1. CHAPTER 7 COGNITION

2. Learning Objectives
How do organization, adaptation, and disequilibrium guide development?

3. Chapter 7: Cognition
Cognition: The activity of knowing
Typical of humans throughout lifespan
Changes across the lifespan
Piaget and Vygotsky

4. Piaget
Genetic Epistemology
How we come to know reality
Clinical Method
Question and answer technique
Used to discover how children reason
Intelligence: How well we adapt
Schemes/cognitive structures
Represent reality

5. Piaget
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

6. Piaget
Adaptation
Adjusting to the environment
Using assimilation and accommodation
Intelligence = Adaptation
Constructivism
Children construct own reality
Use their experiences (schemes)

7. Piaget
Four stages/changes in ability to reason
Sensorimotor: birth to 2 years
Preoperational: 2 to 7 years
Concrete operations: 7 to 11 years
Formal operations: 12+ years
Invariant sequence
Rates may vary
Requires maturation and experience

8. Learning Objectives
What are the major achievements of the sensorimotor stage ?
How do infants progress toward these achievements?

9. Piaget
Sensorimotor Stage
Newborn uses reflexes to understand world (sensory & motoric intelligence)
Outcome of Stage
Mental representation
Evidence: Object Permanence
Symbolic Capacity
Evidence: Language

11. Some common tests of the child’s ability to conserve.

12. Learning Objectives
What are the characteristics and limitations of preoperational thought?

13. Preoperational Stage
Egocentric Thinkers
Problem Solving Limited
Classification and seriation problems
Ages 2–7: Preschool
May have imaginary companions
Lack Conservation
Perceptual salience, Irreversible thinking
Centration

14. Video: Children Respond to a Hierarchical Classification Problem
PLAY VIDEO

16. Learning Objectives
What are the major characteristics and limitations of concrete operational thought?
What are the main features of concrete operational thought?

17. 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?”

18. Learning Objectives
What are the main features of formal operational thought?
In what ways might adult thought be more advanced than adolescent thought?

19. Formal Operations
Adolescence/Puberty
Logical Thinking About Ideas
Hypothetical and abstract thinking
Hypothetical-deductive reasoning
Decontextual Thinking
Ability to separate prior knowledge/beliefs from new evidence to the contrary

20. Video: Abstraction and Hypothetical Propositions
PLAY VIDEO

21. Formal Operations 2
Adolescent Egocentrism
Differentiating own thoughts from others’
Imaginary audience
Also, learning to present themselves to a real audience
Personal fable
“No one has ever felt like this before!”
“I drive better when I’m drunk!”

22. Cognition in Adulthood
Formal Operations Require
Normal intelligence
Higher education (scientific thinking)
Lower Performance on Formal Operations
Why? Use only in field of expertise
Postformal Thought (Highest Level)
Relativistic thinking: Labouvie-Vief
No absolute answer in many situations

23. Learning Objectives
What are the limitations and challenges to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development?

24. Piaget
Contributions
Stimulated much research
Correct about cognitive development
Challenges
Underestimated competencies
Focused on performance not competence
Domain growth rather than stages
Social influences left out

25. Learning Objectives
What is the main theme of Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development?
How does social interaction contribute to cognitive development according to Vygotsky’s theory?
In what ways are Vygotsky and Piaget similar and different in their ideas about cognition?

26. Vygotsky
Emphasized the Sociocultural Context
Culture effects how and what we think
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Accomplishment with guidance
Where lessons should be aimed
Guided Participation Learning
Private Speech Guides Behavior
(3&4 yr olds)