COGNITION & DEVELOPMENT

THEORIES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT, INCLUDING PIAGET AND

VYGOTSKY
PIAGET

 The idea that we are born with basic skills to allow for cognitive development that grow as we become
older.
 He believed that the child underwent two processes:
o Accommodation- When a schema is altered in order to fit in new information i.e. learning that
birds don’t have to fly to be birds. At this point, the child is in disequilibrium.
o Assimilation- When new information is able to be fitted into an existing schema. At this point, the
child is in equilibrium.
 Disequilibrium is an uncomfortable mental state which is made better by being in equilibrium.
 Stages of Cognitive Development:
o Sensorimotor- Birth-10 months. Lack of an understanding of object permanence (things out of
sight are not believed to exist). Develop the ability to form schemas based on the sensation an
action produces i.e. putting object in mouth forms a Mental Representation.
o Pre-Operational- 18 months- 6 years. Begin to operationalise (think through actions before
carrying them out). Able to communicate but only about their own opinions and are Egocentric
(can only see things from their own perspective). They also don’t understand conservation, when
things are arranged differently, the quantity, volume and number remain the same (*** is the same
as * * *). Can also not focus on more than one task at once, Centration. Two stages: Pre-
conceptual phase and Intuitive phase.
o Concrete Operational- 6 years- 12 years. Begin to perform mental operations and reason
logically and use inductive logic where they apply their knowledge to different situations. Become
decentred where they are able to focus on more than one task at a time. Understand that an action
can be reversed. Unable to use transitive inference as they cannot make logical deductions i.e. A
before B, B before C, so A is first.
o Formal Operational- 12 years onwards. Can undertake formal operations where they do not
have to perform an action to imagine the consequences. Used to formulate hypotheses.

AO2

 Bower- Found that object permanence occurred earlier than Piaget had originally thought as children were
displaying it as early as 3.5 months.
 Meltzoff & Moore- Mental representations occurred earlier than Piaget thought. Children 6 weeks old were
able to imitate an expression, showing their ability to form a mental representation of the gesture.
 Children aged 3 were able to hide a doll away from toy policemen which requires egocentrism, however
Piaget thought that this developed a lot later.
 Change of Piaget’s counter study showed children below the age of 6 showing conservation.
 Not all reach the formal operational stage (I in 3) and this was even lower for non-westernised cultures->
cultural bias.
 IDASà Nature/ Nurture, Limited, Reductionist, Determinism, Cultural Bias

VYGOTSKY

 Believed that social activity is what children need to develop cognition.

 Stages of Cognitive Development- Stages of concept formation
o Vague Syncretic- No organised grouping of items and no understanding of categories. Trial and
error is used to solve problems.
 o Complex- Begin to understand grouping and strategies become less random. Correct category is
usually not selected though i.e. animal category used for duck and water because of the close
association of the two things.
o Potential Concept- Grouping and systematic approaches are used but only on one concept at a
time i.e. an item only belongs to one category.
o Mature Concept- Grouping and systematic approaches are used simultaneously.
 Stages of Language Development-
o Pre-intellectual Speech- 0-3 years. Language and cognition are separate. Speech is only used to
communicate survival needs i.e. hunger.
o Egocentric Speech- 3-7 years. Language is developed and is used as a method of problem solving.
Speech is projected out loud to express the child’s thought processes.
o Inner Speech- 7 years onwards. Language is used more effectively and the child becomes capable
of holding a silent, inner conversation.
 Zone of Proximal Development- Area that a child must enter in order to improve cognition.
o 1) Current ability of the child and what they can do on their own.
3 o 2) Zone of Proximal Development. Child must pass through this stage in order to unlock
2 potential development. Scaffolding is needed by mentor.
1 o 3) Region of ability that the child does not yet possess. Becomes new ZPD after the
current one is reached.

AO2

 Scaffolding was directly correlated with the difficulty of a jigsaw. When level got harder more scaffolding
was needed to cross ZPD threshold.
 Studies may have been affected by the group or individual basis. Competitiveness is not encouraged in
groups. Different children used in different groups so could be due to individual differences.
 May be an over emphasis on social factors so things like self discovery may be more important.
 Suggests that scaffolding is necessary for a child to develop cognition.
 IDASà Nature/ Nurture, Limited, Reductionist, Determinism, Cultural Bias

APPLICATIONS OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORIES TO

EDUCATION

PIAGET EDUCATION APPLICATION

 Useful to know what stage of cognitive development a child is in so that tasks appropriate to learning are set
and stage specific instructions are given.
└->only the material that a child is ready to learn is taught.
o Burns & Silbey- Children learn best when activities match their stage of development.
o Stage specific instruction may be good for some children but not for others.
o Piaget underestimated the readiness of children to learn. 4 year olds were able to complete tasks
from the concrete operational stage.
 Children must be able to self discover, be challenged and learn on their own. Role of the teacher is to
encourage self learning and place the child in a state of disequilibrium.
o Cultural bias- may not be universally appropriate. Asians usually do well with traditional
instruction-> can be misleading as more time may be spent on that subject.
o Effective in computer based environments.
o Underestimates the added benefits of direct teaching.

