PYB100 Week 5 Cognitive Development PDF

PYB100: Foundation Psychology Week Five- Cognitive Development Dr Brooke Andrew Conceptualising the lifespan Adolescen Middle ce Childhood...

PYB100: Foundation Psychology Week Five- Cognitive Development Dr Brooke Andrew Conceptualising the lifespan Adolescen Middle ce Childhood Early Childhood Infancy Prenata l Period Conceptualising the lifespan Late Adultho Middle od Adulthoo d Early Adulthoo d  Cognitive Development: Piaget’s cognitive theory Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) Children actively construct new understandings of the world based on their experiences Cognitive stage theory – Sensorimotor – Preoperational – Concrete operational – Formal operational Piaget’s stages Source: Hoffnung et al. (2010)  Piaget’s concepts Direct learning (schemes) – Assimilation New information fits into existing schemes – Accommodation Changing schemes to incorporate new information or ideas – Adaptation Cognitive Development Infancy  Infant Cognition- Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage Sensorimotor stage – The world is understood through the senses and actions – The dominant cognitive structures are the behavioral schemes that develop through coordination of sensory information and motor responses Infant Cognition- The Development of Object Permanence Object permanence develops during the sensorimotor period – The understanding that objects continue to exist when they are not visible From 4-8 months, “out of sight, out of mind” By 8-12 months, make the A-not-B error Infant Cognition- The Development of Object Permanence By 1 year, A-not-B error is overcome, but continued trouble with invisible displacement By 18 months, object permanence is mastered Infant Cognition- The Development of Object Permanence Research suggests that infants may develop at least some understanding of object permanence far earlier than Piaget believed – By 3 months, infants appear to understand that objects have qualities that should permit them to be visible when nothing obstructs them Evidence of object permanence Source: Hoffnung et al. (2010) Cognitive Development Early Childhood Piaget’s stages Source: Hoffnung et al. (2010) Early Childhood Cognition- Piaget’s Pre-operational Stage Symbolic representations and capacity: – Language – Pretend play Can include imaginary companions – Can refer to the past and future Object permanence Early Childhood Cognition- Piaget’s Pre-operational Stage However, a focus on perceptual salience – the most obvious features of an object or a situation – means that preschoolers can be fooled by appearance They may also have difficulty with tasks that require logic Early Childhood Cognition- Piaget’s Pre-operational Stage Reliance on perceptions and lack of logical thought means that children have difficulty with conservation – the idea that certain properties of an object or substance do not change when its appearance is altered in a superficial way  Pre-operational Stage: Cognitive limitations Centration – Focusing on one aspect of a problem or object Irreversible thought – Cannot mentally undo an action Static thought – Focusing on the end state rather than the changes that transform one state into another  Pre-operational Stage: Cognitive limitations Difficulty with classification – Using criteria to sort objects on the basis of characteristics such as shape, color, function – Lack class inclusion, the ability to relate the whole class (furry animals) to its subclasses (dogs, cats) Egocentrism Egocentrism and Theory of Mind The ability to attribute mental states —beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one's own. False belief tasks Sally Anne task Smarties task Between the age of 3 and 4 children acquire the ability to understand that another person can have a false belief as tested by the Sally- Anne task or the Smarties task Cognitive Development Middle Childhood Middle Childhood and Adolescence: Cognition In middle childhood, children move from preoperational to concrete operational stage – Non-conserving, transitional, conserving Demonstrate the ability to perform operations – Mental actions on concrete situations/objects Horizontal Décalage  The Concrete Operations Stage Decentration – Can focus on two or more dimensions of a problem at once Reversibility of thought – Can mentally reverse or undo an action Transformational thought – Can understand the process of change from one state to another  The Concrete Operations Stage In this stage we see a shift from understanding being driven by perceptual salience to logical reasoning Seriation: – The ability to arrange items mentally along a quantifiable dimension such as weight or height Transivity: – is the understanding of relationships among elements in a series  The Concrete Operations Stage Less egocentrism Classification abilities improve: – Can classify objects by multiple dimensions and can grasp class inclusion Cognitive Development Adolescence and beyond…  The Formal Operations Stage In adolescence, individuals move from the concrete operational stage to the formal operational stage This takes place gradually over years Formal operations are mental actions on ideas – They permit systematic and scientific thinking about problems, hypothetical ideas, and abstract concepts  The Formal Operations Stage Piaget’s pendulum task  The Formal Operations Stage Formal operations contribute to positive aspects of adolescent development. – Sense of identity, complex thinking, appreciation of humour Formal operations contributes to not- so-positive aspects of adolescent development – Confusion, adolescent idealism and rebellion against ideas that are not logical