PSY210H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Almost Surely, Egocentrism, Habituation
Lecture 5 – Cognitive Development
Cognition – the mental activities through which human beings acquire knowledge
• combination of mental processes; perception; attention, learning memory and reasoning
Jean Piaget
- started with biology, became fascinated with epistemology
- what is the origin of knowledge
- worked w/ Alfred Binet in France on development of standardized IQ tests
- career launched thanks to his keen power of observation
- provided big foundation for cognitive development
- Method:
o Observations (mostly his own children)
o Interviews
The child as a scientist
- Children intrinsically motivated to learn
- Not passive – they want to work out how the world works
- Schema: an organized unit of knowledge that the child uses to try to understand a situation
- Assimilation: occurs when new experiences are readily incorporated ito a hilds existing theories,
tries to adapt to new experience by interpreting it in terms of existing schemas (ex. seeing an
airplane in the sky prompts child to call the flying object a bird)
- Accomodation: ous he a hilds theoies ae odified ased o epeiee (modifies existing
shees to ette aout fo puzzlig e epeiee (otie id doest hae feathes ad
reclassifies)
- Equilibrium: child can readily assimilate most experiences into their existing theories but
occasionally have to accommodate their theories to adjust to new experiences
- Disequilibrium: theo doest fit i – conflicting evidence, have to re adjust
o ex. thinking wings = butterfly, what if sees bird
- peiodiall hilde ealize uet theoies ae iadeuate eause thee spedig oe tie
accommodating than assimilating
- when disequilibrium occurs, must reorganize theories in process known as equilibration (restores
outmoded ways of thinking with qualitatively different, more advanced theory)
How change occurs?
- Children can assimilate most experiences into existing schemas – occasionally accommodating
- equilibration – when this balance is upset disequilibrium occurs children must reorganize their
schemas to return to a state of equilibrium
Piaget
- structural-organismic perspective (stages)
- very major changes in the way children view and think about world occur three times (2, 7, 11)
- Piaget’s stages:
o sensorimotor (0-2) (6 stages)
▪ move from reflexive behaviour to beginnings of symbolic thought and goal-directed
behaviours
▪ sensory input and motor capabilities become coordinated
▪ child learns about the world by acting on it
▪ knowledge is sensorimotor not representational
▪ infant becomes more and more intentional, differentiating means and end
▪ develop understanding of object permanence
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• the realization that objects continue to exist when they are no longer visible
• before 5-6 oths hilde dot seah fo partially hidden objects when they
are hidden from view
▪ limitations:
• piagets sesoioto stages ae ased o oseale ehaiou
• do infants under 8 months really not understand that an object continues to
exist when occluded?
o Poor hand eye coordination?
o Poor planning ability?
▪ stage 1: reflex activity (0-1 m)
• basic reflexes (sucking, grasping)
▪ stage 2: primary circular reactions (1-4m)
• beginning to operate on objects
• will look were object disappeared but will not search
▪ stage 3: secondary circular reactions (4-8m)
• repeats actions toward objects
• can combine actions
• will search for partially concealed object
▪ stage 4: coordination of secondary schemes (8-12m)
• can coordinate actions to achieve a goal
• achieved object permanence – will search for hidden objects
• still make the a not b error
o infants will often search for hidden objects where they found it
previously rather than where they last saw it
▪ stage 5: tertiary circular reactions (12—18ms)
• trial and error to learn about object properties
• no longer make the A not B error
• difficulty if object is displaced more than once
▪ stage 6: symbolic problem solving (18-24ms)
• inventing new means by mental combination
• internal mental problem solving
o working out a solution in steps in your head and carrying it out
• beginning of symbolic thought
• make inferences about unseen objects that have been displaced many times
o pre-operational (2-7)
▪ child develops symbolic function: the ability to use symbols such as images words and
gestures to represent objects and events in the world
▪ main limitation is that thinking is semi-logical
▪ development of dual representation capacities
▪ 2 sub stages
• Preconceptual (2-4 year)
o Thought characterized by deficits in reasoning:
▪ animistic thinking: attribution of life to inanimate objects (ex.
moon has a face, cloud is alive)
▪ egocentrism: tendency to see the old fo oes o
pespetie, diffiult seeig thigs fo aothes poit of ie
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Cognition the mental activities through which human beings acquire knowledge: combination of mental processes; perception; attention, learning memory and reasoning. Jean piaget started with biology, became fascinated with epistemology. Worked w/ alfred binet in france on development of standardized iq tests. Method: career launched thanks to his keen power of observation: observations (mostly his own children) Not passive they want to work out how the world works. Schema: an organized unit of knowledge that the child uses to try to understand a situation. Accomodation: o(cid:272)(cid:272)u(cid:396)s (cid:449)he(cid:374) a (cid:272)hild(cid:859)s theo(cid:396)ies a(cid:396)e (cid:373)odified (cid:271)ased o(cid:374) e(cid:454)pe(cid:396)ie(cid:374)(cid:272)e (modifies existing s(cid:272)he(cid:373)es to (cid:271)ette(cid:396) a(cid:272)(cid:272)ou(cid:374)t fo(cid:396) puzzli(cid:374)g (cid:374)e(cid:449) e(cid:454)pe(cid:396)ie(cid:374)(cid:272)e ((cid:374)oti(cid:272)e (cid:271)i(cid:396)d does(cid:374)(cid:859)t ha(cid:448)e feathe(cid:396)s a(cid:374)d reclassifies) Equilibrium: child can readily assimilate most experiences into their existing theories but occasionally have to accommodate their theories to adjust to new experiences. Disequilibrium: theo(cid:396)(cid:455) does(cid:374)(cid:859)t fit i(cid:374) conflicting evidence, have to re adjust: ex. thinking wings = butterfly, what if sees bird.
