continues to exist even when the individual cannot see it anymore
• Egocentrism


  The tendency of pre-operational children to view the world from their own perspective, in both physical terms and in social situations
• Class inclusion


  The cognitive ability to appreciate that a group of objects can form a class, and this same group can be a subset of an even larger group
• Conservation


  The cognitive ability to appreciate that the quantity of an object remains the same, even when its appearance changes
• Zone of Proximal Development


  The distance between the actual developmental level as 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.
• Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development


  • Emphasised the role of more-advanced reasoning skills, from more-advanced others called 'experts'
  • Saw language as a crucial cognitive skill that developed at a time and rate compared to other cognitive skills (domain-specific approach)
  • Believed cognitive development occurred in a set series of stages, in contrast with Piaget's domain-general approach
• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)


  The distance between the actual developmental level as 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
• Crossing the ZPD


  1. Learners receive help from more experienced peers through the process of scaffolding

  2. Scaffolding techniques: Recruitment, reduction of degrees of freedom, direction maintenance, marking critical features, demonstration

  3. Level and frequency of help given by experts decreases as the child crosses the ZPD
• A major weakness of Vygotsky's theory is that it does not take into account individual differences between students/children, in terms of social aptitude and personality
• According to Vygotsky, if two children experienced the same interactions with the same peers, they should both develop the same understanding and reasoning skills, but Howe et al (1992) found that children who observed the same motion developed new understandings and viewpoints
• Violation of Expectation (VOE) research

  If a child has an intact understanding of part of the physical world, they will have expectations about how objects behave, and when these expectations are violated, the child looks at the scene for a longer time because they are surprised, and their physical reasoning system (PRS) means that they pay attention to scenes which may improve their understanding of the physical world

  
• Containment


  The cognitive ability to recognise that once an object has been placed into a container and the lid has been closed, the object will still be there after the lid has been removed
• Support


  The idea that an object will fall if unsupported, but will remain stationary if it is resting on a stable horizontal surface
• Physical Reasoning System (PRS)


  The innate predisposition to pay attention to 'surprising' events which are not in line with our expectations, in an effort to improve and advance our understanding of the physical world, and event categories
• Bremner drew a distinction between behavioural response and behavioural understanding, emphasising that the two are not the same, and that Baillargeon may have overestimated the significance of her results
• Perspective-Taking


  The cognitive ability to take on the viewpoint or perspective of another person in both physical and social situations
• Selman's Levels of Perspective-Taking

  • Level 0 (3-6 years) - Socially Egocentric: Children are unable to take on the perspectives of others and so are egocentric
  • Level 1 (6-8 years) - Social Information Role-Taking: Children are now able to take on only a single perspective at each time
  • Level 2 (8-10 years) - Self-Reflective Role-Taking: Children can fully identify with and take on the viewpoint of another person, but again, only focusing on one perspective at a time
• Selman's 4 stages of perspective-taking

  1. Level 0 (3-6 years) = Socially Egocentric = Children are unable to take on the perspectives of others and so are egocentric

  2. Level 1 (6-8 years) = Social Information Role-Taking = Children are now able to take on only a single perspective at each time

  3. Level 2 (8-10 years) = Self-Reflective Role-Taking = Children can fully identify with and take on the viewpoint of another person, but again, only focusing on one perspective at a time

  4. Level 3 (10-12 years) = Mutual Role-Taking = Children can fully identify with and take on multiple perspectives at the same time

  5. Level 4 (12+ years) = Social and Conventional System Role-Taking = Children understand that social rules are needed to maintain order when simply understanding the other person is not enough
• Schultz, Selman and La Russo (2003) attempted to complete Selman's original explanation of social cognition through making the following additions: Interpersonal understanding (tested above), interpersonal negotiation strategies (understanding how to deal with conflicting viewpoints and standing your ground) and an awareness of personal meaning of relationships
• There is a lack of clarity over the precise role of perspective-taking


  Specifically whether it is important for the development of prosocial or antisocial behaviour
• Perspective-taking abilities became more advanced with age

  Reduced the number of infant-parent conflicts when in supermarkets
• Bullies suffered from no perspective-taking impairments


  This is not what we would expect if such an ability is required for the development of cooperative social cognition
• Perspective-taking may have little theoretical value in explaining the development of advanced and mature social cognition
• Reducing social cognition to perspective-taking only is not a holistic approach
• Children with ADHD scored significantly worse on perspective-taking tasks


  Compared to a control group of neurotypical children
• Through pinpointing the exact impairments experienced by children on the autistic spectrum, more efficient treatments can be developed
• Theory of Mind (ToM)


  The ability to understand/identify what other people are thinking and feeling, through a 'mind-reading'-like process
• Those with autism may have a deficit of ToM, meaning that they cannot understand the emotions of others, or even comprehend that individuals can have emotions different to their own
• Misunderstandings due to ToM deficits may explain why those with autism have impairments in empathy, social communication and social imagination
• Other social deficits caused by ToM impairments include a lack of understanding that behaviour impacts how others think and/or feel, alongside problems differentiating fact from fiction, as characterised by poor performance on 'false-belief' tasks, such as the Sally-Anne task
• 85% of the control group (14 with Down's Syndrome and 27 neurotypical children) correctly answered the Sally-Anne task, compared to 20% of the autistic group
• This supports the idea that a ToM deficit is responsible for autistic children being unable to understand that people can believe something that is not true
• This lack of understanding of others' viewpoints and emotions may also explain another characteristic trait of autism: difficulties predicting the behaviour or emotional states of others