Theories of Cognitive Development

1. Slide 1
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
John W. Santrock
Cognitive Developmental
Approaches

2. Slide 2
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cognitive Developmental
Approaches
• Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
• Applying and Evaluating Piaget’s Theory
• Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development
• Cognitive Changes in Adulthood

3. Slide 3
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Processes of Development
– Organization
– Equilibrium
– Equilibration
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
– Schemes
– Assimilation
– Accommodation
• Piaget observed own 3 children;
believed six processes used in
constructing knowledge

4. Slide 4
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Schemes
• Actions or mental representations that
organize knowledge
– Behavioral schemes: physical activities
characterizing infancy
– Mental schemes: cognitive activities
develop in childhood
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

5. Slide 5
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Assimilation and Accommodation
• Both operate even in very young infants
• Assimilation — incorporate new information
into existing knowledge schemes
• Accommodation — adjust schemes to fit
new information and experiences
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

6. Slide 6
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Organization
• Children cognitively organize experiences
- Grouping isolated behaviors into a
higher-order, more smoothly functioning
cognitive system
- Grouping items into categories
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

7. Slide 7
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Equilibrium and Equilibration
• Mechanisms proposed to explain how children
shift from one stage of thought to the next
– Disequilibrium — shift occurs as children
experience cognitive conflict
– Equilibration — they resolve conflict through
assimilation and accommodation, to reach a new
balance or equilibrium of thought
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

8. Slide 8
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Stages of Development
• Piaget’s theory unifies experiences and
biology to explain cognitive development
– Motivation is internal search for equilibrium
– Four stages of development…progressively
advanced and qualitatively different
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

9. Slide 9
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Sensorimotor stage
• First of Piaget’s stages
– Birth to about 2 years
– Infants construct understanding of world by
coordinating sensory experiences with
motoric actions
– Contains six substages
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

10. Slide 10
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Sensorimotor Substages
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
2
3
1 Simple reflexes
Basic means of coordinating
sensation and action
through reflexive behaviors
First habits and
primary circular
reactions
Infants’ infant’s attempt to
reproduce interesting or
pleasurable event (1-4 mos)
Secondary
circular
reactions
Infant is more object-
oriented moving beyond
preoccupation with the self
(4-8 months)

11. Slide 11
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Sensorimotor Substages
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
4
5
6
Coordination of
secondary
circular reactions
Significant changes in
coordination of schemes
and intentionality (8-12 mos)
Tertiary circular
reactions, novelty
and curiosity
Intrigued by objects’ many
properties; explores new
possibilities with them
(12-18 mos)
Internalization of
Schemes
Ability to use primitive
symbols; shift to mental
manipulation (18-24 mos)

12. Slide 12
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Object Permanence
• Understanding that objects and events
continue to exist even when they cannot
directly be seen, heard, or touched
– One of infant’s most important accomplishments
– Acquired in stages
– Violation of expectations testing
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

13. Slide 13
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Infant’s Understanding of Causality
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
(b)
(c)
(a)
Fig. 6.5

14. Slide 14
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Evaluating Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage
• New research techniques suggest Piaget’s
theory needs to be modified
– Some abilities develop earlier
• Intermodal perception; substantiality and
permanence of objects
– Transitions not as clear-cut; AB error
– Objects seen as separate at much younger age;
possibly at birth or shortly after
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

15. Slide 15
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Preoperational Stage
• Second Piagetian developmental stage
– About 2 to 7 years of age; two substages
– Children begin to represent the world with
words, images, and drawings
• Not ready to perform Operations
– Internalized actions that allow children to do
mentally what before they only did physically
– Reversible mental actions
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

16. Slide 16
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The Symbolic Function Substage
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Symbolic
function
Egocentrism
Animism
First substage of preoperational
thought; young child gains ability
to represent mentally an object
that is not present (2-4 years)
Inability to distinguish between
one’s own and another’s view
Belief that inanimate objects have
lifelike qualities, capable of action

17. Slide 17
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The Three Mountains Task
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
View 1
Child seated here
(a)
(b)
(d)
(c)
View 2
Child
seated
here
(a)
(b)
(d)
(c)
Fig. 6.6

18. Slide 18
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Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Fig. 6.7
The Symbolic Drawings of
Young Children
(a) A 31/2-year-old’s symbolic
drawing. Halfway into this
drawing, the 31/2-year-old
artist said it was “a pelican
kissing a seal.”
(b) This 11-year-old’s
drawing is neater and more
realistic but also less
inventive.

