Theories on Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget-Swiss psychologist (1896-1980). His theory provided many central

concepts in the field of developmental psychology and concerned the growth of
intelligence, which for Piaget, meant the ability to more accurately represent the world
and perform logical operations on representations of the concepts grounded in the
world. The theory concerns the emergence and acquisitions of the schemata-schemes,
of one perceiving the world-in”developmental stages”, time when children are acquiring
new ways of mentally representing-information.

1. Sensorimotor period (years 0-2)

Infants are born with a set of congenital reflexes, according to Piaget, in addition to
explore their world. Their initial schemas are formed through differentiation of the
congenital reflexes:
❖ The first substage, known as the reflex schema stage, occurs from birth to
six
weeks and is associated primarily with developmental reflexes. Three
primary reflexes are described by Piaget: sucking of objects in the mouth
following moving or interesting objects with the eyes, and closing of the hand
when an object makes contact with the palm (palmar grasp). Over this first six
weeks of life, these reflexes begin to become voluntary actions; for example,
the palmar reflex becomes intentional grasping.
❖ The second substage, primary circular reaction phase, occurs form six
weeks
to four months and is associated primarily with the development of habits.
Primary circular reactions or repeating of an action involving only one’s body
begins. An example of this type of reaction would involve something like an
infants repeating the motion of passing their hands before their face. The schema
developed during this stage inform the infant about the relationships among his
body parts (e.g. in passing the hand in form of his eyes he develop a motor
schema for moving his arm so that the hand becomes visible.
❖ The third substage, the secondary circular reactions phase, occurs from
four
to nine months and is associated primarily with the development of coordination
between vision and apprehension. Three new abilities occur at this stage:
intentional grasping for a desired object, secondary circular reactions, and
differentiations between ends and means. At this stage, infants will intentionally
grasp the air in the direction of a desired object, often to the amusement of
friends, family, younger and older siblings, grandparents, etc. Secondary
circular reactions, or the repetition of an action involving an external object
begin; for example, moving a switch to turn on a light repeatedly. The
Differentiation between means also occurs. This is perhaps of one of the most
important stages of a child’s growth as it signifies the drawn for logic. However,
babies still only have a very early rudimentary grasp of this and most of their
discoveries have an “accidental” quality to them in that the initial performance
of what will soon becomes a secondary circular reactions occurs by chance; but
the operant conditioning causes the initial “ accidental” behavior (which was
followed by an “interesting pattern of stimulation) to be repeated. And the
ability to repeat the act is the result of primary circular reactions established in
the previous stage. For example, when the infant’s hand accidentally makes
contact with an object in his field of vision is based on the primary circular
reaction bringing his hand into his field of vision. Thus, the child learns (at the
level of schemata) that “if he can see it then he can also touch it” and this results
in a schemata which is the knowledge that is external environment is populated
with solid objects.
❖ The fourth substage, called the coordination of secondary circular
reactions
stage, which occurs from nine to twelve months, is when Piaget thought that
object permanence developed. In addition, the stage is called the coordination
of secondary circular reactions stage, and is primarily with the development of
logic and the coordination between means and ends, this is extremely important
marks the beginning of goal orientation or intentionally, the deliberate planning
of steps to meet an objective.
❖ The fifth substage, tertiary circular reactions phase, occurs from twelve to
eighteen months and is associated primarily with the discovery of new means
to meet goals. Piaget describes the child at this juncture as the “young scientist”,
conducting pseudo-experiments to discover new methods of meeting
challenges.
❖ The six sub-stage, considered “beginning of symbolic representation”, is
associated primarily with the beginnings of insight, or true creativity. In this
stag the trial- and error application of schemata, which was observable during
the previous stage, occurs internally ( at the level of schemata rather than of
motor responses), resulting in the sudden appearance of new effective behaviors
(without any observable trial-and-error). This is also the time when symbols
(words and images) begin to stand for other objects. This marks the passage
into the preoperational stage.

