Cognitive Development PDF

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Khudeja Mehmood  PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Three Basic Components To Piaget's Cognitive Theory: Schemas Adaptation processes Stages of Cognitive Building blocks of that enable the Development: Knowledge transition f...

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Khudeja Mehmood  PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Three Basic Components To Piaget's Cognitive Theory: Schemas Adaptation processes Stages of Cognitive Building blocks of that enable the Development: Knowledge transition from one Sensorimotor Way of Organizing stage to another Preoperational information Equilibrium Concrete operational Accommodation Formal operational Assimilation  Accommodation This happens when the Assimilation existing schema Which is using an existing (knowledge) does not work, schema to deal with a new and needs to be changed object or situation. to deal with a new object or situation. Equilibrium occurs when a child's schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation. However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when new information cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilation).  1. Sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2) 4. Formal operational stage (age Stages of 2. Pre- operational 11+ - adolescenc Cognitive stage (from age 2 to e and Development age 7) adulthood). 3. Concrete operational stage (from age 7 to age 11) VYGOTSKY’S SOCIO- CULTURAL THEORY ◦ Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition as he believed strongly that community plays a central role in the process of "making meaning.“ ◦ Unlike Piaget's notion that children's' development must necessarily precede their learning, Vygotsky argued, "learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, specifically human psychological function". ◦ In other words, social learning tends to precede development ◦ Like Piaget, Vygotsky claimed that infants are born with the basic materials/abilities for intellectual development - Piaget focuses on motor reflexes and sensory abilities. ◦ Lev Vygotsky refers to Elementary Mental Functions: ◦ Attention ◦ Sensation ◦ Perception ◦ Memory ◦ Eventually, through interaction within the sociocultural environment, these are developed into more sophisticated and effective mental processes/strategies which he refers to as Higher Mental Functions. ◦ Vygotsky refers to tools of intellectual adaptation - these allow children to use the basic mental functions more effectively/adaptively, and these are culturally determined (e.g. memory mnemonics, mind maps, knots on strings). ◦ Vygotsky therefore sees cognitive functions, even those carried out alone, as affected by the beliefs, values and tools of intellectual adaptation of the culture in which a person develops and therefore socio-culturally determined. ◦ The tools of intellectual adaptation therefore vary from culture to culture. Vygotsky & Language Language depends on thought for its Piaget development (i.e., thought comes before language). Cognitive development results from an internalization of language. Vygotsky Initially separate systems from the beginning of life, merging at around three years of age, producing verbal thought (inner speech) 3 Types of Speech Social Speech Private Speech Inner Speech (Silent) which is external which is directed to finally private communication the self and serves speech diminishes used to talk to an intellectual in audibility as it others function takes on a self- typical from the typical from the regulating function age of two age of three and is transformed into silent typical from the age of seven Zone of Proximal Development & MKO ◦ The more knowledgeable other (MKO) is somewhat self-explanatory; it refers to someone who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner, with respect to a particular task, process, or concept. ◦ This is an important concept that relates to the difference between what a child can achieve independently and what a child can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a skilled partner. ◦ Vygotsky sees the Zone of Proximal Development as the area where the most sensitive instruction or guidance should be given - allowing the child to develop skills they will then use on their own - developing higher mental functions. ◦ Scaffolding is the support given during the learning process which is tailored to the needs of the student with the intention of helping the student achieve his/her learning goals (Sawyer, 2006). DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE CASE OF GENIE Case Discussion ◦ https://revisionworld.com/a2-level-level-revision/english-language/child-language- acquisition/case-study-genie GENDER DIFFERENCES IN LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT  Speak sooner Girls Larger vocabulary Use language areas of the brain Have a larger pre frontal cortex Speak later Boys Less vocabulary Use Auditory and visual processing areas ◦ In studying women's brains, psychologist Sandra Witelson found that those neurons were most densely crowded on certain layers of the cortex, namely the ones responsible for signals coming in and out of the brain. This, Witelson believed, may be one reason why women tend to score higher on tests that involve language and communication, and she came to believe that these differences were present from birth. ◦ http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2008/03/burmangender.html BILINGUAL LANGUAGE ACQUISITION  Bilinguals : people who can Monolinguals : speak two people who can languages speak only one language ◦ Positive effects of bilingualism tend to be found. Executive functions, which are located primarily in the prefrontal cortex and include abilities such as to shift between tasks or ignore distracters, are enhanced in bilingual individuals. Even the onset of dementia in bilinguals may be delayed by as much as four years. ◦ But negative effects may result as well. Bilingual speakers tend to have smaller vocabularies and their access to lexical items in memory is slower.  a second language elements of a is acquired in second language addition to a replace elements of relatively well- the first language. developed first language. Additive Subtractive bilingualism bilingualism In contrast, the It appears that subtractive the additive form results in form results in decreased increased thinking ability thinking ability. (Cummins, 1976).  Simultaneous Sequential bilingualism bilingualism when an individual first learns when a child learns two one language and then languages from birth. another. ◦ Either form of language learning can contribute to fluency. It depends on the particular circumstances in which the languages are learned. ◦ There do not appear to be critical periods for second-language acquisition. ◦ Adults may appear to have a harder time learning second languages because they retain their native language as their dominant language. ◦ Young children, in contrast, who typically need to attend school in the new language, may have to switch their dominant language. So, they learn the new language to a higher level of mastery. The dual-system The single-system hypothesis hypothesis suggests that two suggests that two languages are languages are represented represented in just somehow in one system or separate systems brain region. of the mind. ◦ Learning a second language increases the grey matter in the left inferior parietal cortex (Mechelli et al., 2004). This density is positively correlated with proficiency. Thus, the more proficient a person is in a second language, the denser this area of the brain will be. ◦ Finally, a negative correlation exists between age of acquisition and the density in the left inferior parietal cortex — the higher the age of acquisition, the less the density. These findings suggest that this area of the brain benefits from the learning of a second language and that the earlier this learning occurs, the better it is both for brain density and for overall proficiency.