Cognitive Development The way our thinking changes from the womb to the tomb

Cognition All mental activities associated with thinking, knowing and remembering. Basically everything that goes on in our heads

Cognitive Development This field is dominated by Jean Piaget He discovered that individuals learn and think differently throughout our lifetimes. Piaget was working on IQ test development when he noticed that children tended to answer questions wrong on tests in similar ways. He thought to himself, “maybe these kids aren’t stupid, but instead think differently than adults.” Piaget said – “Hey, since they think differently than adults – we have to teach them differently “ So he came out with a theory of cognitive development Isn’t he a smart looking man??

Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory Piaget hypothesized that when it came to thinking children had different SCHEMAS than adults What is a Schema? A mental outlook or framework developed as a child and used to solve problems or to organize knowledge (our worldview) What?? Think of it this way, our schema is our mental map of the world based on our life experiences We use this mental map to make judgments about situations we face daily

Schemas - an example When I think about Raven fans, I think of backwards illogical people who act rude and do not know much about football history. Thus, my schema or world view of Raven fans is not very flattering and this helps me make judgments about the world and people around me and situations I may face daily.

Piaget’s important concepts Assimilation interpreting new experiences into one’s existing schemas. Accommodation adapting one’s current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. Lets look at how schemas, assimilation, and accommodation work through a few examples…

Schemas Think about what a high school teacher should look like… The image popping into your head now is your schema of high school teachers. You are probably thinking about some frumpy boring guy with no style and bad breath Now if you meet me – and my youthful charm and good looks – I would not fit into your schema of high school teachers. How does this make you feel? Your world probably doesn’t make much sense. Lets explore another example…

The first time a kid saw a dog he might point and say “what is that?” I tell him that is a dog He looks at the dog, sees four legs and a tail and thinks to himself – ok a dog Now he has a schema (a mental map) for a dog – four legs and a tail

This is called assimilation The next week he is hanging out at the park near our house and he sees an animal He says to himself “hmmmm – four legs and a tail – must be a dog” and he goes on to call it a dog. This is called assimilation Incorporating new experiences into existing schemas Now, every animal he sees that has four legs and a tail, he will call a dog because it fits in his schema of a dog.

He sees the dog – thinks four legs, tail, small – must be a cat. Now lets say I tell a child that what he sees is really a cat, which looks like a dog, but much smaller. He understands and is confused…but he trusts his dad… Then he is hanging out in DC and he sees a lady with a Chihuahua (a small dog) He sees the dog – thinks four legs, tail, small – must be a cat. I will correct him and say that sometimes dogs can be small too He has to do what now??

Can you think of other examples?? The child has to ACCOMMODATE (change) his schema for dogs to fit both big and little ones. Lets get back to the teacher example So, like I said earlier, if you are lucky enough to have me as your teacher, your schemas of teachers may be thrown a little out of whack I will insist that I am a high school teacher, but all you see is my youthful charm and movie star looks. I would not fit into your frumpy, bad breath schema of teachers. You would be forced to change, accommodate, your schema of high school teachers to fit both frumpy and movie star resembling teachers Can you think of other examples??

Back to Piaget and his theory of development Piaget believed that children develop cognitively in a series of stages, each one built on the one prior to it.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development Sensorimotor Preoperational Concrete Operational Formal Operational Piaget’s stages are broken down by age and they go in a specific order

Sensorimotor Stage (0 to 2) Babies learn and start to develop schemas (their worldview) They do this by sensing the world through their senses (most important is taste) Babies develop object permanence The realization that objects continue to exist even when you cannot see them At first babies do not have this This is why babies love peek-a-boo When babies finally develop object permanence, they enter the next stage

Preoperational Stage (3-7) During this stage kids lack basic logical operations skills During this stage children are egocentric They think the world was created solely for them Inability to see the world through another’s perspective Should be gone by age 5

Preoperational Stage Cont. Children do NOT yet understand the concepts of conservation That objects remain the same even when their shapes change Usually occurs toward the end of this stage

Concrete Operational Stage (7-11) Children begin to look at the world more logically and can piece together logical statements God is love, love is blind, Stevie Wonder is blind thus… Stevie Wonder must be god (not really, but you get the point) Children can, use analogies, and perform mathematical transformations (8+4=12 is the same as 12-4=8) = known as reversibility the mental process of understanding that numbers and objects can change and then can return to their original state Children can not yet think about abstract concepts such as parallel lines, god or calculus “If A is greater than B and B is greater than C, is A greater than C?”

Formal Operational Stage (12 and up) We start to use abstract thinking Can weigh or think about several objects at once Can understand consequences about decisions Can think hypothetically Can think in “shades of grey” Also, in this stage we can learn to think about the way we think Called Metacognition Piaget said that not all of us reach this stage

How does Cognition Change as we get older?? There are definite differences between recognition and recall. Recognition remains stable (seeing then remembering). Recall declines with old age (just remembering with no external clues).

Do old people get stupid? Cross-sectional studies show decline. Longitudinal Studies show consistency. What is the difference? Cross-sectional studies: study with people of different ages studied at the same time. Longitudinal Studies: same people studied and retested over a period of time.

But there are different types of intelligence. Crystallized intelligence one’s accumulated knowledge and verbal skills What we know tends to increase with age. Fluid Intelligence one’s ability to reason speedily and abstractly Our ability to get things done tends to decrease during late adulthood.

Criticism of Piaget’s Theory Recent research has shown that Piaget greatly underestimated children’s capabilities. Object permanence may start sooner Children sometimes develop skills of one or more stages at the same time Not in stages but more continuous process Piaget ignored cultural influences Kids in different cultures do go through the stages but at different ages dependent on culture Some people never develop formal reasoning skills

Moral Development