cognition and development

• a Swiss developmental psychologist who studied how children develop psychologically as they mature

• children dont just know less than adults but actually think an entirely different way to adults

• he believed that the way humans think is based on our human genes and interaction with the environment

The view that humans generate knowledge from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas

schema

• all our knowledge of the world is stored there -we have different schemas for different things (can be simple or complex)

• we are constantly using our schemas to make sense of the world

• some schemas are innate, our schemas change and grow in complexity with experience

biologically

we enter a state of disequilibrium - which is very uncomfortable, and we want to return to equilibrium

discovering and acquiring the new information we need to make sense of our experiences - making a new schema or adding to an existing one

A form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information or a more advanced understanding of an object, person or idea. When new information does not radically change our understanding of the topic we can incorporate (assimilate) it into an existing schema

A form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information that changes our understanding of a topic to the extent that we need to form one or more new schemas and/or radically change existing schemas in order to deal with the new understanding

assimilation and accomodation

• research support for the theory that some schemas are innate

• research support showing that schemas are individual and vary between people

• application and enducation

Frantz (1961) showed that babies as young as four days old preferred looking at features of the face than jumbled up features. This means that this schema must be innate as they couldnt have learnt to recognises faces at so young

Howe (1992) showed children formed individual schemas:

• participants aged 9-12

• groups of 4 investigated and discussed movement of an object down a slope

• all increased knowledge, but their understandings remained different

Piaget's theory that children construct their own schemas led to schools placing an emphasis on discovery learning with practical learning (so they learnt how things work and relate to each other)

• the role of other people is underestimated

other theories see learning as a social theory, Piaget centered his theories on what the individual child was doing and saw teachers as minimally involved in setting up discovery activities but nothing more. However we are social species and much of our learning happens in a social context through social interaction. Not acknowledging this makes Piaget's theory incomplete

determinism nature and nurture nomothetic

we keep information we have learnt in schemas. These schemas determine how well we lean new information. Some schemas are innate

human genes which means we use schemas to organise our knowledge + what our actual understanding is develops from our experiences

general rules applied to all were used

in a sequence which is one process which includes all aspects of cognition developing together

• sensorimotor stage: 0-2 years

• pre-operational stage: 2-7 years

• concrete operational stage: 7-11 years

• formal operational stage: 11+ years

• from around 8 moths and completely by 18-24 months object permanence develops

sensori = physical sensation picked up by touch, sight, sound motor = learning to move and respond to the environment. As children move through this stage they become more masterful of and intentional with their movements

the understanding that things exist when they are outside direct observation by the individuals; that objects and people exist as separate permanent things

• hiding an object under a blanket

• before 8 months 'out of sight out of mind'

• from 8 months the infant would look for the object

A-not-B error test

babies are shown an object and see it repeatedly hidden under cloth A. They look for it under cloth A, then when it is hidden under cloth B the child continues to look for it under A. Past 1 years of age, babies do not tend to make this error

object permanence

conservation, egocentrism and class inclusion

The ability to realise that quantity remains the same even when the appearance of an object changes.

number, mass and volume

• the adult set up two identical rows of coins; asks "are there the same number of coins or different?"

• adult squashes one column; asks "same amount or different?"

• child picked the squashed line as having less coins

• adult sets up two identical columns of play doh; askes are they the same amount or different

• adult squashes one column; asks if they are the same or not

• child said squashed had a lower mass

• adult sets up identical containers asks if theyre the same or different

• adult pours one container into a container of a different shape and repeats the question

• child picks the taller glass as having more liquid in

The childs tendency to only be able to see the world from their own point of view. This applies to both physical objects - demonstrated in the three mountain task - and arguments in which a child can only appreciate their own perspective

being able to see something from anothers point of view by focusing on more than one aspect of the problem

3 mountains task

• 3 different coloured mountains on a board, children had photos of the mountains from different views. They had to match their own view and the dolls to the photo

understanding that things can be put into categories or classes. Very young children understand that things can be placed into categories and are able to do this. However, they dont show an understanding that categories have subjects

he showed that children aged 2-7were able to put a pug, Labrador and German shepherd into 'dog' category but could not accurately answer the question "are their more dogs or animals?" when shown a display of cats and dogs together

• children have much better reasoning abilities (operations)

• child can conserve, de-centre and understands class inclusion

• child CANNOT think in an abstract way

• if all yellow cats have two heads and I have a yellow cat, how many heads does it have?

• children in the concrete operational stage get distracted by the fact that their experience tells them that cats don't have two heads so are unable to separate the content from the form

children become able to focus on the form of an argument and not be distracted by its content. This allows for scientific reasoning, logical argument and an appreciation for abstract ideas

• supporting evidence for the biological basis for the theory

• useful applications

• there is a large body of supporting evidence for the theory of biologically driven stages in cognitive development

• however...some evidence shows that children go through the stages at vastly different ages to others

• Piaget suggests that the stages should be taken as rough estimates of the time when children go through the changes, and not fixed schedule. There will be individual differences

• one long-lasting key idea is that the difference between the way children and adults think is qualitative

• for real learning to take place, a child must be at the appropriate stage in development

• so teaching a pre-operational child complex mathematical formulae will not be successful

• this has informed primary school teaching. In 1967 in the UK, a hugely influential report on primary teaching was published - it was largely based on Piaget's work

the methodology is flawed

• in the conservation task the child may have though the answer was 'yes' as the adult changed something - so the child would be responding to demand characteristics

a social interactionist theory

the role of social interaction and culture in development of cognition - how the child internalises the understanding of others

• Piaget believed children drive their own learning, while Vygotsky believed that learning is facilitated by social interaction

• Vygotsky saw the child as an APPRENTICE to a more knowledgeable other, Piaget saw the child as a SCIENTIST discovering things for themselves

