Lecture 3 - Cognitive and Social Development PDF

Lecture Tuesday, January 14, 2025 6:27 PM Cognitive vs. Social Development: - Cognitive: ○ Refers to the growth of mental processes such as thinking, reasoning, problem- solving, memory, and language. It focuses on how individuals learn, process information, and...

Lecture Tuesday, January 14, 2025 6:27 PM Cognitive vs. Social Development: - Cognitive: ○ Refers to the growth of mental processes such as thinking, reasoning, problem- solving, memory, and language. It focuses on how individuals learn, process information, and develop intellectual abilities. - Social: ○ Refers to how individuals form relationships, interact with others, and develop social skills and behaviors. It includes understanding emotions, building friendships, and navigating social norms. Enduring Themes Addressed by Theories of Cognitive Development: - Piagetian: ○ Nature and nurture, continuity/discontinuity, the active child - Information-processing: ○ Nature and nurture, how change occurs - Core-knowledge: ○ Nature and nurture, continuity/discontinuity - Sociocultural: ○ Nature and nurture, influence of the sociocultural context, how change occurs - Dynamic-systems: ○ Nature and nurture, the active child, how change occurs Jean Piaget's Constructivist Theory: - He conducted interviews to create these conclusions - Piaget’s fundamental assumptions ○ Children are mentally active from birth. § They are not pre-wired to know things, they come to understand and develop. ○ Children’s mental and physical activity contribute to their development. - Constructivist approach ○ Children construct knowledge for themselves in response to their experiences. ○ Children’s constructive processes: 1. Generating hypotheses 2. Performing experiments  ○ Children’s mental and physical activity contribute to their development. - Constructivist approach ○ Children construct knowledge for themselves in response to their experiences. ○ Children’s constructive processes: 1. Generating hypotheses 2. Performing experiments 3. Drawing conclusions from their observations Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development: - Main Sources of Continuity: ○ Assimilation § Process by which children process incoming information into a schema they already have. □ (Process of making sense of new info by relating it to what you already know) ○ Accommodation § Process by which children and people modify current understanding to fit new info. □ You know cat A and meet cat B that looks different than cat B, you know cat A is called a 'cat', but you call cat B 'bunny' □ (Modifying existing schemas or creating new ones to incorporate new info) ○ Equilibrium (disequilibrium for discontinuity) § State of cognitive balance or stability that occurs when person's current understanding (schemas) can easily explain new info or experiences. § Disequilibrium: when something doesn’t fit, person feels confused and must adjust their thinking to restore balance (equilibrium). § How children move their development forward through accommodation of new knowledge and experiences. y  § State of cognitive balance or stability that occurs when person's current understanding (schemas) can easily explain new info or experiences. § Disequilibrium: when something doesn’t fit, person feels confused and must adjust their thinking to restore balance (equilibrium). § How children move their development forward through accommodation of new knowledge and experiences. - Main Sources of Discontinuity: ○ Stage 1 - Sensorimotor: § Learning/understanding the world through sensory experiences and motor actions. § Birth to 2 years □ Birth to 1 month: reflexes □ Beyond first few months: integrating reflexes □ 8 months: object permanence ® Object permanence: when object is out of sight, it is still known to exist. ◊ A not B error was used to study this □ Beyond 1 year: actions based on interest of the child □ 1 year: explorers □ 18-24 months: deferred imitation ® Deferred imitation: ability to copy an action that was observed in the past, but not happening right now. ○ Stage 2 - Preoperational: § Development of symbolic thought and imagination. Lack logical reasoning and is egocentric. □ Egocentrism: focusing on yourself and your pov of the world. □ Symbolic representation: use of one object to stand for another. □ Centration: focusing on a single feature of an object to the exclusion of other relevant but less striking features. □ Conservation: changing appearance of object doesn’t change the properties. § Age 2 to 7 years § Piaget inferred that children are egocentric at this stage because they reliably select when given many options, a doll that looks like them. ○ Stage 3 - Concrete Operational: § Logical thinking develops, restricted to concrete, tangible concepts/situations. Systematic and hypothetical thinking is difficult. § Age 7 to 12 years. ○ Stage 4 - Formal Operational: § Ability to think abstractly, reason logically, consider hypothetical scenarios. § Adolescent thinking expands and enriches intellectual life. § Piaget believed this stage was universal (not everyone reaches it). § Age 12 and beyond - Properties of Stages f  ○ Stage 4 - Formal Operational: § Ability to think abstractly, reason logically, consider hypothetical scenarios. § Adolescent thinking expands and enriches intellectual life. § Piaget believed this stage was universal (not everyone reaches it). § Age 12 and beyond - Properties of Stages 1. Qualitative changes ▪ A child may focus on consequences specifically ▪ New ways of understanding and interacting with the world, not just gradual improvement of same skills. 