Chapter 5 Cognitive Development in Infancy and Childhood PIAGET

Who was Jean Piaget? ( ) genetic epistemology: the study of the development of knowledge 1 st to systematically study children’s cognitive development Father was scholar; godfather a philosopher Published 1 st scientific paper at age 10 Published mollusk article at 15: job offer at National History Museum of Geneva PhD in Biology at age 22 Worked at Binet Institute in Paris—became interested in reasoning of children rather than answers on tests per se Married with 2 daughters, 1 son (N = 3) – Used naturalistic observation; clinical and structured interviews Ideas introduced to the U.S. in the 1950s

Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental theory Concerned with children Focus on development rather than “learning” – Children construct understanding of world around them Focus on 4 discrete stages – rather than continuous increase in # or complexity of behaviors

3 basic components to theory Schemas: basic building block of intelligent behavior Processes that enable the transition from one stage to another (equilibrium, assimilation, accommodation)equilibrium, assimilation, accommodation Four Stages of Development: sensorimotor preoperational concrete operational formal operational

Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory Schemes: organized patterns of behavior/thinking; change with age – Built through interaction with the environment – Action-based (motor patterns) at first – Later move to a mental (thinking) level Including abstract concepts

Processes Equilibrium –Mental balance Assimilation –Using current schemes to interpret new info in external world Accommodation –Adjusting old schemes and creating new ones to better fit new information in external world

Sensorimotor Stage  Birth to 2 years, divided into six substages  Build schemes through sensory and motor exploration  Peak accomplishment: object permanence  Circular reactions (CRs): chance discovery of a new experience caused by the baby’s own motor activity © Kathleen Van Hoffen | Dreamstime.comKathleen Van HoffenDreamstime.com

Circular Reactions Primary: own body Secondary: outside one’s own body Tertiary: different means to reproduce a response

Circular Reactions

Substage 1 Reflexive Schemes (birth- 1 month) Grasping, sucking, stepping, etc in same way no matter what experiences they encounter

Substage 2 Primary Circular Reactions (CRs) (1-4 mos) Repeat chance behavior motivated by basic needs Vary responses (grasp or suck) in response to environmental demand Start to anticipate events

Substage 3 Secondary CRs (4- 8 mos) Repeat interesting events directed outside oneself that are caused by own actions (eg, splash, kick, bang) Cannot imitate novel behavior (eg: pat-a-cake) Banging, reaching, grasping, hitting Looks briefly at point where obj disappears

Substage 3, cont’d Secondary CRs (4- 8 mos) No object permanence Out of sight, out of mind (will search for partially hidden object)

Substage 4 Coordination of secondary CRs (8-12 months) Intentional, goal-directed behavior – Eg: bang on pots Means-End sequence – Pull string to get toy Imitation of behaviors slightly different from own eg: push a car Anticipate Events; try to change them with own behavior – Shake head “No” when mom says goodbye at day care

Substage 4 Coordination of secondary CRs (8-12 months) Use existing action schemas together to solve novel problem – Eg: push away pillow + grab toy Object Permanence develops – Will search for object hidden under single cloth

Substage 4 Coordination of secondary CRs (8-12 months) Object Permanence develops – Will search for object hidden under single cloth – However, make the A-not-B search error

A-not-B error

Substage 5 Tertiary CRs (12-18 months) Repeat behavior with variation Stack blocks, turn container to fit shape through hole, etc Capacity to experiment Accurate A-B object search Act on objects in novel way Trial and error experimentation

Substage 6 Mental Representation ( months) Internal depictions of information Arrive at solutions suddenly or after pause rather than trial-and-error Invisible displacement of objects Deferred imitation Make believe play

Object Permanence  Renée Baillargeon and collaborators: evidence for object permanence in the first few months of life  critics question: do babies’ looking preferences tell us what they really know?  Mastery of object permanence is a gradual achievement.

Results

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Violation-of-Expectation Method Figure 6.1

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Deferred Imitation represent a model’s past behavior Piaget: Develops at about 18 months Newer research: –Present at 6 weeks – facial imitation –6 – 9 months – copy actions –14 months – imitate rationally (imitate purposeful, not accidental behaviors) –18 months – imitate intended, but not completed, actions

Testing Infants for Deferred Imitation After researchers performed a novel series of actions with a puppet, this 6- month-old imitated the actions a day later—(a) removing the glove; (b) shaking the glove to ring a bell inside. With age, gains in recall are evident in deferred imitation of others’ behaviors over longer delays.

Problem Solving by Analogy

Evaluation of Sensorimotor Stage Some developments happen when Piaget described: –A-not-B search error –Make-believe play Many appear to happen sooner than Piaget thought: –Object permanence –Secondary circular reactions –Deferred imitation/delayed recall –Problem solving by analogy (apply one solution to new scenario)

Core Knowledge Perspective Infants are born with core knowledge in several domains of thought: –Physical knowledge –Linguistic knowledge –Psychological knowledge –Numerical knowledge Findings controversial, but all acknowledge importance of experience

5 month-olds’ number sense (Karen Wynn, 1992)

Critique of Piaget Underestimates age of attainment of object permanence, connection of senses Too dependent on how object permanence is measured Underestimates age of deferred imitation or delayed recall Most cases small sample size (N=3)