Cognitive

Piaget's Cognitive Development

Cognitive development

  • Learn by doing (direct motor behaviour)
  • Stage approach - with transition
  • Physical maturation + experiences
  • Timing varies by child

Schemes

  • Patterns of functioning
  • Adapt with development

Assimilation: understand according to current stage / scheme


Accommodation: change in thinking in response to new stimuli / events

  1. Sensorimotor (0-2y)
    Infancy
  1. Preoperational (2-7y)
    Preschool
  1. Formal operational (12-15y)
    Adolescence
  1. Concrete operational (7-12y)
    School

Vygotsky's Sociocultural

1. Simple reflexes

  • First month, e.g. suck
  • Main interaction = reflexes

2. First habits & primary circular reactions

  • 1-4m, e.g. grasp + suck
  • Combine actions -> single activity
  • Primary (self) + circular (repetition, desirable)

3. Secondary circular reactions

  • 4-8m, e.g. shake rattle in diff ways
  • Secondary (outside world) + circular
  • Vocalisation increases

5. Tertiary circular reactions

  • 12-18m, drop toys
  • Tertiary - variation, experiment
  • Interest in unexpected

6. Beginnings of thought

  • 18-24m, e.g. figure where ball rolled to, pretend play
  • Mental representation / symbolic thought: internal image of event/object
  • Deferred imitation: pretend

4. Coordination of secondary circular reactions

  • 8-12m, e.g. look for toy under (1st) blanket, push toy away
  • Goal directed behaviour: combined schemes -> single act
  • Object permanence

Preoperational thinking

  • Use more symbolic thought + concepts
  • Symbolic function: use mental symbol / word / object to represent something that's not there
  • Advance in language: interconnected, fast, future

Limitations

Conservation

  • Knowledge that quantity is unrelated to physical appearance
  • Because of: centration +
  • Incomplete understanding of transformation: change from one state to another - can't see steps

Centration

  • Focus on one obvious aspect, ignore others
  • e.g. dog mask on cat = dog

Egocentrism

  1. Cannot see from others' perspective
  2. Don't realise others have diff views

Intuitive thought

  • Primitive reasoning, a
  • Avid knowledge acquisition
  • Start to understand:
    * Functionality*: actions, events, outcomes related
    * Identity*: some things stay same, regardless of change in shape / size / appearance

Use logic
Operations: organised, logical mental processes

  • Logical thinking: to solve problems, not appearance
  • Decentration: see diff aspects of situation
  • Reversibility: can reverse transformations
  • Relationship between time / speed / distance
  • BUT only concrete, physical reality

Think abstractly

  • Systematic experiments
  • Relative, not absolute
  • Hypotheticodeductive reasoning: general theory -> deduce explanations of outcomes, test hypotheses (start abstract -> concrete)
  • Propositional thought: abstract logic with no concrete examples


  • Inconsistent use (lazy, culturally dependent, knowledge dependent)
  • => question authority, idealism, critical thinking

Sociocultural Theory

  • Develop through partnership/interaction with adults & peers
  • Determined by culture & society (e.g. playgroups, tasks, toys, gender expectations)
  • Zone of proximal development: level where child can almost comprehend/perform task -> can with assistance
  • Scaffolding: assistance / structuring from others

Cultural tools

  • Physical items + conceptual frameworks (language, maths / science / religious systems)