1. Cognitive Development
Chapter 13

2. Outline Major Approaches to Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Development of Information-Processing Skills
Metacognitive Skills and Memory Development
Neurophysiological Changes in Development
Increasing Neuronal Complexity
Maturation of Central Nervous System Structures
Cognitive Development in Adulthood
Patterns of Growth and Decline
Wisdom and Aging

3. 1. Major Approaches to Cognitive Development
The investigation of how mental skills build and change with increasing physiological maturity (maturation) and experience (learning)
1. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
The most comprehensive theory of cognitive development
We can learn as much about children’s intellectual development from examining their incorrect answers to test items as from examining their correct answers

4. 1. Major Approaches to Cognitive Development
1. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Development occurs in stages that evolve via equilibration, in which children seek a balance (equilibrium) between what they encounter in their environments and cognitive processes and structures they have

5. 1. Major Approaches to Cognitive Development
1. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Equilibration involves three stages:
Equilibrium
Occurs when child’s existing mode of thought and existing schemas are adequate for confronting and adapting to the challenges of environment
Assimilation
Incorporating new information into the child’s existing schemas
Accommodation
Changing the existing schemas to fit the relevant new information about the environment

6. 1. Major Approaches to Cognitive Development
1. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)
Involves increases in the number and the complexity of sensory (input) and motor (output) abilities during infancy
0-9 months – infant cognition seems to focus only on what the infants immediately can perceive through their senses

7. 1. Major Approaches to Cognitive Development
1. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)
9 months and older have a sense of object permanence
Knowledge that objects continue to exist even when imperceptible to the infants
Children begin to show signs of representational thought
Child starts to be able to think about people and objects that are not necessarily perceptible at that moment

8. 1. Major Approaches to Cognitive Development
1. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Preoperational Stage (2 to 6-7 years)
The child begins actively to develop the internal mental representations that started at the end of the sensorimotor stage
Children exhibit centration
A tendency to focus on only one especially noticeable aspect of a complicated object or situation

9. 1. Major Approaches to Cognitive Development
1. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Concrete-Operational Stage (7-8 to 11-12)
Children become able to manipulate mentally the internal representations that they formed during the preoperational period
Conservation of quantity
The child is able mentally to conserve (keep in mind) a given quantity despite observing changes in the appearance of the object or substance

10. 1. Major Approaches to Cognitive Development
1. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Formal-Operational Stage (older than years)
Children develop mental operations on abstractions and symbols that may not have physical, concrete forms
Children are finally fully able to take on perspectives other than their own, even when they are not working with concrete objects

11. 1. Major Approaches to Cognitive Development
1. Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Rediscovered in 1970s and 1980s
Vygotsky emphasized the role of the environment in children’s intellectual development
Internalization
The absorption of knowledge from context
The environment determines what the child internalizes

12. 1. Major Approaches to Cognitive Development
1. Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
The zone of potential development
The range of potential between a child’s observable level of realized ability (performance) and the child’s underlying latent capacity (competence), which is not directly obvious

13. 1. Major Approaches to Cognitive Development
1. Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Dynamic assessment environment
The interaction between child and examiner does not end when the child responds
In static testing, when a child gives a wrong answer, the examiner moves on to the next problem
In dynamic assessment, when the child gives a wrong answer, the examiner gives the child a graded sequence of guided hints to facilitate problem solving

14. Cognitive Development in Adulthood
Fluid intelligence
The cognitive-processing skills that enable us to manipulate abstract symbols, as in mathematics
Crystallized intelligence
Our stored knowledge, which is largely declarative, such as vocabulary, but also may be procedural, such as the expertise of a master chess player
Although crystallized intelligence is higher, on average, for older adults than for younger adults, fluid intelligence is higher, on average, for young (20s, 30s, 40s) adults than for older ones