LEARNING GOAL 9.2: PREDICT THE RATIONAL ABILITIES AND LIMITATIONS OF A CHILD BASED ON PIAGET'S COGNITIVE STAGES. Cognitive Development

Brain Development in Infancy/Childhood How much can you remember from infancy? Toddlerhood? Babies start out with far more connections among their neurons (toddlers have approximately twice as many synaptic connections as adults); over time, some synapses are strengthened and some are lost However, memory formation in these early networks functions differently…  babies can imitate actions or recognize pictures as much as three months later (Mandler/McDonough, 1995)  children can physiologically respond to people they haven’t seen since preschool (Newcombe/Fox, 1994)

Brain Development in Adulthood Recall (remembering information without context clues) gets worse as we age, but recognition (remembering with context clues) stays constant Why does memory worsen with age?  Decrease in the neurotransmitter acetylcholine… drastic decreases have been linked to Alzheimer’s and dementia  Shrinking prefrontal cortex = worse sleep = less processing  Self-fulfilling prophecy

Changes in How We Think Jean Piaget (1954) Administered IQ tests to children, but became fascinated by their incorrect answers Identified four stages of cognitive development

Piaget, Stage 1: Sensorimotor Ages: 0-2 years (approximately) Experiences and understands the world through senses and actions  Example: grasps objects or chews on them Develops sense of object permanence: that objects still exist even when you cannot see them  Overview of object permanence Overview of object permanence  Family Guy on object permanence Family Guy on object permanence  The Onion on object permanence The Onion on object permanence

Piaget, Stage 2: Preoperational Ages: 2-6 years (approximately) Starts to use language and patterns to group things meaningfully  Example: Recognizes that a dog is a four-legged animal, then starts calling anything with four legs a “doggie” Egocentric: cannot consider another person’s point of view  A test of theory of mind A test of theory of mind

Piaget, Stage 3: Concrete Operational Ages: 7-11 years (approximately) Can think logically about concrete events and objects  Example: Can perform arithmetic (adding, subtracting, multiplying) using real, known numbers Understands conservation: the idea that some properties (mass, volume, number) stay the same even when an object’s form changes  Pre-operational children – don’t understand conservation Pre-operational children – don’t understand conservation  Concrete operational – this kid gets it Concrete operational – this kid gets it

Piaget, Stage 4: Formal Operational Ages: 12 and up (approximately) Can reason through abstract concepts and hypothetical situations  Example: can understand algebra and geometry and use deductive reasoning to draw conclusions  What if we had no thumbs? What if we had no thumbs?

Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory Piaget’s original study included only three participants – his children! Some argue that cognitive development does not occur in discrete stages, but happens continuously and not necessarily in a fixed order Piaget thought that babies couldn’t reason abstractly… but babies as young as 12 hours old have shown some logical ability (staring longer at objects they’re familiar with or at impossible events)