PSY 213 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Information Processing Theory, Cognitive Development, Cultural-Historical Psychology
Chapter 4 – Cognitive Devel’ PSY 213
JAN 19/18
Theories of Cognitive Devel’
Piaget’s Theory
Information processing theory
Sociocultural theories
Dynamic systems theories
Themes
-Nature + nurture
-The active child
-Continuity/discontinuity mechanisms of change
-The sociocultural context
-Research + children’s welfare
Theories – Why?
-Provide a framework for understanding important phenomena
- Theory drives hypotheses + interpretation
-Raise crucial questions about human nature
-Motivate new research studies that lead to a better understanding of children
-Cognitive vs social theories of devel’
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Devel’
History
-Before appearance in 1920’s, no recognizable field of cognitive devel’
Reasons for longevity
-Descriptions of children’s thinking at different ages
-Exceptional breadth
-Plausible depiction nature + nurture in cognitive devel’
Piaget’s Theory: View of Children’s Nature
Children are seen as:
-Active learners
-Learning many important lessons on their own
-Intrinsically motivated to learn
Children’s most important constructive processes
-Generating hypotheses
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Chapter 4 – Cognitive Devel’ PSY 213
JAN 19/18
-Performing experiments
-Drawing conclusion
Nature + nurture - Interact to yield cognitive devel’
- Adaptation: tendency to respond to the demands of the environment to meet goals
- Organization: tendency to integrate particular observations
Piaget’s Theory: Sources of Continuity
Assimilation
-Process by which people incorporate incoming information into concepts they already
understand
Accommodation
-Process by which people adapt current knowledge structures in response to new
experiences
Equilibration
-Process by which people balance assimilation + accommodation to create stable
understanding
Piaget’s Theory: Sources of Discontinuity
Distinct, hierarchical stages are the discontinuous aspects of Piaget’s theory
-Central properties of Piaget’s stage theory
- Qualitative change
- Broad applicability across topics + contexts
- Brief transitions
- Invariant sequence
- Four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal
operational
Piaget’s Theory: Sensorimotor Stage (birth to age 2)
First infant’s activities center on their own bodies (sense, motor); later, activities include the
world around them
- Early goals are concrete; later goals often more abstract
- Infants become increasingly able to form mental representations
- Reflexes modified
- Object permanence & A not B task abilities devel’
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Chapter 4 – Cognitive Devel’ PSY 213
JAN 19/18
- Deferred imitation
Piaget’s Theory: Preoperational Stage (age 2 to 7)
Begin to represent experiences in language + mental imagery
- Acquire symbolic representation: use of one object to stand for another
- Egocentrism: tendency to perceive the world solely from one’s own point of view
- Centration: tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or
event
Procedures used to test conservation of liquid quantity, solid quantity, + number
Piaget’s Theory: Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 12)
- Children begin to reason logically about concrete objects + events in their world. They
can solve conservation problems
- Children cannot think in purely abstract terms or generate systematic scientific
hypothesis testing experiments
Piaget’s Theory: Formal Operational Stage (12 + beyond)
Cognitive devel’ culminates in the ability to think abstractly + to reason hypothetically
- Individuals can imagine alternative worlds + reason systematically about all possible
outcomes of a situation
- Attainment of the formal operations stage, unlike other stages, is not universal
- Not everyone reaches formal operations
Piaget’s Theory + Legacy
Although Piaget’s theory remains highly influential, some weaknesses are now apparent
- The stage model depicts children’s thinking as being more consistent than it is
- Infants + young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized
- Piaget’s theory understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive devel
- Piaget’s theory is vague about the cognitive processes that give rise to the children’s
thinking + about the mechanisms that produce cognitive growth
Information-Processing Theories
Underlying many information-processing theories is the metaphor of the child as a computation
system
Distinctive features
- Precise specification of thinking processes (specific mental abilities) over time
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Motivate new research studies that lead to a better understanding of children. Before appearance in 1920"s, no recognizable field of cognitive devel". Descriptions of children"s thinking at different ages. Plausible depiction nature + nurture in cognitive devel". Learning many important lessons on their own. Nature + nurture - interact to yield cognitive devel". Adaptation: tendency to respond to the demands of the environment to meet goals. Process by which people incorporate incoming information into concepts they already understand. Process by which people adapt current knowledge structures in response to new experiences. Process by which people balance assimilation + accommodation to create stable understanding. Distinct, hierarchical stages are the discontinuous aspects of piaget"s theory. Four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational. Piaget"s theory: sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2) First infant"s activities center on their own bodies (sense, motor); later, activities include the world around them. Early goals are concrete; later goals often more abstract.
