Cognitive Development Notes PDF

Topic 1 - Phases of development: 1. Prenatal - Nutrition and health of the mother is going to affect the number of neurons that develop and the physical and mental stage after birth. - Teratogens are any agents that causes an abnormality following fetal exposure during pregnancy....

Topic 1 - Phases of development: 1. Prenatal - Nutrition and health of the mother is going to affect the number of neurons that develop and the physical and mental stage after birth. - Teratogens are any agents that causes an abnormality following fetal exposure during pregnancy. - In the beginning, mental structures are formed while in the later development its about weight and form. Lack of oxygen is a common cause for loss of neurons in addition to prematurity. 2. Infancy and Toddlerhood (First 2 years of life) - Changes in hearing, vision and lots of dependency. - This is in the path of walking and talking. - Path of autonomy (feeding, hygiene and schedules). - Guides in motion and attention. 3. Early childhood (3-5 yo) - Preschool years - Language learning - Sense of self - More independence - Begins to understand the physical world - Inaccurate conceptions of time, space and size (e.g. going down the drain). 4. Middle childhood (6-11 yo) - Academically impacted by the years of school (northern countries) this also impacts friendship formation (beyond family) - Improvement of motor skills 5. Adolescence - Great physical change occurs with sexual maturation (puberty) - Cognitive change occurs, more abstract concepts are developed, with dichotomous thinking as well. - Feeling of being invincible which comes associated with higher risk (accidents and illness).  6. Adulthood (18-65yo) - Early adulthood (early 20s) where one explores their own identity, instability and feeling in between of adolescence and adulthood.. - Middle adulthood around the age of 40 is where max. physical ability is reached as well as a greater cognitive maturity. Characterized by economic independence that comes with intimate relationships, cohabitation, children… - Postformal thought, think about the probable, realism, less influenced by other people, more flexible thinking, dialectical thinking, integrates aspects of different or opposing perspective. Continuous learning and feeling like society is changing rapidly. 7. Late adulthood (65 -) - Job and social changes. - Cognitive impairment and maintenance is needed to preserve as much function as possible. Topic 2 - Main theories and debates Nature vs Nurture Debate between genetics and environment/atmosphere. Epigenetics: Relationship between genetics and the environment. Some genes can be activated or not depending on the environment meaning genes can be chemically different and those chemicals can be passed down. (e.g parents in high alert settings that create cortisol can be passed down). In comparison with other animals, humans are much weaker physically and possess less capacities. However, our cognitive abilities are superior and can outdo them in most tasks. Continuity vs Discontinuity - Continuity: Cumulative quantitative changes that are continue, gradual and summative. - Discontinuity: Qualitative changes that are abrupt. Emergentism: View how complex systems and phenomena arise from the interactions of simpler components, often in ways that are not easily predicted or reducible to the properties of those components. Activty vs Passivity Passivity refers to the fact that you simply react to the stimulus. We behave based on the stimulus that the environment provides. Whereas active refer to being able to chose how to react, think or feel. This can be automatic or controlled. Cognitive flexibility is neccessary for the change of thought processes that are controlled, unlike automatic ones. Epistemological beliefs: Cognitions (i.e., understandings) individuals have on knowledge and knowing and determine how (new) knowledge is perceived and processed. Normative vs Idiographic Normative: Related to the average and general rules. Focused on the developmental similarities, related to general pysch. Ideographic: Emphasizes specific processes and developmental divergences and differences. Topic 3 - Methods of Study for Developmental Deploys Scientific Bases. 1. Continuous questioning 2. Theories 3. Observations 4. Falsifiability 5. Test Theories Conscious attention limitations: automation - “Run like a girl” - Doll experiment - Internalized homophobia There’s a difficulty for relearning since the brain has trouble focusing on things we already know and wants to focus on new information. When there is no surprise, learning is much more difficult. - Proactive Interference: Difficulty in learning new information because previously learned information interferes with the ability to retain the new material. - Selective Attention: The brain's tendency to focus on certain stimuli while ignoring others, often prioritizing novel or relevant information over familiar data. - Self-fulfilling Prophecies: A belief or expectation that influences behaviors in a way that causes the belief to become true. - Confirmation Bias: The tendency to favor, interpret, and remember information that confirms pre-existing beliefs while ignoring or discounting conflicting evidence. It’s extremely hard to decipher the full truth of treatments, why some work, why some don’t, why some placeboes are more useful etc… As psychologists we must use all our knowledge and try to