Cognitive Development

M Gauvain and R Richert, Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA
r 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Mental state reasoning Understanding of the mind and

Cognitive development Change over time in how human how it works.
beings think and process knowledge. Problem solving and reasoning Processes of identifying a
Cognitive processes Capacities of the human mental goal and carrying out the steps to reach it, such as reasoning
system involved in knowledge acquisition, development to make inferences based on available information.
and use, includes memory, problem solving, and reasoning. Remembering The mental act of storing and retaining
Concepts Mental groupings of similar objects, events, knowledge.
people, or ideas that organize our experiences. Sociocultural perspective Theoretical approach that views
Executive functioning Mental processes involved in development as emerging from interactions with more
regulating attention and other cognitive activities and that skilled people and with the institutions and tools of the
serve to control, guide, and monitor mentally guided action. culture.
Learning perspective Theoretical approach that sees Structural-organismic perspective Theoretical approach
development as a gradual and continuous process and that describes psychological structures and processes that
focuses on how new behaviors and ways of thinking are undergo qualitative or stage-like changes over development.
acquired, organized, and used.

Introduction of knowledge and skills in a relatively short period of time

(Konner, 2010). The fact that this growth occurs in the com-
Cognition is the mental activity through which people acquire pany of more experienced human beings who are invested
and process knowledge. It includes the processes of learning, socially and emotionally in their offspring helps insure that
perception, memory, and thinking; and it is influenced by the knowledge accumulated and valued by the group is passed
biological, environmental, experiential, social, and motiv- on across generations. This knowledge is organized and
ational factors. Research on cognitive development investi- transmitted via practices devised and maintained by the indi-
gates the acquisition, organization and use of knowledge. It viduals' culture.
examines ‘what develops,’ or the content of knowledge, and We begin with description of the main theoretical ap-
‘how knowledge develops.’ It is also concerned with the pace proaches to cognitive development, followed by discussion of
and pattern of mental growth, including age-related changes concept development and then processes of development. The
and the sequence in which cognitive understanding and skills ordering of the latter topics is for instructive purposes only.
emerge. To describe ‘what’ develops we focus on concepts, the Concept development is inseparable from the processes
mental groupings of similar objects, events, people, or ideas through which concepts develop.
that play a fundamental role in organizing knowledge of ex-
perience. To describe ‘how’ cognition develops, we discuss the
processes of memory, problem solving, reasoning, and the
ability to control cognitive processes or executive function. Theoretical Accounts of Cognitive Development
Both concepts and cognitive processes regulate cognitive de-
velopment, and they undergo substantial change over child- Three theoretical views are foundational to most con-
hood. In this article, we concentrate on cognitive development temporary research: the structural-organismic, learning, and
in childhood, however it is important to remember that cog- sociocultural perspectives. Despite differences, these theories
nitive growth is a lifelong process. share two assumptions. One is that children play an active role
In our discussion, we attend closely to social processes. in cognitive development. Children direct their attentional and
Much of what and how we know can be attributed to the motivational capacities, organized by their current develop-
social nature of human beings. Effective engagement with ment status, to learn about and engage in the world. A cor-
conspecifics (members of the same species) requires shared ollary of this assumption is that cognitive development is a
knowledge of the world, understanding of mental states, and bidirectional process with no predetermined outcome. Over
the capacity to coordinate actions with others and to learn development, children interact with the environment, in-
from them. Examination of the integration of human beings' cluding other people, and these interactions determine the
social nature and cognitive development has highlighted outcome of cognitive development. There are biological re-
important features of human evolution (Bjorklund and strictions or constraints on cognitive development (e.g., limi-
Pellegrini, 2002). Childhood itself, a time of significant mental tations on how much can be remembered at one time, a bias
growth by a mind adroit at learning, is a unique adaptation of toward learning information important to survival). However,
our species – one that allows for the acquisition of a vast array the human brain has substantial flexibility or plasticity, which

Encyclopedia of Mental Health, Volume 1 doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-397045-9.00059-8 317

