Cognitive Development PSYC 304 PDF

Cognitive Development PSYC 304 Sonia Krol, PhD September 23rd, 2024 1 Outline Piaget’s theory Information-processing view Nativist view Learning view 2  Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development 3...

Cognitive Development PSYC 304 Sonia Krol, PhD September 23rd, 2024 1 Outline Piaget’s theory Information-processing view Nativist view Learning view 2  Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development 3 Jean Piaget Father of field of cognitive development In 1920, worked at the Binet Institute on intelligence tests Piaget intrigued by children’s wrong answers Piaget proposed that: Children’s thinking is qualitatively different from adults’ thinking Cognition grows and develops through a series of stages 4 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development 5 Properties of Piaget’s Stage Theory Children at different stages think in qualitatively different ways Thinking at each stage influences thinking across diverse topics Brief transitional period at the end of each stage The stages are universal (not culture dependent) and the order is always the same 6 Sensorimotor Stage (< 2 years) Infants live in the here-and-now Gain knowledge about the world through movements and sensations Learning is mainly focused on causality 7 Sensorimotor Stage (< 2 years) 0 - 4 month olds: Interact with world via reflexes and repeat pleasurable actions Indicates interest in own bodies 4 - 8 month olds: Repeat actions towards objects to produce a desired outcome Indicates interest in the world, beyond own body Allows for formation of connections between own actions and consequences in the world 8 - 12 month olds: Combine several actions to achieve a goal Indicates that actions are clearly intentional 8 Emergence of object permanence Object Permanence Understanding that objects continue to exist even though they can no longer be seen or heard Develops around 8 months Tested by seeing how a baby reacts to an object being hidden 9 Object Permanence Test – 6 months 10 Object Permanence Test – 10 months 11 Object Permanence Knowing that objects continue to exist even though they can no longer be seen or heard Develops around 8 months Tested by seeing how a baby reacts to an object being hidden If doesn’t look for object or gets upset = no object permanence If looks for object = developed object permanence A-not-B-error: tendency to reach for a hidden object where it was last found rather than in the new location where it was last hidden Evidence that initial object permanence is fragile Disappears around 12 months of age 12 A-not-B Error 13 Sensorimotor Stage (< 2 years) 12 - 18 month olds: Trial-and-error experiments to see how outcome changes E.g. Varying the height from which an object is dropped Allows for greater understanding of cause-effect relations 18 - 24 month olds: Mental representation Fully developed object permanence as indicated by deferred imitation Allows for symbolic thoughts 14 Preoperational Stage (Ages 2 – 7) Symbolic thought: The ability to think about objects or events that are not within the immediate environment Enables language acquisition Ability to use symbolic representation Evidenced through ability to engage in pretend play and drawing 15 Preoperational Stage (Ages 2 – 7) Egocentrism: Perceiving the world solely from one’s own point of view Examples: difficulties taking another person’s spatial perspective 16 Egocentrism in Spatial Perspective 17 Preoperational Stage (Ages 2 – 7) Egocentrism: Perceiving the world solely from one’s own point of view Examples: difficulties taking another person’s spatial perspective egocentric speech 18 Egocentric Speech Jenny: My bunny slippers are brown and red. And they have eyes and ears and these noses that wiggle. Chris: I’m going to the beach. Jenny: We bought them. My mommy did. We couldn’t find the old ones. These are like the old ones. They were not in the trunk. Chris: I’m going to build a sand castle. A big one! 19 Preoperational Stage (Ages 2 – 7) Egocentrism: Perceiving the world solely from one’s own point of view Examples: difficulties taking another person’s spatial perspective egocentric speech Sign of progress = increase in children’s verbal arguments Means that a child is at least paying attention to another perspective 20 Preoperational Stage (Ages 2 – 7) Centration: tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event to the exclusion of other relevant features difficulties with conservation concept: merely changing the appearance of an object does not change the objects’ other key properties 21 Piaget’s Conservation Tasks 22 Piaget’s Conservation Tasks 23 Concrete Operational Stage (Ages 7-12) Less egocentric so can think about others’ perspective Can reason logically about concrete objects and events 24 Concrete Operational Stage (Ages 7-12) 25 Concrete Operational Stage (Ages 7-12) Less egocentric so can think about others’ perspective Can reason logically about concrete objects and events, such as: Decentration: understanding that something can stay the same in quantity even though it looks different Reversibility: the capacity to think through a series of steps and then mentally reverse direction, returning to the starting point Seriation: the ability to order items along a quantitative dimension, such as length or weight Cannot think in purely abstract/hypothetical terms 26 Formal Operational Stage (Ages 12 and Up) Can think abstractly Allows them to be interested in politics, ethics, science fiction, and to reason scientifically Ability to engage in deductive reasoning Not universal Not all adolescents or adults reach it 27 Piaget’s Pendulum Problem Test of deductive reasoning Determine the influence of weight and string length on the time it takes for the pendulum to swing back and forth Unbiased experiments require varying only one variable at a time Children under 12 perform unsystematic experiments and draw incorrect conclusions 28 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development Sensorimotor (birth – 2 years old): Rely on senses and actions to learn about the world and are particularly interested in causality By the end of this stage, achieve object permanence Preoperational (2-7 years old): Symbolic thought Thinking characterized by egocentrism and centration Concrete Operational (7-12 years old): Begin to think logically about concrete objects Can see the world from other perspectives Understand that events are influenced by multiple factors Formal Operational (12 years old and up): Can think systemically and abstractly 29 A child is presented with 2 equal lines of pennies. The experimenter then creates larger spaces between the pennies in just one of the lines. A child in the concrete operational stage will think that... ⓘ Start presenting to display the poll results on this slide. 30 A child hides their face behind their hands and believes that others cannot see them. This kind of thinking is most characteristic of which of Piaget's stages? ⓘ Start presenting to display the poll results on this slide. 31 Piaget on How Children Learn Children’s progress through stages is governed by brain maturation as well as exposure to certain concepts Children actively shape their knowledge of the world Not passive Children have ideas about the world, perform experiments, and draw conclusions from observations Children are capable of learning on their own Do not depend on instruction from others Children are intrinsically motivated to learn Do not require rewards from other people 32 Strengths of Piaget’s Theory Provides a good overview of children’s thinking at different ages that is largely accurate Exceptional breadth Spans the lifespan Examines many cognitive operations and concepts 33 Applications of Piaget’s Theory to Education Children’s distinctive ways of thinking at different ages need to be considered in deciding how to teach them E.g., cannot teach kids in concrete operational state about calculus Children learn best by interacting with the environment Hands-on learning Experiments 34 Weaknesses of Piaget’s Theory Theory depicts children’s thinking as more consistent than it is Stage theory inadequately explains individual differences in cognitive development Theory is vague about the mechanisms of cognitive growth Children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized Theory underestimates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development 35 Information-Processing View 36 Information Processing View Children’s cognitive growth occurs continuously, in small increments Cognitive development arises from children gradually overcoming their processing limitations via improvements in cognitive skills Especially improvements in executive functioning skills 37 Executive Functions Abilities involved in controlling and coordinating attention and behaviours involved in goal-directed actions 3 basic skills: 1. Inhibitory control: ability to ignore distraction and to resist making an automatic response in favour of another response 2. Working memory: ability to hold information in mind and manipulate it 3. Cognitive flexibility: ability to selectively switch mental processes to generate an appropriate response, such as switching between rules and tasks 38 Day-Night Stroop Task Assesses inhibitory control Slowed reaction time on incongruent trials (e.g. “day” in response to moon) vs. congruent trials (e.g. “night” in response to moon) 39 Dimensional Card Sorting Task Assesses cognitive flexibility Requires children to sort cards based on one rule and then to sort based on a new rule 40 Development of Executive Functions Big improvements between ages 3-6 E.g. 3 year olds typically fail dimensional card sorting task but 4 year olds and older can adapt sorting to the new rule Improvements also continue into adolescence Due to brain maturation, especially in the prefrontal