2. Preoperational period (years 2-7)

The Preoperational stage is the second of four stages of cognitive development. By
observing sequence of play, Piaget was able to demonstrate that towards the end of the
second year a qualitatively new kind of psychological functioning occurs (Pre)
Operatory Thought in Piagetian theory is any procedure for mentally acting on objects.
The hallmark of the preoperational stage is spare and logically inadequate mental
operations.
According to Piaget, the Pre Operational stage of development follows the Sensorimotor
stage and occur between 2-7 years of age. It includes the following processes.
1. Symbolic functioning- characterized by the use of mental symbols, words, or
pictures, which the child uses to represent something which is not physically present
2. Centration-characterized by a child focusing or attending to only one aspect of a
stimulus or situation. For example, in pouring a quantity of liquid from an narrow
beaker into a shallow dish, a preschool child might judge the quantity of liquid to
have decreased, because it is”lower”- that is, the child attends to the height of the
water, but not the compensating increase in the diameter of the container.
3. Intuitive thought- occurs when the child is able to believe in something without
knowing why she or he believes it.
4. Egocentrism- a version of centration, this denotes a tendency of a child to only
think for her or his own point of view. Also, the inability of a child to take the point
of the view of others. Example, if a child is in trouble, he or she might cover her eyes
thinking if I cannot see myself my mom cannot either.
5. Inability to Conserve-though Piaget’s conservation experiments (conservation of
mass, volume and number after the original form has been changed. For example,
a child in this phase will believe that a string which has up in”o-o-o-o” pattern will
have a larger number of beads than a string which has a oooo: pattern, because the
latter pattern has less space between Os; or that a tall, thin 8-ounce cup has more
liquid in it than a wide, short 8-ounce cup.
6. Animism- The child believes that inanimate objects have :lifelike” qualities and are
capable of action. Example, a child plays with a doll and treats it like a real person.
In a way this is like using their imagination.

3. Concrete operational period (years 7-11)

The Concrete operational stage is the third of four stages of cognitive development in
Piaget’s theory. This stage, which follows the Preoperational stage, occurs between the
ages 7 and 11 years and is characterized by the appropriate use of logic. Important
process during this stage are:
a. Seriation- the ability to arrange objects in an order according to size, shape, or any
another characteristic. For example, if given different-shaded objects they may make
a color gradient.
b. Classification-the ability to name and identify sets of objects according to
appearance, size or other characteristic, including the idea that one set of objects
can include another, a child is no longer subject to the illogical limitations of
animasim ( the belief that all objects are alive and therefore have feelings)
c. Decentering- where the child takes into account multiple aspects of a problem to
solve it. For example, the child will no longer perceive an exceptionally wide but
short cup to contain less than a normally-wide, taller cup.
d. Reversibility- where the child understands that numbers or objects can be changed,
then returned to their original state. For this reason, a child will be able to rapidly
determine that if 4 +4 equals 8, 8/4 will equal 4, the original quantity
e. Conservation- understanding that quantity, length or number of items is unrelated
to the arrangement or appearance of the object or items. For instance, when a child
is presented with two equally-sized, full cup they will be able to discern that if water
is transferred to a pitcher it will conserve the quantity and be equal to the other filled
up.
f. Elimination of Egocentrism- the ability to view things from another’s perspective
(even if they think incorrectly). For instance, show a child a comic in whom Jane
puts a doll under the box leaves the room, and then Sarah moves the doll to a drawer,
and Jane comes back. A child in the concrete operational stage will stay that Jane will
still think it’s under the box even through the child knows it is in the drawer