318 Cognitive Development

enables us to adapt to the many types of environments that and cognitive development. Although learning views
people inhabit. are derived from earlier behaviorist theory that emphasized
A second common assumption is that cognitive develop- external factors, contemporary views incorporate internal fac-
ment is constrained at the individual, societal, and cultural tors and attend to the range of experiences that contributes to
levels. At the individual level, human biology in the form of cognitive growth. In cognitive social learning theory (Bandura,
the child's developmental status, inherited capabilities, and 1989), new behaviors are acquired by social observation
other biologically based tendencies, including aspects of and imitation, with learning mediated by cognitive processes
temperament and emotion regulation, regulate cognitive such as selective attention. The active role of the child is cap-
growth. Psychological characteristics, including the child's tured in notions of agency and self-efficacy, the belief in one's
learning history, interests, and forms of self-expression, also ability to regulate the outcome of experiences (Bandura,
contribute. At the societal level, development is constrained by 1997).
various resources and supports in the family and broader so- Learning theory is useful for examining connections be-
cial context, such as parental health, socioeconomic status, tween situational demands and children's thinking. Many of
school experience, and policies that affect children. At the the processes discussed in these views, such as selective at-
cultural level, constraints exist in the conventional behaviors, tention and imitation, are used widely in research on cognitive
practices, and institutions that transcend generations and in development, even among investigators with different theo-
the cultural tools and symbol systems used to support think- retical orientations. Given its focus on gradual processes of
ing and intelligent action. learning, the major limitation of this approach is lack of at-
tention to the organization and trajectory of age-related
Structural-Organismic View changes in how children think. Learning is a process that
transcends developmental periods, yet learning is also subject
In this view, cognitive development is described as undergoing to developmental constraints. Presently, no theory of learning
qualitative or stage like changes. Each stage has unique prop- takes these constraints into account.
erties, organized sequentially, and with each stage building on A related theoretical approach is information-processing, a
prior stages. Because this structure is seen as biologically based, collection of theories concentrating on how information flows
this view holds that cognitive capacities and developmental through the cognitive system and the mental capacities and
processes are universal, applying to all species members re- operations utilized in these efforts (Munakata, 2006). Al-
gardless of cultural or historical context. though the structure of this system is not assumed to change
Piaget (1926) introduced the most well-known structural- over development, the selection, speed, and efficiency with
organismic theory of cognitive development. For Piaget, cog- which information is processed does change. Processes that
nitive development is the process whereby the child shifts change include encoding, memory and mental representation,
from a focus on the self, immediate sensory experiences, and and strategies. The executive control system also changes and
simple ways of understanding and engaging with the world to effects how children understand and make use of cognitive
more complex, multifaceted, and abstract ways of doing so. processes. Other contemporary theories of cognitive process-
Piaget proposed four stages of mental organization, describing ing are based on ideas advanced by learning views, including
the development of operations (logical reasoning) from birth connectionist approaches in which the cognitive system is
to cognitive maturity in early adolescence: sensorimotor, pre- described as an interconnected neural network.
operations, concrete operations, and formal operations. Two
processes regulate cognitive development: organization per-
tains to the stages of development and how they unfold over
time, and adaptation refers to how children's thinking is in- Sociocultural View
creasingly aligned with features of the world. In the sociocultural view, cognitive development is seen as
This theory has been modified substantially since its ori- emerging from children's interactions with more skilled people
gination. The stage model Piaget offered is no longer con- and with the practices, institutions, and tools of culture. Pri-
sidered viable. Difficulties amounted in demonstrating marily rooted in Vygotsky's (1978) ideas, social and cultural
empirically the coherence of the stages, their age-related as- experiences are assumed to mediate individual cognitive de-
pects and universality, and how they transition into one an- velopment. For instance, cultural signs (e.g., language) and
other. Yet many core features of this approach are evident in tools (e.g., literacy) transform basic mental functions, such as
contemporary research (Miller, 2011). Some researchers de- involuntary memory, into more complex forms of intelligence,
scribe improvements with age in memory capacity, executive such as the voluntary use of signs or tools to extend basic
control, and other cognitive skills in stage like advances similar memory functions (e.g., writing something down to remember
to Piaget's ideas (e.g., see Case, 1998). In addition, many of the later). For Vygotsky, the ability to devise and use mediational
topics Piaget introduced remain at the center of research, in- forms changes the nature of human intelligence. It frees cog-
cluding how children understand the properties of objects and nition from its biological base and links it to the minds of
develop the ability to think logically (Harris, 2006). other people, both as they exist in the here and now and as
embodied in cultural symbols and tools that represent the
history of the group. The outcome of cognitive development is
Learning Views
a mature individual in whom the culturally specific nature of
Learning perspectives emphasize gradual or quantitative experience is an integral part of how the person thinks
change and focus on relations between specific experiences and acts.
 Cognitive Development 319