have a complete understanding. Observational Studies: Must observe the behavior and operationalize the variables. Then register it. It’s useful to get close to reality and not depend on self-reports. It gives the opportunity to observe the individuals in their natural environment. However, it does not test causal relationships and behavior can change when observed → Hawthorne Effect Experiments: Tests hypotheses about causal relationships in a controlled environment. There needs to be operationalization of variables and controlled measurements. The experiment conditions consist of the relationship between variables: - IV manipulation - Variation (or not) of the DV - Causes precedes the effect - Measures baselines, intervention, and effect - Control of polluting variables Sample size and type must also be taken into account, or if there will be a control group or not, and if it’s made with randomization. Case Studies: One person studied in great detail through observation, interviews, tests…Individual intervention. It’s very useful to explore unknown areas with a broad observation scope and many details but results cannot be generalized. Surveys: Standarized questions that can be semi-structured or closed ended (with the possibility of forced choice). There can also be degrees of agreement (likert scales). They are useful for stuyding values, attitudes, hobbies etc… Even though we have to be aware of biases like: central respons tendency, acquiescence and social desirability. Advantages: Easy application, many information, little time, easy statistical analysis. Disadvantages: Superficial information and difficult to understand behavior, hard to ask good questions, with the self report technique it’s difficult to avoid bias. Developmental Study Design Longitudinal Design: Same age group and characteristics overtime (repeated measures) Advantages: Free of the cohort effect Disadvantage: Expensive, experimental mortality, practice effect Cross-Sectional Design: Study of various age groups (and characteristics) at the same moment in time. Advantage: Low cost, speed Disadvantage: Affected by the cohort effect Sequential Design: Combines both. Cross-sectional samples with repeated measured overtime. Advantages: Free from cohort effect, faster results than longitudinal and shows generational impact Disadvantages: Costs, experimental mortality, practice effect Microgenetic: Focused on the moment of change, study of many variables, detailed description of the aspects that change and explore and understand the mechanisms of change. Methods for Development Research: - Habituation: Reduction of the response that occurs when faced with a stimulus due to the prolonged/repeated presentation of it. If habituation occurs, there are capacities for perception, learning and memory. E.g. visual shapes, people’s faces… What can be perceived and recognized: What is distinguished, how much information, during how much time - Delayed Imitation: Presentation of behavioral models to observe their possible imitation after a period of time. It shows the capability to perform certain motor actions, recognition of people or aspects of context in which said behavior now imitated was observed. - Neuroimaging: Use of brain activity capture techniques, while performing different psychological tasks, they allow detecting active brain areas/functions for carrying out each task. - Computer Simulation: Computerized model of cognitive development processes that serve to test theories, if the theories were correct, the predictions obtained through simulation should fit those observed empirically. Help to better understand the theories:  what specific predictions do they make taking into account many variables and many moments over time of interaction between them. - Schelling Segregation Model: Having people with "mild" in-group preference towards their own group could still lead to a highly segregated society (e.g. neighborhoods). Ethics of Research and Professional Practice ​ Free consent. Minors can have legal guardians to provide it) Complete and understandable explanation. Risks, benefits, uses of data, level of confidentiality, data protection. Right to stop participating as far as possible Information in two phases (pre & debrief) Written justification of the inconvenience due to the benefits to be obtained Cause as little discomfort as possible Safeguard privacy, confidentiality. Custody of personal data, pseudonymization. Similar in professional practice, professional secrecy Topic 4 - Development Specific Theories Theories are tools to understand the behavior, the mind, and cognitive development. They’re under continuous and systematic review. The cycle of theories consist in the proposition, revision, refutation and the proposition of a new theory. Freud’s Psychosexual Theory Among Freud’s relevant contributions lies the importance of childhood for personality development and the importance of education of parents and other caregivers. Moderated by resilience (moderator effect) in the long-term effects, multiple people going through the same experience might not present the same symptoms or aftermath. He also added the importance of the unconscious, repression and the irrational. The current perspective says that automatic processes have limited rationality. Freud defines 5 different stages of development which include oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. Critics include that is a very