© 2007 mcgraw-hill higher education. all rights reserved. cognitive and motor development chapter 2

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

Cognitive and Motor Development

Chapter 2


There is a strong relationship

between human intellectual function and movement: Any intellectual change is

also accompanied by a change

in motor function


Objectives• Differentiate between the

terms psychomotor and motor

• Explain the work of Jean Piaget on cognitive development

• Describe Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

• Describe the sensorimotor stage and motor development

• Describe preoperations and motor development

• Describe cognitive and motor development in later childhood and adolescence


Objectives• Describe Piaget’s concrete

operational stage• Describe Piaget’s formal operational

stage• Describe postformal operations and

cognitive development in adulthood• Explain two general theories of

intellectual development in adulthood

• Explain the total intellectual decline theory

• Explain the partial intellectual decline theory

• Describe the link between knowledge development and sport performance


Four Domains

• Affective• Cognitive• Motor• Physical


Domains

• Categorizing human behavior into domains evolved because it is useful in organizing and simplifying the study of human development

• Cognitive and motor development interact continually throughout the lifespan as they reciprocally inhibit or facilitate each other


Interaction

CognitiveDevelopment

Motor Development

The mind (psych) and human movement (motor) are related


Psychomotor or Motor?

• Motor– Refers to any form of human movement

behavior• Reflex movement• Psychomotor

• Psychomotor– Movements initiated by an electrical

impulse from higher brain centers


How does our gradually changing motor ability affect our cognitive development?

How does our evolving cognitive development affect our motor development?

What are some significant areas of integration?


Cognitive Development

• Jean Piaget– Swiss psychologist– Interested in the

process of thinking– Established the

clinical method of research

• Collected data during question-and-answer sessions

"Piaget, Jean," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001

http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

1896-1980


Cognitive Development

• Piaget’s Theory– Four major stages of cognitive development

• Sensorimotor • Preoperational • Concrete operational • Formal operational

• Interaction of cognitive and motor development is found in Piaget’s Theory


Stages of Piaget’s Theory

Stage Age/Period of Occurrence

Sensorimotor Birth to 2 years

Preoperational 2 to 7 years

Concrete operational

7 to 11 years

Formal operational Early to mid-adolescence

11 to 12 years


Piaget’s Theory

• Adaptation– Cognitive development occurs thorugh

this process– Adjusting to the demands of the

envirnoment and intellectualizing those adjustments

– Two facets of adaptation• Assimilation• Accommodation


Piaget’s Theory

• Assimilation– Process by which children attempt to

interpret new experiences based upon their present interpretation of the world


Piaget’s Theory

• Assimilation – Child tries to grab a large ball with one

hand– His experiences of the past tell him that

he can use one hand to grab hold of an object because it worked with rattles and smaller objects

– The child assimilates his past experiences


Piaget’s Theory

• Accommodation– Adjustments or modifications in the

thinking process which will become a part of a child’s new cognitive repetoire

– Using the same example, when the child is unable to grasp the ball, he may try to adjust or accommodate by using two hands or even adapting the one-handed grasp


Is the activity in the picture below an example of assimilation?

F. Schussler/PhotoLink / Getty Images


Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory

• Theory lacks scientific control

• Piaget used his own children to study

• Subjects were not studied across the lifespan

• Piaget may have underestimated a child’s capabilities

• Theory does not discern between competency and performance

• Theory does not account for the influence of motivation and emotion

• Stages of developoment were too broad

• Developoment is described, but never explained



• Most criticized aspect of the theory is that formal operational thought can be achieved as early as 11 years of age– Did not account for adult development in his

theory

• Now known that cognitive development continues throughout adulthood



• Lack of motivation

• Verbal ability• Memory• Lack of familiarity

with task• Peer pressure

• Social influences– Peers– Teachers– Siblings

• Child’s emotional state

If a child performed poorly on a task, Piaget attributed this to a lack of intellectual competency

However, there are a other reasons for not performing a task well:


