1. Chapter 7 Cognition

2. Constructivism – people are active learners
Chapter 7: Cognition
Cognition: the activity of knowing and the processes through which knowledge is acquired and problems are solved
Constructivism – people are active learners

3. Jean Piaget ( )
Cognition unfolds in a sequence of four stages.

4. Genetic Epistemology
How we come to know reality
Clinical Method
Question and answer technique
Used to discover how children think about problems

5. Clinical Method (example of a 6 year old)
Piaget: Why is it dark at night?
Van: Because we sleep better, and so that it shall be dark in the rooms.
Piaget: Where does the darkness come from?
Van: Because the sky becomes grey.
Piaget: What makes the sky become grey?
Van: The clouds become dark.
Piaget: How is that?
Van: G-d makes the clouds become dark.

6. Piaget
Intelligence: How well we adapt
Scheme (s) or schema (schemata)/cognitive structures
Organization
- Children systematically combine existing schemes into new and more complex ones.

7. Adaptation
Adjusting to the environment
Using assimilation and accommodation
Assimilation
Using existing schemes to interpret new experiences
E.g., Birds are things that fly
Accommodation
Modifying schemes to fit new experience
E.g., Butterflies are different than Birds even though they both fly
Equilibrium
A resolution of conflict to create a balance

8. Process of Change in Jean Piaget’s Theory
Figure 7.1 Process of change in Jean Piaget’s theory.

9. Cognitive Development Piaget’s Theory
Piaget’s Four Stages
Cognition unfolds in a sequence of four stages.
Each is age-related and distinctive.
Each stage is discontinuous from and more advanced than another.

10. Piaget
Sensorimotor Stage
Newborn uses reflexes to understand world
Eventually - mental representation
Object Permanence
A, not B, error – 8 to 12 month-olds search for an object in the place where they last found it (A) rather than in its new hiding place (B).

11. The Sensorimotor Period
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12. Symbolic Function Substage (2-4 Years)
Symbolic thought: Mental representation of an object that is not present
Egocentrism: The inability to distinguish between one’s own perspective and someone else’s perspective.
Animism: The belief that inanimate objects have “lifelike” qualities and are capable of action.

13. Can this boy report what the clown doll sees?
Figure 7.4 Piaget’s “Three Mountains” task to evaluate egocentrism
Can this boy report what the clown doll sees?

14. They Centrate: Focusing on one characteristic to the exclusion of others.
No Conservation: Some characteristic of an object stays the same even though the object might change in appearance.

15. Piaget’s Conservation Task

16. Intuitive substage (4-7 years)
Intuitive rather than logical
Lack classification ability
Lack transformational thought
Lack conservation due to static thinking, irreversible thought and centration
Asks a lot of questions
signals the emergence of the interest in reasoning
reflects intellectual curiosity

17. Class Inclusion

18. How would you group these?

19. Classification v v This grouping is by shape and size and color. It is
multiple classification. The child has to think of three
dimensions at once. In what stage could the child do this?

20. Preoperational stage

21. Conservation of Length
Is one of these lines longer or are they they same?
What would the pre-operational child say?

22. Conservation of Length
The preoperational child would say the one on
the top is longer. Pre-operational children
base their concepts on perception, not logic.

23. Conservation of Length
Are all of these lines the same length? Is one longer?
What would the pre-operational child say?

24. Conservation of Length
Preoperational children are tricked by perception.
The think the one “out front” is longer.

25. Conservation of Area Which side has more green?

26. Both have the same area of green
Both have the same area of green. Preoperational children rely on perception and think the one on the right has more.

27. Conservation of Number
Do these two rows have the same number of balls?
Do these two rows have the same number of balls?
Which has more?

28. Conservation of Number
Pre-operational children think the row on the
bottom has more. Later they develop
one-to-one correspondence.
They understand there is one for this
one, one for that one, and one for that one, etc.

29. Concrete Operations
Age 7-11
Can conserve
Decentration
Reversible thinking
Logical thinking (limited to reality)
Seriation and classification
Transitive thinking:
“ If J is taller than M, and M is taller than S, who is taller – J or S?”

30. Figure 7.4 Some common tests of the child’s ability to conserve.

31. Comparison of Preoperational and Concrete-Operational Thinking
Table 7.3 Comparison of Preoperational and Concrete-Operational Thinking

32. Formal Operations
Adolescence/puberty
Logical thinking about ideas
Hypothetical and abstract thinking
Hypothetical-deductive reasoning – from general ideas to their specific implications
Decontextual thinking
Ability to separate prior knowledge/beliefs from new evidence to the contrary

33. Hypothetical-deductive reasoning
Which factor makes the pendulum go faster or slower?
Length of string
Weight
Point of release
Amount of impetus
The shorter the string the faster the swing

34. The Pendulum Problem
Figure 7.6 The pendulum problem

35. Expertise and Formal Pperations
Figure 7.8 Expertise and formal operations

36. Adolescent egocentrism
Enhanced ability to reflect on one’s own and other’s thoughts
Imaginary audience
Personal fable
“No one has ever felt like this before!”
“I drive better when I’m drunk!”

37. Cognition in Adulthood
Formal operations requires
Normal intelligence
Higher education (scientific thinking)
Lower performance on formal operations
Use only in field of expertise
Postformal thought
Relativistic thinking: Labouvie-Vief
No absolute answer in many situations
Dialectical thinking
Detecting paradoxes and inconsistencies among ideas and trying to reconcile them

38. Aging and Cognitive Skills
Some mental abilities decline as the average person ages
Other explanations
Cohort effect
May be differences in style
Lack of motivation

39. Piaget
Contributions
Stimulated much research
Correct about the sequence of cognitive development
Challenges
Underestimated young minds
Focused on competence
Domain specific rather than stages
Social influences left out (too much the “isolated scientist.”

40. A Modern Take on Constructivism
Neuroconstructivism theory
New knowledge is constructed in the context of existing knowledge and is constrained by genetic as well as environmental factors
Believe that the neural structures in the brain underlying cognitive phenomenon develop and change in response to experience

41. Vygotsky
Emphasized the socio-cultural context
Culture affects how and what we think
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Accomplishment with guidance
Where lessons should be aimed
Guided participation (a form of scaffolding) learning
Private speech/ guides behavior (3 & 4 yr olds)

42. Cognitive Development Vygotsky’s Theory
The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
student can work with the student can work
assistance of an instructor ________________________ independently
Language and Thought
Develop independently of each other
Have external or social origins
Scaffolding
Teacher adjusts the level of support as performance rises
ZPD

43. Scaffolding Applications of Vygotsky’s Theory
New Task = Mentor + Learner
2. Time Passes = Gradual Release
3. Learner Takes on the Responsibility for learning
Scaffolding

44. A Comparison of Vygotsky and Piaget

45. 7.3 Fischer’s Dynamic Skill Framework
Kurt Fischer
Not possible to analyze behavior outside the context in which it occurs
Behavior emerges from interactions between person and context
Human performance is dynamic
Changes in response to changes in context

46. Comparison to Piaget and Vygotsky
Tested children in artificial settings
Cognitive structures develop
Fischer
Study of development should happen in natural context
Skill levels change and develop

47. Comparison to Piaget and Vygotsky
Fischer proposes a series of four tiers
Reflexive
Sensorimotor action
Representations
Abstractions

48. Comparison to Piaget and Vygotsky
Uses concept of zone of proximal development:
To explain how cognition advances from one level to another
Uses term developmental range:
To better capture their findings that people’s abilities vary with context