1. Cognitive Development & Piaget's Stages

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What is Cognitive Development?

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includes transformations in child's thought, language, and intelligence.

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Jean Piaget

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- observed behavior patterns in children
- his theory proposes that cognitive development begins with child's innate ability to adapt to environment
- believes development is result of child's interface with physical world, social experiences, physical maturation
- children move through new life experiences and form new ways to modify and adapt to world
- child's mind seeks to find state of equilibrium while moving through each stage of operation

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conservation

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- a conceptual tool that allows child to recognize that when altering the appearance of object, the basic properties don't change

- Piaget used this concept when referring to numbers, volumes, liquid, weights, matter (concrete operations)

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adapting to environment

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- children adjust to new info about their enviro to function more effectively
- 2 concepts are assimilation and accommodation

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assimilation

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the way children incorporate new info with existing schemes to form new cognitive structures

EX: child calls lion a "doggie" bc the child only knows one type of 4 legged animal

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accommodation

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when child takes existing schemes and adjusts them to fit their experience

EX: Child plays with keys on piano to hear different notes and learns he must turn piano on to play

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Piaget's cognitive learning process

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1. all thinking begins at balanced mental state of equilibrium
2. child receives new info
3. child adapts new info assimilation/ accommodation
4. new thought (schema) is formed

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4 assumptions of Piaget's stages of cognitive development

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1. children are organically inspired to think, learn, and comprehend
2. children see the world differently than adults
3. children's knowledge is ordered into mental structures called schemas
4. all learning consists of assimilation/ accommodation

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Piaget's stages of cognitive development

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1. Sensorimotor- infancy (birth- 2 yrs)
2. Preoperational- early childhood (2-7 yrs)
3. Concrete Operation- middle childhood (7-11 yrs)
4. Formal Operation- adolescence (12 yrs- adult)

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Sensorimotor

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(birth- 2 yrs)
- egocentric
- understands world through physical actions
- stage begins with reflexes and ends with starting to understand symbolic thought
- organizes thought by schemes
- speaks first word by 1 yrs, first sentence by 2 yrs (18-24 mo)
- object permanence by 18-24 mo

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Preoperational (2-4 yrs)

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- egocentric
- causal reasoning
- centration
- sees world as symbolic images and objects
- mastery of symbols (pretending and play)
- declarative language (i'm hungry)
- vocabulary of about 1000 words

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Preoperational (5- 7 yrs)

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- understands others have different perspectives
- not egocentric
- intuitive reasoning
- representational thought
- fast mapping
- advances in conversation (2500 words)
- "why" questions
- can classify by 2 criteria (shape and color)
- can count to 20 using fingers
- understand conservation (except liquid)

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Concrete Operations

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(7-11 yrs)
- classification skills allow child to classify and divide objects in sets
- understands conservation
- solves problems by thinking about multiple perspectives to any concrete situations
- reasons logically (inductive reasoning) instead of intuitively
- perform seriation (arrange object in logical progression)
- transitive inference
understands distinction between appearance and reality
metacognition ability

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Formal Operations

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(12 yrs- adult)
- capable of abstract reasoning
- capable of hypothetical deductive reasoning
- education focuses on preparing for college
- higher level of moral reasoning
- not following external rules imposed by others
- logic applied to what might exist, not just to what is real

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criticism of Piaget's stages

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- must be updated to include cultural influences and increased mental learning abilities of infants
- Piaget underestimated infants' physical abilities and lack of mental competency
- critics believe we should use his theory to understand milestones and develop framework that recognizes differences of individuals

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educational implications of Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

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1. his theory provides alternative to behavior theorists' belief that children are passive learners and instead move through operational stages
2. he quantified conceptual learning process, stating there are predictable and orderly developmental accomplishments, children be tested at each age to verify level of cognitive understanding
3. he suggested a child's mind seeks a state of equilibrium and form a new way to operate and adapt to world at wach stage
4. teachers can avoid presenting material that is beyond child's cognitive ability

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animism

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(preoperational: 2-4 yrs)
- child's belief that non- living objects have lifelike qualities
- imaginary friend
ex: when rains, child says "sky is pouring water on me"

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causal reasoning
"causality"

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(preschool)
- child can't think logically about cause and effect
- child believes thought causes actions
- child reasons by transductive reasoning (preoperational)
ex: child is mean to cousin and cousin is hurt thereafter. child believes it's her fault bc of her "bad thoughts" about the cousin

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causal reasoning changes over time

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level 1 (age 3): reality is defined by appearance "when I move, the clouds move with me"
level 2 (age 5): child appeals to an all- powerful force "god moves clouds"
level 3 (age 7): child appeals to cause in nature "sun moves clouds"
level 4 (age 10): child approaches adult explanation "clouds move bc of wind currents"

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centration

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(preoperational)
- child focuses on one piece of info at a time while disregarding all other info
ex: child is on swing when mom wants to bring him in for nap. child is upset bc all he can focus on is riding the swing

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egocentrism

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(preoperational- until about 5 yrs)
- child can't differentiate btw own perspective and feelings and someone else's
ex: while speaking on phone with dad, child says "see my shoes"

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equilibrium

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- development is motivated by search for stable balance toward effective adaptations

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3 phases of equilibrium

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1. children begin in state of balance
2. thought changes and conflict emerges
3. through process of assimilation and accommodation, a more sophisticated mode of thought surfaces

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irreversibility

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(preoperational)
- children make errors in thinking bc they cannot understand that an operation moves in more than one direction
- child cannot understand that original state can be recovered
ex: child plays with ball of clay. she believes clay must stay in same form to remain same amount. when friend plays with clay and gives it back in long narrow form, she believes she's getting less

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reversibility

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- ability of child to mentally return to a situation or operation like it was in beginning

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metacognition

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(concrete operational)
- child's awareness of knowing about one's own knowledge
- helps child plan own problem solving strategies

EX: child who is thinking about thinking

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object permanence

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(sensorimotor)
- recognition that objects/ events continue to exist even when not visible
- begins when child is 8 mo.

EX: in absence of object permanence, infant will not search for object when hidden

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hypothetical- deductive reasoning

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(formal operation)
- formulating hypothesis from general theory
- ability to form ideas about "what might be"
- mentally form logical and systematic plan to work out right solution after considering all possibilities
ex: Bob makes general observation that short kids don't make school basketball team. Bob is short therefore he won't make team

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inductive reasoning

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- drawing conclusions from specific examples to make general conclusions, even when conclusion isn't accurate
ex: all balls in school are round therefore all balls are round. this is inaccurate bc footballs aren't round

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transductive reasoning

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(preoperational)
- children mentally connect specific experiences, whether or not there is logical causal relationship
- child believes his thoughts will cause something to happen (causal reasoning)
ex: bill was mean to his sister. she got sick. bill thinks he made her sick.

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schemes
"schemas"

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- the way child mentally represent and organize the world
- child form mental representations of perceptions, ideas, or actions to help them understand experiences
- can be specific or elaborate
ex: infant in highchair drops cup on floor thinking "if i drop my cup, someone will pick it up"

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seriation

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(concrete operations)
- child's ability to arrange objects in logical progression

ex: child arranges sticks in order from smallest to largest

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symbolic function substage

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- child uses words and images (symbols) to form mental representations to remember objects without it being physically present
ex: child's dog is lost, so child draws picture of dog/ child pretends stuffed animal is missing dog

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transitive inference

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(concrete operational)
- ability to draw conclusions about relationship between 2 objects by knowing the relationship to a 3rd object
- if A= B, and B=C, then A=C