Infancy ~ Sensorimotor Stage• Intelligence develops as a result of

movement actions and their consequences

• Movement is critical to thought processes

• Six substages


Infancy ~ Sensorimotor Stage

Substage Age of Occurrence1. Exercise of reflexes Birth to 1 month

2. Primary circular reactions 1 to 4 months

3. Secondary circular reactions 4 to 8 months

4. Secondary schemata 8 to 12 months

5. Tertiary circular reactions 12 to 18 months

6. Invention of new means through mental combinations

18 to 24 months


Infancy ~ Sensorimotor Stage• EXERCISE OF REFLEXES substage

– Birth through 1 month– Repetition of reflexes helps child to

form the foundation for cognitive understanding

• Reflexive movements are innate• Reflexive movements lead to new

behaviors


Infancy ~ Sensorimotor Stage• PRIMARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS

substage– Onset of increased voluntary movement– End of month 1-month 4

• Called circular and primary because movements always occur in close proximity to the infant– Conscious effort to repeat movements


Infancy ~ Sensorimotor Stage• SECONDARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS substage

– 4 month - 8 months– Continuation of primary circular reactions

• The infant’s interaction with the environment expands

• Child begins to integrate vision, hearing, grasping and movement behaviors

• Can imitate behaviors• No permanence – remove object – object is

gone


Infancy ~ Sensorimotor Stage• SECONDARY SCHEMATA substage

– 8 months to 1 year– Past movement actions applied to new

situations – New behaviors emerge

• New behaviors are facilitated by increasing movement capabilities such as crawling and creeping which allow exploration of the environment


Infancy ~ Sensorimotor Stage• Secondary schemata substage

– Repetition of experimentation and trial-and-error exploration continue

– Child can predict some actions and situations

– Roll ball to child – he crudely roles it back – he anticipates you rolling the ball to him again

– The ability to predict (Piaget) is the onset of intellectual reasoning


Infancy ~ Sensorimotor Stage• TERTIARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS

substage– 1 year -11/2 years– Use of active experimentation to learn– Child realizes that discovery of an object

and use of the object are separate entities

– First level of visualizing an object beyond its immediate use


Infancy ~ Sensorimotor Stage• Tertiary circular reactions substage

– Child sees the ball and knows she can have fun, but also realizes she does not have to play with it right now – it will be there later

– Can distinguish self from others

– Seeks immediate family members for help• Social and emotional development


Infancy ~ Sensorimotor Stage• INVENTION OF NEW MEANS

THROUGH MENTAL COMBINATIONS substage– 11/2 years - 2 years– Child recognizes objects and others as

independent from himslef– Child is beggining to understand

properties of objects• Size, shape, color, texture, weight, use, etc.


Infancy ~ Sensorimotor Stage• Invention of new means through

mental combinations substage– Semimental functioning

• “thinking with the body” is replaced with “thinking with the mind”

– Child reflects


Summary: Infancy ~ Sensorimotor Stage

• Increasing awareness of the difference between the self and others

• Recognition that objects continue to exist even though they are no longer in view

• Production of the mental images that allow the contemplation of the past, present, and future


What Sensorimotor Substage is pictured here?


(c) Photodisc



(c) Brand X Pictures/PunchStock



dynamicgraphics/Jupiterimages



Childhood ~ Preoperational Stage• Preoperational stage (2-7 years)

– Verbal communication begins to emerge

– Language development is the most important aspect of Preoperational Stage

– Linked to motor abilities

– Children are unable to think logically


Childhood ~ Preoperational Stage

• Preconceptual substage (2-4 years)– Ability to use symbols to represent

someone or something in the child’s life

– Pretend play common• Role play

– Egocentrism• A serious deficiency in the Preconceptual

substage Play helps child to socialize and work with others



• Preconceptual substage (2-4 years)– Flawed thinking

• Drooping flower is sad – unrealistic – flawed thinking

– Transductive reasoning• A form of flawed thinking• Incorrect assumptions• Missed breakfast, so it can’t be morning


(c) Royalty Free/CORBIS

Why is the activity pictured here anexample of Preconceptual Substage?



• Intuitive substage (4-7 years)– Reduced egocentrism– Improvement in the use of symbols– Child is incapable of “conservation”

• Ability to realize that certain properties of a substance remain unchanged when the appearance is rearranged

• Child cannot consider multiple aspects of a problem


Later Childhood ~ Concrete Operational Stage

• Concrete operations stage (7-11 years)– Must gain ability to conserve first

– Enhanced ability to decenter attention from one variable in a problem solving situation

– Reversibility ~ Able to mentally modify, organize, or even reverse thought processes



