Cognition involves mental processes like knowledge, memory, reasoning, and decision-making. Cognitive development refers to changes in cognitive abilities as children interact with their environment. Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development proposed that children progress through four stages as their cognitive structures and functions develop. According to Piaget, cognitive structures like schemas develop through assimilation and accommodation as children incorporate new experiences through existing knowledge or adjust their understanding. This process of equilibration allows children to maintain balance between their thinking and their environment as their cognition develops.
2. MEANING OF COGNITION
• Cognition comes from the latin word ‘Congnoscere’ meaning
getting to know or knowledge.
• Cognition is the mental process of acquiring knowledge and
understanding through thought, experience and senses.
• It encompasses processes such as knowledge , attention,
memory, and working memory, judgement and evaluation,
reasoning and computation, problem solving and decision
making , comprehension and production of language, etc.
3. DEFINITION OF COGNITION
• Free Dictionary
“Cognition is the mental process of knowing , including aspects such as awareness, perception,
reasoning and judgement that which comes to be known , as through perception, reasoning or
intuition knowledge.”
• Webster Dictionary
“Cognition is the act of knowing, knowledge and perception”.
• Neisser
Cognition is "those processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored,
recovered, and used."
5. There are many different types of cognitive processes. These include:
• Attention:
Attention is a cognitive process that allows people to focus on a specific stimulus in the
environment.
• Language:
Language and language development are cognitive processes that involve the ability to
understand and express thoughts through spoken and written words. It allows us to
communicate with others and plays an important role in thought.
• Learning:
Learning requires cognitive processes involved in taking in new things, synthesizing
information, and integrating it with prior knowledge.
6. • Memory:
Memory is an important cognitive process that allows people to encode, store,
retrieve information. It is a critical component in the learning process and allows
people to retain knowledge about the world and their personal histories.
• Perception:
Perception is a cognitive process that allows people to take in information through
their senses (sensation) and then utilize this information to respond and interact
with the world.
• Thought:
Thought is an essential part of every cognitive process. It allows people to engage
decision-making, problem-solving, and higher reasoning.
7. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
• Cognitive Development is the field of study in neuroscience and psychology
focuses minutely on the child’s development in terms of information
processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning and
other aspects of brain development.
• Cognitive development is the emergence of the ability to think and
understand.
• Cognitive development is how a person perceives, thinks, and gains
understanding of their world through the relations of genetic and learning
factors.
• There are four stages to cognitive development. They are, reasoning,
intelligence, language, and memory.
8. PROCESS OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
• Jean Piaget was a Swiss biologist . He developed a keen interest in child and
cognitive psychology. He opposed Binet’s idea of defining intelligence . He
defined intelligence as the ability to adjust, adapt or deal efficiently with, one’s
environment.
• Piaget designed a proper framework to understand the structure, functioning and
development of cognitive development of human mind. He postulated that there
are two aspects of human mind.
• One is referred to as Cognitive structure and the other is known as cognitive
functioning.
9. COGNITIVE
STRUCTURES
• Unlike other creatures the human baby is born with a few
practical instincts and reflexes such as sucking, looking,
grasping and reaching.
• Therefore, the initial cognitive structures of infants are
supposed to incorporate only those cognitive abilities or
potential which help them to do such acts such as look,
reach out or grasp.
• Piaget named these abilities or potentialities as Schemas.
• A schema represents a unit of one’s cognitive structure in
the shape of general potential to perform a particular class
of behaviors.
• The various schemas with their content thus form the basic
structure of the human mind.
• The earlier schemas are inherited , however as the child
grows due to the interaction with environment he is able o
form different schemas.
10. COGNITIVE
FUNCTIONING
• On the other hand individual has to adapt to his
environment for the survival as well as proper
growth and development.
• The key to his cognitive development lies in his
interaction with and adaptation to his physical
and social environment.
• The task of such adaptation is carried out through
the processes of assimilation and
accommodation.
ADAPTATION
11. Assimilation:
Assimilation refers to a kind of matching between existing cognitive
structures and the environmental needs as they arise.
For example: where a six month old infant is given a new toy it is likely to
respond by putting the toy in its mouth. This is Assimilation, as what the
child did was to assimilate, incorporate or fit ideas about the new toy into
already existing cognitive structures about old toys.
His cognitive structure about the old toy revolved around the sucking
schemas, therefore he at once responded by performing the act of
sucking.
12. Accommodation
Now in case , the new toy is too big to be picked up and placed in the mouth, it will certainly need a change or
modification in the already existing cognitive structure. The child will have to change his old ways of thinking and
behaving in order to adapt or adjust to the new situation. Consequently , now instead of sucking , the child may
respond by pushing or grasping the toy. This is called Accommodation as one tries to accommodate or adjust to
new ways of thinking and behaving in place of assimilating or behaving in the same old fashion.
13. Whereas in the process of assimilation , one ‘s responses are supposed to bank
upon one’s past experience and already complied stock of information, in the
process of accommodation one has to learn new ways of thinking and behaving by
making changes or modifications in one’s existing cognitive structure.
14. Equilibration
The process of assimilation or accommodation helps the organism to adjust or maintain a
harmonious relationship between himself and his environment. This adjustments mechanism was
called equilibration by Piaget. It can be defined as an innate tendency or continuous drive on the
part of an organism to organise its experiences for obtaining optimal adaptation to the
demands of its environment by maintaining a proper balance between its cognitive structures
the changing demands of its environment.