difficult to test and that its principles are sexist. Erikson's Psychosocial Theory → (“Father of Developmental Psychology) Emphasizes the importance of relationships and social expectations in shaping development. Focuses on the ego and how conscious thought drives actions to achieve objectives, with different motivations emerging at each stage. The theory highlights the role of culture in parenting styles and motivations, suggesting that personality develops through the challenges of each stage. Critics: - Rigidity, as it assumes stages must be resolved sequentially - Applicability may vary across cultures. Behaviorism This perspective as a reaction to problems of introspective psychology, this one focused on only observable behavior. It has laws of learning that describe how to control and predict behavior. Pavlov: Classical conditioning etc… Principle of contiguity refers to the fact that the events need to happen closely in time for the subject to form an association. Watson: Most emotional responses are learned through classical conditioning. Experiment of Little Albert. Recommendations for parents. Skinner: Operant conditioning, discriminative stimulus and reinforcer. Comes to prove that punishment is worse for learning. Shaping behavior and succesive approximations (e.g. Making the pidgeon walk straight by a chaining of behaviors). Bandura: Proves that much learning comes from observation. Facilitates observation when presented in a new environment (e.g. adolescence). Interaction with the environment, influence of and on the environment. Requirement of identification!!! Critics of Behaviorism Sensory Preconditioning: Occurs when a neutral stimulus is paired with another neutral stimulus without any unconditioned stimulus. Imprinting (Ethology): Form of learning occurring at a critical or sensitive period of an organism’s life. It highlights biologically driven, innate learning. Cognitive Conditioning Contingency Principle: Learning occurs not just by repeated pairing of stimuli, but by the organism's ability to predict when the unconditioned stimulus will occur. It's about the predictive  relationship (contingency) between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US). Informativeness of the Stimulus: A stimulus is informative when it reliably predicts the occurrence or absence of the unconditioned stimulus. The more informative a stimulus is, the stronger the conditioning. Rescorla-Wagner Model: A mathematical model that describes how the strength of a conditioned stimulus is adjusted based on the discrepancy between expected and actual outcomes. Genetic Epistemology (Piaget) Piaget observed that children tend to make similar mistakes at specific ages, which indicates that cognitive development follows predictable stages. Children understand the world differently at each stage of development. Cognitive development is not random; it follows a natural, sequential process that is largely pre-determined. Sources of Development: Biology: Biological growth and brain development drive cognitive changes. Epistemology: The study of knowledge acquisition, how children learn and understand the world over time. Schemas: Mental structures that categorize and organize information, helping children understand and respond to their environment. Beginning of schemas: They start with mental representations of actions E.g. A baby playing with a rag ball learns how it moves and feels. Natural adaptation: Children adapt to their environment through cognitive changes, adjusting their thinking based on new experiences. Cognitive development mirrors embryonic growth, where structures develop and integrate over time, supporting more complex thinking. New experiences are integrated into pre-existing knowledge, gradually building a more comprehensive understanding of the world.  Balance: Equilibrium is achieved when a child’s current knowledge fits with their experiences. When there’s a discrepancy between perception and knowledge, it creates disequilibrium, prompting adaptation → assimilation or accommodation. Assimilation (Perception adjustment): Children incorporate new experiences into existing schemas. This process dominates in adulthood when categorization is more fixed. E.g. Categorizing animals based on common features. (Related to first impressions). Accommodation (Knowledge adjustment): Children modify existing schemas or create new ones when they encounter new information that doesn’t fit. This process is more common in childhood when learning is rapid. Cognitive development occurs through cycles of equilibrium (balance) and disequilibrium (imbalance), driving learning and growth. Critics of Piaget: 1. Overemphasis on physical maturation: Critics argue that Piaget placed too much importance on biological maturation and underestimated the role of learning and environmental factors. 2. Underestimates social and cultural influence: Cognitive development can vary significantly across different cultures. 3. Underestimation of early abilities: Piaget’s stages may underestimate children's cognitive abilities, especially in the early years of life.  4. Formal thinking development: The development of formal operational thinking (abstract reasoning) doesn’t always follow Piaget’s timeline. It may not develop at all, or only in specific areas (e.g., math but not social reasoning). Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory Potential Skills: Skills develop through social interaction with knowledgeable others in the right context. The key to cognitive development is the role of the sociocultural environment ; learning is influenced by culture and social context. Education should focus on what students can achieve with proper guidance, not just on what they can do alone. Scaffolding: Guided learning where learners are supported by experts until they can perform tasks independently. Facilitates internalization of new skills. +ZPD (Zone of proximal development) Language: Encodes cultural knowledge and forms of thought. Thought evolves by internalizing cultural ideas through language. Learning potential assessment (Feuerstein): Dynamic assessment approach that evaluates an individual's capacity to learn and adapt through mediated interaction, rather than measuring static knowledge or abilities Psychological Processes: Elementary: Basic processes (e.g., memory, attention). Higher Processes: Develop through internalizing culture, requiring formal education for advanced processes. Play and Development: Development of abstract thinking and imagination. Before age 3: Unfulfilled desires lead to frustration. After age 3: Imagination helps resolve unfulfilled desires. Role Play: Helps children learn social rules and self-regulation. Self-instructions (Meichenbaum): It is a cognitive-behavioral strategy where individuals learn to guide their own behavior through verbal cues or self-talk. Topic 5: Development in the First 2 Years of Life Piaget Stages of Development Sensorimotor stage (birth – 2yo) (6 substages) Substage One: Reflex Activity/Sheme (Birth - 1 month) In this initial stage, infants rely on automatic reflexes to interact with their environment, they follow no purpose. Learning is instinctual and based on reflex actions. For example, if a ball touches a baby's cheek, the baby will automatically suck or lick it. This stage involves minimal control over actions, as responses are purely reflexive. Substage Two: Primary Circular Reactions (1 - 4 months) At this stage, infants start differentiating between objects and adjust their responses. Main interaction within yourself. Babies begin to perform actions intentionally. For instance, a baby may randomly vocalize, and if the sound is satisfying, they repeat it. Initially, these actions are focused on the baby’s own body, but over time, they start to engage more with objects around them. Substage Three: Secondary Circular Reactions (4 - 8 months) In this stage, infants become more engaged with the external world. They enjoy making things happen and will repeat actions that produce interesting effects. Starting to understand causality. For example, a baby might discover that hitting two cupboard lids together creates noise and will repeat this action for enjoyment. This stage is marked by the baby's active involvement with objects and surroundings. Substage Four: Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8 - 12 months) Object permanence! At this stage, infants start to coordinate actions purposefully and can mimic behaviors they observe in others. They begin to anticipate events and carry out goal-directed actions. Coordination of various circular reactions. For instance, a baby may look under the sofa for a toy that has rolled out of sight, demonstrating object permanence. This stage reflects the developing prefrontal cortex, allowing for early forms of planning and simple reasoning. Substage Five: Tertiary Circular Reactions (12 - 18 months) In this phase, children become active experimenters, exploring their environment through trial and error. They learn about physical properties, such as gravity, by repeating actions like pouring water from a cup or pushing objects until they fall. The child throws an object, a caretaker picks it up, and the cycle repeats, helping the child understand cause and effect. Substage Six: Symbolic Problem Solving (18 - 24 months) At this stage, children develop mental problem-solving abilities. They can remember actions or words from days earlier and repeat them, engage in pretend play (they are aware it’s not real but are able to engage in the symbolism), and locate objects that are out of sight. For example, if a child encounters a closed door they can’t open, they might initially try turning the knob or pushing it. When that fails, they use a mental strategy, such as knocking on the door—a solution learned from prior experiences. This reflects the child's growing ability to use symbolic thought and memory. Also includes linguistic communication Piaget’s system has changed over time. The stages are more mixed and the children posses more cognitive skills than he attributed to them (underestimation of capacities). Object Permanence Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are not directly perceived. According to recent studies, this understanding develops earlier than Piaget proposed. Piaget linked object permanence to the later stages of the sensorimotor period → around 8 - 12 months, evidence suggests that infants may start grasping this concept as early as 3.5 months, and it is more reliably observed by 7 months. This early emergence indicates that even young infants have a basic sense of continuity in their environment. A-not-B Error in Object Permanence When an object is hidden multiple times in Location A, infants typically learn to search there and find it successfully. However, when the object is moved to Location B, infants often continue searching in