Cognitive Development - Piaget's Theory

OUTLINE

Piaget's theory was mostly based on observation.

He went on to put together a general stage theory of cognitive development.

This theory stated that development follows a fixed (invariant) order, and that the behaviour in question gets better by the stage. Additionally, the order is the same for everyone - it is universal.

Piaget came to the conclusion that children begin to explore the world around them from the moment they first open their eyes and. They are NOT passive observers, instead they are actively involved.

STAGES

1 - SENSORI-MOTOR STAGE (0-2 YEARS)

  

  - Thoughts and behaviour are generally the same

• They examine their surroundings and place objects into schemas in their minds
• The baby gradually learns to make sense of the information coming in through the senses

Features include

 - Body schema(s)

• The infant recognises that it exists physically, it can recognise itself in a photograph or mirror

- Motor co-ordination

• The infant learns to co-ordinate different body parts, such as moving their hand to their mouth for eating or moving their knees and hands so that they can crawl

- Object permanence

• The infant knows that an object or person still exists even if they cannot be seen
• When a newborn baby cannot see that thing or person, they assume they do not exist
• Towards the end of the first year, perhaps as early as 8 months, babies will look for hidden objects because they have developed object permanence

2 - PRE-OPERATIONAL STAGE (2-7 YEARS)

Cognitive development gets better by the year. However, they are still limited.

- Animism

• They treat inanimate objects as if they are alive

- Reversibility

• They are unable to work backwards in their thinking
• For example, if you ask a child in the pre-operation stage who has a sibling if they have a sibling they will say yes. But if you ask them if that sibling has a sibling, they will say no

- Egocentrism

• They cannot see others viewpoints

3 - CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE (7-11 YEARS)

 - The child can do what they couldn't in the previous stage, and they also develop other abilities

- Linguistic humour

• They start understanding and enjoying word games and double meanings

- Seriation

• The ability to rank things

- Conservation

• They know properties of certain objects remain the same
• They can conserve volume,number and mass

4 - FORMAL OPERATION STAGE (11 YEARS +)

- Hypothetical thinking

• Thinking without physical prompts
• It allows you to 'see the big picture' and develop general principles you can apply to other situations. 

CRITICISMS

1 - The cognitive stages are not as fixed or rigid as Piaget proposed

• Sine children flick into different stages depending on circumstances, sometimes thining egocentrically, and at other times having grand ideas of right and wrong

2 - There is no guarantee that people develop through all the stages

• Some researchers argue that only about 50% of adults make it to the formal operational stage

3 - Development is not an automatic biological process

• Piaget may have underestimated the role that parents and other people play in a child's intellectual development. 
• Some psychologists believe that we can 'hothouse; children so they develop at a quicker rate

4 - Piaget ignored different types of thinking

• Not all thinking is an exercise in logic or problem solving

5 -  Thinking does not develop in the same way for children everywhere

• Aboriginal children develop concrete operational thinking earlier than European children as it is useful for physical survival

6 - Piaget only describes the kind of thinking a child can/cannot do, he does not explain how the changes in thinking occurs

• Some critics would say that this does not make it a proper theory as theories should offer reasons for why things happen

Cognitive Development - Vygotsky's Theory

Vygotsky thought that cognitive development isn't innate, it takes place within their culture. It lies in social and cognitive influences rather than maturation.

A child picks up cultural tools

• Language, writing, number systems and ideas from science
• Culture teaches us how an what to think

Everyone is born with potential, that others help us discover

- The gap between where you currently are in your development, and where you can move on to (with   help) is called the zone of proximal development (ZPD)

• This is aided by support from those around you, which is known as scaffolding

In this theory, stages aren't universal. They happen at an individual pace and are aided by the culture around them.

Cognitive Development - Key Concepts

Cognitive development is age related changes such as how children think and behave differently as they get older.
This is built on processes or schemas.
Whereas some are present from birth (eg- sucking) others are not. They follow a pattern of assimilation and accommodation, which is learning new information and fitting it in with what is already known.

Schemas or though processes are what every child uses as they interact with the world around them. All ideas, memories and information about a particular object/situation etc that a child comes into contact with are sorted into patterns. These are like mental blueprints which link things and behaviours.

Hello !

This blog and its posts are now out of date for the OCR GCSE Psychology spec - but still acts as a great start off for A-Level.

Though criticisms may need to be expanded to ensure you get higher grades, the following are still applicable for AQA A-Level Psychology

Whole topics are covered in Cognitive Development, named 'Cognition and Development' at A-Level, Attachment, and Memory

Humanistic psychology is seen in 'The Self' topic

SLT theory is seen in SST as an application, Phobias from 'Psychopathology' is almost completely covered in 'Phobias', Dispositional and Situational theories for obedience/social influence, and the Psychodynamic Psychosexual Theory of Development 

There are also useful key studies for Aggression , Social Influence, Milgram (SI again)

Good luck, and if any of you did different topics and know if anything else if helpful tip us off !

Cognitive Development - Applications (Educating Children)

PIAGET

- The concept of readiness 

• Children can only learn what their current cognitive stage allows them to.
• Classrooms materials, subject specifications and ways of learning in class should match the stage and cognitive level of the pupil.
• Young children have to do things to learn
• Older children have to apply abstract thinking to learn

- Discovery learning

• Doing, rather than lecturing
• The teacher should ask questions, raise issues and devise activites
• The teacher is a facilitator, as the child learns individually

- Peer support

• Allow opportunities for unstructured and collaborative learning
• This helps the child decentre

VYGOTSKY

- Teacher should intervene

• It helps children develop their understanding and knowledge
• The teacher is the main person in the pupil's ZPD

- Spiral curriculum

• Difficult ideas are presented simply at first
• These ideas are then revisited at a more advanced level later on

- Scaffolding in the classroom

• People can advance a child's thinking by providing a support framework

Cognitive Development - Piaget's Experiments

- Three Mountains (Egocentrism)

A child sits at one point (eg A) whilst an experimenter sits at the opposite part (eg C). The child is described to ask what they can see. They are then asked to describe what the experimenter can see. If they describe what they can see, then they are egocentric.


- Counters (Number)

The child is asked if there is the same amount of counters in each row, and they say yes. One of the rows are spaced apart whilst the child watches. They are asked the same question. If they say no, they cannot conserve number.



- Plasticine (Mass)

The child is asked if there is the same amount of plasticine, and they say yes. It is rolled whilst the child watches. They are asked the same question. If they say no, they cannot conserve mass.




- Liquid (Volume)

The child is asked if there is the same amount of liquid in both glasses, and they say yes. The contents of one glass is then poured into a taller glass. They are asked the same question. If they say no, they cannot conserve volume.

Cognitive Development - Piaget & Conservation of Number (1952)

PROCEDURE

It was a cross-sectional study

• Different people represented different stages

They were shown, one at a time, two identical parallel rows of counters. They then spread one of the rows of the counters whilst the child watched. They were then asked which row had more counters

RESULTS

Children in the pre-operational stage (2-7 years) often said the stretched out row had more counters, as it was longer. They cannot conserve number

Children in the concrete operation stage (7-11 years) mostly said that they had the same amount in each row. They could conserve number

CRITICISMS

1 - The double-questioning may have had an effect

• In normal situations, children are only asked a question twice if they got the answer wrong at first
• When this was repeated and the children were only asked once, a higher number of children got the answer correct

2 - It was criticised for not being child friendly

• When McGarrigle & Donaldson (1974) had a 'naughty toy' spread the counters, 60% of the children in the pre-operational stage got the answer correct

3 - Piaget used a small sample

• It may not have been representative, so cannot be generalised