Problem 4: Cognitive development

Question 1

Cognition

Answer 1

The activity of knowing and the processes of acquiring knowledge.

Question 2

Schemas (Piaget)

Answer 2

• Mental representations to organize knowledge;
• Never ending process.
• Behavioral schedule: patterns in babyhood.
• Mental schemas schedule: in childhood.
  
  • Two innate intellectual processes: organization and adaptation

Question 3

Piaget’s theory: Adaptation (assimilation + accommodation)

Answer 3

Adaptation is the building of schemas through direct interaction with the environment.
- Assimilation: unifying new information into pre-existing schemas.
- Accommodation: adapting/forming a schema to accommodate new information.

Question 4

Piaget’s theory: Organisation

Answer 4

• Organization
  
  • Grouping of isolated behaviors and thoughts into a high-order system.

Question 5

Piaget’s theory: Equilibration

Answer 5

• Shift from one phase of schemas to another when a child experiences cognitive dissonance.
  - Cognitive equilibrium: assimilate more than they accommodate - stable and comfortable
  
  • Cognitive discomfort: rapid changes = discomfort.
  • Moving from assimilation to accommodation: new information does not fit in with any pre-existing schema

Question 6

Piaget’s basic assumptions

Answer 6

• Nature plays a bigger role than nurture
• Babies are already cognitively strong when born.
• Cognitive development happens through constructivism:
  
  • Comes from discovering the world for oneself.
• Genetic epistemology: science that looks for the origin of knowledge.

Question 7

Stages of development

Answer 7

• Invariant developmental sequence: all children go through all phases in the same order with no skipping.
• Universal: the same for every child.
• Genes and the environment influence how fast a child goes through each phase.

Question 8

Phase 1 - Sensory-motor phase (0-2 years)

Answer 8

• 0-1 months: simple reflexes present at birth
• 1-4 months: first habit and primary circular reaction
  
  • Reflex is independent of a stimulus.
  • Primary circular reaction: repeating accidental behaviors motivated by basic needs. Recurrent action.
• 4-8 months: secondary circular reactions
  
  • Object-oriented, imitation of others, repetition.
• 8-12 months: coordination of secondary schedules
  
  • Consciously controlled actions, coordination with schemas for solving simple problems (sight, eyes, hand necessary)
  • A-not-B-error: no real object persistence yet.
    
    • Object permanence test: cloth toy
• 12-18 months: tertiary circular reaction. News things are tried.
• 18-24 months: symbolic problem-solving
  
  • Diagrams used to solve-problem - primitive symbols
    
    • Internalized sensory image or word that represents the event.
  • Imitation
  • Object permanence is complete - deferred imitation is possible (imitation without a person present)
  • Make believe play - re-enacting every day + imaginary situation
• Does not support the A-not-B-error
• Cognitively stronger than mentioned
• Tested on his own children
• Not specific about how children learn
• Steps take place continuously as a process and not in phases.

Question 9

Phase 2 - Pre-operational phase (2-7 years)

Question 10

Phase 3 - Operational phase (7-11 years)

Answer 10

• Concrete operations and logical reasoning replace intuitive thinking.
• Conservation is acquired.
• Spatial understanding develops.
• Develop complex cognitive maps and mental representations.
• Egocentricity and animism disappear.
• Seriation is mastered: this is the ordering of stimuli in a quantitative order.
• Transitivity is mastered: the ability to reason and logically combine relationships.

Question 11

Phase 4 - Formal operational phase (11+ years)

Answer 11

• Abstract thinking develops.
• Assimilation motivates this phase.
• Images of ideal circumstances develop. They form images of idealism and multiple possibilities.
• Hypothetical deductive thinking develops.
• Adolescent egocentrism is the heightened self-awareness reflected in their belief that others are as interested in them as they are themselves. (limitation)
• Types of social thinking
  1. Thinking socially occurs during adolescence. People have thoughts of their own, they feel observed and judged.
  2. Personal fable is the feeling that your emotions are unique and special and that no one understands you.

Question 12

Criticism of Piaget’s theory

Answer 12

• Culture and upbringing have a higher influence
• No strict boundaries between the phases - development is a continuous process.
• Some cognitive skills come earlier and some later.
• No clear difference between competencies and performance.
• Small sample, biased.

Question 13

Piaget and education

Answer 13

• Constructivist approach
  
  • Discover, reflect, discuss, and imitate.
• Learning by doing
• Classroom designed for discovery: less structured.
• Acceptance of individual differences.

Question 14

Vygotsky’s cognitive development theory: ZPD

Answer 14

• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
  
  • The level of help and support a child requires to do a task.
  • Lower limit: what a child can do independently.
  • Higher limit: how much extra help a child needs.

Question 15

Vygotsky’s cognitive development theory: scaffolding

Answer 15

Changing the level of support for the child.

Question 16

Vygotsky and education

Answer 16

• Tests should be focused on determining the child’s ZPD.
• Teaching starts at the upper limit of the ZPD
• Observation and encouraging the use of private speech.
  
  • Internalize, self-regulate, learning in a real-life setting.
• Small learning groups are more efficient.

Question 17

Criticism of Vygotsky

Answer 17

• Too much emphasis on language.
• Not age specific enough
• Little about the biological contribution
• Does not describe the different contributions to cognitive development