Piaget's Cognitive Development Theory

Cognition

• Cognition is the mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.
• Piaget's cognitive theory consists of three basic components: schemas, adaptation processes, and stages of development.

Piaget's Cognitive Theory

• Schemas: the basic building blocks of cognitive models that enable us to form a mental representation.
• Adaptation processes: processes that enable learning and the transition from one stage to another.
• Stages of development: equilibrium and disequilibrium, with adaptation processes enabling the transition from one stage to another.

Equilibrium and Disequilibrium

• Equilibrium: existing schemas can explain what has been perceived.
• Disequilibrium: happens when there's an inconsistency between a learner's cognitive structure and the thing being learned.

Assimilation and Accommodation

• Assimilation: process of adding new experience or information to an existing cognitive structure.
• Accommodation: process of reorganizing thoughts when new information does not fit the schema.

Egocentrism

• Egocentrism: the inability to take another person's perspective.

Stages of Development

• Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years): explore the world through senses and motor activity.
• Preoperational Stage (2-7 years): rapidly developing language and communication, difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality.
• Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years): develop abstract reasoning ability, understand conservation of matter, and see more than one aspect of a problem at a time.
• Formal Operations (12-15 years): develop adult thinking, able to think about hypothetical situations, form and test hypotheses, and organize information.

Criticisms of Piaget

• Tasks were methodologically flawed.
• Underestimated the impact of culture.

Lev Vygotsky

• Social constructivist theory of cognitive development: highlights the role of social and cultural interactions.

Importance of Language

• Language: learning happens through interactions with others, allows us to represent reality and distance the individual from the present moment.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

• Lower limit: child working independently.
• Upper limit: the level of potential skill that the child can reach with the assistance.

Scaffolding

• Instructional technique: provides individualized support by gradually improving a learner's ability to the next level based on prior knowledge.

Self

• Self: all the characteristics of the person.
• Self-concept: perception about oneself.
• Self-understanding develops throughout the lifespan.

Self in Early Childhood

• Confusion of self, mind, and body.
• Concrete descriptions.
• Physical descriptions.
• Behavior/activities – what they do.
• Overestimation of abilities.

Self in Middle and Late Childhood

• Shift to internal traits and abilities.
• Social role descriptions.
• Real and ideal selves.
• More realistic about abilities.

Perspective Taking

• Opposite of egocentrism: the ability to assume another's perspective.
• Development progresses through stages (Selman).

Self-Concept

• Self-worth.
• Ideal self: the kind of person you would like to be.
• Self-efficacy: confidence in the ability to exert control over one's own motivation, behavior, and social environment.

Morality

• Morality: our understanding of the difference between right and wrong, or good and bad behavior.
• Moral dilemma: an ambiguous situation that requires a person to make a moral decision.

Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development

• Describes how one's sense of right and wrong changes with age.
• Level 1: Pre-conventional Morality (Stages 1 and 2).
• Level 2: Conventional Morality (Stages 3 and 4).
• Level 3: Post-Conventional Morality (Stages 5 and 6).

Attachment

• Attachment: the first social relationship, a strong emotional bond between infant and caregiver.
• Infants show their attachment through proximity-seeking behaviors.

Bowlby's Phases of Attachment Formation

• Phase 1: Indiscriminant Sociability (0-2 months).
• Phase 2: Attachments in the Making (2-7 months).
• Phase 3: Specific, Clear-Cut Attachments (7-24 months).
• Phase 4: Goal-Coordinated Partnerships (24 months).

Types of Attachment

• Type A: didn't care when the mother left.
• Type B: upset when the mother left, but okay with the stranger.
• Type C: scared without the mother near them.
• Type D: random.

Deprivation and Separation

• Deprivation: refers to the break in an infant's attachment.
• Separation: refers to when an infant is no longer with its main caregiver.
• Separation leads to deprivation.

Cognition and Cognitive Development

• Cognition is the mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.
• Piaget's theory of cognitive development is the most widely known, and he referred to children as "scientists" who test and explore hypotheses about the world.

Piaget's Cognitive Theory

• The three basic components of Piaget's cognitive theory are:
  • Schemas: how knowledge is organized and represented
  • Adaptation processes: processes that enable learning and the transition from one stage to another
  • Stages of development: equilibirum vs disequilibrium, assimilation, and accommodation
• Egocentrism: the inability to take another person's perspective

Piaget's Stages of Development

• Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years): explore the world through senses and motor activity
• Preoperational Stage (2-7 years): rapidly developing language and communication, but difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality
• Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years): abstract reasoning ability, understanding conservation of matter, and ability to generalize from the concrete
• Formal Operations (12-15 years): adult thinking, able to think about hypothetical situations, form and test hypotheses, and organize information

Criticisms of Piaget

• Tasks were methodologically flawed
• Underestimated the impact of culture

Lev Vygotsky's Social Constructivist Theory

• Highlights the role of social and cultural interactions in cognitive development
• Importance of language: learning happens through interactions with others, allows us to represent reality, and communicate with each other
• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): the range of knowledge that a child can learn with the assistance of a teacher or peer
• Scaffolding: an instructional technique in which a teacher provides individualized support to gradually improve a learner's ability to the next level based on prior knowledge

Self-Concept and Self-Understanding

• Self-concept: perception about oneself, including traits, preferences, social roles, values, beliefs, interests, and self-categorization
• Self-understanding develops throughout the lifespan
• Children recognize themselves in the mirror at 15-18 months, and by 30 months, almost all children recognize their own photograph
• Self-concept in early childhood: confusion of self, mind, and body, concrete descriptions, physical descriptions, behavior/activities, and overestimation of abilities
• Self-concept in middle and late childhood: shift to internal traits and abilities, social role descriptions, real and ideal selves, and more realistic about abilities

Morality and Moral Development

• Morality: understanding of the difference between right and wrong, or good and bad behavior
• Moral dilemma: an ambiguous situation that requires a person to make a moral decision
• Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development: describes how one's sense of right and wrong changes with age, and how we develop a sense of justice
• Levels of moral development:
  • Level 1: Pre-conventional Morality (stages 1-2)
  • Level 2: Conventional Morality (stages 3-4)
  • Level 3: Post-Conventional Morality (stages 5-6)

Attachment

• Attachment: the first social relationship, a strong emotional bond between infant and caregiver
• Infants show their attachment through proximity-seeking behaviors
• Bowlby's phases of attachment formation:
  • Phase 1: Indiscriminant Sociability (0-2 months)
  • Phase 2: Attachments in the Making (2-7 months)
  • Phase 3: Specific, Clear-Cut Attachments (7-24 months)
  • Phase 4: Goal-Coordinated Partnerships (24 months)
• Types of attachment: Type A, Type B, Type C, and Type D