Vygotsky (1978) was especially interested in the child's child needs to have some experience with the spontaneous
potential for cognitive development through social experience, concept that underlies the scientific concept. For example, a
which can be assessed in the zone of proximal development young child's basic understanding of categories (e.g., a dog is
(ZPD), the region of sensitivity for learning in a particular an animal) helps the child later on when more formal classi-
domain. The same conditions of learning will lead to different fication systems are introduced (e.g., a dog is a particular type
outcomes for children with different learning potential or of animal called a mammal).
ZPDs. Learning in the ZPD is dependent on social support by a For some theorists, the development of children's concepts
more experienced partner. When this support is targeted at the is a process of theory construction (Wellman and Gelman,
child's ZPD, the child is able to use his or her current cap- 1992). These are not theories in the formal sense, but rather
abilities to engage in and learn higher levels of competence theories that children create to make sense of the world
(Gauvain, 2001). A primary means by which more experi- around them. Children develop these theories as they try to
enced partners support learning is the instructional technique understand important properties of the world that impinge
of scaffolding, in which the child's progress is carefully directly on human experience. Children's understanding
monitored and support is adjusted as the child gains under- of these properties is organized into folk or naïve theories,
standing and skill (Wood and Middleton, 1975). Children's defined as “coherent bodies of knowledge that involve causal
conversations with more experienced partners about past explanatory understanding” (Hatano and Inagaki, 1994,
events and events as they unfold are also important socio- p. 172). The three most common naïve theories that have been
cultural contexts of development (Haden and Ornstein, studied in children are folk-physics, folk-biology, and folk-
2009). In addition to facilitating memory formation, these psychology, which are discussed later (Bjorklund, 2012).
conversations expose children to others' interpretations
of events, providing opportunities for self-reflection and self-
development.
Development of Some Important Concepts
In concert with social experience, this approach is con-
cerned with the development and use of cultural signs and Object concept
tools that support mental activity (Cole, 2006). By using these Infants' active processing of the physical environment is evi-
signs and tools to organize and guide thinking, children as- dent in early expectations they demonstrate about physical
sume the understanding and skills valued and practiced in laws pertaining to objects. One of the most studied aspects of
their culture. Children take active roles in this learning as they children's object knowledge is understanding of object per-
come to understand and adopt the meaning and intention manence, the awareness that objects continue to exist even if
behind the tools, symbols, and practices of the culture we cannot see them or act on them. In early research, Piaget
(Tomasello et al., 2005). documented that between 12 and 18 months, infants have
only limited understanding of object permanence. After an
object is hidden under a blanket, infants will search for it
The What of Cognitive Development: Concept correctly; however, if the same object is then hidden under
Development another blanket, infants will search under the first blanket
rather than in the new location.
Concepts are mental groupings of similar objects, events, peo- Subsequent research has suggested that children have ex-
ple, or ideas that organize our experiences. From early in life, pectations about object permanence before 18 months of age.
infants acquire, build, and organize concepts. In the preschool Baillergeon (1986) found that 4-month-old infants appeared
years, children continue to refine and revise their concepts and surprised when a screen fell backward right through a box that
actively begin to use their conceptual knowledge to draw in- has been placed behind the screen. Infants 6- to 8-week-old
ferences about new objects, events, people, or ideas with which demonstrate size constancy, realizing that one object does not
they come into contact. Concept development occurs as chil- become a different object if it appears perceptually smaller
dren actively explore their physical and social environments, (Bower, 1966); and 4-month-olds demonstrate object co-
and as adults actively instruct children on the nature of con- herence, or the expectation that a single object is a unified
cepts. Conceptual change often occurs in response to infor- entity, even if it is partially occluded (Johnson et al., 2003).
mation that may conflict with currently held assumptions about Around age 3, children's understanding of objects under-
a concept, which Piaget described in relation to the processes of goes a shift in the ability to understand and use objects as
assimilation (adapting new information to conform with cur- symbols. DeLoache (1995) demonstrated that 3-year-olds, but
rent understanding) and accommodation (adapting current not 2.5-year-olds, can use a scale model of a room as a source
understanding to new information). of information for where an object is hidden in the actual
Vygotsky (1934/1986) differentiated concepts he labeled room. This ability reflects the understanding that symbolic
spontaneous and scientific. Spontaneous concepts evolve objects have dual representation, that is, an object can have an
through direct experiences in the world as children explore the identity in and of itself and it also can be used to represent
environment on their own, whereas scientific concepts develop something else (DeLoache, 1995).
through instruction with the support of others in the child's
zone of proximal development. A scientific concept does not
solely pertain to scientific issues, rather it is any systematic, Psychological concepts
hierarchical, and logical understanding. These two types of Psychological concepts organize our experiences regarding our
concepts are related in that to learn a scientific concept, the own and others' mental activities. These mental activities
320 Cognitive Development