2. Broad applicability ▪ Changes in thinking apply across a wide range of topics and contexts within a stage. 3. Brief transitions ▪ Movement from one stage to the next happens relatively quickly compared to the time spent in a stage. 4. Invariant sequences ▪ Stages are universal, must go through the stages to get to the next. □ No skipping stages Piaget's Legacy: - Contributions: ○ Piaget's theory remains very influential in understanding cognitive development. ▪ We still use so many of his tasks, conclusions we have may differ though. ○ Major implications & applications for education. ▪ Most influential in terms of understanding educational development. - Criticisms: ○ Lack of clarity on the mechanisms behind children's thinking and cognitive growth. ○ Higher infant and young child cognitive competence than Piaget acknowledged. ○ Downplay of the role of the social world in cognitive development ○ Depiction of children's thinking as more consistent than it is. Overlap with Existing Educational Frameworks: - Montessori overlapped with Piaget's theories. - Both stated that children learn best when they are active and exploring their environment. - Both shared emphasis on child-centered classrooms, repeating lessons as needed, and allowing children to learn at own pace. Information-Processing Theories: - Theories that focus on the structure of cognitive systems and the mental activities used to deploy attention and memory to solve problems. a  Information-Processing Theories: - Theories that focus on the structure of cognitive systems and the mental activities used to deploy attention and memory to solve problems. - The mind is like a computer, processing information bit by bit to solve problems and store knowledge. - Model of thought process (David Klahr) ○ Task analysis: identifying the goals of a situation and the process of fulfilling those goals. ○ Computer simulation: is a way of mimicking human thinking by creating a computer-based program that follows rules and processes similar to how humans solve problems or think. It’s used to study and test theories about how people process information, make decisions, and learn. View of Children's Nature: - Child as limited-capacity processing system ○ Cognitive development arises from children’s gradually surmounting processing limitations. ▪ Expanding amount of information processed at a time ▪ Increasing processing speeds ▪ Acquiring new strategies and knowledge - Child as a problem solver ○ Active problem-solving aids in attaining a goal by using a strategy to overcome an obstacle. Central Developmental Issues: - Examine how nature and nurture work together to produce development - Emphasize precise descriptions of how change occurs; change mechanisms - Focus ○ Development of memory ○ Development of problem-solving Key Executive Functions: - How are executive functions applied throughout the lifespan? ○ Inhibiting tempting actions that can cause difficulties ○ Enhancing working memory through use of strategies such as repeating a phone number ▪ Repetition can keep things in your working memory ○ Being cognitively flexible and taking another person’s perspective in an argument (even if it is different) Development of Memory: - Working memory  ▪ Repetition can keep things in your working memory ○ Being cognitively flexible and taking another person’s perspective in an argument (even if it is different) Development of Memory: - Working memory ○ Actively attending to, gathering, maintaining, storing, and processing information is limited in both capacity (amount of information that can be stored) and length of time information can be retained - Long-term memory ○ Knowledge that people accumulate over their lifetime (think Jeopardy, the game show) - Executive functioning ○ Controls of cognition, primarily via prefrontal cortex How to Examine Executive Functions? - Dimensional change card sort: measures how difficult it is to switch from the first task to the second task. ○ To succeed at this, they need to keep new rule in mind and exhibit that - Simon says Major Areas of the Cortex: - Prefrontal cortex really supports executive functions - Important to note that prefrontal cortex and executive functions developmental trajectory is nonlinear. ○ There is a lot of increases happening in toddler period, neuro and executive functions. ○ Changes happens later on as well, but not linear, slower Explanation of Memory Development: - Basic process ○ Associating events with one another ○ Recognizing objects as familiar  ○ Changes happens later on as well, but not linear, slower Explanation of Memory Development: - Basic process ○ Associating events with one another ○ Recognizing objects as familiar ○ Recalling facts and procedures ○ Generalizing from one instance to another ○ Encoding specific features of objects and events ○ Improving processing speed; myelination and increased connectivity Increase With Age in Speed of Processing on Two Tasks: - Strategies - Rehearsal - Selective attention Explanation of Memory Development - Strategies: - Acquisition and growth of strategies is another major source of memory development. ○ Rehearsal ▪ Process of repeating information multiple times to aid memory of it ○ Selective attention ▪ Process of intentionally focusing on information that is most relevant to current goal Explanation of Memory Development - Content Knowledge: - Increased knowledge improves recall and integration of new information. - Prior content knowledge improves encoding, provides useful associations, and guides memory in useful directions. The Development of Problem Solving: - Children are depicted as active problem solvers. ○ Adaptive use of new strategies and faster execution often allows them to overcome limitations of knowledge and processing capacity. - Overlapping waves theory ○ Information-processing approach that emphasizes the variability of children’s thinking. - Planning ○ Problem-solving is more successful if people plan before acting. ○ Children are not good at planning; planning improves as prefrontal cortex matures. The Overlapping Waves Model:.  ○ Problem-solving is more successful if people plan before acting. ○ Children are not good at planning; planning improves as prefrontal cortex matures. The Overlapping Waves Model: Planning and Organization as a Strategy: - Why don’t children plan and organize? ○ Executive functions ▪ Executive functions involve skills (flexible thinking, working memory) that are underdeveloped in children, making it harder for them to manage complex tasks like planning. ○ Prefrontal cortex ▪ This part of the brain is responsible for executive functions, and is still developing in children. ○ Optimism ▪ Children are very optimistic and don’t have enough experience and knowledge to plan. Core-Knowledge Theories: - View children as having some innate knowledge in domains of special evolutionary importance. - Contrast against Piaget's 'active constructivism' and IPT's step by step processing - Emphasizes evolutionary pre-wiring - Domain-specific learning mechanisms for rapidly and effortlessly acquiring additional information in those domains ○ Understanding and manipulating other people’s thinking.  - - Emphasizes evolutionary pre-wiring - Domain-specific learning mechanisms for rapidly and effortlessly acquiring additional information in those domains ○ Understanding and manipulating other people’s thinking ▪ E.g., TOMM - Differentiating between living and nonliving things - Identifying human faces, finding one’s way through space - Understanding causes and effects; language ○ E.g., LAD Nativism vs. Constructivism: - Different than Piaget's constructivism - Similar to nature vs. nurture Central Developmental Issues - Nativism: - Nativism (e.g., Elizabeth Spelk; Noam Chomsky) ○ Infants have a substantial innate knowledge of important evolutionary domains. ▪ Inanimate objects and their mechanical interactions ▪ Minds of people and animals capable of goal-directed actions ▪ Numbers ▪ Spatial layouts ▪ Language □ Children are capable of parsing (to divide a sentence into grammatical parts to understand ins meaning). Central Developmental Issues - Constructivism: - Constructivism ○ Infants build increasingly advanced understanding by combining rudimentary innate knowledge with subsequent experiences. ▪ Children identify fundamental units for dividing relevant objects and events into a few basic categories. ▪ Children explain many phenomena in terms of a few fundamental principles. ▪ Children explain events in terms of unobservable causes. Sociocultural Theories:.  into a few basic categories. ▪ Children explain many phenomena in terms of a few fundamental principles. ▪ Children explain events in terms of unobservable causes. Sociocultural Theories: - Emphasize that other people and the surrounding culture contribute greatly to children’s development. - Ex. Learn to make bread: ○ Guided participation ▪ Organizes activity so child can participate, maybe even more organized than if she was doing it herself ○ Social scaffolding ▪ Temporarily shows him how to knead by putting her hands over his ▪ Gives him reminders ○ Cultural tools ▪ Measuring cups, rolling pin ▪ Recipe card ▪ Stories about baking with grandma Vygotsky's Theory: - Sociocultural theorist Lev Vygotsky theorized that children were social learners, connected to others who help them gain skills and understanding. ○ Internalized (private) speech ○ Role of more knowledgeable others ○ Zone of proximal development ▪ Zone of proximal development: tasks child cannot perform independently but can accomplish with help from a more knowledgeable other. - Three phases of internalized speech 1. Other people’s statements control children’s behaviour. 2. Children’s behaviour is controlled by their own private speech, in which they tell themselves aloud what to do, much as their parents might have done earlier. 3. Behaviour is controlled by internalized private speech (thought), in which they silently tell themselves what to do. Children as Teachers and Learners: - Contemporary sociocultural theorists extended Vygotsky’s theory about human nature. - Humans have two unique characteristics crucial to complex culture construction. ○ Teaching other species members ○ Attending and learning from such teaching Children as Products of Their Culture: - Many of the processes are the same in all societies.. s  - Humans have two unique characteristics crucial to complex culture construction. ○ Teaching other species members ○ Attending and learning from such teaching Children as Products of Their Culture: - Many of the processes are the same in all societies. - Content that children learn varies greatly from culture to culture and shapes thinking accordingly. Central Development Issues: - Sociocultural theories propose that change occurs through social interaction. ○ Intersubjectivity: process of two people starting a task with different understandings and ending with a shared understanding. ○ Joint attention: where two people intentionally focus on the same thing. Is a form of communication involving sharing a common point of reference.