Cognitive Development

Cognitive Development

1. Piaget

   • Building Blocks
     • A belief that children and adults learn through engagement and trying different actions to see what works
     • Schema
       • A template of actions, objects or situations
         • E.g. Holding a pen
     • Operation
       • Combinations of schemas
         • E.g. Writing with a pen
     • Assimilation
       • Using existing schemas for new situations
         • E.g. Being given a pencil to write with
     • Equilibration
       • A state when using existing schemas can be used in a new situation
         • E.g. Being able to use a pencil
     • Accomodation
       • When an existing schema cannot be used in a new situation
         • E.g. Being given a fountain pen
     • Disquilbration
       • A state where existing schemas cannot be used in a new situation
         • E.g. Being unable to use the fountain pen with the existing schema
   • Stages of Development
     • Sensorimotor Period
       • 0-2 years
         • Object Permanence (the ability to recognise that an object exists even when it is out of sight) develops at around 9 months
           • A03: Supporting study. BALL AND BLANKET supports object permanence. The child was shown a toy and was then covered. Piaget found that children below the age of 9 months appeared to have no interest in the hidden object and acted as if it was "out of sight and out of mind". After 9 months, the infants would remove the cloth and search for the hidden toy
             • A03 Counter-argument for object permanence by BOWER AND WISHART (1972). They altered Piaget's original procedure. A teddy bear was placed in front of a 4-month baby who would raise their hands off the ground to reach for the toy. When the lights were turned off they found the babies would still outstretch their arms to the bear. Suggests Piaget may have under-estimated the age that object permanence occurs at.
     • Pre-operational period
       • 2-7 years
         • Animism occurs (where a child believes that objects such as toys have human feelings and intentions). Egocentrism occurs (the inability to see from another person's perspective, only being able to see from your own.) Development of language occurs. An inability to decentre, conserve, understand seriation and do class inclusion tasks.
           • A03: Supporting Study: THREE MOUNTAINS STUDY. Supports that children are egocentric. A model of three mountains with different coloured tops. Children between 3-8 walked around it to look. A small doll was placed at the opposite end of the table and children were asked to give his viewpoint on 10 pictures. Children under 7 are unable to give the doll's viewpoint and choose their own instead
             • Counter-argument for egocentrism by DONALDSON. She argued that the problem with Piaget's tasks was that to small children they lacked "human sense" Supported by Hughes
     • Concrete Operations
       • 7-11 years
         • Children are able to conserve (know that quantities remain the same despite changes in appearance). Class inclusion (understanding how categories of objects work) occurs towards the end
     • Formal Operations
       • 11+ years
         • Children are able to conserve, logical thinking occurs and abstract thought
   • A03 evaluation
     • Used lab experiments
       • -Lacks ecological validity
       • +Replicable
     • Used observations
       • -Observer bias
       • +Use another observer
     • Used his own children
       • -Cultural Bias
       • -Three children is a tiny sample size
       • -Bias
     • IDAS
       • Nature/ Nurture
         • Supports nature-limits the theory as it ignores other potential reasons for cognitive development
       • Culture Bias
         • Doesn't take into account other non-Western cultures which have different practices (e.g. children who grew up in a Kabutz)

