Developmental Psychology: Cognitive Development

• Lecture on Developmental Psychology by Prof. Dr. Andreas Neubauer, Winter semester 2024/2025

Topics Covered

• Questions, concepts, and perspectives in developmental psychology
• Methodological foundations
• Prenatal development and the first years of life
• Cognitive development in childhood
• Development in adulthood
• Higher and advanced age
• Goals and adaptation
• Social relationships
• Cognitive development in adulthood
• Ambulatory assessment
• Well-being
• Stress and stress regulation
• Buffer, summary, questions

Cognitive Development in Childhood

• Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development
• Empirical evidence
• General information processing approaches
• Domain-specific knowledge

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

• Jean Piaget's stage theory of cognitive development is one of the first comprehensive theories in this field
• Cognitive development stages build upon each other in a clear sequence
• Ascent is directed towards a higher-value end state
• Irreversibility characterizes cognitive stages
• Alterations are qualitative, not merely quantitative
• Changes are age-correlated
• Stages are considered universal

Implications for Cognitive Development

• Each stage arises from the preceding one, showing a qualitative change
• Stages form an invariant sequence

Key Concepts of Piaget's Theory

• Knowledge is not a static state but a process of construction
• Children select and interpret information from their environment
• Understanding occurs through active engagement, both physically and mentally
• Cognitive development entails the active construction of knowledge through interactions with the environment
• Children operate as scientists, actively exploring and learning

Processes in Knowledge Construction

• Knowledge construction happens through two complementary processes
• Assimilation integrates new information into existing mental structures
• Accommodation adjusts existing mental structures in response to new environmental demands
• Equilibration is the process of achieving balance between tendencies
• Humans aim to balance their cognitive organization with their environment

Piaget's Stages of Development

• Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)
• Preoperational stage (2-7 years)
• Concrete-operational stage (7-12 years)
• Formal-operational stage (from 12 years)
• Each stage is a period in which a child's thinking and behavior reflect a specific underlying logical structure
• Stages form a structured whole in a state of equilibrium
• Each stage builds on the previous one, preparing for the next

Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 Years)

• Cognitive possibilities are tied to immediate interactions with the environment
• Cognition is action-based, linked to sensory and motor schemes
• A-not-B search error occurs
• An object is repeatedly hidden in location A, then moved to location B
• Children tend to continue searching at location A
• According to Piaget, this error is due to unstable object representation because of imperfect differentiation between the object and one's actions

Preoperational Stage (2-7 Years)

• Children can form stable mental representations
• Logical operations are not yet possible
• Operation equals manipulation of mental representations
• Centration is displayed when children focus on a single aspect of events or actions and are unable to mentally reverse observed actions
• Egocentrism means inability to adopt perspectives differing from one's own

Conservation Task Example

• Two glasses with equal amounts of liquid are presented
• Liquid from one glass is poured into a taller, narrower glass
• Children in the preoperational stage believe the taller glass contains more liquid, as children in the Preoperational stage lack conservation concepts
• Preoperational period children only represent states, not actions
• Children can't mentally reverse actions

Concrete-Operational Stage (7-12 Years)

• Children acquire fundamental concepts like conservation, number, time, and causality
• Operations such as compensation and negation facilitate the construction of operation systems, like math
• Operations largely limited to concrete objects, with limited abstract thinking

Formal-Operational Stage (12+ Years)

• Characterized by human rationality, not fully achieved by all adults
• Involves a hypothetical way of approaching problem-solving via controlled experiments

Empirical Findings

• Object permanence is observed earlier than Piaget proposed
• Infants aged 3.5 to 4.5 months show surprise when an object disappears unexpectedly

A-not-B Searching:

• It's modality-specific
• The child, though searching for the object in the wrong place (A), will gaze at the correct location (B) where the object should be
• The discrepancy relies on a child's gaze and motor skills, indicating a suppressing of tendency to find A

Preoperational Stage Insights

• The children cannot integrate different dimensions of information, such as the height and width of the vessel during the conservation (pouring) task
• This depends on the type of task

Time-Distance Integration Study

• Participants of various ages estimate how far an animal goes in a certain amount of clock ticks
• Precise estimation needs combined temporal and motion data
• Already doable with children of 5 years of age

The Impact of Piaget's Ideas

• Piaget's theory tends to underestimate cognitive ability of kids generally
• The idea of uniform growth stages is unsustainable
• Major inter and intra individual diversity
• Prominent in applied fields now in a more challenged state

General Information Processing Approaches

• Basic Assumption: Thinking equals information Processing
• Empirical studies indicate age-related improvements in working memory capacity, such as digit span, and the speed of information processing
• Improvements are partly attributed to learning experiences and based in neurological maturation
• Myelinisation enables faster nerve conduction
• Inhibition of impulsive behavior enhances concentration
• Behavioral and neuronal enhancements continue to young adulthood

Robert Siegler: Overlapping Waves Model

• Multiple problem-solving strategies are available for kids
• Math problems solved by guessing, using fingers...
• Learners hold on to past approaches
• Each age means strategy diversity

Executive Functions

• Cognitive behavior regulation needs those 3: working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility
• The aforementioned 3 elements are being taken from the prefrontal structures
• The prefrontal Cortex grows to early adulthood, children do use executive functions

A-not-B (Executive Function Explanation)

• The A-not-B happens due to deficits of executive functions, lack of inhibition during „A“-place
• Inhibiting „my stance“ is used to handle perspective tasks

Domain-Specific Knowledge

• Infants possess core knowledge
• Numerical, object and other perception related systems
• Infants start with it and enrich it through learning
• Growth = More data added to perception core

Core Knowledge Theory

• Examined through Violation of Expectation Paradigm
• Babies stare longer at “unlikely” situations (age by 3.5)

Numerical Knowledge

• Proof points to two systems: Numerical perception with two components
• Tracking item ammounts and a system for exact calculation with max 3 items

Physical Knowledge (Spelke, 1994)

• cohesion = linked things move as one
• continuinity = entities persist
• cohesion = the entity touches the object

Experimental Findings

• 4 month olds stare for long once something defies physics

General Summary

• Piaget's models are proven to underestimate competence
• Updated methods stress the growth methods

Conclusion

• Information and doman oriented perspectives taken on board