Location A despite witnessing the change → A-not-B error. For Piaget, overcoming this error was crucial for infants to progress to the next cognitive substage, indicating development in object permanence. The A-not-B error does not appear consistently across all infants. This could be due to infants not retaining the new location of the object ot that infants may default to repeating previous successful behavior (searching in A). For Piaget, development was biological predispositions + individual interactions with the physical world. While for Vygotsky, development was biological predispositions + interactions with the physical world + intervention of the adult or expert partner. The initial development process begins with social interaction, and then goes on to individual development (when one begins to internalize learning). Cognitive Development Milestones Age What Do Most Children Do at this Age? 2mo Pay attention to faces Start to follow things with their eyes Begins to recognize people up close Appears bored (or cries, irritating) if activity doesn’t change 4mo It's easy to see if she's happy or sad Responds to affection Use their hands and eyes at the same time (Example: See a toy and reach for it) Follow things in motion with their eyes from side to side Watch the faces closely Recognizes familiar people and things at a distance 6mo Look at the nearby things around Puts things in her mouth for tactile exploration Show curiosity about things Try to grab things being out of reach Begins to pass things from one hand to the other 9mo Follow falling objects whith their eyes Look for things that are hidden from them Play peek-a-boo Move things easely from one hand to the other Grab tiny things between thumb and forefinger 1yo Explore things in different ways, such as shaking, hitting, throwing… Find hidden things easily Look at the correct image or object when named Easily copy gestures Start using things correctly Examples: drinking from a cup, brushing hair Puts things in and out of a box Keeps things going without help Push objects with the posefinger Follow simple instructions, like "pick up the toy" 18mo They know what ordinary things are for Example: Phone, brush, spoon Point to get the attention of others Shows interest in pretend play: Stuffed animal pretends to eat Point to body parts Doodles on her own Can follow verbal commands (without gestures) of one step: "sit". 2yo Find things even hidden under various covers Begins to sort shapes and colors Complete sentences and rhymes in familiar books Play simple games of imagination Build towers of 4 or more blocks They could use one hand more than the other Follow two-step instructions (Example: “Pick up your shoes and put them in the closet.”) Name graphic elements of a picture book Language Development Babies communicate thoughts, needs and emotions. These are communicated through body postures, gestures, facial expressions (crying), vocalizations, movements… Individual differences requires lesrning to distinguish between types of crying etc… 1. Intentional vocalizations: Cooing and taking turns ○ Vowel sounds like “oooo”, they initially begin to repeat and vocalize but they are different from reflex vocalizations. Later  consonants are added to the vocalizations. They also learn to take turns by learning the pace and pause of conversations. 2. Babbling and gestures (4-6 months): ○ Infants begin making more elaborate vocalizations like gutural sounds, clicks, consonants, and vowel sounds. This equips the child with the ability to later repeat whatever sounds are characteristic of the language heard. The sounds will be eventually lost as they will grow accustomed to a particular language. ○ Deaf babies, use sign language to communicate. Because gesturing seems to be easier than vocalization for some toddlers it is sometimes used to enhance the ability to communicate. The rhythm and pattern of language is used when deaf babies sign just as it is when hearing babies babble. 3. Understanding (10 months) ○ Infants can now understand more than they can say (like when learning a second language). It is easier to follow a conversation than to contribute to it. 4. Holophrastic Speech (12-13 months) ○ These are one word expressions that are shortened and with a possible different meaning than the original word (ju → juice → bottle). This interpretation is easy for someone who has spent quite some time with the baby. ○ One must take into account inter-individual variability. 5. Underextension and overextension ○ Underextension: Learned word with learned meaning is more restricted than in the language (subset to a particular object) ○ Overextension: Think of a word as applying to o broader extent of meaning than in the language. (More often) 6. First words and cultural influences ○ English: Children label objects and describe its qualities ○ Chinese: It’s more “verb” friendly, children may me taught to notice the relationship between the objects and actions ○ Comparing interpretations of art by older students from China and the United States can be a way of seeing these differences.  