• Children in the concrete operation stage can reverse the order of the ball as they go through the tube– Preoperational stage children will see no difference

in ball order

Rev

ersi

bili

ty



• Seriation– Ability to arrange a set of variables by a

certain characteristic• Child’s height can determine position in a

game of basketball

• Piaget emphasized that learning can be enhanced through movement


Later Childhood ~ Formal Operational Stage

• Formal operational stage (11-12 years)

• Ability to consider ideas that are not based on observable objects or experiences

• Abstract ideas are possible



• Interpropositional thought– Applicable to complex movement– A logical relationship exists between two

propositions

• Enhanced level of cognitive ability – Allows child to relate one or more parts

of a proposition or situation to another part to arrive at a solution to a problem



• Hypothetical-deductive reasoning– A problem-solving style that allows child

to choose between possible solutions and then pick the best one

– Aids in emotional development and emerging values

• Child ponders – “do I follow the crowd; do I want to be fit in”


Adulthood ~ Postformal Operations

• Postformal operations stage– Answers become more relative and less

absolute– Thrive on detecting inconsistencies in

ideas and attempt to reconcile them– Advanced thinking exists in a minority of

people who are also highly educated and live in a culture that encourages new ideas and freethinking

– New questions are discovered


Adulthood ~ Theories of Intellectual Development

• Total intellectual decline ~ traditional view of aging– Gradual, consistent, pervasive decline in

overall intellectual ability throughout adult years

– Lacks strong scientific support today– Studies backing this theory

• WAIS – Welchsler Adult Intelligence Scale• Seattle Longitudinal Study


Adulthood ~ Theories ~ Intellectual Development

• WAIS – Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Found declines in

intellect– But, this test is not

designed to measure intellect – it is designed to ascertain psychopathological behaviors clinically

• Seattle Longitudinal Study– Subjects increase

performance until age 30 or early 40s

– By the age of 50-60 years, there is a plateau

– Less decline when process is a central part of one’s life

– Even by age 88 – decline in all aspects of intellect is not universal



• Partial intellectual decline– Widely accepted theory

– Intellectual decline occurs in some areas and not others



• Partial intellectual decline– Chinese elders are revered – therefore,

intellectual decline is less in China than that observed in the US where elders are not revered

– Large base of information can offset losses in processing efficiency



• Contextual perspective– Learning and memory depend in part on

factors like culture• Chinese elders are revered in society

– Noncognitive, situational factors can affect degree of decline

– Self-fulfilling prophecy?• Negative thoughts on losing an ability


Dynamic Graphics / JupiterImages



• Biological changes– Neural activation slows– Circulatory system is less efficient– Brain decreases in size (variable)

• Neuronal losses are very gradual



“there are no simple rules about when age differences in memory will and will not occur, and if they do, whether differences will be small, modest, or large”

(Zacks et al., 2000)



• Implicit memory– Unintentional, automatic, without

awareness– Adult is not aware of being tested– Develops with no decline in adulthood– Elders perform similarly to young people



• Explicit memory– Deliberate and effortful– Tested by traditional tests of recall or

recognition Two types of memory follow different developmental paths

– Develops until adulthood



• Age-related decline in memory is evident with new learning at an older age

• Well-established information learned early in life is easier to retrieve



• Older adults respond more slowly– Especially during timed tasks– Decline in speed of processing

information is well-documented

• Practicing cognitive abilities will delay or avoid decline


Royalty-Free/CORBIS

What are some other ways to practice cognitive abilities during

older adulthood?



• A lifestyle that involves movement can play an important role in the effort to allay the decline of intellect

• Physical activity increases motor neuron size and decreases neural synapse density

• Reaction time and cognitive performance improve in those who exercise


Knowledge Development and Sport Performance

• Declarative knowledge– Factual information– What to do– Found in a novice performer

• Procedural knowledge– Production system– How to do something– Found in an expert performer



“development of sport-specific declarative knowledge is related to the development of cognitive decision-making skills or procedural knowledge, whereas development of shooting skill and dribbling skill are related to the motor execution components of control and execution”

(French & Thomas, 1987)



• In other words - children learn “what to do” in a given situation before they acquire the physical skills (how to do) to carry out their strategic plan successfully


Task specific knowledge and improved performance

© 2007 mcgraw-hill higher education. all rights reserved. cognitive and motor development chapter 2

Documents

mcgrawhill higher education

motor development chapter

evolving cognitive development

knowledge development

motor function slide

human movement motor

piagets theory slide

motor ability