19. Slide 19
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The Intuitive Thought Substage
• Children begin using primitive reasoning
and want to know answers to all sorts of
questions (4-7 years)
– Why? questions exhaust adults
– Centration — focusing attention on one
characteristic to exclusion of others
– Conservation — object’s amount stays
same regardless of changing appearance;
lacking in preoperational stage
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

20. Slide 20
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Piaget’s Conservation Task
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Fig. 6.8

21. Slide 21
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Some Dimensions of Conservation:
Number, Matter, and Length
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Fig. 6.9

22. Slide 22
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Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage
• Piaget’s third stage (7-11 years)
• Children can perform concrete operations
• Logical reasoning replaces intuitive
reasoning if applied to specific, concrete
examples
• Horizontal Décalage
– Similar abilities do not appear at same time
within stage of development such as
conservation abilities
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

23. Slide 23
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Classification Skills
• Concrete operations child understands one
person can be father, brother, and grandson
• Seriation — involves stimuli along
quantitative dimension (e.g. length)
• Transitivity — if relation holds between first
and second object, and holds between the
second and third object, then it holds between
first and third object
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

24. Slide 24
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Classification: An Important Ability in
Concrete Operational Thought
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Fig. 6.10

25. Slide 25
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Formal Operational Stage
• Individuals move beyond concrete operations
and think in more abstract and logical ways
(11-15 years)
• Abstract, Idealistic, and Logical Thinking
– Verbal problem-solving ability increases
– Increased ability to think about thought itself
– Thought is full of idealism and possibilities
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

26. Slide 26
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Formal Operational Stage
• Children solve problems by trial-and-error
• Adolescents think more like scientists
• Assimilation dominates initial development
• Hypothetical-deductive reasoning
– Have cognitive ability to develop hypotheses, or
best guesses, and systematically deduce the best
path to follow in solving a problem
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

27. Slide 27
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Adolescent Egocentrism
• Heightened adolescents’ self-consciousness
• Imaginary audience
– Belief that others are as interested in them as
they are
– Involves attention-getting behavior motivated by
desire to be noticed, visible, and “on stage”
• Personal fable — adolescent’s sense of
uniqueness and invincibility
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

28. Slide 28
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Piaget and Education
• Take a constructivist approach
• Facilitate rather than direct learning
• Consider child’s knowledge, level of thinking
• Use ongoing assessment
• Promote the student’s intellectual health
• Turn classroom into setting of exploration
and discovery
Applying and Evaluating Piaget’s Theory

29. Slide 29
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Evaluating Piaget’s Theory
• Contributions
– New way of looking at children as active thinkers
• Criticisms
– Some estimates of children’s competence is
inaccurate
– Development not uniformly stage-like
– Effects of training
– Culture and education influence development
Applying and Evaluating Piaget’s Theory

30. Slide 30
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Neo-Piagetians
• Argue Piaget got some things right, but
theory needs revision
• More emphasis to memory, attention,
information-processing strategies, and
processing speed
Applying and Evaluating Piaget’s Theory

31. Slide 31
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
• Social contexts; minds are shaped by
cultural context in which they live
• Tools are provided by society
• Children actively construct their knowledge
and understanding through social
interactions
Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development

32. Slide 32
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Zone of Proximal Development
• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
– Tasks too difficult for children to master alone
but that can be mastered with guidance and
assistance from more-skilled person
• Scaffolding
– Changing level of support over course of a
teaching session to fit child’s current
performance level
– Video ZPD
Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development

33. Slide 33
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Vygotsky’s Zone of
Proximal Development
Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Fig. 6.11

34. Slide 34
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Vygotsky: Language and Thought
• Believed young children use language to
plan, guide, and monitor behavior
• Language and thought initially develop
independently, then merge
• Private speech: language of self-regulation
– Self talk (3 to 7 years of age)
– Inner talk: child’s thoughts
Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development

35. Slide 35
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Teaching Strategies based on
Vygotsky’s Theory
• Successfully applied to education
– Use child’s ZPD
– Use more-skilled peers as teachers
– Monitor and encourage private speech
– Effectively assess child’s ZPD
– Instruction in meaningful context
– Transform classroom
Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development

36. Slide 36
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Guided Participation
• Widely used around the world
• Culture may differ in goals of development
• Child’s responsibilities revised as skill and
knowledge are gained
– Chewa of Zambia
– Maya of Guatemala
Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development

37. Slide 37
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Evaluating Vygotsky’s Theory
• Social constructivist approach — emphasize
social contexts of learning and construction of
knowledge through social interaction
– Shift from individual to collaborative learning
– Teachers facilitate and guide, not direct and mold
– May overemphasize language’s role in thinking
– Facilitators may help too much; make child lazy
Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development

38. Slide 38
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Piaget’s View of Adult Cognition
• Thinking qualitatively in formal operations
same as adolescents
• Adults have more knowledge
• Research shows:
– Many don’t reach highest level until adulthood
– Many adults don’t use formal operational thinking
Cognitive Changes in Adulthood

39. Slide 39
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Cognitive Changes in Adulthood
• Thinking of young adults is beyond formal
operational stage of adolescents. It is…
– Realistic — Idealism decreases in face of real
world constraints
– Pragmatic — Switch from acquiring knowledge
to applying it
– Reflective and Relativistic — Move away
from absolutist thinking of adolescence

40. Slide 40
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The End
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