Chapter 6:

Theories of Cognitive Development

Chapter 6: Theories of Cognitive Development

Chapter 6 has three modules:

Module 6.1 Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory

Module 6.2 Modern Theories of Cognitive Development

Module 6.3 Understanding in Core Domains

Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory

Basic Principles of Piaget’s Theory

Metaphor of child as scientist• Children naturally curious and create

theories about how world works

• Theories are managed through assimilation and accommodation

Basic Principles of Piaget’s Theory

Equilibrium: balance between assimilation and accommodation

achieved

Equilibration: balance between assimilation and

accommodation upset and theories reorganized

Basic Principles of Piaget’s Theory

• When children’s theories are wrong most of the time, reorganization occurs

• Reorganization identified as stages of cognitive development

• All children pass through stages in same order

Stages of Cognitive Development: Sensorimotor

• Birth to approximately 2 years of age

• Begins with reflexive responding and ends with using symbolic processing

• Object permanence emerges

Stages of Cognitive Development: Preoperational

• 2 to 7 years

• Children use symbols to represent objects and events but there are many errors in thinking

Do you know what these errors are?

Three Mountains Problem

According to Piaget, egocentrism makes it difficult for this child to see the mountains from another’s viewpoint.

Stages of Cognitive Development: Concrete Operational

• 7 to 11 years

• Thinking and problem-solving based on reversible mental operations

• Focus on the real and concrete, not the abstract

Stages of Cognitive Development: Formal Operations

• 11 to adulthood

• Hypothetical thinking

• Deductive reasoning to draw appropriate conclusions from facts

Piaget’s Contributions to Child Development

Teaching Practices Influenced by Piagetian Theory

• Facilitate rather than teach directly• Recognize individual differences when

teaching• Provide sensitivity to children’s readiness to

learn• Emphasize exploration and interaction

Piaget’s Contributions to Child Development

Piaget’s contributions: • Study of cognitive development• New, constructivist view of children• Fascinating, often counterintuitive,

discoveries

Piaget’s Contributions to Child Development

Weaknesses of theory:• Underestimates cognitive competence in

infants; overestimates in adolescence• Components too vague to test• Stage model doesn’t account for variability• Undervalues influence of sociocultural forces

Modern Theories of Cognitive Development

The Sociocultural Perspective: Vygotsky’s Theory

Cognitive development is inseparable from social and cultural contexts

• Intersubjectivity• Guided participation through peer

tutoring and group learning

The Sociocultural Perspective: Vygotsky’s Theory

Other key concepts:• Zone of proximal development• Scaffolding• Private speech• Inner speech

Cultural Differences in Parental Scaffolding

Scaffolding: teaching style that matches amount of assistance to learner’s needs

Can you see the cultural differences in the above figure?

Information Processing

Information-processing theory: people and computers are both symbol processors

• Sensory, working, and long-term memory• Distinction between hardware and software• Central executive coordinates activities

Let’s walk through illustrations of this theory on the following slides!

Mental Hardware (a)

Mental Hardware (b)

How Information-Processing Changes with Development

Core-Knowledge Theories

Key Concepts:• Early acquired, distinctive domains of

knowledge• Learning-simplified forms of knowledge

related to survival• Rapid acquisition of language and

knowledge of objects, people, and living things

Core-Knowledge Theories

Theoretical Roots• Builds on Piaget’s metaphor of child as

scientist

• Research traces children’s knowledge of naïve physics, naïve psychology, and naïve biology

Understanding in Core Domains

True or False?

By 6 months, infants are accomplished naïve physicists.

Understanding Living Things

Key Concepts:• Infants and toddlers use motion to identify

animate objects• Preschoolers hold naïve theories of biology

Understanding Theories of Biology

Children’s naïve theories of biology include understanding of:

• movement• growth• internal parts• inheritance• illness• healing

What can infants learn about movement from the above?

Movement in Animate and Inanimate Objects

Understanding Living Things

Teleological explanations: children believe that livings things and parts of living things exist for a purpose

Essentialism: children believe all living things have essence that cannot be seen but provides identity

Understanding People: Naïve Psychology

Children use naïve psychology to predict how people will act

• 1-year-olds: understanding of intentionality• Between ages 2 and 5: development of theory

of mind • 3-year-olds: mental and physical world clearly

distinguished

Theory of Mind

Theory of Mind (TOM)• naïve understanding

of relations between mind and behavior and mental versus physical world

Understanding People: False Belief Tasks

• 31/2-year-olds: make false belief error

• 4-year-olds: fundamental change in understanding of centrality of beliefs

• 8-year-olds: understand mental states cause moods with external, observable causes

Understanding People: Children with Autism and False Belief Tasks

False belief understanding develops slowly

Theories•Mindblindness•Impaired social interaction skills•Focused processing skills

Treatment•Therapy, medication, supportive environment