COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Batch: BS PSY2k23
Instructor : Ms. Gulmeena Tahir

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 What are cognitions??

• Cognition is defined as the mental action or process of:

acquiring knowledge
• Understanding through thought, experience and the senses
• Cognition helps develop beliefs, reasoning, problem
solving, perceptions, intuition
 What is cognitive development?

• The process by which our intellectual abilities (problem

solving, perception, reasoning, etc.) form & evolve over
time.
 Theories of cognitive development

• 1. Piaget’s theory
• 2. Vygotsky’s theory
• 3. Information-processing theory
 Constructivist Theories

• The proposition underlying a constructivist approach is

that children construct their own understandings of the
world in which they live
• Children play an active role in their development
• Children have their own logic and ways of knowing,
which follow predictable patterns of development as
children biologically mature and interact with the
world.
 Piaget’s Theory of
Cognitive Development
 Piaget’s Theory of
Cognitive Development

• Jean Piaget (1896-1980), a Swiss psychologist

• Piaget was an early constructivist theorist in psychology.
• He provided a broad-based view of cognitive
development in the natural context of the environment.
• Piaget believed that children act as “little scientists,”
trying to make sense of their world.
 Piaget’s theory

• Piaget’s Theory is a stage theory of development.

• Examines how children acquire knowledge from birth
onward.
• Examines the processes by which children’s thinking
changes over time.
 Piaget’s theory

• Focused on children being active participants in the

learning process.
• Piaget believed that “children are active thinkers,
constantly trying to construct more advanced
understandings of the world”
• These “understandings” are in the form of structures he
called schemas- frameworks that develop to help organize
knowledge
 How do children progress from one
stage to another?

• Piaget argued that we need to adapt to our environment.

• He argued that children adapt thinking & learn from their
mistakes.
• Two processes are critical to adaptation:
Assimilation &
accommodation (mutually influence one another).
 1. Assimilation:

• Assimilation - process of taking new information or a new

experience and fitting it into an already existing schema
• We add new information to our existing mental framework.
• E.g., an infant grasps a new object with same strategy
he/she used for grasping other objects.
 2. Accommodation:

• Accommodation - process by which existing schemas are

changed or new schemas are created in order to fit new
information
• Adjusting our knowledge (framework) in response to
characteristics of an object or event (that is often different
from what we’ve encountered).
• Changing existing mental framework to new information.
• E.g., infant changes the way she grasps a new object,
based on its shape.
 Piaget’s approach

• Primary method was to ask children to solve

problems and to question them about the reasoning
behind their solutions
• Discovered that children think in radically different
ways than adults
• Proposed that development occurs as a series of
‘stages’ differing in how the world is understood
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development

• 1. Sensorimotor period (birth to 2 yrs.)

• 2. Preoperational period (2-7 yrs.)

• 3. Concrete operations period (7-12 yrs.)

• 4. Formal operations period (12+)

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
 1. Sensorimotor Stage (Birth - 2)

• Information is gained through the senses and

motor actions
• In this stage child perceives and manipulates
but does not reason
• Symbolic thought begins (language
development)
• Object permanence is acquired by 8 months
 Object Permanence

• The understanding that objects exist independent of

one’s actions or perceptions of them
• Before 8 months infants act as if objects removed
from sight cease to exist
• Can be surprised by disappearance / reappearance of a face
(peek-a-boo)
Was Piaget correct about the timing of when
children acquire Object Permanence?

• Infants appear to have the concept of object

permanence much earlier than Piaget thought.
• Piaget argued that infants show object permanence
by 8 months or after.
• It turns out that infants as young as 3.5 months
have object permanence concept.
 2. Preoperational Period (2-7 yrs)
• Symbolic thought improves as language acquisition
comes on-line.
• Children start babbling in first year of life, and start
producing simple two-word sentences by age 2.
• Lack the concept of conservation - changing an
object’s physical appearance does not alter
substance/amount of object.
• Pre conceptual Stage (2-4 Years)
• Animistic Thinking
• Egocentrism
• Intuitive Thinking (4-7)
 Stages in Preoperational Period

• A. Preconceptual stage (2-4 years):

1. Animistic thinking
• the attribution of life to inanimate objects
• Belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are
capable of action
E.g, a child believing the wind talks to the trees.
Conversation between Piaget & a preoperational
child demonstrating animalistic thinking:

• Piaget: Does the sun move?

