Cognitive Development

Children Ages3 to 6 and 7 to 11

Preoperational

RepresentationalSymbolicExamples:

Make-believe -early pretendContributes to cognitive and social skills

Sociodramatic play - complex schemesAdvances in intellectual developmentStrengthens mental abilities

Egocentrism

Symbolic viewpoints NOT selfishnessExemplars

Hide and Seek Moon follows ME “My” rules for games

Research Three mountain problem Sesame street variation

Animistic Thinking

Basis: egocentrismInanimate objects have lifelike

qualities; magical thinkingExamples

Sookey Bear Bruno Smith Miley

Piagetian Reasoning

Single point of view strongNo accommodation to revise faulty

thinking

Piaget: Key Distinctions

ConservationClassificationSeriation

Conservation:

Certain physical characteristics (quantity) remain the same even when outward appearances change

First - number -- last - volume

Conservation of Number

Are there the same numberin each row?

Are there still the same number in each row, or does one row have more?

Now watch what I’m going to do.

Conservation of Mass

Now watch what I’m going to do

Is there the same amount of clayin each ball or does one have more?

Is there still the same amount of clay in each ball, or does one ball have more?

Conservation of Length

Is each of these sticks the same length?

Now watch what I’m going to do

Now are the two sticks still the samelength, or is one longer?

Conservation of Liquid

Is there the same amount of water in each glass?

Now watch what I’m going to do

Now is there the same amount of water in each glass, or does one have more?

Conservation of Area

Now watch what I’m going to do

Is there the same areain each rectangle?

Is there still the same area in each rectangle, or does one have more?

Conservation of Weight

Now watch what I’m going to do

Is each ball the same weight, or does one weigh more?

Does each ball still weigh the same, or does one weigh more?

Conservation of Volume

Now watch what I’m going to do

Is there the same amount of water in each glass? Is there the same amount of clay in each ball?

What will happen to the water level when we add the clay? Will it be the same as the other glass? Higher? Lower?

Preoperational Thinking

Perception boundCentration - focus on single attributeStates versus transformationsIrreversibility - one directional thinkingLack of identity constancyTransductive reasoning - particular to

particular

Concrete Operational Thinking

Decentration - consider more than one criteria

Identity CompensationReversibility

Decalage

Classification

Hierarchical classification Classes and subclasses

Class inclusion

Classification Example

Are there more yellow flowers or more flowers?

Seriation

Creating a logical orderApplications

Mathematics Reading Music and the arts

Seriation Example

Note: centering on appearances typical of younger child’s attempt at a seriation task

Piaget and Education

Discovery LearningSensitivity to readiness to learnAcceptance of individual differences

Vygotsky’s View

Private speech Self-guidance and direction Foundation of higher thinking

FocusDirection

Becomes internalized as inner speechSocial origins

Zone of Proximal Development

Focal point of learningLanguage of dialogues becomes

incorporated into private speechResearch demonstrates significance

of working with an “expert” other Intersubjectivity Scaffolding

Vygotsky and Education

Assisted learning and discoveryCooperative learning experiencesMake-believe play

Cautionary Note: Verbal communication is not the only channel of learning

Cultural differences

Theory of Mind

MetacognitionMeta = beyond or higher“Thinking about thinking”

Children’s consciousness of cognitive capacities increases with age

Theory of Mind: Early Childhood

Mind = passive container False beliefsOrigins

Communication Imitation Make-believe Language Social Interaction

Mind = active constructionBy age 10 - evaluate certainty of

knowledgeKnowledge of mental strategiesContributing factors:

School; instruction “Hearing themselves think”

Limitation: cognitive self-regulation

Theory of Mind: School-Age Children

Information Processing: Early Childhood

Information Processing:Working memory - limited capacity until about age 5

Advances in mental representation enhance information processing capabilities

Ability to focus increases with ageAbility to plan also increases with

age

Early Childhood: Attention

Recognition and Recall Less sophisticated use of memory strategies Rehearsal and categorizing unlikely

Episodic Memory Scripts

Remember familiar by scriptsBetter recall of predictable script-based events

Autobiographical memoryTalking about events helps

Early Childhood: Memory

Information Processing: School-Age

Brain development supports:Increased capacity

Increased speed and efficiency Myelinization and synaptic pruning

Inhibitory control Frontal lobe maturation Resist irrelevant information

School-Age Children: Attention

Selectivity and adaptabilityStrategy development sequence

(Miller & Seier, 1994) Production deficiency Control deficiency Utilization deficiency Effective strategy use

Planfulness

School-Age Children: Memory Strategies

RehearsalOrganizationElaborationExpanding base of knowledge

Language Development

Vocabulary at age 6 - 10,000 wordsExpansion through

Fast mapping Metaphoric meaning (clouds as pillows) Analysis of word structure (happy -

happiness; wise - wisdom)Overregularization - “My toy breaked.”Improvements in communication skills

Supports for Language Development

Connections to Vygotsky Expansions Recasts

Bilingualism Positive influence on cognitive development Better analytic reasoning Well-developed metalinguistic skills Cultural enrichment