1. Cognitive Level of Analysis
IB Psychology

2. Principles that Define the Cognitive Level of Analysis
Cognitive psychologists assume that there is an important biological basis for all human cognitive processing and its resultant behavior but focus research on how the brain translates into mind.

3. Principles that Define the Cognitive Level of Analysis
Mental processing in the mind can be studied scientifically. Theories of cognitive processing are studied through various methods.

4. Principles that Define the Cognitive Level of Analysis
Behavior change is explained as a result of cognitive processing that goes on in the mind. The steps to cognitive processing are as follows:
Information is acquired from the world.
The information is stored.
Stored information is represented in the mind.
Internal representations direct behavior.

5. Principles that Define the Cognitive Level of Analysis
Cognitive Processes are influenced by social and cultural factors.

6. The Basics of Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Processes
Sensation and Perception
Schema Theory
Memory
Language

7. Sensation
Vision
Hearing
Touch
Taste
Smell

8. Vision

9. Hearing

10. Smell

11. Taste

12. Touch

13. Perception
The cognitive process that interprets and organizes information from the senses to produce some meaningful experience of the world.
Video- Discovering Psychology

14. Schema A mental representation of knowledge.
Mental representations can refer to:
Objects
Ideas
People
Mental representations are organized into categories and are stored in our memories.

15. Schema Theory A cognitive theory about information processing.
A cognitive schema can be defined as networks of knowledge, beliefs, and expectations about particular aspects of the world.

16. Cognitive Schemas Can be related to form systems
Are active recognition devices (pattern recognition)
Help predict the future events based on what happened before
Represent general knowledge rather than definitions

17. Cognitive Schema We actively process information in our world.
If information is missing, the brain fills in the blanks.
This can result in mistakes--distortions.

18. Evaluation of Schema Theory
Lots of research supports schema theory.
It is useful in understanding how people categorize information, interpret stories, and make inferences.
Limitations include:
Not exactly sure how schemas are acquired.
Not sure exactly how they actually influence cognitive processes.

19. Memory Processes
Three main stages of memory.

20. Multi-Store Memory Model

21. Working Memory Model: Short Term Memory

22. Working Memory Model Central Executive CEO of Working Memory.
Most important job is attention control:
Automatic level: Based on Habits
Supervisory Level: Deals with new info and emergencies.

23. Working Memory Model Episodic Buffer Phonological Loop
Acts as a temporary and passive display store until the information is needed.
Like a television screen.
Phonological Loop
Inner voice which holds information in verbal form.
Holds information you hear.
Visuospatial Sketchpad
Inner eye. Deals with visual and spatial information.

24. Evaluation of the Working Memory Model
Provides a much more satisfactory explanation of storage and processing than the STM component of the multi-store model.
Assumes an active rather than passive process which makes more sense.
Has been supported through research.

25. Long Term Memory

26. Long Term Memory
Explicit/Declarative Memories: Fact-based information that can be consciously retrieved.
Semantic Memory: Memory for General Knowledge (Facts).
Episodic Memory: Memory for personal experiences and events.

27. Long-Term Memory
Implicit/ Non-Declarative Memories: Contains memories that we’re not consciously aware of.
Procedural Memories: non-conscious memory for skills, habits, and actions. (HOW to do things)
Emotional Memories: memories formed via the limbic system (HOW emotional states work).

28. Memory and The Brain Hippocampus Amygdala Forms explicit memories.
When it is damaged, you can still form implicit memories.
Amygdala
Has a role in the storage of emotional memories.

29. Theories of Cognitive Development
Piaget (biologically driven model)
Vygotsky (social driven model)

30. Piaget
Piaget believed that the driving force behind intellectual development is our biological development amidst experiences with the environment. Our cognitive development is shaped by errors we make.

31. Cognitive Schemas
Schema is a term used by Piaget to describe the models, or mental structures, that we create to represent ,organize, and interpret our experiences.

32. Piaget’s Cognitive Processes
Organization is the process by which children combine existing schemes into new and more complex intellectual structures.
Adaptation is an inborn tendency to adjust to the demands of the environment.
The goal of adaptation is to adjust to the environment; this occurs through assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation is the process of interpreting new experiences by incorporating them into existing schemes.
Accommodation is the process of modifying existing schemes in order to incorporate or adapt to new experiences.

33. Example of Piaget’s Process
Piagetian Concept
Example
Equilibrium
Toddler who has never seen anything fly but birds thinks that all flying objects are birds
Assimilation
Start
Seeing an airplane flying prompts the child to call it a birdie
Accommodation
Child experiences conflict upon realizing that the new birdie has no feathers. Concludes it is not a bird and asks for the proper term or invents a name. Equilibrium restored
Organization
Finish
Forms hierarchal scheme consisting of a superordinate class (flying objects) and two subordinate classes (birdies and airplanes).

34. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
According to Piaget, a child’s development progresses through 4 qualitative stages and an invariant developmental sequence-universal pattern of development, which are:
The Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 Years)
The Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 Years)
The Concrete-Operational Stage (7 to 11 Years)
The Formal-Operational Stage (11-12 Years and Beyond)

35. Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years)
Experiencing the world through senses and actions.
Object Permanence
Stranger Anxiety

36. Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years)
There is an increase in their use of mental symbols to represent objects and events they encounter
The Preconceptual Period is the early substage of preoperations, from age 2 to age 4, characterized by the appearance of primitive ideas, concepts, and methods of reasoning. Marked by the appearance of symbolic function and play.
The Intuitive Period is the later substage of preoperations, from age 4 to age 7, when the child’s thinking about objects and events is dominated by salient perceptual features.

37. Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years)
Emergence of Symbolic thought
Symbolic function
Ability to use symbols to represent objects or experiences
Symbolic play
Play where one object, action, or actor symbolizes another

38. Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years)
Deficits in Reasoning
Animism- attributing lifelike qualities to inanimate objects
Egocentrism- viewing the world from only one’s perspective
Appearance/Reality distinction- inability to distinguish deceptive appearances from reality

39. Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years)
Intuitive Period
Here cognition is described as:
Centered a tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation and not on others due to their inability to understand:
Conservation- recognition that the properties of an object or substance do not change when its appearance is altered in some superficial way.
Reversibility- ability to reverse or negate an action by mentally performing the opposite action

40. Concrete Operational Period (7 to 11 years)
Here children are said to think more logically about real objects and experiences
Some examples of operational thought
Conservation
Reversibility
Logic
Classification
ability to create relationships between things.
Relational Logic
Mental seriation
Transitivity
The sequencing of concrete operations
Horizontal decalage- different levels of understanding conservation tasks that seem to require the same mental operations

41. Formal Operational Stage (11-12 years)
Ability to reason logically about hypothetical process and events that may have no basis in reality
Hypothetico-Deductive Reasoning
a formal operational ability to think hypothetically.
Thinking Like a Scientist
Inductive reasoning- type of thinking where hypotheses are generated and then systematically tested in experiments.
Personal and Social Implications
The formal operation stage paves the way for:
Identity formation
Richer understanding of other peoples psychological perspectives
The ability to way options in decision making

42. An Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory
Piaget’s Contributions
Founded the discipline we know today as cognitive development.
Convinced us that children are curious, active explorers who play an important role in their own development.
His theory was one of the first to explain, and not just describe, the process of development.
His description of broad sequences of intellectual development provides a reasonably accurate overview of how children of different ages think.
Piaget’s ideas have had a major influence on thinking about social and emotional development as well as many practical implications for educators.
Piaget asked important questions and drew literally thousands of researchers to the study of cognitive development.

43. Challenges to Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory:
Underestimated developing minds
Failed to distinguish competence from performance
It is believed by some that Cognitive development does not evolve in a qualitative and stage like manner- it tends to develop gradually
Provides a vague explanation on cognitive maturation
Devoted little attention to social and cultural influences

44. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Perspective of Cognitive Development
Sociocultural theory states that:
Cognitive development occurs in a sociocultural context that influences the form it takes
Most of a child’s cognitive skills evolve from social interactions with parents, teachers, and other more competent associates

45. The role of culture in intellectual development:
Vygotsky proposed that we should evaluate human development from four interrelated perspectives:
Microgenetic-changes that occur over brief periods of time-minutes and seconds
Ontogenetic-development over a lifetime
Phylogenetic-development over evolutionary time
Sociohistorical- changes that have occurred in one's culture and the values, norms and technologies such a history has generated

46. Cognitive Development
Vygotsky ( /1978) proposed that infants are born with a few elementary mental functions – attention, sensation, perception and memory – that are eventually transformed by the culture into new and more sophisticated mental processes he called higher mental functions.

47. Vygotsky’s Theory
Cultures create mental tools which transform our mental work just like physical tools transform our physical work.
As we internalize these tools we become smarter (i.e., we develop higher psychological processes).
Language is the mother of all mental tools.
We internalize these tools as we work in our Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

48. Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Zone of Proximal Development range of tasks that are too complex to be mastered alone but can be accomplished with guidance and encouragement from a more skillful partner

49. ZPD

50. ZPD ZPD Tasks I cannot do even with help Tasks I can do only with help
Tasks I can do all by myself

51. ZPD: Concepts
Scaffolding- the expert participant carefully tailors their support to the novice learner to assure their understanding.
guided participation, adult-child interactions in which children’s cognitions and modes of thinking are shaped as they participate with or observe adults engaged in culturally relevant activities.

52. Vygotsky in a Nutshell
The mental tools of our culture are what make us smart. We acquire these mental tools best through meaningful participation in authentic, social activities. The ZPD describes how we learn from others as we participate in social activity.
Overall, learning is a process of enculturation.
“Human learning presupposes a specific social nature and a process by which children grow into the intellectual life of those around them” (Vygotsky, Mind in Society, p. 88)

53. Vygotsky’s Contributions to Learning Theory
Looked at how culture and society affected development and language.
Looked at the importance of play in cognitive development
Looked at learning in the context of real-world based development (ZPD).

54. Criticisms of Vygotsky’s Theory
Vagueness of ZPD.
Insufficient Attention to Developmental Issues
No Major Tasks Associated with the Theory

55. Theories of Cognitive Development: Vygotsky vs. Piaget
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory
Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory
Cognitive development varies across cultures
Cognitive development is mostly universal across cultures
Stems from social interactions
Stems from independent explorations
Social processes become individual-physiological processes
Individual (egocentric) processes become social processes
Adults are important as change agents
Peers are important as change agents

56. Language
Language is the most fundamental of all the cognitive processes and is responsible for the development of other human cognitive processes.
Language is the vehicle of cultural and social learning.
Language separates humans and animals.
Language is the most important and sophisticated cognitive process. It allowed humans to evolve to live together in cultures.

57. Basics of Language