2. Vygotsky

   • Social Interaction, Context and Culture
     • "Child as an apprentice" develops as an idea of thinking and mental tools
       • Interaction lets children see adults and older children use problem-solving skills and cognitive tools to internalise them
         • Can take place in formal and informal situations
     • Cognitive Skills developed by the child are heavily influenced by context and culture
       • A03: Nunes 1992
         • Found that Brazilian street children, despite having no formal education who have jobs on the street as vendors have well developed maths skills that are internalised from working alongside adults and older children from an early age.
   • Language
     • Has two distinct functions used differently by younger and older children.
       • Social Speech
         • Words are used to communicate with other people. Used by young children and adults.
       • Intellectual Speech
         • At around 7-8 years speech becomes internalised as an inner voice. Used to regulate, plan and think. A basis for higher mental functions
     • Children are born with elementary functions like attention and memory.
       • Higher Mental Functions: the ability to reason, problem solve and calculate
   • ZPD and Scaffolding
     • ZPD
       • Zone of Proximal Development. The distance between the child's current developmental level and their ability when helped by another person with more knowledge than themselves (MKO).
     • Scaffolding
       • Where another person helps the child to progress further.
         • A03: Wood and Middleton 1975
           • 12 mothers asked to teach their 4-year old how to put together a wooden jigsaw puzzle. Sessions were recorded on video then analysed. Types of support were coded and categorised. Found that the most successful mothers were the ones who adjusted the help they offered subtly. Offered help when the child was struggling but then backed off when the child appeared to be coping on their own.
             • Methodological Issues: +Observational methods provide rich and detailed data. +Video recording allows psychologists to watch many times. -Small sample size. -Qualitative date, researchers then need to code observations which can be subjective
         • A03: Tzuriel and Shamir 2007
           • Peer assisted learning in Israel to test the ability of young children to master seriation tasks. 89 Year One (5-6) children were paired with a Year Three "mediator" with two types of teaching. 1)Experimental Group of mediators who taught in a mediation teaching style (SCAFFOLDING) 2)Control group of mediators taught social interaction. Found that those with scaffolding training made more improvements than the control group.
             • Methodological issues: -Control Group used to control possible Hawthorn-type effects. -Any study involving children needs full parental consent and school consent. -Sensitive debriefing is required.
   • IDAs
     • Nurture side of the debate weakens the validity as it doesn't consider interactionist views
     • Culture Bias strengthens the validity as it considers a range of cultures (link to Nunes' study)

3. Baillargeon

   • Aimed to discover the unsuspected abilities of newborn and young children. Infants are unable to indicate what they are thinking due to an inability to form language and perform movements. A lack of ability may be due to motor difficulties than lack of mental ability.
     • Violation of Expectation
       • Infants will look for longer at things that they have no experienced before. The child is repeatedly shown a scenario that is new to them until they look away, suggesting it is no longer a novel experience.
       • A03: Rolling Carrot Task
         • To investigate infants' ability to understand object permanence. 3.5 month old infants watch a tall or short carrot sliding along a track hidden by a screen with a large window in its upper half. The short carrot did not appear in the window which is an expected result. The tall carrot did not appear in the window even though this was expected. Infants looked for longer at the tall carrot rather than the short carrot.
       • A03: Drawbridge Experiment
         • To investigate infants' ability to understand object permanence. Infants aged 5.5 months sat in front of a stage and were shown a drawbridge which started in a flat position then rotated 180 into a flat position. Then a block was placed in the path of the drawbridge. Infants were split into two groups, 1) Control Group: saw the expected event of the drawbridge resting on the block. 2)Experimental Group: saw the unexpected event of the drawbridge passing through the block. Infants in the experimental group spent longer looking at the drawbridge. Concluded that infant's attention was grabbed by the apparently impossible event.
     • Core Knowledge Theory
       • Innate fast learning
         • A quick ability to understand objects
       • Innate object knowledge
         • Understanding objects from birth
       • A basic understanding of the physical world including perception of when objects move partially or fully out of sightand can predict movements of objects
   • A03
     • Research Methods
       • Used opportunity sampling to recruit participants
         • Is a strength as you use the first suitable participants you can find.
       • Ethical Issues
         • Informed consent: parents consent on children's behalf. Confidentiality: not using the children's real names. Withdrawal from the study.
       • Use of Lab experiments and Videoing results
         • +Replicable +Establishes cause and effect -Low ec.validity
         • +Can watch again +Inter-observer reliability -Parental Consent -Time-consuming
     • IDAS
       • Nature side
         • Innately driven. Limits the theory as there is no consideration of environmental factors.