cognitive development in middle childhood: chapter 11

Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood: Chapter 11

Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage

• Developmental change involves progression from a state of equilibrium to a state of disequilibrium – Process of change moves organism from state of

cognitive disequilibrium to a state of cognitive equilibrium• Assimilation—new information fits within existing

structures• Accommodation—new structures are created or

existing structures are changed to take in new information

Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage

• Concrete Operational Thought – Children can reflect on their own thoughts– Children attend to dynamic transformations

(processes involved in change)– Children’s mental capabilities change:• Decenter—consider multiple attributes or dimensions

simultaneously• Reversibility—mentally reverse events or actions • Use logic to make transitive inferences

Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage• Limits to Piaget’s concrete operational child:– Reflective thinking, decentering, and reversibility are

limited to those events experienced by the child

– May underestimate the child’s competency with enriched environment

Information Processing Theory (IPT)

• IPT focuses on:– encoding, – transformation, – storage, and – retrieval of information

• Working Memory– Information currently in active and conscious processing– Limited duration without rehearsal– Limited capacity without mnemonic devices

IPT: Working Memory

• Evidence points to unique processing components– Verbal– Auditory– Executive Control• Monitoring• Controlling

IPT: Depth of Processing Theory

• Shallow—attend to surface features, rote rehearsal– E.g. memorizing names and dates; memorizing

definitions• Deep—attend to meaningful features, strategic

rehearsal– E.g. summarizing in your own words; constructing

a concept map

• Overall, deep processing leads to more flexible and accessible memories

IPT: Long Term Memory

• Relatively permanent duration

• Relatively (and largely unknown) large capacity

• Organization is based on strategies used during encoding or processing in Working Memory

Network Models of Long Term Storage

• Conceptual nodes– Represent concepts, facts, or other entities

• Logical arcs– Represent relationships among conceptual nodes

• Activation of nodes and arcs– Based on environmental stimulation– Stream of consciousness

• More frequent activation leads to easier access and retrieval

• More arcs between adjacent nodes and the target node lead to increased cognitive flexibility

Categories of Knowledge in Long-term Memory

• Tulving– Semantic memory—knowing facts, concepts– Episodic memory—knowing about events or activities

(maybe a more dominant type of memory in children

• Shank & Abelson– Knowledge of a relatively fixed routine– Related to episodic memory– Form default patterns of actions (fast food

restaurant script)

Characteristics of Memory• Constructive—Reconstructive Processing– Constructive Processing: Distortion occurs at encoding– Reconstructive Processing: Distortion occurs at retrieval

• Autobiographical Memory– Memories for one’s own experiences– Influenced not only by events themselves, but also how

others describe the events to us – Suggestibility (e.g. “false memories”—reconstructive and

autobiographical)

Major Developmental Changes across Middle Childhood

• Metacognitive skills– Cognitive monitoring– Cognitive control– Cognitive flexibility– Strategy acquisition, development, and use

Major Developmental Changes across Middle Childhood

• Knowledge base– Greater number of conceptual nodes

– More efficient organization

– More flexible organization

– More complex networks

Cognitive Development in Context (Mathematics)

• Early on, strategies reflect controlled processing (resource intensive)

• With practice and more efficient memory, strategies reflect more automatic processes (less resource intensive

• Automatic strategies require monitoring that is based on metacognitive awareness

Cognitive Development in Context (Mathematics)

• Mathematics Problems embedded in language and richer contexts

– Strategies include• Stating the problem• Solving the computational steps• Evaluating the outcome• Restating the results in terms of the original problem

statement

– Strategies are likely to be controlled not automatic

Cognitive Development in Context (Literacy)

• Overall, progression is from controlled processing to automatic at several levels– Phonemic awareness– Sight words– Context cues– Schema-driven knowledge (top-down)


• Children who – are told stories,– have someone read to them regularly, – have a print rich environment in their lives, and – have opportunity to explore language

• Singing, Scribbling, Drawing, Invented spelling

– Tend to have more optimistic outcome in literacy in school

– Table 11.3 (pg 393)—developmental progression of reading


• Developmental process• Scribbling • forming pseudo-words with letters, • invented spelling, • simple stories and • narratives based on own experience,


• Narrative Schema– Tends to be universal– Predicable order of elements• Setting• Initiating event• Reaction• Action• Consequence• Moral


• Narrative:– Structure appears early on

– Nursery tales, children’s stories tend to follow the structure universally

– Children are sensitive to violations of the structure

Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood

• Tends to be a period across cultures of preparation for more mature roles and responsibilities

• Schooling, in some form, occurs in all cultures

• Fits within Erikson’s stage of Industry vs. Inferiority

cognitive development in middle childhood: chapter 11

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