• Child: Yes, when one walks it follows. When one turns around it turns
around too.
• Piaget: Why does it move?
• Child: Because when one walks, it goes too.
• Piaget: Why does it go?
• Child: To hear what we say.
• Piaget: Is it alive?
• Child: Of course, otherwise it wouldn’t follow us, it couldn’t shine.
(Piaget, 1960, p.215)
2. Egocentricity
• The child views world from his/her own
perspective
• Can’t see it from others view/perspective.
• The dialogue where the sun follows the child
illustrates the child’s sense of egocentric thinking.
Piaget’s 3-Mountain Task:
Egocentrism
• Models of 3 mountains of different sizes are placed on
a square table & chairs are placed at all four sides of
the table.
• The child is seated in 1 chair, & dolls are placed in the
other 3 chairs, 1 at a time.
• Child is asked what doll sees. Has to select 1 set of
drawings or use cardboard cutouts to construct doll’s
view.
• Piaget found kids couldn’t consistently identify dolls’
view from each of the three views until 9-10 years old.
 Criticisms on 3-Mountain Task
• Piaget’s Models lacked salient characteristics that
could allow kids to differentiate 1 view from the next.
• The task of reconstructing the display, or choosing the
appropriate drawings may be beyond the ability of a
young child.
• Borke (1975) had child do task, but placed snowcaps,
trees, or houses, on the sides of the mountains, to make
them more distinctive and also asked kids to rotate a
small model of the mountain display so that they could
present the correct view, rather than reconstruct the
scene from drawings. This resulted in correct
performance in kids as young as 3 years.
 B. Intuitive Stage: (4-7 Years)

• Child can solve some problems, but can’t tell you

why. They begin to move toward logical reasoning,
but can't explain how or why they think as they do.
Children cannot:
*Perform a seriation task- in which objects are
grouped on the basis of a specific dimension (height,
length).
*Perform class inclusion problems (if child is given 5
toy cats & 3 toy short-haired tabbies (a type of cat)
& asked whether there are more cats than tabbies,
they can’t do it.
Seriation Task
Are There More Dogs or
Animals?
 Conservation and Preoperational
Thought

• Preoperational children cannot conserve matter,

liquid, etc.
• Conservation—altering an object’s physical
appearance, does alter its basic properties.
 Piaget’s Conservation Task

The experimenter shows a child 2 short wide glasses with the

same amount of liquid. Then, the experimenter pours the liquid
from 1 of the glasses into a tall & skinny glass. The child is asked
which glass contains more & picks the tall glass.
 Conservation
• Number

In conservation of number tests, two equivalent rows of coins are

placed side by side and the child says that there is the same number in
each row. Then one row is spread apart and the child is again asked if
there is the same number in each.
 Conservation
• Length

In conservation of length tests, two same-length sticks are

placed side by side and the child says that they are the
same length. Then one is moved and the child is again
asked if they are the same length.
 Conservation
• Substance

In conservation of substance tests, two identical amounts of

clay are rolled into similar-appearing balls and the child says
that they both have the same amount of clay. Then one ball is
rolled out and the child is again asked if they have the same
amount.
3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 Years)

• Learn to perform mental operations and use of logic

• Mentally manipulate representations.
• Thinking appears to be less rigid.
• The child understands that operations can be mentally
reversed or negated.
• Master concept that operations are reversible & may be
organized with other operations into larger systems.
• Can conserve (number, matter, & liquid).
• Are able to perform tasks of classification and
categorization
• Less egocentric
• However, are unable to reason abstractly or
hypothetically
4. Formal Operational Stage (11 – Adulthood)

