models (revisited) themes to keep in mind throughout material nature vs. nurture nativist vs....

DevelopmentCognitive

Models (revisited) Themes to keep in mind throughout material

Nature vs. Nurture Nativist vs. Empiricist (Constructivist)

Models of Development No development (little adults) Maturation Readiness Stages Waves Critical periods

PiagetThe “father” of cognitive

development

“Everything you’ve been taught in an intro to psychology course about Piaget is wrong”

- Howard Gardner

Studied biology – became interested in human intelligence

Went to work with Alfred Binet on designing an intelligence test for children Had a really difficult really difficult time using

simplified adult measures

! Children are thinking in a way that is qualitatively different from adults. Children of different ages have different conceptions of the world that change the way they approach problems !

Jean Piaget’s theory remains the standard against which all other theories are judged Often labeled constructivist because it depicts

children as constructing knowledge for themselves

Children are seen as Active Learning many important lessons on their own Intrinsically motivated to learn

3 processes to move between stagesAssimilation: Transform incoming

information to fit existing way of thinkingAccommodation: Adapt thinking to new

experiencesEquilibration: Integrate pieces of

knowledge into unified whole

Stages

Sensorimotor

Birth–2 years

Understands world through senses andactions

Preoperational

2–7 years

Understandsworld throughlanguage andmentalimages

Concrete operational

7–12 years

Understandsworld through logicalthinking andcategories

Formal operational

12 years onward

Understandsworld throughhypotheticalthinking and scientificreasoning

Sensorimotor Infants react reflexively and gradually adapt

behavior to control movement and manipulate objects

Infants aren’t born with object permenance

A-not-B failure

Achieved at 9 mos.

Recent experimental support for sensorimotor period

Sticky mittens!

Sped up object knowledge & understanding of causality (& social awareness?)

PreoperationalLearn to use symbols, signs, and language

(symbolic representations)

Failure of conservation – do not yet understand that quantity remains the same despite appearance

PreoperationalEgocentrism – cannot understand another

person’s point of view

Symbolic representations?

THE CREDIBLE SHRINKING ROOM! (DeLoache et al., 1997)

2.5 years children are unable to use a model of a room to find a toy hidden in the room

UNLESS they are told that the model is the actual room shrunken by a shrink ray

Concrete OperationalThinking becomes systematic, quantitative,

and logical.

• Logical thought for concrete information that is perceived

Work poorly when applied to abstract, hypothetical info: Succeed: If stick A is longer than stick B and stick

B is longer than stick C, then is stick A is longer than stick C?

Fail: Susan is taller than Sally and Sally is taller than Mary. Who is the tallest?

Formal OperationsApply logical and systematic thought to

abstract problems

Deductive reasoning – specific conclusions based on general hypotheses

Inductive reasoning – make generalizations based on specific observation

Hypothetical thinking – truth, justice, morality

Weaknesses

Infants and young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized

Piaget’s theory is vague about the cognitive processes and mechanisms of cognitive growth

Piaget’s theory understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development

Stage model depicts children’s thinking as being more consistent than it is

“Why does everyone speak of stages?... One tries to construct stages because this is an indispensable instrument for the analysis of formative processes....I must vigorously insist on the fact that stages do not constitute an aim in their own right. I would compare them to zoological or botanical classification in biology, which is an instrument that must preceded analysis” (The Essential Piaget, p. 817)

Earlier Object Permanence

4.5 month old infants

Two conditions B is ‘possible’ C is ‘impossible’

Results – Looked longer at C

Conclusions Infants know box exists,

even when hidden 4.5 month olds

understand object permanence

Why later for A-not-B?Errors decrease with fewer trials where toy is

hidden in A

Failure could be from a lack of inhibitory control (impulse to reach to the same location)

Errors decrease with shorter time between between hiding and when child is allowed to reach for toy

Failures could be from poor iconic memory

Information Processing Theory

Human brain as computer Representation of

information Processes: applied on

representations Limitations: memory

Development = change in processing abilities

Memory capacity• Working memory

span increases with age - Iconic memory

capacity also increases with age (1st grade = 2.5 digits, 4th grade = 3 digits, adults = 3.5 digits)

Increase in rehearsal speed – leads to increase in working memory capacity

Increase processing speed

The speed of basic processes increases greatly over the course of childhood

Biological maturation and experience contribute to increased processing speed Two biological processes that contribute to

faster processing are myelination and increased connectivity among brain regions

Problem Solving (Wave Theory)

Children are active problem solversAccording to overlapping-waves

theory, children use a variety of approaches to solve problems

At any given time, children possess several different strategies for solving a given problem

With age and experience, the strategies that produce more successful performance become more prevalent

Wave Theory

Core Knowledge Domain specificity: Children’s innate understanding

allows them to distinguish between animate beings and inanimate objects.

Children’s informal theories: understanding organized into informal theories of

domains like other people, plants and animals, and objects.

Psychology Biology Physics Language

Information-processing view

Core-knowledge view

Occluded Rod4-month-old infants

familiarized with A, then presented with either B or C

Results – Looked longer at C than B

Conclusions Broken rod more novel

than unbroken rod Rod in display A was

originally perceived as unbroken