7. Accelation of vocabulary growth ○ 1yo: 50 words ○ 2yo: 200 words → Putting these words together 8. Two word-sentences and telegraphic speech (18 months) ○ Words are combined and they can use simple expressions. The words needed to convey the messages are used but the articles etc.. are suppressed. (I.e text messages shortened for efficiency even if incorrect). Speech Addressed to Children (“Motherese”) - Exaggerating vowel and consonant sounds - High pitched voice - Great facial expressions This could be done so that the baby can hear sounds more clearly articulated or because infants pay more attention to the speaker. Age What Do Most Children Do at this Age? 2 mo Coos, makes gurgling sounds Turns head toward sounds 4 mo Begins to babble Babbles with expression and copies sounds he hears Cries in different ways to show hunger, pain, or being tired 6 mo Responds to sounds by making sounds Strings vowels together when babbling (“ah,” “eh,” “oh”) and likes taking turns with parent while making sounds Responds to own name Makes sounds to show joy and displeasure Begins to say consonant sounds (jabbering with “m,” “b”) 9 mo Understands “no” Makes a lot of different sounds like “mamamama” and “bababababa” Copies sounds and gestures of others Uses fingers to point at things Age What Do Most Children Do at this Age? 1 year Responds to simple spoken requests Uses simple gestures, like shaking head “no” or waving “bye-bye” Makes sounds with changes in tone (sounds more like speech) Says “mama” and “dada” and exclamations like “uh-oh!” Tries to say words you say 18 mo Says several single words Says and shakes head now Points to show others what is wanted 2 years Points to things or pictures when they are named Knows names of familiar people and body parts Says sentences with 2 to 4 words Follows simple instructions Repeats words overheard in conversation Points to things in a book Theories of Language Development Innate theories→ Emphasize biological predispositions. Environmental theories → External influences and learning processes. Chomsky: Language Adquisition Device His theory is based on nativism and suggests that infants are equipped with a neurological construct referred to as the language acquisition device (LAD). Language develops as long as infants are exposed to it, no teaching, training or reinforcement is required for the language to develop. Social Pragmatics This view emphasizes the child’s active engagement in learning language because of a need to communicate. The child seeks information, memorizes terms, imitates speech and learns to concepturalize the use of words etc.. Learning Development Classical conditioning: Neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus, leading to a learned, conditioned response.  E.g. Baby’s sucking reflex (unconditioned response) is triggered by a ball brushing its cheek (unconditioned stimulus). If a kitten (NE) is consistently present during this action, the baby begins to associate the kitten with the sucking reflex. Over time, the kitten alone (CS) elicits the sucking response (CR). Operant Conditioning in Babies: Shapes a baby’s behavior through the consequences of their actions, which can increase or decrease the likelihood of those actions recurring. Emotional Responses (Watson): Initially neutral stimuli can be conditioned by classical conditioning. If they are presented paired with unconditioned stimuli that produce unconditioned emotional responses E.g. A baby initially has no fear of dogs (neutral stimulus). When the father, who is afraid of dogs, carries her and sees a dog, he gets scared and tenses up (unconditioned stimulus), causing the baby to feel fear (unconditioned emotional response). After repeated exposure, the baby starts to feel scared (conditioned response) whenever she sees a dog, even if someone else carries her. Reciprocal Determinism: There is interplay between our personality and the way we interpret events and how they influence us. Our mind influences how we interpret environmental stimuli. Different people can interpret the same stimulus in different ways, or the same person in different occasions can act differently presented with the same stimulus. Parents influence their baby but also viceversa. Our environment creates us and we create our environment. Social Learning: Many actions are learned through imitating or copying the behavior of others. E.g. Adolescents struggling with their identity rely heavily on their peers to act as role-models. Topic 6 - Information Processing Theories Development relies on hardware (capacity, speed & brain growth) and software (knowledge and process improvements). Working memory, processing speed, and strategy use improve over time, allowing for better task performance and discovery of new approaches. Attention Development Attention holding can be hard for people with short attention spans even if they enjoy the activity. The difficulty lies in maintaining the attention and inhibit the intrusive thoughts. Attention grows as children learn to focus longer, filter out distractions, and resist intrusive thoughts. Selective attention focuses on ignoring the irrelevant or even knowing what is relevant. Issues like ADHD can impact this. By ages 7 to 13, children’s selective attention improves, as seen in Miller and Weiss’s studies on memory tasks. Around age 4, however, children struggle with meta-attention (awareness of attention), shown in experiments like Flavell’s, where they fail to understand selective focus. Memory Development Memory development involves building retention and retrieval strategies. Episodic and autobiographical memory (personal experiences) and metamemory (understanding one’s memory) evolve, with tools like mnemonics helping memory. Retention and Recovery: Infants demonstrate retention through