include the emotions, goals, desires, perspectives, and beliefs Biological concepts
that motivate and direct human behavior. Infants and young children also learn concepts about bio-
logical processes that are distinct from those pertaining to
Psychological concepts in infants and toddlers physical objects and mental states. A possible precursor of this
Much research on psychological concepts in infants and tod- knowledge emerges in the first year when infants distinguish
dlers has focused on the understanding of discrete mental animate and inanimate entities on the basis of whether they
states, such as an intention or desire. Behavioral intention expect an entity to be capable of self-propulsion (Schlottman
seems especially important to infants as they develop psycho- and Ray, 2010). By the age of 4 or 5, children group animals
logical concepts. Woodward (1998) demonstrated 6- and 9- and plants together (Inagaki and Hatano, 2002) and ac-
month-old infants understand the purpose or goal of an action, knowledge animals may be similar because they share bio-
such as a reach, as being related to the object for which the logical but not physical properties (Gelman and Markman,
person is reaching as opposed to the location where the person 1986). Preschoolers also understand some biological phe-
is reaching. At 9 months of age, infants react differently to a nomena, for example, that seeds that produce a plant come
person if the person withholds an object from the infant based from the same kind of plant (Hickling and Gelman, 1995) and
on being unwilling or unable, with infants more frustrated in a potable substance (e.g., juice) can become unfit to drink if it
the former (Behne et al., 2005). By 14 months, infants will comes into contact with a contaminant (e.g., a cockroach)
imitate an action performed by a person that is intentional but (Siegal and Share, 1990). However, they can ‘over-infer’ bio-
not accidental (Carpenter et al., 1998); and 15-month-olds logical properties, for instance, by characterizing nonliving
expect a person will reach for an object in the last place the objects as living, which Piaget (1929) called animism. Add-
person saw it rather than where the object is currently located itionally, young children will sometimes use their under-
(Onishi and Baillergeon, 2005). At 18 months of age, infants standing of human biological processes to infer the biological
can distinguish their own and others' desires; for instance, they processes of other living things, for example, a plant feels pain
will not give an experimenter a food that the child likes but if it is stepped on (Inagaki and Hatano, 2002).
experimenter does not like (e.g., cracker; Repacholi and Gopnik, In terms of causal biological understanding, between the
1997). By 2.5 years of age, toddlers search for a snack in a bowl ages of 4 and 8, most children use a ‘vitalistic’ causal frame-
from which a person was actually eating rather than pretending work, referring spontaneously to ‘life’ as the purpose of human
to eat (Ma and Lillard, 2006). Many 2- to 3-year-olds show bodily functioning (Jaakkola and Slaughter, 2002). This
sophisticated conceptual knowledge of human behavior by framework appears to be helpful for other conceptual under-
engaging in deceptive behaviors and joint pretense, indicating standing. When children younger than 8 understand biological
an understanding that their own and others' mental states can processes as life sustaining, they also have better understanding
be manipulated in particular circumstances (Bjorklund, 2012). of other biological processes (e.g., the heart pumps blood).
After age 8, children move past a vitalistic framework to an
Theory of mind understanding of the physiological principles of bodily pro-
One important psychological concept is understanding of the cesses (Morris et al., 2000). By age 10, about 50% of children
mind and how it works, referred to as theory of mind. Much of have an understanding of basic physiological causes underlying
the research on children's understanding of mental states has biological phenomena (e.g., we breathe air because our lungs
used the false-belief task. In this task, children are asked to take in oxygen and change it into carbon dioxide that we expel).
identify where a person will look for an object after it has been
moved surreptitiously from where the person last saw it. A
meta-analysis of research using the task showed that most 4-
The How of Cognitive Development: Cognitive
year-olds succeed on it and most 3-year-olds do not (Wellman
Processes
et al. (2001). However, in some circumstances children dem-
onstrate false-belief understanding earlier than age 4, such as
A number of mental processes enable human beings to ac-
when the mental state of the protagonist who hides the object is
quire, organize, and use knowledge. These processes include
emphasized by engaging the child in the deception (Chandler
basic mental functions such as attention, sensation and per-
et al., 1989). Regardless of the particulars of the task demands,
ception, as well as more complex functions such as memory,
most children develop the conscious ability to understand that
problem solving, reasoning, and executive function. These
others have perspectives, beliefs, and desires that differ from
processes are central to how knowledge is obtained and used
their own, between 3 and 5 years of age (Flavell, 2004).
at particular points in time, and they underlie and direct
Fewer studies have examined the development of higher
change in children's thinking over development. Here we
order theory of mind understanding, which involves recursive
concentrate on four of these processes.
inferences about what someone believes another person be-
lieves (Perner and Wimmer, 1985). Between 6 and 8, children
understand that a person cannot pretend to be something they
Memory
have never seen or heard of before (Richert and Lillard, 2002).
The ability to reason about complex mental state relationships Memory is one of the most widely studied areas of cognition.
involving nested inferences (e.g., Ben thinks that Anna knows The memory system includes a vast array of capabilities from
that he knows that his mother wants a hat for her birthday) rapid basic processes (e.g., word recognition) to the recall of
continues to develop through adolescence (Liddle and Nettle, complex information (e.g., rules of chess). These capabilities rely
2006). on different capacities with distinct developmental timetables.
 Cognitive Development 321

