DEV Lecture 3 - Cognitive Development 2

• Piagetian stages involve achieving certain milestones at each stage

• Some milestones depend on how they are tested with variability

• Leaning occurs through interaction with the environment

• Learning occurs in a social context

• Individuals construct knowledge in a social context rather than through solitary interaction.

Vygotsky's Theory

• Vygotsky (1896-1934) was a Russian psychologist who highlighted social context in learning, his work was translated into English in the 1960's
• What a child can do together today, they can do alone tomorrow
• Children use cultural tools like pens, papers, maths and language
• Learning is taught by others; it doesn't just come from the child

Zone of Proximal Development

• Learners have a "Zone of Proximal Development" which represents the difference between independent problem solving and potential development with guidance or collaboration.

Scaffolding

• Teachers provide scaffolding for learning, with references made to Wood et al (1976) and Bruner (1986)

Post-Piagetian View

• Young infants do not look for dropped objects because they lack mental representation, however, this is disputed.

Kellman and Spelke Experiment

• Kellman and Spelke (1983) habituated 4-month-old infants to a rod with an occluder and then presented a broken rod and an intact rod.
• Infants dishabituated to the broken rod but not the intact one, suggesting they perceived the object as whole and it means they must have some representation of the object

Spelke's Core Knowledge Theory

• Young infants possess core cognitive capacities like:
• Object representation
• Number
• Space
• Agents and actions
• Core capacities are observed using looking measurements rather than search paradigms
• Spelke's theory posits innate, domain-specific knowledge systems each with core principles
• Learning enriches these core principles (Carey & Spelke, 1994)

Core Knowledge: Actions

• Infants have a core cognitive capacity for agents and actions.
• Infants look longer when a hand changes goals while grabbing.
• Looking times are fragile, with small effects, and inferences may be oversold.

Core Knowledge: Objects

• Infants perceive the unity of partly hidden objects by analyzing movements and surfaces.
• Baillargeon (1985) showed displays to 3½ month-old infants with habituation to possible and impossible events, and the results show dishabituation.
• This indicates infants can represent:
• Spatial location
• Continuous existence
• Solid objects not passing through each other

Criticisms of Core Knowledge: Objects

• In drawbridge studies, only fast habituators show the effects.
• Enhanced looking towards impossible events might be novelty based (Cashon & Cohen 2000

Core Knowledge: Number

• Xu & Spelke (2000) researched if 6-month-olds can distinguish between large sets using an 'approximate number' system.
• Each habituation set varied in dot size/layout but kept number constant.
• Each test set kept the display density constant, differing in size from the habituation display.
• 6-month-olds looked longer at new numbers indicating discrimination between sets of 8 and 16
• Infants cannot discriminate between 8 and 12, so it is only approximate.

Criticisms of Core Knowledge: number

• Mix, Huttenlocher & Devine (2002) suggested infants respond to contour length, not number.
• Differences in contour length (string around dots) in tests can cause novel numbers to be seen as different, regardless of number perception.
• The null result found in the 8 vs 12 may stem from contour length differences in that condition.
• Feigenson (2005) found infants computed number when objects differed in color/pattern/texture, and continuous extent when objects were identical.

Core Knowledge: Space

• The Blue Wall study (Hermer & Spelke, 1994) shows geometric information is used by rats to reorient themselves.
• Children search at geometrically correct corners equally often.
• Spelke says that they have a geometric module for reorientation, which is impervious to color information.

Criticisms of Core Knowledge: Space

• The room used by Hermer & Spelke was small (1.2 x 1.8m).
• Toddlers use color for reorientation in large rooms (Learmonth et al 2002).

Gopnik: the scientist in the crib

• Alison Gopnik suggested infants think like scientists due to observing and testing hypotheses.
• This contrasts Piaget who thought young children were irrational and illogical.
• Babies can make inductive inferences, and can make inferences about a population from a sample

Inferring Causality

• 3-4 year olds are able to learn about causes and can give objects with the same causal powers the same name (Gopnik & Sobel, 2000).
• Children are given experience of objects ('blickets') which had a new causal power: the ability to make a machine ('blicket detector') light up, and understood this

Contrasting Spelke and Gopnik

• Spelke: “babies only gradually learn about hidden objects”
• “[babies] are born knowing a great deal, they learn more, and we are designed to teach them".
• Gopnik: “What's it like being a baby? It's like being in love in Paris for the first time after you've had three double espressos”.

Spelke vs Gopnik comparison

• Spelke "Core Knowledge"
  • Knowledge is innate.
  • Knowledge is domain specific.
  • Learning is consolidation and enrichment of the starting point.
  • Learning occurs through language and symbol systems
• Gopnik "Infant Scientist"
  • Some knowledge is innate.
  • Knowledge is not domain specific.
  • Learning causes fundamental changes to current understanding.
  • Learning is achieved through exploration and seeking out.