Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget Schemas the most basic psychological structures provide a template for action in the world Adaptation the process by which schemas change

Adaptation Assimilation Accommodation process by which a person absorbs a new experience into an existing schema Accommodation process by which an existing schema is modified to adapt to a new experience

Assimilation and accommodation are invariant! So … what changes? Schemas and structures change!

Stages of Cognitive Development Sensorimotor (birth - 2 years) Preoperational (2 - 6 years) Concrete Operational (7 - 11 years) Formal Operational (11+)

Sensorimotor Stage (birth - 2 yrs) How does Piaget see the young infant? Active Initiating behavior Learning to distinguish among the features in the environment Learning to modify own behavior to fit the demands of the situation

Special Qualities of Sensorimotor Egocentrism the inability to perceive a situation or person except in relation to the self Lack object permanence the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight major task of the sensorimotor stage

Reflexive Schemas (birth-1 month) infant exercises innate reflexes in an automatic and involuntary manner

Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months) Infant repeats a chance behavior involving his/her own body that led to a pleasurable outcome Primary Circular

Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months) Infant directs attention to objects repeats chance behavior involving object that led to a pleasurable outcome Not truly intentional Conservative

Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months) Understanding of Object Permanence begin searching for objects that are partially hidden yet they quickly forget or ignore those objects they cannot see

Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8-12 months) Intentional, goal-directed, original behavior Truly intelligent behavior

Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions Understanding of Object Permanence AB search error: baby looks for object in the last place it was found, even when baby saw it moved to a new place

Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months) Trial and error experimentation “little scientists” who “experiment in order to see”

Tertiary Circular Reactions Understanding of Object Permanence: no longer makes the AB search error when they see the object moved to new place however, if the baby did not see the object moved, will continue to search in the last place it was found when the baby doesn’t find it there, will show distress

Representation (18-24 months) Mentally represent object/event in mind Symbolic problem solving Well-developed object permanence Deferred Imitation ability to remember and copy the behavior of models who are not immediately present

Preoperational Stage (2 - 6 years)

Emergence of the Symbolic Function Children are first able to form and use symbols Deferred imitation Language Pretend play

Forms of Play Sensorimotor play Functional play Pretend play

Development of Pretend Play Increasingly detached from real-life Increasingly detached from the self Increasingly complex combinations of schemes of action Serves an emotionally integrative function Familiarity with social role possibilities Fun and useful!!!

Limitations to Preoperational Egocentric Perception bound Centered and rigid

Egocentrism Sensorimotor Preoperational inability to distinguish the self from others Preoperational inability to distinguish one’s mental representations from others’ mental representations

Egocentrism Perspective taking games

Egocentrism Animism belief that inanimate object have lifelike qualities

Thinking is Perception Bound Maynard the Cat Study confusion of appearance & reality in preschoolers

Perception Bound Thinking

Centered and Rigid Thinking Center on a single, salient feature and ignore other, less salient, features Lack the ability to mentally retrace through a series of steps

Main Limitation: Conservation Preoperational children lack conservation! Conservation = the knowledge that an underlying physical dimension remains the same despite superficial changes in its appearance

Conclusions Children think about the world differently than adults. Children actively construct their knowledge about the world. Cognitive development follows an invariant and universal sequence.