For an experience or any information to become part of attention more effectively during encoding. They acquire
memory, it must first garner the person's attention. It is then strategies and use them more effectively to solve problems
held in short-term or working memory, the conscious area (Klahr, 2000). Content knowledge expands and children use
of the memory system where information is examined. this knowledge to solve problems (Chi, 1978).
Working memory has limited capacity, and a decision is With development, children increasingly use information
made quickly whether or not to retain the information. If about routine behaviors and features of the environment to
retained, it is moved to long-term memory. Long-term solve problems (Nelson, 2007). Such information functions as
memories are of two general types: semantic, which pertains a cognitive tool because it helps a person solve a problem in
to general knowledge (e.g., the name of the planet we live ways that would not be possible without the tool. Use of
on, vocabulary), or episodic, which is memory for events. An cognitive tools, such as scripts (Nelson, 1993), cognitive maps
act of remembering can be intentional or unintentional. (Newcombe and Huttenlocher, 2003), and symbolic repre-
Much everyday remembering is unintentional; the recall of sentations such as pictures, diagrams, and models to solve
behavioral routines and personal experiences rarely requires problems (DeLoache, 2004) increases with age.
intentional effort. In contrast, intentional memory involves
explicit and concerted effort; and people often employ
Reasoning
strategies, such as rehearsal, to help them store and retrieve
such information. The ability to solve logical problems with reasoning, forming
There are developmental changes in how much children conclusions or inferences from facts or premises, develops over
can remember (i.e., memory span), the efficiency and childhood. Deductive reasoning, reaching a necessary and
speed with which information is processed, and the strategies valid conclusion based on a set of premises, is difficult for
used to aid memory. Memory span improves with age. In children. Often school-age children are unable to evaluate the
remembering a series of numbers, adults retain, on average, logic or truth of a syllogism, in which evaluation is based on
eight units, 12-year-olds retain six or seven, and 5-year-olds information in a statement presented abstractly (e.g., If there is
retain four (Brener, 1940). Explanations for this improvement a P then Q; there is a P, therefore, there is a Q.). However,
include better organization and increased capacity and pro- when concrete versions are used (e.g., All bears are hungry;
cessing efficiency. With increasing age and practice, children Cubby is a bear; therefore, Cubby is hungry.), 4- to 5-year-old
are able to routinize frequently used procedures and, thereby, children perform well, suggesting some basic skills needed for
do them more quickly. Processing speed, or the amount of deductive reasoning are present before children enter school
time it takes to carry out a mental act such as recognizing a (Hawkins et al., 1984).
word, increases linearly with age from childhood to early During development, children become increasingly skilled