AO2

 Evidence that traditional teaching methods i.e. lecturing, are better than Piaget’s method.
  The approach is best used on mathematical and logical subjects and not on subjects like history or languages.
 The approach requires you to know what schemas a child possesses in order to determine which stage they
are in and the type of learning the require but this is not really possible.
 It has been used to alter the way things are taught in schools.

VYGOTSKY EDUCATION APPLICATION

 More beneficial for children to work in groups so that they are encouraged to progress.
o Children that worked individually on a task requiring critical thinking skills after a lecture
performed worse that those working in groups.
o Encourages and maintains motivation.
 Type of language used could have a significant effect on development.
└->Berk- Children originally spoke out loud when completing a puzzle but this reduced when confidence
increased.
o Talking in class may be beneficial to children as it may help them to focus and gather their
thoughts, therefore by making children silent, it may affect performance.
 Scaffolding means that the teacher does not have to wait for a child to be ready in order for them to be able
to teach something, as the child can be supported.
└->Corner et al- The more scaffolding a child has, the more likely they are to learn.
o Scaffolding has six stages and the teacher must apply the right type of scaffolding depending on
what stage the child is in.
 Vygotsky said that play was important for learning as it took the child away from their everyday behaviour
and made them reflect aspects of their culture i.e. pretending to be a doctor.

AO2

 Do not have to wait to teach something to a child until they are ready as scaffolding can be applied.
 Useful to know that a child is better off being able to speak through what they are doing than being silent.
 The CASE programme was devised from Vygotsky and Piaget’s theories-> way of teaching a lesson.

KOHLBERG’S THEORY OF MORAL UNDERSTANDING

 Moral understanding is identified by presenting a child with a moral dilemma and asking them what they
would do in that situation.
 Kohlberg’s Stage Theory:
o Level 1- Own needs need to be met
 Stage 1- Punishment and Obedience orientation-> Based on punishment, if punished,
must be bad. If rewarded, must be good.
 Stage 2- Individualism, Instrumental purpose and exchange- Based on how it feels i.e.
feels good, it is right.
o Level 2- Approval of others needed
 Stage 3- Expectations, relationships and conformity-> Based on group norms i.e. family
believe something is right so it must be.
 Stage 4- Social systems and conscience-> Based on intent i.e. didn’t mean to do
something so not as bad.
o Level 3- Social expectations understood
 Stage 5- Social Contact-> Become aware of the law and the fact that it can be bent or
changed.
 Stage 6- Universal Ethical Principles-> Conscience dictates whether to break the law or
not.
AO2

 Colby et al- 27 yearlong study on male PPs. Tested 6 times. All went through the same moral development
stages.
 UNIVERSAL- Meta analysis. People move through same stages in same order in different cultures.
└-> non westernised cultures scored differently on the scale, especially those from obedient families-
Culturally Biased
 Gender Bias- only focuses on male moral development. Women regard morality as ethics and care.
 Not always possible to predict someone’s reaction from the level of moral development they are in.
 GILLIGAN’S ANTI-KOHLBERG APPROACH- Boys develop moral justice, based on law and
principles and girls develop moral care based on human well-being and compassion. Her study proved this
with more men than women being in the justice only or justice focus categories.
 Disequilibrium motivates children’s moral development.
 Association between cognitive development and moral development.
 Not many people develop beyond stage 4 suggesting that stages 5 and 6 are less important.
 Artificial dilemmas were used in his experiments so it is not known if the PPs would react differently in
real life circumstances.
 Didn’t consider the emotional involvement with morality for example; guilt and shame.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD’S SENSE OF SELF, INCLUDING

THEORY OF MIND
 9-12 Months- Relationship between actions and reactions and what effect they have.
 15-18 Months- Begins to recognise that it is physically different to others, recognise themselves.
 2-6 Years- Realise that they are in full control of their physically and cognitive achievements. No
egocentrism at this point.
 6-9 Years- Regard themselves how others think of them and the concept of self esteem is developed.
 10-13 Years- Able to use their own opinions for evaluation on issues and use their conscience to decide if
their behaviour and others’ behaviour is acceptable in society.
 13-17 Years- Develops principles and values. Recognise the broader impact to society.

