Cognitive development

Piaget

Jean Piaget

Wanted to know how children use intelligence

Observed his own three children

Came up with a stage approach

Every stage approach has 3 assumptions Stages must be in order and each must build on the

previous Progression is closely liked to ages changes Stage progression is sign posted by major steps and

changes

Piaget video

Jean Piaget

Cognitive development occurs as we adapt to the changing world around us

He described this development as ADAPTATION

The continuous process of using the environment to learn and learning to adjust to changes in the environment

Adaptation occurs though 2 closely related process Assimilation and Accomodation

Assimilation

Process of taking new information and fitting it into already existing categories and mental idea of things

The infant uses pre existing information it has to work out what a new object is and how to use it.

Adaptation video

What is this?

Playing with the hammer then the wrench

Give 2 of your own examples of Assimilation

Accommodation

refers to changing an existing mental idea in order to fit new information.

More advanced then assimilation

Involves restructuring mental ideas, so it can accommodate for the new stimulus.

This done by either creating new schema or changing the existing idea of what old schema is

The spanner is now used to turn things

✓

Piaget’s four stages of development

Stage 1: Sensorymotor

0-2 Years

Coordinating sensory input with motor actions

Object permanence Understanding that objects still exist even

after our senses can no longer detect them.

Happens gradually and may not be fully acquired until 18 months

Object permanence video

Test for object permanence

Goal Directed Behaviour

Behaviour which is carried out with a particular purpose in mind.

They begin to work out how to obtain things they want

Eg. the infant learns to reach objects on a table by pulling themselves up at the side of the table.

Goal Directed behaviour video

Stage 2: Preoperational

Age 2 - 7 Years Old

Have a greater ability to imagine things and represent things in their mind

Symbolic thinking

The ability to use symbols such as words or pictures to represent object, places or events

This is evident as they begin to pretend play more often. eg using a stick as a sword or telephone.

Egocentrism

An inability to see things from another persons perspective.

★Christmas Presents

★Brothers and sisters

Over this period children become decentered and they develop the ability to things from another’s perspective

Egocentrism Video

Conservation Even though the shape of an object may be

changed the total amount remains the same.

Children at the preoperational stage do not understand this

Conservation Video

Centration

The tendency to focus on only one aspect of an object or problem at a time while neglecting the other aspects

Centration Video

Stage 2 Test

Stage 3: Concrete Operational

Age 7 – 12

Children can figure our relationships between objects provided the objects are physically present.

Reversibility

Children can mentally undo their activities.

Ability to trace a subject back to its original roots

The juice in a cup activity

Elephants have big ears, Your teacher has big ears therefore your teacher is an elephant

Reversibility video

Decentration

A child can focus on more than one object at once.

Hierarchical classification

New problem solving capacity

Requires materials to be classified into different classes

Stage 3: Test

Stage 4: Formal Operational

Age: 12 Years old and over

Can think about and solve abstract problems in a logical manner

Many people never reach this level.

Many people struggle with these concepts and often resort to concrete thinking when things get too abstract.

Abstract

a way of thinking that does not rely on being able to see or visualize things in order to understand concepts

What is honesty?

What is love?

Does God exist?

Why do we ethics?

What is good and bad?

Logical Thinking

they are able to develop strategies to solve problems, identify a range of possible solutions to problems, develop hypotheses (predictions and explanations) and systematically test solutions.

Deductive reasoning is another name for this

Deductive Reasoning Video