cortex 41 Executive Functions and Piaget Improvements in executive functions are the mechanisms responsible for the cognitive changes characteristic of Piaget’s stages Improvements in inhibitory control allows for successfully passing A-not- B task Improvements cognitive flexibility allows for improvements in egocentrism Improvements in working memory allows for improvements in centration Executive functioning partially accounts for individual differences in cognitive development 42 43 Implications of Executive Functioning Differences Early childhood differences in executive functioning predict adolescent outcomes Children who had better inhibitory control at age 4 had: Better grades Higher SAT scores Inhibitory control better predictor of SAT score than intelligence Better social skills 44 Mischel et al., 1988; Shoda et al., 1990 Implications of Executive Functioning Differences Childhood differences in executive functioning predict many important adult outcomes Study: Children with worse executive functioning at age 5 had worse outcomes as adults, controlling for intelligence and childhood SES Worse physical health More financial problems More likely to have a criminal record 45 Moffitt et al., 2013 Cultural Context of Executive Functions Preschoolers in China performed about 6 months ahead of North American preschoolers on every measure of executive functioning Due to greater expectations from parents and teachers about a child’s ability to exercise self-control Suggests that caregiving practices shape individual differences in executive functioning Not just brain maturation 46 Sabbagh et al., 2006 Summary of Information-Processing View Children’s cognitive development is gradual and occurs via improvements in cognitive processes, especially improvements in executive functioning Executive functions improve as a result of brain maturation, especially in the PFC, and are also influenced by parenting practices Childhood differences in executive functioning predict many important adolescent and adult outcomes 47 Nativist View 48 Nativist View Children have innate, specialized cognitive mechanisms that provide them with basic knowledge in domains of evolutionary importance These cognitive mechanisms also allow children to rapidly acquire additional knowledge in these important domains Domains of evolutionary importance: Understanding of physical laws Numbers Categorization Understanding the minds of people Language 49 Revisiting Object Permanence Children may have object permanence earlier than Piaget thought When shown an object and then the light in the room is turned off, most infants younger than 8 months old will reach for where they last saw the object Infants younger than 8 months old may fail Piaget’s object permanence task because haven’t mastered the ability to manually search 50 Violation-of-Expectation Paradigm Adaptation of habituation paradigm used to study infant cognition Infants are habituated to an event Test: presented with a possible and impossible event that are variations on the habituation event Possible event: consistent with knowledge or expectation being examined in the study Impossible event: violates knowledge or expectation being studied Longer looking at the impossible event indicates that the infant possesses the knowledge being studied Impossible event is viewed as more novel/ unexpected 51 Baillargeon, 1987 Drawbridge Study 52 Baillargeon, 1987 Drawbridge Study Results: Infants as young as 3.5 months old looked longer at the impossible event (drawbridge going through a box) than the possible event Indicates that infants as young as 3.5 months: have object permanence understand that solid objects can’t go through another solid object Implications: Suggests that understanding of physical properties of solid objects is innate 53 Baillargeon, 1987 Infant Understanding of Gravity Do infants understand gravity? Study: Violation of expectation paradigm with 3 month olds: a hand places a box on a platform a hand places a box in midair and it remains suspended Which event do the infants look at longer? 54 Baillargeon et al., 1993 If infants have a basic understanding of gravity at this age, what do you expect the results to be? ⓘ Start presenting to display the poll results on this slide. 55 Infant Understanding of Gravity Results: 3 month olds looked longer at the box suspended in midair Follow-up study: Compared looking times at: a box suspended in midair (same impossible event) vs. a box that falls when placed in midair Infants looked longer at box suspended in midair Shows that infants expect the box to fall if there is no support Suggests innate, rudimentary understanding of gravity 56 Baillargeon et al., 1993 Infants’ Understanding of Numbers Do infants have a basic concept of numbers? Study: Habituation paradigm with 6 month olds Habituation: shown a series of displays containing 16 dots Dots of different sizes and arrangement on each display Test: Same number: 16 dots New number: 8 dots 57 Xua & Spelke, 2000 Infants’ Understanding of Numbers Which display do children look at longer? 