food, toys and other objects

Cognitive-Developmental always fall down (never up)

Perspectives when released.)
 They begin to construct basic
understanding of things which
Cognitive-Developmental Piaget called constructive
- Focus on how children’s thinking process.
processes change in significant  Schemes- children learn and
qualitative way with age and can do are organized into. A
experience. pattern of thought or behavior
that organizes categories of
Jean Piaget information and the
- Had interests in philosophy and was relationships among them. 
especially curious about the origins  Ex. Infants might scheme of
of knowledge a branch in philosophy grasping that is applied to
know as epistemology. numerous intriguing objects
- Clinical Method- Piaget gave within reach.
children variety of tasks and  Cognitive Structures- When
problems, asking series of questions children are able to integrate
about each one. Tailored interviews some of their schemes into
to the particular responses children something more complex.
gave with follow-up questions vary 3. Interaction with the physical
from one child to the next. environment is critical for learning
- -Focused on mental events such as and cognitive development.
logical reasoning process and the  By exploring and
structures of knowledge. manipulating the world around
- His theory is popular today because them by conducting many
it is such a global theory of little experiments with objects
intelligence, development, and substances children learn
incorporating such diverse topics as the nature of such physical
language, logical reasoning moral characteristics as volume and
judgement and concepts of time, weight, discover principles
space and number. related to force and gravity
and acquire a better
understanding of cause-and-
Key Ideas in Piaget’s effect relationships.
Theory

4. Interaction with other people is

1. Children are active and motivated equally critical for learning and
learners. development
 Children are naturally curious  Young children gradually
about the world come to understand that
 They actively seek out different people see things
information to help them make differently and that their own
sense of it. view of the world isn’t
 Much of children’s cognitive necessarily a completely
development is the result of accurate or logical one.
such efforts to make sense of  They may begin to recognize
the world. logical inconsistencies in what
2. Children organize what they learn they say and do when
from their experiences. someone else points out the
 They pull their experiences inconsistencies.
together into an integrated 5. Children adapt to their environment
view of how the world through the contemporary processes
operates. (i.e observing that of assimilation and accommodation.
  Assimilation- interpreting an - Children and adolescents don’t
object or event in a way that’s always take advantage of their
consistent with an existing advanced cognitive abilities, and
scheme. Modifying one’s thus they may show considerable
perception of the environment variability in ways thinking in their
to fit a scheme day to day activities.
 Accomodation-
a. Modify and existing
scheme to account for Piaget’s stages of
the new object or event cognitive development
b. Form an entirely new
scheme
6. A Process equilibration promotes Sensorimotor Stage
progression toward increasingly (Birth – 2 years old)
complex form of thoughts. - Infants’ voluntary behaviors focus
a. Equilibrium- they comfortably almost exclusively on their own
interpret and respond to new bodies but eventually their behaviors
events using existing schemes. involve surrounding objects as well.
- As children grow older, they - Language virtually explodes in this
frequently encounter situations for stage
which their current knowledge and - They engage in:
skills are inadequate thus resulting to a. Goal Directed Behavior- acting
disequilibrium. in ways they know will bring
b. Disequilibrium- a sort mental about desired results.
discomfort that spurs them to try b. Object Permanence- An
to make sense of what they understanding that physical
observe objects continue to exist even
c. Equilibration- process of moving when out of sight.
from equilibrium to - Schemes primarily entail perceptions
disequilibrium and back to and behaviors.
equilibrium - Children’s understanding of the
7. In Piaget’s view, children think in world are based largely on their
qualitatively different ways at physical interactions with.
different age levels. - Ex. Putting certain fingers in their
- Cognitive development as being mouths
characterized by four distinct stages - Piaget believed during this stage that
each with its own unique patterns of children’s thinking is restricted to
thought. objects and events they can actually
- Piaget speculated that children’s observe.
progression through the four stages - Symbolic Thought- an ability to
relies to some degree on neurological represent and think about objects and
maturation that is on genetically events in terms of internal, mental
controlled developmental changes in entities, or symbols. Marks the
the brain. beginning of true thoughts.
- Ex. Pretending to talk on a toy
telephone.
Piaget’s Stages of
Cognitive Development Preoperational Stage
(Age 2 until Age 6 or 7)
- The age ranges noted in table are - Gives children a more expansive
averages. view of the world than they had
- Some children reach a stage a bit during sensorimotor
earlier, others a bit later. - One key source of symbols is
- Children are occasionally in language.
transition from one stage to the next, - Increasing vocabularies provide
labels for newly developed mental
displaying characteristics of two
schemes and serve as symbols that
adjacent stages at the same time.
 enable children to think about Formal Operations Stage (Age 11 or 12
objects and events at distant places through Adulthood)
and times.
- Children are no longer restricted to - They become capable of thinking
the here-and-now and so can think and reasoning about things that have
and act far more flexibly than they little or no basis in physical reality
did previously. for instance, abstract concepts,
- Young children tend to confuse hypothetical ideas, and contrary-to-
psychological phenomena (e.g fact statements.
thoughts and emotions) with physical - They also become better able to
reality, a confusion manifested by understand abstract concepts in
such actions as attributing feelings to mathematics, science, and social
inanimate objects and insisting that studies, as negative number, infinity,
bogeymen lurks under the bed lol. momentum, quark, republic and
(Animism) human rights.
- Egocentrism- an inability to view - Proportional thinking- enables them
situations from another person’s to comprehend the nature of
perspective. proportions in various form.
- Preoperational children have trouble (fraction, decimals, and ratios)
in Class Inclusion, and conservation - Separation and control of variable-
of tasks such as liquid Testing hypothesis about which
- Class Inclusion- An ability to factor among many is responsible for
simultaneously classify an object as a particular result, they can test one
belonging both to a particular factor at a time while holding all
category and to one of its others constant. (i.e. pendulum
subcategories problem)
- Children who have the formal
operations stage can apply mental
operations to other mental
operations- can think about their
thinking. Metacognition
- They may become idealistic about
Concrete Operational Stage social, political and ethical issues.
(Age 6 or 7 until Age 11 or 12) - Sometimes offer recommendations
for change that seem logical but
- Thinking processes begin to involve aren’t practical
logical operations - Piaget suggested that adolescent
- Logical operations- To integrate idealism reflects an inability to
various qualities and perspectives of separate one’s own logical
an object or event. abstractions from the perspectives of
- Children now realize that their own others and from practical
viewpoints and feelings aren’t considerations
necessarily shared by others and may
reflect personal opinions rather than Current Perspectives on Piaget’s Theory
reality - Propel development especially
- They know they can be wrong this assimilation, accommodation, and
begin to seek out external validation equilibration can be frustratingly
for their ideas vague.
- Children are capable of conservation - Interaction with one’s physical
- Conservation- if nothing is added or objects, learn great deal about the
taken away amount stays the same world simply by observing what
despite any changes in shape or happens around them
arrangement. - All children probably learn much
- They also exhibit Class inclusion more from the collective knowledge
- Capable of increasingly complex their society shares with them than
conservation task they learn from their own personal
- They can apply their logical experiences.
operations only to concrete - Logical reasoning capabilities may
observable objects and events thus vary considerably depending on their
the word CONCRETE. precious experiences, knowledge and
- Having trouble logical validity cultural background
- Most contemporary researchers
seriously doubt that cognitive
development is a stage like Piaget
proposed.

