Lecture 3: Jean Piaget - Cognitive Development During Infancy PDF

23/09/2024 PSYC2012 LECTURE 3 Jean Piaget-Cognitive Development During Infancy 1 LEARNING OUTCOMES Be At the end of this session, you will be able to:...

23/09/2024 PSYC2012 LECTURE 3 Jean Piaget-Cognitive Development During Infancy 1 LEARNING OUTCOMES Be At the end of this session, you will be able to: Explain Explain Piaget’s Four Main Stages of Cognitive Development Describe Describe Schemes Distinguish Distinguish between Organization and Adaptation Differentiate Differentiate between Assimilation and Accommodation Explain Explain the six Substages of Sensorimotor Stage Describe Describe Object Permanence and Causality 2 QUESTION What do you remember about Jean Piaget? A word, phrase, concept or statement 3 1  23/09/2024 RECALL: PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT  Piaget’s theory states that children actively construct their understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development:  Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)  Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)  Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)  Formal Operational Stage (Adolescence through adulthood) 4 GENERALIZATIONS: PIAGET COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Absolute continuity of all developmental processes. Development proceeds through a continuous process of generalizations and differentiations. This continuity is achieved by a continuous unfolding of each level of development, finds its roots in a previous stage and continues into the following one. 5 GENERALIZATIONS: PIAGET COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT  Each phase entails a repetition of processes of previous levels in a different form/organization – schema. Previous behaviour patterns are seen as inferior and become part of the new superior level.  Differences in organizational level – this creates a hierarchy of experiences and actions.  Individuals achieve different levels within the hierarchy. 6 2  23/09/2024 SCHEMES Schemes: cognitive structures that help individuals organize and understand their experiences; actions or mental representations that organize knowledge A schema includes both a category of knowledge and the process of obtaining that knowledge As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify, add to, or change previously existing schemas 7 SCHEMES Schemes change with age ▪ Behavioral schemes (physical activities) characterize infancy ▪ Mental schemes (cognitive activities) develop in childhood 8 ORGANIZATION  Tomake sense of our world, we organize our experiences  We separate important ideas from less important ones  We connect one idea to another 9 3  23/09/2024 ADAPTATION  Adaptation is cognitive striving of the organism (thinking person) to find equilibrium between himself and his environment and it depends upon two processes: ▪Assimilation ▪ Accommodation  Infants can Assimilate and Accommodate 10 ASSIMILATION Assimilation occurs when individuals incorporate new information into their previously existing schema What is perceived in the outside world is incorporated into the internal world, without changing the structure of that internal world, but potentially at the cost of "squeezing" the external perceptions to fit 11 ACCOMMODATION Piaget's theory on accommodation asserts that the internal world must change to be able to fit the outside world (Atherton, 2009). Accommodation occurs when individuals adjust their existing schemas to fit new information A child must alter the ideas in his head in order to fit the realities of external objects. 12 4  23/09/2024 ASSIMILATION & ACCOMMODATION Give an example to demonstrate the concepts of accommodation and assimilation 13 EQUILIBRATION AND STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT According to Piaget, cognition is qualitatively different from one stage to another Cognitive Development in children is contingent of four factors: Experience with Experiences Biological the physical with the social Equilibration maturation environment environment 14 EQUILIBRATION  Children try to strike a balance between assimilation and accommodation, which is achieved through a mechanism Piaget called Equilibration.  As children progress through the stages of cognitive development, it is important to maintain a balance between applying previous knowledge (assimilation) and changing behavior to account for new knowledge (accommodation).  Equilibration helps explain how children are able to move from one stage of thought into the next. 15 5  23/09/2024 SENSORIMOTOR STAGE  Infant’scognitive development lasting from birth to 2 years  Infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical, motoric actions  The child moves from reflexive action to symbolic action  Divided into six substages 16 SENSORIMOTOR STAGE 17  Lets visualise Piaget’s The Sensorimotor Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es78dFKy3 mI 18 6  23/09/2024 SUBSTAGE 1: SIMPLE REFLEXES 0 to 1 month  Thechild understands the environment purely through inborn reflexes such as sucking and looking.  