4. Formal operational period (years 11-adulthood)

The formal operational period is the fourth and final of the periods of cognitive
development in Piaget's theory. This stage, which follows the Concrete Operational
stage, commences at around 11 years of age ( puberty) and continues into adulthood.
It is characterized by acquisition of the ability to think abstractly, reason logically and
draw conclusions from the information available. During this stage the young adult is
able to understand such things as love”shades of gray”, logical proofs, and values,
Lev Vtgotsky-Psychologist, was born in 1896 in Orsha, Belarys (then a part of the
Russian Empire). Vygotsky was tutored privately by Solomom Asphiz and graduated
from Moscow State University in 1917. Later, he attended the Institute of Psychology
in Moscow (1924-34), where he worked extensively on ideas about cognitive
development, particularly the relationship between language and thinking. His writings
emphasized the roles of historical cultural, and social factors in cognition and argued
that language was the most important symbolic tool provided by society.
Perhaps Vygotsky’s most important contribution concerns the inter-relationship of
language development and thought. This concept, explored in Vygotsky’s book
“Thinking and Speaking”, establishes the explicit and profound connection between
speech (both silent inner speech and oral language), and the development of mental
concepts and cognitive awareness. It should be noted that Vygotsky described inner
speech as being qualitatively different than normal (external) speech, For Vygotsky,
social interaction is important for learning, e.i. children learn adults and other children

Information Processing Theory

There are three primary stages in IP Theory:
❖ Encoding- information is sensed, perceived, and attended .
❖ Storage- the information is stored for either a brief or extended period of
time
depending upon the processes following encoding
❖ Retrieval- The information is found at the appropriate time, and
reactivated fr
use on a current task, the true test of effective memory.

The initial appeal of information processing theories was the idea that cognitive
processes could be
described in a stage-like model. The stages to processing follow a path along which
information is taken
into the memory system, and reactivated when necessary. Most theories of information
processing center
around three main stages in the memory process.
Sensory Register
The first step in the IP model, holds ALL sensory information for a VERY BRIEF time
period.
❖ Capacity: we hold an enormous amount, more than we can ever perceive.
❖ Duration: Extremely brief- in order of 1 to 3 seconds

The Role of Attention

❖ To move information into consciousness, we need to attend to it. That is,
we only have the
ability to perceive and remember later those things that pass through the attention gate.
Short Term Memory ( working Memory)
❖ Capacity: What you can say in 2 seconds. Often said to be 7+/_2 items.
❖ Duration: Around 18 seconds or less
❖ To reduce the loss of information in 18 seconds, you need to rehearse
❖ There are two types of rehearsal- Maintenance and Elaborative

Long Term Memory

The final storing house of memorial information, the long term memory store holds
information until
needed again.
❖ Capacity: unlimited?
❖ Duration: indefinite?

Executive Control Processes

❖ Also known as executive processor, or Metacognitive skills
❖ Guide the flow of information through the system, helps the learner make
informed
❖ Example processes-attention, rehearsals, organization, Sometimes call
METACOGNITIVE SKILLS
Forgetting - The inability to access information when needed
❖ There are two main ways in which forgetting likely occurs:
❖ Decay-Information is not attended to, and eventually fades away. Very
prevalent in working memory.
❖ Inference-New or old information blocks’ access to the information in
question.

Methods for Increasing the Probability of Remembering

❖ Organization- info that is organized efficiently should be recalled
❖ Deep processing- This is focusing upon meaning.
❖ Elaboration- Connecting new info with old, to gain meaning.
♪ Generation- Things we produce are easier to remember than things we hear.
❖ Context-Remembering the situation helps recover information
❖ Personalization- making the information relevant to the individual
❖ Memory Methods
❖ Memorization ( note the same as learning)
❖ Serial Position Effect ( recency and primacy) you will remember the
beginning and end of list most readily
❖ Part Learning- Break up the list to increase memorization
❖ Distributed Practice- Break up learning sessions, rather than cramming all
the info in at once (Massed Practice)
❖ Mnemonics Aids
❖ Loci Method- Familiar place, associate list with items in place (i.e. living
room)
❖ Peg-type- Standard list is a cue to the target list.
❖ Acronym – SCUBA
❖ Chain Mnemonics- EGBDF
❖ Keyword Method- Association of new word/ concept with well know
word/concept that sounds similar.