Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood: Chapter 11
Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage
• Developmental change involves progression from a state of equilibrium to a state of disequilibrium – Process of change moves organism from state of
cognitive disequilibrium to a state of cognitive equilibrium• Assimilation—new information fits within existing
structures• Accommodation—new structures are created or
existing structures are changed to take in new information
Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage
• Concrete Operational Thought – Children can reflect on their own thoughts– Children attend to dynamic transformations
(processes involved in change)– Children’s mental capabilities change:• Decenter—consider multiple attributes or dimensions
simultaneously• Reversibility—mentally reverse events or actions • Use logic to make transitive inferences
Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage• Limits to Piaget’s concrete operational child:– Reflective thinking, decentering, and reversibility are
limited to those events experienced by the child
– May underestimate the child’s competency with enriched environment
Information Processing Theory (IPT)
• IPT focuses on:– encoding, – transformation, – storage, and – retrieval of information
• Working Memory– Information currently in active and conscious processing– Limited duration without rehearsal– Limited capacity without mnemonic devices
IPT: Working Memory
• Evidence points to unique processing components– Verbal– Auditory– Executive Control• Monitoring• Controlling
IPT: Depth of Processing Theory
• Shallow—attend to surface features, rote rehearsal– E.g. memorizing names and dates; memorizing
definitions• Deep—attend to meaningful features, strategic
rehearsal– E.g. summarizing in your own words; constructing
a concept map
• Overall, deep processing leads to more flexible and accessible memories
IPT: Long Term Memory
• Relatively permanent duration
• Relatively (and largely unknown) large capacity
• Organization is based on strategies used during encoding or processing in Working Memory
Network Models of Long Term Storage
• Conceptual nodes– Represent concepts, facts, or other entities
• Logical arcs– Represent relationships among conceptual nodes
• Activation of nodes and arcs– Based on environmental stimulation– Stream of consciousness
• More frequent activation leads to easier access and retrieval
• More arcs between adjacent nodes and the target node lead to increased cognitive flexibility
Categories of Knowledge in Long-term Memory
• Tulving– Semantic memory—knowing facts, concepts– Episodic memory—knowing about events or activities
(maybe a more dominant type of memory in children
• Shank & Abelson– Knowledge of a relatively fixed routine– Related to episodic memory– Form default patterns of actions (fast food
restaurant script)
Characteristics of Memory• Constructive—Reconstructive Processing– Constructive Processing: Distortion occurs at encoding– Reconstructive Processing: Distortion occurs at retrieval
• Autobiographical Memory– Memories for one’s own experiences– Influenced not only by events themselves, but also how
others describe the events to us – Suggestibility (e.g. “false memories”—reconstructive and
autobiographical)
Major Developmental Changes across Middle Childhood
• Metacognitive skills– Cognitive monitoring– Cognitive control– Cognitive flexibility– Strategy acquisition, development, and use
Major Developmental Changes across Middle Childhood
• Knowledge base– Greater number of conceptual nodes
– More efficient organization
– More flexible organization
– More complex networks
Cognitive Development in Context (Mathematics)
• Early on, strategies reflect controlled processing (resource intensive)
• With practice and more efficient memory, strategies reflect more automatic processes (less resource intensive
• Automatic strategies require monitoring that is based on metacognitive awareness
Cognitive Development in Context (Mathematics)
• Mathematics Problems embedded in language and richer contexts
– Strategies include• Stating the problem• Solving the computational steps• Evaluating the outcome• Restating the results in terms of the original problem
statement
– Strategies are likely to be controlled not automatic
Cognitive Development in Context (Literacy)
• Overall, progression is from controlled processing to automatic at several levels– Phonemic awareness– Sight words– Context cues– Schema-driven knowledge (top-down)
Cognitive Development in Context (Literacy)
• Children who – are told stories,– have someone read to them regularly, – have a print rich environment in their lives, and – have opportunity to explore language
• Singing, Scribbling, Drawing, Invented spelling
– Tend to have more optimistic outcome in literacy in school
– Table 11.3 (pg 393)—developmental progression of reading
Cognitive Development in Context (Literacy)
• Developmental process• Scribbling • forming pseudo-words with letters, • invented spelling, • simple stories and • narratives based on own experience,
Cognitive Development in Context (Literacy)
• Narrative Schema– Tends to be universal– Predicable order of elements• Setting• Initiating event• Reaction• Action• Consequence• Moral
Cognitive Development in Context (Literacy)
• Narrative:– Structure appears early on
– Nursery tales, children’s stories tend to follow the structure universally
– Children are sensitive to violations of the structure
Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood
• Tends to be a period across cultures of preparation for more mature roles and responsibilities
• Schooling, in some form, occurs in all cultures
• Fits within Erikson’s stage of Industry vs. Inferiority
Top Related