58 Xua & Spelke, 2000 Infants’ Understanding of Numbers Results: Infants looked longer at the new number display Follow-up studies show that 6 month olds show the same behaviour for other dots in a 2:1 ratio E.g. can detect the difference between 20 dots and 10 dots 9 months old: discriminate displays in a 3:2 ratio (e.g. 12 vs. 8 dots) Since infants haven’t learned to count yet, suggests that they have an innate approximate number sense (ANS) Cognitive system that allows infants to intuitively estimate numbers and magnitudes 59 Xua & Spelke, 2000 Approximate Number Sense (ANS) Are there more black dots than white dots? 60 Foundations of Differences in Math Ability? Research shows a positive correlation between infant ANS and preschool math ability Suggests that ANS lays the foundation for later math ability Math ability at 3.5 years 61 Starr et al., 2013 Summary of Nativist View According to nativists, children have innate, specialized cognitive mechanisms that provide them with basic knowledge in domains of evolutionary importance Research shows that infants as young as 3 - 6 months old have an innate, basic understanding of: Object permanence and object solidity Physical laws, like gravity Approximate number sense Suggests that infants are a lot more cognitively capable than Piaget thought 62 Criticism of Nativist View Over-estimate infants’ innate, cognitive understanding Findings of nativist studies can instead be explained by: Perceptual features of stimuli Infants may look longer at certain stimuli because they are more visually interesting (i.e., more complex), and not because they understand the concept being tested 63 Infant Understanding of Gravity Do infants understand gravity? Study: Violation of expectation paradigm with 3 month olds: a hand places a box on a platform a hand places a box in midair and it remains suspended Which event do the infants look at longer? 64 Baillargeon et al., 1993 Criticism of Nativist View Over-estimate infants’ innate, cognitive understanding Findings of nativist studies can instead be explained by: Perceptual features of stimuli Infants may look longer at certain stimuli because they are more visually interesting (i.e., more complex or novel), and not because they have innate expectations about the stimuli Learning from the environment 3 month olds have learned a lot about the world in about 810 hours of awake time 65 Learning View 66 How do children learn from the environment? Children actively learn from the environment on their own Trial and error Statistical learning 67 Statistical Learning The ability to track patterns in the environment Example of observational learning 68 Statistical Learning in Infancy Study: Habituation-paradigm with 2 month olds Habituated to sequence of 3 pairs of shapes First shape in a pair always came before the second shape in the pair 69 Kirkham et al., 2002 Statistical Learning in Infancy Study: Habituation-paradigm with 2 month olds Habituated to sequence of 3 pairs of shapes First shape in a pair always came before the second shape in the pair Test: Familiar sequence: same pairs of shapes Novel sequence: randomly ordering the same shapes (no pattern) 70 Kirkham et al., 2002 Statistical Learning in Infancy 71 Kirkham et al., 2002 Statistical Learning in Infancy Results: 2 month olds looked longer at the novel sequence Suggests that they had learned the order of shapes in the habituation phase Evidence of infants are sensitive to statistical regularities in their environment 72 Kirkham et al., 2002 Implications of Statistical Learning Babies are actively interpreting the world around them and drawing conclusions Statistical learning is innate and domain general Mechanism through which infants learn in various domains Contrast with nativist theory which assert existence of innate, domain specific knowledge 73 How do children learn from the environment? Children actively learn from the environment on their own Trial and error Statistical learning Caregivers play an important role in children’s learning: Teach children skills via scaffolding 74 Scaffolding A process in which a caregiver provides a temporary framework that supports children’s thinking at a higher level than children could manage on their own Physically assisting a child Demonstrating a skill Providing explicit instructions Breaking down a task 75 Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) Scaffolding should be geared towards ZDP ZDP: The difference between what a child can do without help and what they can achieve with scaffolding from a caregiver 76 Lev Vygotsky Private Speech Adults teach children skills and regulate their behaviour by providing verbal instruction Around age 3, children start regulating their own behaviour with private speech Tell themselves out loud what to do the same way their