• also Vygotsky saw learning as a continual process rather than stages

The process of helping a learner cross the ZPD and advance as much as they can, given their stage of development. Typically the level of help given in scaffolding declines as the learner crosses the ZPD

• a more knowledgeable other 'expert' provides a supportive framework of instructions and guidance

• the support is gradually withdrawn

• play: to maintain interest and participation

• demonstration: show the child clearly what to do

• talking: by the expert talking, the child is encouraged to do more and more of the process alone - verbal support/prompt/encouragement

• peer tutoring

• teacher demonstration

• use of writing frames

indipendence

• the area between what the child can do unaided and what the child can learn to do with help - the difference between actual current ability and potential ability

scaffolding extends the childs abilities and allows the child to travel faster and further from their current ability level

language enables a shift from elementary mental functions to higher mental functions

• children are active learners

• children learn increasingly complex skills as they get older

• emphasise nature and nurture

Piaget: - readiness (must be at appropriate stage)

• happens in stages

• views child as scientist (child builds own understanding) Vygotsky: - acceleration (through scaffolding)

• continual

• views child as apprentice (learns through scaffolding)

• support for scaffolding

• support for zone of proximal development

• application in education

Conner and Cross (2003) illisteated the gradual reduction of support from the expert in a longitudinal stud of 45 children

• Roazzi and Bryant (1998) gave children 4-5 some sweets in a box and asked them to estimate how many there were

• in condition 1 the children worked alone and in condition 2 they worked with an older child

• in condition 1 the child failed to make a good estimate but in condition 2 got prompted by the expert so could master the task

a review of usefulness of teaching assistants (2005) found they were effective in students learning if well trained

• individual experiences are ignored

• some children may not learn best through social interaction so the theory will not fit for all children

• holistic: it studies the individual in their social and cultural context

• nomothetic: large samples to create general law

• deterministic: no free will as it states how children learn

• she challenged Piaget's ideas about babies abilities in the sensorimotor stage, including object permanence

• she tested babies understanding of object permanence and occlusion over many years, using violation of expectation (VoE)

• VoE research involves showing babies something that they didnt expect to see happen, something which is impossible if you understand physical laws

• they measure whether the baby is surprised by how long they look at the scene that is manipulated for them

• baby was positioned on an adults lap so they couldnt see the adults face - reduced demand characteristics

• the person timing couldnt see the display, only the babies face - reduced investigator bias

• her research may give us a better understanding of infant capabilities than Piaget's

• high control

Piaget has been criticised because perhaps in his studies babies looked away because they just lost interest rather than because they thought the object had ceased to exits

babies were sat on their parents lap for the studies, but any influence from the parent was controlled by the parent closing their eyes and not interacting with their infant during the trials - therefore it was more valid as the baby were picking up less demand characteristics from parents

it is hard to judge what an infant understands

just because the infant responds as if they understand physical laws, we cannot know that they really do understand them. we are making an assumption which may not be true. Responding to a physical event is not the same as reasoning about it

• nomothetic: large studies to establish general laws - all humans have an understanding of physical laws from innate PRS

• nature: PRS - gives innate understanding

• nuture: builds on PRS through experience

• determinism: biological (PRS), environmental experiences and hard determinism

• less reductionism: lowest level, on simple factor

when an event happens that isnt consistent with the expectation of what should have happened - violates expectations

the child would gaze longer, which the researchers took as their curiosity about their violated expectations

• 24 infants aged 5-6 months were shown 4 events of a rabbit passing behind a block

• 3 events were possible as the rabbit could move without being seen

• one condition the rabbit was too tall to pass behind the block with a window and not be seen (violates expectations)

infants are more interested in the impossible so would pay attention to impossible events to further develop their understanding of the physical world

• the ability to see a social situation from another perspective

• he believed this was a social (nurture) development not just a biologically driven cognitive on

• much of our social functioning relies on perspective taking

• physical perspective taking (the ability to de-centre and see someone else's physical point of view)

• the ability to take others perspectives develop through 5 levels

• the levels show an age-rated shift from egocentric view to a broader cultural/moral understanding of others point of view

• vitally important for all social behaviour, particularly pro social behaviour

• children with poor perspective taking skills had more difficulty with relationships and were less popular

• positive correlation between perspective taking skills and pro social behaviour

• negative correlation between perspective taking skills and aggression

egocentric (3-6), social-informational(6-8), self-reflective(8-10), mutual(10-12), societal (12+)

children may recognise that the self and others can have different points of view, but frequently confuse the two

children understand that different perspectives may result because people have access to different information. Will not understand differences in opinion if information is the same, so not truly able to imagine a different point of view

child can now view things from someone elses perspective in addition to their own and understands others are able to do this too. But they will only be able to consider one point of view at a time

child can consider two peoples points of view at the same time

individuals understand that decisions are now made with reference to social conventions as understanding anothers point of view may not be enough to ensure agreement

to study children's perspective taking - a dilemma is a problem offering possibilities, neither of which is unambiguously preferable

the holly dilemma

he identified five distinct levels of perspective taking. He found that these correlate with age; higher levels enable better social functioning

• imagine you are holly who is 8 and loves to climb trees

• holly is the best tree climber in the neighbourhood, but one day she falls and hurts herself, so her dad makes her promise not to climb trees again

• there is a kitten stuck up a tree and holly is needed to climb and get it or it'll fall - but it breaks her promis to her dad

• application

• support for the progressive nature of the levels

• support for the experience being an essential part of the process

the application build on the previous strength: if perspective taking can be developed by experience then there are applications for schools and prisons. Selman believed that every primary school should aim to develop perspective taking in its children. social skills training programmes are used in therapeutic and prison setting to help develop perspective taking and improve peoples social skills and ultimately the quality of life