Repetitive experiences establishes rhythm and a quality of regularity 19 SUBSTAGE 2: FIRST HABITS AND PRIMARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS 1 to 4 months Reflexive behaviour is slowly replaced by voluntary movements Infants reflexes have evolved into adaptive schemes that are more refined and coordinated 20 SUBSTAGE 3:SECONDARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS 4 to 8 months  The child begins to intentionally repeat an action in order to trigger a response in the environment  Intellectual development stimulates new processes of behaviour: ▪ Imitation ▪ Play ▪ Affect 21 7  23/09/2024 SUBSTAGE 3:SECONDARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS 22 SUBSTAGE 4: COORDINATION OF SECONDARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS 8 to 12 months  The infant uses previous behavioural achievements primarily as the bases for adding new ones to its expanding repertoire  Piaget regarded means-end action sequences as the first sign that babies appreciate physical causality 23 SUBSTAGE 5: TERTIARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS  12 to 18 months  Characterized by the discovery of new means through active experimentation  Experimentation leads to a more advanced understanding of object permanence 24 8  23/09/2024 SUBSTAGE 6: INTERNALIZATION OF SCHEMES  18 to 24 months  Invention of new means through mental combination  Theinfant’s mental functioning shifts from purely sensorimotor plane to symbolic plane 25 SUBSTAGE 6: INTERNALIZATION OF SCHEMES 26 UNDERSTANDING PHYSICAL REALITY Piaget implies that children, even infants are like scientists Infants examine the world to find out how it works Key aspects of infants’ understanding the physical reality: Object Permanence Causality 27 9  23/09/2024 OBJECT PERMANENCE  Object Permanence: the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched ▪ Developed by the end of the sensorimotor period ▪ Studied by watching infant’s reaction when an interesting object disappears ▪ It requires the ability to form a mental representation (i.e. a schema) of the object 28 OBJECT PERMANENCE 29 OBJECT PERMANENCE A lack of object permanence can lead to A-not- B errors “A-not-B error" describes an infant's inclination to search for a hidden object in a familiar location (A) rather than search for the object in a different location (B) Older infants are less likely than younger infants to make this A-not-B error 30 10  23/09/2024 OBJECT PERMANENCE Lets have a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue8y-JVhjS0 31 OBJECT PERMANENCE Evidence that object permanence does not show up consistently (MacNeill et al.,2018) and can develop much earlier (Marcovitch, et al., 2016; Blankenship et al. 2019). Used a lab experiment to study infants aged between 1 – 4 months old. Instead of using a Piaget’s blanket technique they waited for the infant to reach for an object, and then turned out the lights. Filmed the infant using an infrared camera. Infant continued to reach for the object for up to 90 seconds after it became invisible 32 CAUSALITY Towards the end of the sensorimotor period, infants can comprehend cause and effect From this viewpoint, Piaget says the infant has “placed into relationships” (e.g. “pushing a button to make the music play”) Their actions become more purposive Causality is requirement for communication and related to verb comprehension. 33 11  23/09/2024 QUESTION: Explain why Causality is considered a requirement for communication and related to verb comprehension 34 DISCUSSION Piaget wasn’t specific enough about how infants learn about their world and that infants, especially young infants, are more competent than Piaget thought (Adolph, 2018; Aslin, 2017; Baillargeon & De Jong, 2017; Bell & others, 2018; Bell, 2023; Bremner & others, 2017). Let’s Discuss some of the criticism’s of Piaget’s theory as it relates to Infancy? 35 EVALUATION OF PIAGET’S THEORY Piaget's focus on qualitative development had an important impact on education. Research Methodology is problematic: ▪ Piaget's small research samples were all from well- educated professionals of high socioeconomic status. ▪ He rarely detailed how his participants were selected Theory Underestimated Children's Abilities: ▪ E.g. Klein and Meltzoff (1999) can imitate after delay (deferred imitation) ▪ Lukowski, Garcia and Bauer (2011) 13-month-olds did not fail the AB error 36 12  23/09/2024 ACTIVITY: SUMMARY Take a few minutes to write two statements that can summarise this lecture. Share your response with the rest of the class. 37 End of Lecture 3 Thank You! 38 38 13