parents do More likely on more difficult tasks Most frequent in 4-6 year olds Around age 7, private speech decreases and goes “underground” becoming thought 77 Lev Vygotsky Private Speech 78 How do children learn from the environment? Children actively learn from the environment on their own Trial and error Statistical learning Caregivers play an important role in children’s learning: Teach children skills via scaffolding Determining the quality of children’s environment 79 Measuring the Home Environment Home Observation for the Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Gold standard Researchers visit a child’s home and observe the environment and interview the caregiver Checklist of characteristics that reflect 2 factors: Emotional support: Parents’ degree of responsiveness to their child and expression of positive emotions Cognitive stimulation: Degree to which the parent engages and involves the child, provides them with stimulating toys, and variety in daily life Higher scores indicate higher quality home environment 80 Bradley & Caldwell, 1979 HOME – Emotional Support Items 81 HOME – Cognitive Stimulation Items 82 Home Environment Matters A LOT Higher scores on the HOME positively predict children’s cognitive skills and development IQ Math and reading comprehension Language ability 83 Bradley et al., 1989; 2001 Poverty Matters Children in low SES households tend to score lower on IQ and academic achievements tests Academic abilities at the start of kindergarten 84 Ganache et al., 2013; Larson et al., 2015 Poverty Matters Children in low SES households tend to score lower on IQ and academic achievements tests Due to numerous factors: Inadequate nutrition can interfere with brain development Greater chance of conflict between caregivers which results in emotional distress which interferes with learning Lower quality home environment Higher SES is positively correlated with HOME 85 Ganache et al., 2013 Home Environment and SES SES moderates the impact of home environment on IQ Genes Environment Proportion of Variance in IQ Proportion of Variance in IQ For low SES families, differences in IQ are almost completely explained by family environment, with genes playing almost no role For high SES families, differences in IQ are almost completely explained by genetics Suggests that low SES children do not get to develop their full genetic cognitive potential 86 Turkheimer et al., 2003 Daycare Care Matters Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD): Longitudinal study conducted across 10 cities in the USA examining the effects of child care on cognitive development ~800 participants assessed at various time points in the first 3 years of life Measured: Child care setup (e.g. day care center vs. at-home-child care center vs. babysitter) Quality of child care Emotional support Cognitive stimulation: fostering exploration + stimulating toys + language stimulation Child’s cognitive and language ability 87 NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2000 Daycare Matters Results: High quality child care, especially daycare centres, linked with better cognitive and language skills in the first 3 years of life Low quality child care associated with lower cognitive and language skills Language stimulation was particularly important factor Children in day care centers performed better than children in at- home-child-care centers No difference between kids in the exclusive care of mom vs. out of home child care 88 NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2000 Daycare Intervention Programs for Low SES Kids Aim to foster the cognitive development of children from low SES families by focusing on cognitive stimulation E.g Head Start Program in the USA Results: Children who participate in these programs have better cognitive skills than the children who don’t But the cognitive effects don’t last once the program is over BUT participants tend to be more likely to finish high school and enroll in university, less likely to be held back a grade, and are less likely to engage in criminal activity 89 Number of Risk Factors Matters Most The more environmental risk factors in a child’s environment, the lower the child’s IQ score Indicates that the number of risk factors present matters more than the presence of any particular risk factor 90 Sameroff et al., 1993 Summary Piaget’s theory: Cognitive development occurs in qualitatively, distinct stages Information processing view: Children’s cognitive development is gradual and occurs via improvements in cognitive processes, especially improvements in executive functioning Nativist view: Emphasizes innate knowledge and specialized learning mechanisms in domain of evolutionary importance Learning view: Children learn a great deal from the environment through trial and error and statistical learning Caregivers play an important role in children’s cognitive development via teaching and the quality of environment provided 91