experiments with operant conditioning, where behaviors, like kicking to move a mobile, are remembered and repeated when specific cues are present. The retention period extends with age, with digit recall increasing from 2 digits at age 2 to 7 digits by age 12. Concept Development: By 2-3 months, infants start concept learning, recognizing basic categories such as furniture and animals. Preferred Attention: Refers to a child’s tendency to focus more on familiar, relevant, or interesting information, often ignoring less engaging details. This selective focus helps organize memories, like script memory Script memory forms by age 2, where children begin to remember typical sequences of events in daily activities, organizing their experiences into patterns that help with recall and understanding. Episodic and Autobiographical Memory: Delayed imitation and childhood amnesia show that early episodic memory depends on language development, with earliest memories forming around age 2. Social interactions help construct initial memories, and memory improves as children age and gain context for their experiences. Mnemonics and Strategic Memory: Rehearsal begins between ages 3-4, though regular use emerges around ages 7-10. Organization strategies, especially semantic organization, are more effective than simple rehearsal but typically benefit children starting around age 9-10. Recovery strategies include guided support (hints or cues), aiding younger children who find free recall challenging. Metamemory: By ages 3-4, children become aware that memory has limits and that some things are easier to remember. However, they often overestimate their memory abilities and have limited understanding of forgetting. Significant improvements in metamemory occur by age 12, with better recognition of how cues and strategies help memory and a more accurate understanding of memory as a reconstructive process rather than a replica of reality. Thought Development It advances through both implicit and explicit cognition. Children develop metacognitive skill over time, like self-regulation that requires executive functioning. This appears gradually and some “barriers” are circular thinking, involuntary thoughts…. Metacognitions appears gradually. Siegler’s Rule Evaluation Model: Children do not develop strategies in fixed stages. Instead, they learn and apply a range of strategies, choosing the most appropriate one for each specific problem they encounter. E.g. weight problems require to understand balance, or arithmetic problems in which they have to chose between different strategies. Topic 7: Development During Early Childhood Preoperational Intelligence (Piaget) Prelogical stage in which mental operations are based on internalized motor actions. They are learning to use language and think symbolically. Pretend play: Pretend play is their favorite activity at the moment. This helps them solidify new schemas and reflect changes in their conceptions or thoughts. They play with a toy/object with properties beyond those it has. Egocentrism: Children focus on their own perspective and believe that others see the world as they do. It is not egocentrism in an ethical way but more of a way of cognitive functioning. (E.g. Mountail & Doll exp) Syncretism: Tendency to think that if two events occur simultaneously, one caused the other. (E.g. A child putting on their bathing suit to “turn it” to summertime”) Animism: Attributing lifelike qualities to objects. They tend to think that everything that moves is alive. It is also present in adult thoughts. (E.g.. Hitting a toy → It feels pain; Toys should stay at home → They’re tired). Classifications errors: They have difficulty understanding that an object can be classified in more than one way. Taking into account different characteristics of the objects. (E.g. 3 white and 4 grey buttons. Are there more buttons or grey buttons? They usually say grey buttons). Conservation errors: Refers to the inability to recognize that moving or rearranging matter does not change the quantity, solved in the concrete operational stage. (i.e volume conservation) Centration → Focus on only one characteristic of an object to the exclusion of others. Cognitive Schemas: Schemas are used to make sense of the world. If the experiences fit the schemas → assimilation. If the experiences do not fit the schemas → accommodation. During childhood there is a great presence of accommodation. Sociocultural Theory (Vygotsky) Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) Children should be taught in the ZPD, which occurs when they can perform a task with assistance but quite yet on their own, with the right kind of teaching they can accomplish it successfully. Private Speech Vygotsky says children talk to themselves to problem-solve or clarify thoughts. As children learn to think in words, they do so aloud before eventually closing their lips and engaging in private/inner speech. Thinking outloud becomes accompanied by internal speech and talking to oneself is “reserved” for learning or remembering things. Vygotksy Piaget Children need instruction to reach Critical of teacher directed higher cognitive levels instructor Sees private speech as a way to Sees private speech as egocentric problem-solve… speech Information Proccessing Theories Memory Memory changes show executive functioning (self-regulation). This is seen through the inhibition of behaviors when they switch from automatic behavior to