adulthood (Kail, 2000). This increase is not due solely to at several powerful thinking techniques such as rule-based
practice; children increase the speed with which they accom- reasoning, analogies, and hierarchical classification. In exam-
plish familiar tasks as well as tasks they rarely encounter ining children's skill at using rules to solve balance problems,
(Miller and Vernon, 1997). The availability and use of strat- Siegler (1976) found that 3-year-olds do not use rules, 4- to 5-
egies, or deliberate procedures to carry out memory-related year-olds can use a rule with one problem dimension (number
tasks, change significantly over childhood and enhance of weights per side) and can solve problems when this di-
children's thinking and learning. For example, the spon- mension is most relevant, and 9-year-olds include two di-
taneous use of rehearsal, the repetition of information one mensions in their rule (weight and distance from the fulcrum)
wants to remember, increases with age (Naus, 1982). The and can solve problems when these dimensions are relevant.
strategy of organization, which involves putting information Analogical reasoning, the inference that if two or more
into a form or structure that aids remembering (e.g., alpha- items are similar in some respects they are likely to be similar
betizing a list of names), also improves (Schneider and in other respects, deepens children's understanding of relations
Bjorklund, 1998). across objects and aids in generalizing across problems (Gick
and Holyoak, 1980). This skill is often tested with problems in
abstract form (e.g., A is to B as C is to what?). Yet even pre-
schoolers can recognize relations across objects if the content
Problem Solving
is familiar and solution choices are presented (e.g., chocolate
Problem solving is the process of identifying a goal, carrying (A) is to melted chocolate (B) as snowman (C) is to which of
out actions to reach this goal, and overcoming obstacles that five pictures (with one a melted snowman) (Goswami and
interfere with reaching the goal. It is a complex cognitive skill, Brown, 1990).
relying on different capabilities including attention, per- Hierarchical classification, or the organization of concepts
ception, memory, concepts, and usually symbolic processes into levels of abstraction, is also useful for solving logical
such as language. Because of the vast range of problems problems (Trabasso et al., 1978). From childhood to ado-
human beings confront, problem-solving skills develop over a lescence, the knowledge base expands, which enhances
long period of time. Rudimentary skills are evident in infancy; understanding of hierarchical classifications. However, even
for example, 8-month-olds will deliberately grab a cloth to very young children show some understanding of categories
pull it closer to play with the toy resting on it (Willatts, 1990). based on hierarchical relations. When shown a group of toys
As children get older, the activities in which they engage get of various types, 1- to 2-year-olds will touch all the toys of one
more complex and problem-solving improves (Garton, 2004). type or category before moving onto another type (e.g., all
Children encode more features of a problem and allocate their dogs before cars; Mandler and Bower, 1988).
322 Cognitive Development

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