PSYC20008 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Tabula Rasa, Pupa, Object Permanence
14 Jun 2018
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Lecture 2 - Thursday 2 March 2017
PSYC20006 - DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
LECTURE 2
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
•How should we characterise development and/or change?
•How and why do developmental changes occur?
THE NATURE OF THE CHILD
•Plato’s notion is that we have innate knowledge, vs Aristotle who believed knowledge came from
experience. This debate is still alive today.
•Tabula rasa - blank slate.
•Darwin talked about concepts in evolutionary terms; that as a species we adapt to our
environment and the ways in which we react to it are determined by our mind and nature and
genes. Tabula rasa idea of mind as blank slate compared to the idea that we are restrained by our
evolutionary/genetic background.
CURRENT THEMES IN COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
•Each of these
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
1. PIAGETIAN THEORY
•His books characterised and presented the most major and comprehensive theory of development.
PIAGET’S KEY IDEAS
•Piaget had two key ideas;
•1. Qualitative changes in children’s thought
•2. Invariant sequence of patterns of thought.
1. QUALITATIVE CHANGES IN CHILDREN’S THOUGHT
•The notion of thinking is qualitatively different in a 2 year old compared to a 5 year old or a 12
year old.
2. INVARIANT SEQUENCE OF PATTERNS OF THOUGHT
•Children go through these four stages and whichever stage
you are in controls every aspect of your thought; you can’t
have a 2 year old mathematician.
•This model represents the notion of the transition from a
caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly is an analogy for how
children development.
PIAGET’S STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
•Piaget divided the developmental period or process into four
distinct stages;
•Sensorimotor (0-2 years)
•Pre operational (2-5 years)
•Concrete operational (5-12 years)
•Formal operational (adolescence)
SENSORIMOTOR STAGE (0-2 YEARS)
•Children don’t have thought in the classical way; they instead have sensory motor schemas.
•Children 9 months old and older have a sense of object permanence.
Document Summary
The nature of the child: plato"s notion is that we have innate knowledge, vs aristotle who believed knowledge came from experience. Tabula rasa idea of mind as blank slate compared to the idea that we are restrained by our evolutionary/genetic background. Current themes in cognitive development: each of these. Stages of development: piagetian theory, his books characterised and presented the most major and comprehensive theory of development. Piaget"s key ideas: piaget had two key ideas, 1. Piaget"s stages of development: piaget divided the developmental period or process into four distinct stages, sensorimotor (0-2 years, pre operational (2-5 years, concrete operational (5-12 years, formal operational (adolescence) Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years: children don"t have thought in the classical way; they instead have sensory motor schemas, children 9 months old and older have a sense of object permanence. Pre operational stage (2-5 years: inability to operate on your own thinking, eg.
