1. Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood: Chapter 11

2. Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage Developmental change involves progression from a state of equilibrium to a state of disequilibrium – Process of change moves organism from state of cognitive disequilibrium to a state of cognitive equilibrium Assimilation—new information fits within existing structures Accommodation—new structures are created or existing structures are changed to take in new information

3. Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage Concrete Operational Thought – Children can reflect on their own thoughts – Children attend to dynamic transformations (processes involved in change) – Children’s mental capabilities change: Decenter—consider multiple attributes or dimensions simultaneously Reversibility—mentally reverse events or actions Use logic to make transitive inferences

4. Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage Limits to Piaget’s concrete operational child: – Reflective thinking, decentering, and reversibility are limited to those events experienced by the child – May underestimate the child’s competency with enriched environment

5. Information Processing Theory (IPT) IPT focuses on: – encoding, – transformation, – storage, and – retrieval of information Working Memory – Information currently in active and conscious processing – Limited duration without rehearsal – Limited capacity without mnemonic devices

6. IPT: Working Memory Evidence points to unique processing components – Verbal – Auditory – Executive Control Monitoring Controlling

7. IPT: Depth of Processing Theory Shallow—attend to surface features, rote rehearsal – E.g. memorizing names and dates; memorizing definitions Deep—attend to meaningful features, strategic rehearsal – E.g. summarizing in your own words; constructing a concept map Overall, deep processing leads to more flexible and accessible memories

8. IPT: Long Term Memory Relatively permanent duration Relatively (and largely unknown) large capacity Organization is based on strategies used during encoding or processing in Working Memory

9. Network Models of Long Term Storage Conceptual nodes – Represent concepts, facts, or other entities Logical arcs – Represent relationships among conceptual nodes Activation of nodes and arcs – Based on environmental stimulation – Stream of consciousness More frequent activation leads to easier access and retrieval More arcs between adjacent nodes and the target node lead to increased cognitive flexibility

10. Categories of Knowledge in Long-term Memory Tulving – Semantic memory—knowing facts, concepts – Episodic memory—knowing about events or activities (maybe a more dominant type of memory in children Shank & Abelson – Knowledge of a relatively fixed routine – Related to episodic memory – Form default patterns of actions (fast food restaurant script)

11. Characteristics of Memory Constructive—Reconstructive Processing – Constructive Processing: Distortion occurs at encoding – Reconstructive Processing: Distortion occurs at retrieval Autobiographical Memory – Memories for one’s own experiences – Influenced not only by events themselves, but also how others describe the events to us – Suggestibility (e.g. “false memories”—reconstructive and autobiographical)

12. Major Developmental Changes across Middle Childhood Metacognitive skills – Cognitive monitoring – Cognitive control – Cognitive flexibility – Strategy acquisition, development, and use

13. Major Developmental Changes across Middle Childhood Knowledge base – Greater number of conceptual nodes – More efficient organization – More flexible organization – More complex networks

14. Cognitive Development in Context (Mathematics) Early on, strategies reflect controlled processing (resource intensive) With practice and more efficient memory, strategies reflect more automatic processes (less resource intensive Automatic strategies require monitoring that is based on metacognitive awareness

15. Cognitive Development in Context (Mathematics) Mathematics Problems embedded in language and richer contexts – Strategies include Stating the problem Solving the computational steps Evaluating the outcome Restating the results in terms of the original problem statement – Strategies are likely to be controlled not automatic

16. Cognitive Development in Context (Literacy) Overall, progression is from controlled processing to automatic at several levels – Phonemic awareness – Sight words – Context cues – Schema-driven knowledge (top-down)

17. Cognitive Development in Context (Literacy) Children who – are told stories, – have someone read to them regularly, – have a print rich environment in their lives, and – have opportunity to explore language Singing, Scribbling, Drawing, Invented spelling – Tend to have more optimistic outcome in literacy in school – Table 11.3 (pg 393)—developmental progression of reading

18. Cognitive Development in Context (Literacy) Developmental process Scribbling forming pseudo-words with letters, invented spelling, simple stories and narratives based on own experience,

19. Cognitive Development in Context (Literacy) Narrative Schema – Tends to be universal – Predicable order of elements Setting Initiating event Reaction Action Consequence Moral

20. Cognitive Development in Context (Literacy) Narrative: – Structure appears early on – Nursery tales, children’s stories tend to follow the structure universally – Children are sensitive to violations of the structure

21. Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood Tends to be a period across cultures of preparation for more mature roles and responsibilities Schooling, in some form, occurs in all cultures Fits within Erikson’s stage of Industry vs. Inferiority