Introducing Cognitive Development (Psychology Focus)
Contents:
He became intrigued with the reasons children gave for their wrong answers to the questions that required logical thinking. He believed that these incorrect answers revealed important differences between the thinking of adults and children.
Piaget was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a stage theory of child cognitive development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities. What Piaget wanted to do was not to measure how well children could count, spell or solve problems as a way of grading their I.
What he was more interested in was the way in which fundamental concepts like the very idea of number , time, quantity, causality , justice and so on emerged. Piaget showed that young children think in strikingly different ways compared to adults. According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure genetically inherited and evolved on which all subsequent learning and knowledge are based.
Introducing cognitive development
The goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by which the infant, and then the child, develops into an individual who can reason and think using hypotheses. To Piaget, cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience.
Children construct an understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment. Imagine what it would be like if you did not have a mental model of your world. It would mean that you would not be able to make so much use of information from your past experience or to plan future actions. Schemas are the basic building blocks of such cognitive models, and enable us to form a mental representation of the world. In more simple terms Piaget called the schema the basic building block of intelligent behavior — a way of organizing knowledge.
Wadsworth suggests that schemata the plural of schema be thought of as 'index cards' filed in the brain, each one telling an individual how to react to incoming stimuli or information. When Piaget talked about the development of a person's mental processes, he was referring to increases in the number and complexity of the schemata that a person had learned.
When a child's existing schemas are capable of explaining what it can perceive around it, it is said to be in a state of equilibrium, i.
Cognitive development
Piaget emphasized the importance of schemas in cognitive development and described how they were developed or acquired. A schema can be defined as a set of linked mental representations of the world, which we use both to understand and to respond to situations.
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The assumption is that we store these mental representations and apply them when needed. For example, a person might have a schema about buying a meal in a restaurant.
The schema is a stored form of the pattern of behavior which includes looking at a menu, ordering food, eating it and paying the bill. This is an example of a type of schema called a 'script. The schemas Piaget described tend to be simpler than this - especially those used by infants. He described how - as a child gets older - his or her schemas become more numerous and elaborate. Piaget believed that newborn babies have a small number of innate schemas - even before they have had many opportunities to experience the world.
These neonatal schemas are the cognitive structures underlying innate reflexes. These reflexes are genetically programmed into us. For example, babies have a sucking reflex, which is triggered by something touching the baby's lips. A baby will suck a nipple, a comforter dummy , or a person's finger. Piaget, therefore, assumed that the baby has a 'sucking schema. Similarly, the grasping reflex which is elicited when something touches the palm of a baby's hand, or the rooting reflex, in which a baby will turn its head towards something which touches its cheek, are innate schemas.
Shaking a rattle would be the combination of two schemas, grasping and shaking. Jean Piaget ; see also Wadsworth, viewed intellectual growth as a process of adaptation adjustment to the world.
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Equilibrium occurs when a child's schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation. However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when new information cannot be fitted into existing schemas assimilation. Equilibration is the force which drives the learning process as we do not like to be frustrated and will seek to restore balance by mastering the new challenge accommodation.
Once the new information is acquired the process of assimilation with the new schema will continue until the next time we need to make an adjustment to it. A 2-year-old child sees a man who is bald on top of his head and has long frizzy hair on the sides. Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive development which reflect the increasing sophistication of children's thought:.
Each child goes through the stages in the same order, and child development is determined by biological maturation and interaction with the environment. Although no stage can be missed out, there are individual differences in the rate at which children progress through stages, and some individuals may never attain the later stages. Piaget did not claim that a particular stage was reached at a certain age - although descriptions of the stages often include an indication of the age at which the average child would reach each stage.
The main achievement during this stage is object permanence - knowing that an object still exists, even if it is hidden.
They can provide stimulating learning materials and experiences from an early age, read to and talk with their children, and help children explore the world around them. The reader is introduced to the topic with a review of traditional approaches to the study of cognitive development and a consideration of recent advances in the field, particularly in cognitive science. Available online at http: When a child's existing schemas are capable of explaining what it can perceive around it, it is said to be in a state of equilibrium, i. Starts to understand some words. They begin to understand some of the ordinary aspects of everyday life, such as shopping for food, telling time, and being read to.
During this stage, young children can think about things symbolically. This is the ability to make one thing - a word or an object - stand for something other than itself. Thinking is still egocentric , and the infant has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others. Piaget considered the concrete stage a major turning point in the child's cognitive development because it marks the beginning of logical or operational thought.
This means the child can work things out internally in their head rather than physically try things out in the real world. Children can conserve number age 6 , mass age 7 , and weight age 9. Conservation is the understanding that something stays the same in quantity even though its appearance changes. The formal operational stage begins at approximately age eleven and lasts into adulthood. The reader is introduced to the topic with a review of traditional approaches to the study of cognitive development and a consideration of recent advances in the field, particularly in cognitive science.
This book provides an accessible introduction to cognitive development suitable for undergraduate students in psychology and related disciplines, as well as anyone involved in working with children. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. Would you like to tell us about a lower price? Learn more about Amazon Prime. The development of representational abilities Theory of mind and social cognition Development of language.
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