1. Infancy and Childhood

2. Infant Brain Development
You are born with most of the brain cells you will ever have.
Neural networks grow rapidly, as illustrated here.
From age 3-6 the most rapid growth is in frontal lobes

3. Infant Brain Development
Association areas develop last with a surge in thinking, memory & language
“Use it or lose it” pruning process occurs

4. Infant Motor Development
Infants learn to roll over, sit, stand, walk & run
Does this development represent nature/nurture, continuity/stages, or stability/change?
Baby Body Sense

5. Maturation and Infant Memory
Infantile amnesia
Can you remember your 3rd birthday? What about your first day at preschool?
We consciously remember little before age 4.

6. Cognitive Developmentin
Infancy & Childhood

7. Cognitive Development
Cognition: all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
Famous researchers:
Jean Piaget
Lev Vygotsky

8. Piaget’s Theory
The maturing brain develops mental concepts or categories called schemas to organize experiences.

9. Piaget’s Theory
Schemas are like mental molds into which we pour experiences.
Two year-old Alexandra has learned the schema for doggie from her picture books.

10. Piaget’s Theory
Schemas are like mental molds into which we pour experiences.
Alexandra sees a cat and calls it a doggie.
She is trying to assimilate this new animal into an existing schema.
Mom says, “No, it’s a cat.”

11. Piaget’s Theory
Schemas are like mental molds into which we pour experiences.
Alexandra accommodates her schema for furry four-legged animals, distinguishing dogs from cats. Over time her schemas become more sophisticated.

12. Piaget’s Theory
Schemas activity: Study the car. After I remove it, try to draw it.

13. Piaget’s Theory
Schemas activity: Study the “devil’s tuning fork.” After I remove it, try to draw it.

14. Piaget’s Theory
According to Piaget, a person’s mind goes through four stages in a struggle to make sense of experiences.

15. Piaget’s Theory Four stages of cognitive development
Sensorimotor – Birth to age 2
Preoperational – 2 to 6~7
Concrete Operations – 6~7 to 11
Formal Operations – about 12 on

16. Piaget’s Theory Sensorimotor: takes the world in through the senses
Begin understanding object permanence

17. Piaget’s Theory Sensorimotor: takes the world in through the senses
Begin understanding object permanence
Seem to have some math understanding

18. Piaget’s Theory

19. Piaget’s Theory

20. Piaget’s Theory

21. Piaget’s Theory
Preoperational: learns to use language but does not comprehend complex mental operations such as conservation. video
- The principle that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape.

22. Piaget’s Theory
Preoperational: learns to use language but does not comprehend complex mental operations such as conservation.

23. Piaget’s Theory Other preoperational concepts:
Egocentrism – thinking only of one’s self. The inability to perceive things from another’s point of view.
They assume you see what they see (standing in front of the TV blocking your vision)

24. Piaget’s Theory Other preoperational concepts:
Egocentrism – thinking only of one’s self. The inability to perceive things from another’s point of view.
“Do you have a brother?” “Yes”
“What is his name?” “John”
“Does John have a brother?” “No”

25. Piaget’s Theory Other preoperational concepts:
Theory of Mind – the ability to take another’s perspective.
They start to understand when a sibling or playmate is angry, will share, or can empathize, tease, persuade.
Pretend play

26. Piaget’s Theory
Concrete Operations – gain skill in mental operations and think logically about concrete (physical) objects.
Understand conservation
“Get” jokes
Comprehend mathematical transformations

27. Piaget’s Theory
Formal Operations – reasoning expands to include logic and abstract reasoning.
Systematic reasoning
If this, then that thinking
Potential for mature moral reasoning

28. Piaget’s Theory Pages 165 – 167 in blue book
Four stages of cognitive development
Sensorimotor – Birth to age 2
Preoperational – 2 to 6~7
Concrete Operations – 6~7 to 11
Formal Operations – about 12 on
Pages 165 – 167 in blue book
Pages 478 – 483 in green book

29. Piaget’s Theory Saw development as happening in stages.
Less emphasis on ages than on sequence of stages
Today’s researchers see development as more continuous than Piaget

30. Vigotsky’s Theory
Emphasized social interaction to promote development rather than cognitive stages
Parents provide a scaffold for higher levels of thinking through mentoring

31. Vigotsky’s Theory
Where Piaget emphasized cognitive development preceded learning, Vigotsky said children learn within the context of their zone of proximal development

32. Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Vigotsky’s Theory
Can’t do, even if guided
Can do,
if guided
Can do
independently
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)