3 Cognitive Development Piaget l Outline What is

3: Cognitive Development - Piaget l Outline – What is cognition? – Piaget’s Theory l l l Overview Features of theory Sensorimotor stage Preoperational stage Concrete operations stage Formal operations stage – Problems with theory – Learning Outcomes 1

What is cognition? l Virtually everything we do involves thinking or cognitive functioning – Recalling a phone number – Remembering a list – Following directions – Reading your watch (how much time until…? ) How do children become able to do all these things? l Why are some better at some tasks? l Why are some quicker to develop? l 2

Overview of Piaget’s theory Very influential l Stage theory l – 1) Sensorimotor stage l 0 -2 years – 2) Preoperational stage l 2 -7 years – 3) Concrete operational stage l 7 -11 years – 4) Formal operation stage l l 11+ years Stages are invariant and universal 3

Features of Piaget’s theory genetic epistemology l biological approach l structuralism l l Mechanisms of development – Cognitive organisation – Cognitive adaptation Assimilation l Accomodation l – Cognitive equilibriation 4

Sensorimotor stage l 6 substages: – Modification of reflexes (0 -1 month) – Primary circular reactions (1 -4 months) – Secondary circular reactions (4 -8 months) – Coordination of secondary schemes (8 -12 months) – Tertiary circular reactions (12 -18 months) – Mental combinations (18 -24 months) 5

Trends in sensorimotor stage l Rigidity flexibility – Behaviour adapts to larger range of stimuli l Isolation coordination – Series of different actions can be performed on an object l Reactivity intentionality – Progression to planned behaviour l Overt actions mental representations – Objects and people are represented symbolically 6

Object permanence l Objects are tied to infant’s awareness of them – “out of sight, out of mind” l Hidden toy experiment – 4 months: no attempt to search for hidden object – 4 -9 months: visual search for object – 9 months: search for and retrieve hidden object l A-not-B task (Diamond, 1985) – 9 months: A/B error after 1/2 second delay – 12 months: 10 second delay needed to produce error 7

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Preoperational stage l Egocentrism – 3 mountains l Rigidity of thought – Cannot mentally reverse sequences l l Therefore no addition or subtraction Semilogical reasoning – Transductive reasoning l l “I haven’t had my nap so it isn’t afternoon” Limited social cognition – Lack of awareness of intentions in others 10

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Concrete operations stage l Seriation – mentally arrange items along a dimension (e. g. height, weight, time or speed) l Classification – Sort objects into groups – Class inclusion l Number concepts – Numbers are arbitrary – Invariance of number l Conservation 12

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Formal operations stage l Reasoning about abstractions – Hypothetical and abstract notions Future l ‘other worlds’ l l Applying logic – Deductive reasoning (“if … then…”) l Advanced problem solving – Systematic l Pendulum task 14

Problems with Piaget l Did Piaget underestimate children’s abilities? – Object permanence in 3 -month-olds (Bower, 1974) – Number conservation in 4 year olds (Mc. Garrigle & Donaldson, 1974) l Does development take place in stages? – Domain specficity vs. domain generality l Perspective-taking – Perceptual – Affective – Cognitive 15

Problems with Piaget l What about culture? – Piaget’s tasks are culturally biased – Schooling and literacy affect rates of development l e. g. Greenfield’s study of the Wolof – Formal operational thinking is not universal l e. g. Gladwin’s study of the Polynesian islanders 16

Learning outcomes Demonstrate an understanding of Piaget’s theory. l Be familiar with the experiments carried out by Piaget l Show an awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of theory. l 17