Capabilities of Different Age-

Groups Neo Piagetian Theories of
Development
- Infants are apparently more
competent than Piaget’s description
of the sensorimotor stage suggests.
- How learning and reasoning capabilities
They show preliminary object
change over time
permanence as early as of 2 ½
months old and continue to firm up 1. Cognitive development is constrained
this understanding over a period of by the maturation of information
many months. processing mechanisms in the brain.
- Toddlers and preschoolers, too are  Cognitive development depends
more capable than Piaget’s somewhat on brain maturation
preoperational stage would have us  Children certainly use their working
believe. They don’t always exhibit memories more effectively as they
egocentrism. (i.e. show us their get older courtesy of such
artwork, they hold it so that we can processes as myelination, chunking
see it) maintenance rehearsal and
- Under some circumstances they’re automacity
capable of class inclusion and  Working memory capacity at
conservation. younger ages restricts their ability
- Piaget may have underestimated the to acquire and use complex thinking
capabilities of elementary school and reasoning skills.
children as well. Some may show 2. Children acquire new knowledge
ability to understand and use simple
through both unintentional and
proportions.
intentional
- Piaget seems to have overestimated
 Even if you’ve never intentionally
what adolescents can do. Formal
Operational thinking processes thought about this issue you can
emerge much more gradually than easily answer because many
Piaget suggested. Even adults don’t characteristics you’ve learned to
always reason in the logical ways associate with both types
that supposedly characterize formal  Children unconsciously learn that
operational thought. They merely many aspects of their world are
overrely on their existing knowledge characterized by consistent
about the world thus having the same patterns and association
difficulty in separating logic from  Common patterns in their
reality that children in concrete environment and they may
operations do. simultaneously strengthen their
knowledge if those patterns.
 Both unintentional and intentional
Effects of Culture learning process typically work
hand in hand
3. Children acquire cognitive structures
- Different cultures give children that affect their thinking in particular
somewhat different experiences content domains
 Neo-piagetian theorists reject
Piaget’s notions that children
Views on Piaget’s Stages acquire increasingly integrated
systems of mental process
operations.
- Cognitive development can more 4. Development in specific content
accurately be described in terms of domains can sometimes be
gradual trends – For instance a trend characterized as a series of stages
toward increasingly abstract thought  Reject Piaget’s notion that a single
rather than discrete stages. series of stages characterizes all of
 cognitive development, they
speculate that cognitive
development in specific content
domains often has a stagelike
nature
 Marked by the acquisition of new
abilities which children practice
gradually master over time.
 Each stage constructively builds on
the abilities acquired in any
preceding stages
 Development might be better
characterized as progression along
multiple strands of skills that
occasionally interconnect,
consolidate or separate in a weblike
fashion.
 This perspective, children may
acquire more advanced levels of
competence in a particular area
through any one of several
pathways
5. Formal schooling has a greater
influence on cognitive development
than Piaget believed.
 Within the confines of children’s
neurological maturation and
working memory capacity, formal
instruction can definitely promote
cognitive development.

Case Theory

1. Central conceptual structures-

integrated networks of concepts and
cognitive processes that form the basis
for much of children’s thinking,
reasoning, and learning in particular
areas
- Undergo several major transformations
which marks a child’s entry into the
next higher stage of development
- Number – underlies children’s
capabilities to reason about and
manipulate mathematical quantities.
- Spatial Relationships- performance in
such areas as drawing, construction,
use of maps, replication of geometric
patterns and psychomotor activities.
- Social Thought- Children’s reasoning
about interpersonal relationship their
knowledge of common scripts related
to human interactions and their
comprehension of short stories and
other works of fiction. Structures such
as general beliefs about human beings
thoughts, desires and behaviors.