controlled. Same thing happens with flexible cognitive functioning → Adaptive flexible responses and goal achievement in varios ways. The correct functioning of executive functioning depends on: WM capacity, attention, PFC maturation, practical experience, use of memory strategies and parenting style, (warm, responsive, scaffolding and cognitive stimulating environment → greater cognitive flexibility 2yo and inhibitory control 4yo) Autobiograpphical memories are memories of various life events, these are usually absent the from the first few yeas of life. These can depend on brain maturation, language, ToM, and a representation of self. 2yo → Few, poor stories 2.5 yo → Memories with more information Subsequent years → More detailed, more reflected memories Neo-Piagetians Combination of Piaget concepts, information processing theories and more emphasis on biological maturation like myelination and axonal and synaptic pruning. The attribute the improvements in thinking to improvements in cognitive processes. Piaget: The key change between stages is the logical structures of thought (e.g., from concrete to abstract reasoning). Neo-Piagetians: The key change between stages is the complexity and capacity for processing information (e.g., being able to handle more information, manage more complex tasks). Theory-Theory: The tendency of children to generate theories to explain everything they encounter. Humans are naturally inclined to find reasons and generate explanations to why things happen. Children ask if the answers don’t satisfy the curiosity, lack of understanding… When building their theories they act on a small scale as in science. Theory of Mind: Ability to think about the thoughts/mental states of others. It helps understand and predict the reasons of others. It’s the key to social development (diveristy, empathy, improved communication…). Requires to overcome egocentrism and understanding the causal origin of behavior in the beliefs of reality, not reality False belief experiment: Very hard for children under the age of 4 because they have to overcome egocentrism and feel conflicted between what the know, someone else knows, beliefs etc.. Phases: 1. Intentions → Understand desires 2. Thoughts and Beliefs → Understanding emotions 3. Knowlegde → Understanding knowledge access 4. False beliefs → Understanding diversity of beliefs 5. Experiencing vs Expressing: Understanding hidden emotions Individualistic cultures → Diversity of beliefs and then knowledge. Collectivist cultures → First knowlegde and then diversity of beliefs. Language Development Fast mapping → Vocabulary expands from the ages of 2 to 600 from to 2’ words to over 10,000. Words are learned by making connections between new words and known words. Depends on language differences (e.g. Chinese/Japanese is more verb friendly than English hence English speakers will need grammatical support). Literal meanings: They learn to repeat the words or phrases very quickly until it slows down and they learn the meaning more slowly. They might repeat it but don’t understand what it means. (i.e Piece of cake) Overregularization: Children learn the rules of grammar but they might apply them inappropriately at first. (i.e I goed there, and doed that → Later learn more vocab like went and did). Training: Vygotksy’s ZPD is specially relevant in addition to scaffolding (in which the adult provides needed assitance to the child as a new skill is learned). Learning can be assisted by listening attentively, and modeling accurate pronunciations. Early Childhood Education Effectiveness in early childhood education is debated and there is a set criteria NAEYC which identifies 10 standards. 1. Promote positive relationships (children and adults) 2. Curriculum: learning, social, emotional, physical development, language and cognitive areas 3. Promotes cultural and linguistic development 4. Evaluate children's progress 5. Promotes: health and nutrition//Protects: diseases and accidents 6. Teachers: educational qualifications and commitment 7. Collaborative relationships with families 8. Relationships with local support agencies and institutions 9. Indoor and outdoor physical environments: safe and well maintained 10. Management and administration: qualified, effective and updated license Programs Based on Discovery Learning Montessori → Maria Montesori Refers to children's activity as work (not play); children are given long periods of time to work Focused on individual learning It has child-sized furniture and defined work areas Teachers carefully choose and introduce materials to children Includes groups of different ages Teachers must be certified Waldorf → Rudolf Steiner Centered on the whole child Features connections with nature, sensory learning, and imagination Provides large blocks of time to play Delays formal academic instruction The environment protects children from influences Relationships are important so groups last several years (looping)  Teachers must be certified Reggio Emily → Loris Malaguzzi Teachers and children co-construct the curriculum Teachers are researchers The environment is the third teacher, teaching beauty and order Children's learning is documented through Various methods (100 children's languages) Art studio with an artist to instruct the children Believes that children are competent and capable The children stay together for 3 years Parents partner with teachers The community is an extension of the school