• Capacity to think abstractly

• Hypothetical thinking, hypothesis testing
• Inductive, deductive reasoning
• Learn that operations may be organized into more
elaborate systems.
• Thinking about why they are thinking about thinking
• Adolescents realize that the reality they live in, may be
one of several realities they could experience.
 Criticisms on Piaget’s Theory
• Piaget underestimated infant capabilities
• Overestimated age differences in thinking
• Studies indicate infants do more than sensing and reacting
• One study had 1 month old babies suck one of two
pacifiers without ever seeing them. When shown both
pacifiers, infants stared more at the one they had felt in
their mouth. This requires a sort of reasoning
• Piaget’s estimates about the ages in which object
permanence & conservation is acquired were incorrect
 Cognitive Development in Early
Adulthood (Ages 18-25)

• Post-formal thought.
• Pragmatic thinking: Applying knowledge in their work
Switch from acquiring knowledge to applying it
• Reflective thinking: open to emotions and subjective
thinking
• Relativistic thinking: Being able to view other perspectives
and opinions (mutual respect).
• Creativity: What can I invent?
 Cognitive Development in Middle
Adulthood (Ages 40-65)

• Fluid Intelligence: Abstract reasoning declines.

• Crystalized Intelligence: a person’s accumulated
information and verbal skills increases.
 Cognitive Development in Late
Adulthood (Ages 60-death)

• Sensory/Motor: Declines with age.

• Speed-of-Processing: Declines due to a decline in brain
functioning.
• Attention: Selected, Divided, or Sustained.
• Memory: Health effects.
• Wisdom: Expert knowledge about practical aspects of life.
 Vygotsky’s
Sociocultural Theory
 Vygotsky’s
Sociocultural Perspective
• Vygotsky is considered one of the earliest critics of Piaget’s
theory of cognitive development.
• Vygotsky’s theory stresses relations between the individual and
society.
• Piaget - focused on children’s interaction with the physical
world
• Vygotsky- emphasis on social contexts of learning and
construction of knowledge through social interaction
• Vygotsky considered child’s interaction with the social world
(other people) as a cause of development
 Vygotsky defined cognitive development in terms of
“qualitative changes in children’s thinking processes”.

•Vygotsky believed language to be the foundation for social

interaction and thought
•While Piaget believed language was a byproduct of
thought
Elementary and Higher Mental Functions

• According to Vygotsky, children are born with elementary

mental abilities such as perception, attention, and memory.
• Elementary functions– Are innate structures (memory,
attention, & perception) that we all possess that influence
our interaction with others.
• Higher mental functions (logic, abstract reasoning) –
Require complex mediators (language; symbols) to
develop.
• Vygotsky believed language was an important
psychological tool which influenced children’s cognitive
development.
• Vygotsky identified three stages in children’s use of
language:
• social
• Egocentric (Self Talk)
• inner speech
 Vygotsky’s Theory

• Children’s thinking—the result of their interaction

with more skilled & sophisticated partners
(parents, teachers, etc.).
• Children born with innate abilities to learn, but
need social interaction to develop cognitively.
 Vygotsky’s
Sociocultural Perspective
• Zone of proximal development - what a child can do by
interacting with another person, but can’t do alone.
• Critical thinking based on dialogue with others who
challenge ideas

• The difference between a child’s “actual

developmental level” & his/her “potential as
determined by an adult” through the child’s
interaction with more capable peers & adults.
• Examines children’s potential during optimal
conditions.
 Overview of Vygotsky’s Theory

• Focused on importance of social interactions in cognitive

development.
• Compared with Piaget, Vygotsky also placed a stronger emphasis
on environment in shaping children’s cognitive development.
• To Vygotsky, the construction of knowledge is not an individual
construction process.
• Vygotsky believed instruction by more knowledgeable peers or
adults is at the heart of cognitive development.
• Social contexts are important in development.
• Did not specify the processes that govern development nor does
it tell us whether they are the same at all
Information Processing
Theory
Information-Processing Perspective

• Focuses on the mind as a system

• Analogous to a computer, for analyzing information
from the environment
• Developmental improvements reflect:
• increased capacity of working memory
• faster speed of processing
• new algorithms (methods)
• more stored knowledge
Information Processing Theory
 Video Link
Peter Doolittle: How your
"working memory" makes
sense of the world

• https://youtu.be/UWKvpFZJwcE?si=H_ywNEEW
FW3sonDp
 Video Link:
Information Processing Theory
Explained

• https://youtu.be/aURqy9BEJO4?si=JfKNq2_5W4
wvJ5Lf

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