Cognitive Development

Cognitive Development

1. Piaget's theroy of cognitive development

   • children are 'mini-scientists'
   • children should be given the materials and ennvironment to explore and learn for themselves. He called this discovery learning or constructivism and said it was the best way for children to learn
   • According to Piaget, the development of children's thinking was influenced by both: 1) biological maturation and 2)active experience with the environment
   • Schemas: Adaption, Assimilation and Accomodation
     • A schema is a mental framework of ideas that surround one idea
     • Assimilation: This process is used when the child is able to use existing schemas to understand new information
     • Accommodation: This process is necessary when existing schemas have to be modified or new schemas created in order to understand new information
     • Equilibrium: a feeling of mental balance because the world is as you expected and you can use schemas you already have to understand information
     • Disequilibrium: a feeling of confusion because new information does not fit with our way of thinking. This motivates accomodation
     • Evaluation of Piaget's Schema Theory
       • Piaget's concepts of assimilation, accomodation and abd equilibrium are vague and therefore difficult to prove or disprove becaus ethey happen in the mind
         • However, EEGs have shown that neural change does occur as children cognitively develop and this may be linked to accomodation and adaptation
       • Discover learning through accomodation and assimilation underestimates the role of adults in helping children learn new skills. Vygotsky claimed that children can be encouraged to learn before they are cognitively ready by an adult providing scaffoling (DIPER)
         • Chris and Greenfeild supports Scaffolding
       • Piaget's schema theory has had an enormous influence in primary education, leading to methods that allow for self-discovery through play rather thaninstruction
         • However, children also learn through other methods, and we are social creatures who also learn in social ways e.g. Vicarious reinforcement - therefore it is of LIMITED USEFULNESS
       • Piaget's empthasis on learning through interaction with the environment conflicts with nativist view that children are born with innate cognitive abilities
   • Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Develpment
     • The Sensori-Motor Stage
       • Main characteristic is object permenance: Object permenance is the ability to realise that something still exists even when it cannot be seen.
       • Evidence for object permenance (Piaget) AIM: To find out at what age children develop object permenance. METHOD: He tested children of different ages. While the child watched, Piaget hid a toy behind the screen. He then recorded whether the children looked for the hidden toy. RESULTS: Children up to 8 months did not look for the toy, but children of 8 months or older looked for the toy when it was hidden. CONCLUSION: Object permenance develops at around 8 months (because of biological maturation and interaction with the environment)
       • Counter-evidence against object permenance developing at 8 months
         • BOWER AND WISHART: Carried out a study which did not require motor skills. They made an object dissappear by turning out the lights and observed the children using an infrared camera. They found that infants as young as 3 months continued to reach for the object in the dark, suggesting that they had object permenance
         • Baillargeon (1991) even suggetsed that object permenance was present at birth, however this is difficult to test
     • The Pre-Operational Stage
       • Characteristic of the pre-operational stage: 1) Egocentrism, 2) Not being able to do conservation tasks 3) Not being able to do class inclusion tasks
         • Ego-centrism: Not being able to see things from another person's point of view and realise that they have different thoughts and feelings from you - This is because the child believes that everyone sees the world in the same way that they do
           • Evidence for Egocentrism: 3 mountains task (1956)