AO2

 When placing a dot on a child’s nose and putting them in front of a mirror, those children who have a
developed sense of self, the majority of whom are 21-24 months, will touch their nose from what they see in
the mirror.
 More likely to recognise themselves from moving film than photographs-> need for movement cues. Self
awareness from photo begins at 15 months (complete in 75% by 24 months).
 Film of themselves doing mirror test, only 4 year olds reached for the dot-> could be due to lack of eye
contact.

THEORY OF MIND

 The idea that children are aware that their own beliefs differ to others’.
 False belief tasks indicate this. Wimmer & Perner- Indicating which cupboard, green or blue, a child would
look in to find the sweets he had originally put in the blue cupboard but after someone had moved them to
the green.
└-> 2-3 Year olds are more likely to say the box where the sweets actually ARE because they don’t
understand that the child didn’t see and so doesn’t know they have moved. Most 4 year olds tend to
get this right.
AO2

 Significant relationship between false belief task performance and language ability. Suggests that ToM is
part of the developing cognitive functioning.
 Explains why girls are better at language, they are better at false belief tasks.
 Baron- Cohen- Autistic children had same measure intelligence as Down’s syndrome children but 85% of
the down’s guessed it right and only 20% of ASD children got it right so it must be to do with social
cognition.
 Culture- Different false belief tasks were used in cross cultural research so not very reliable.
└->it was retested with the same task-> all children guessed correctly by the age of 5 in all cultures
tested.
 Siblings- Encourages interaction so ToM is developed faster.
 Everyday objects- Smarties tube used, ToM developed at the age of 4.
 QUESTIONNED VALIDITY- There may not be ToM and it might be another intellectual skill at work
like language, therefore good results on the false belief task is due to that instead.
 May develop earlier, 15 month olds show surprise when the object is not in the place they were expecting.

DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN’S UNDERSTANDING OF OTHERS,

INCLUDING PERSPECTIVE TAKING, FOR EXAMPLE, SELMAN

SELMAN

 Level 0- Egocentric- Incapable of seeing things from someone else’s perspective. Believe that everyone has
the same opinion as them.
 Level 1- Subjective- Realise that other people may have a different opinion but not understood.
 Level 2- Reciprocal- Understand that people may act in a contradictory fashion to their beliefs and that their
opinions may oppose their own.
 Level 3- Mutual- Compromise and communication is understood. They realise that a third person may look
upon their discussion and formulate an opinion from the two.
 Level 4- Societal- Understand that experiences shape beliefs and that acts may be committed unconsciously
and without thought.

AO2

 Assumption- Children progress through a set of stages whereby they begin to adopt the perspective of other
people.
 Supported by Eisenberg’s Theory of Pro-social Reasoning.
 Useful in education to know what level the children are at according to their age range.
 Less effective when explaining distance of communication i.e. the difference between communications when
there is a greater distance (i.e. telephone) than when face to face.
 May not be to do with the level of perspective taking but instead that they are trying to cope with a difficult
situation i.e. can’t interact with others is actually that they are choosing not to.
 Does not take into account the “Imaginary Audience” where adolescents feel that they are being watched
and judged.
 Cultural norm may be that they choose to ignore the opinions of others or appear to but doesn’t mean that
they can’t take on that view.

BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF SOCIAL COGNITION, INCLUDING

THE ROLE OF THE MIRROR NEURON SYSTEM
  Social cognition may be damaged when the brain is damaged:
└->Anosognosia- Person is unaware of their mental impairment.
o Frontal lobe damage can cause change in personality.

THE MIRROR NEURON SYSTEM

 Mirror neurones are fired when an action is completed and the same neurones are fired when the person
witnesses someone doing the same thing i.e. being a musician and playing music and listening to music.
 If a non musician plays music and then listens to it, the activity is generated in different areas. This is not
the case for musicians.
 ToM influenced by mirror neurones. Allow us to take someone else’s perspective because we can imagine
what they are feeling.
└-> AO2- Regardless of the fact that we have mirror neurones doesn’t mean that we will be able to
use ToM.
 AO2-> Many aspects influence the way we perceive emotions.
 Moral Understanding-> shows that the moral understanding is part innate as it shows our ability to
empathise
└-> doesn’t mean that moral behaviour will become developed though.
 fMRI after watching a clip of someone turning their nose up at awful food showed the same activity as when
the person smelt something horrible.
 Mirror neurones are not active when watching someone of a different culture do something-> ethnicity and
biology not related.
 Oversimplification of the biological aspect. Imitation can be due to other things; temperament, attachment,
mood, etc.
 Stronger in monkeys. Performing a particular action and watching another monkey do a similar thing led to
the same mirror neurones being fired.
 Mirror neurone system in autistic children is impaired. Less activity when they watched facial expressions
and were asked to demonstrate, than normal children.
└->doesn’t prove that the autism is to blame for this.