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Cognitive Development

Learning, Reasoning and Language Development over

the Life Span

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Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive DevelopmentJean Piaget (1896-1980) Swiss

psychologist who became leading theorist in 1930’s

Piaget believed that “children are active thinkers, constantly trying to construct more advanced understandings of the world”

These “understandings” are in the form of structures he called schemas

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Development of Schemas

Schemas are frameworks that develop to help organize knowledge

Assimilation - process of taking new information or a new experience and fitting it into an already existing schema

Accommodation - process by which existing schemas are changed or new schemas are created in order to fit new information

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Piaget’s approach

Primary method was to ask children to solve problems and to question them about the reasoning behind their solutions

Discovered that children think in radically different ways than adults

Proposed that development occurs as a series of ‘stages’ differing in how the world is understood

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Sensorimotor Stage (birth - 2)

Information is gained through the senses and motor actions

In this stage child perceives and manipulates but does not reason

Symbols become internalized through language development

Object permanence is acquired

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Object Permanence

The understanding that objects exist independent of one’s actions or perceptions of them

Before 6 months infants act as if objects removed from sight cease to exist Can be surprised by disappearance /

reappearance of a face (peek-a-boo)

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Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)

Emergence of symbolic thoughtCentrationEgocentrismLack the concept of conservationAnimismArtificialism

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Conservation

Number

In conservation of number tests, two equivalent rows of coins are placed side by side and the child says that there is the same number in each row. Then one row is spread apart and the child is again asked if there is the same number in each.

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Conservation

Length

In conservation of length tests, two same-length sticks are placed side by side and the child says that they are the same length. Then one is moved and the child is again asked if they are the same length.

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Conservation

Substance

In conservation of substance tests, two identical amounts of clay are rolled into similar-appearing balls and the child says that they both have the same amount of clay. Then one ball is rolled out and the child is again asked if they have the same amount.

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Concrete Operational Stage (7-12 years)

Understanding of mental operations leading to increasingly logical thought

Classification and categorizationLess egocentricInability to reason abstractly or

hypothetically

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Formal Operational Stage (age 12 - adulthood)

Hypothetico-deductive reasoningAdolescent egocentrism illustrated

by the phenomenon of personal fable and imaginary audience

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Piaget’s Theory Challenged New studies indicate infants

do more than sense and react One study had 1 month old

babies suck one of two pacifiers without ever seeing them

When shown both pacifiers, infants stared more at the one they had felt in their mouth

This requires a sort of reasoning

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Critique of Piaget’s Theory

Underestimates children’s abilitiesOverestimates age differences in thinkingVagueness about the process of changeUnderestimates the role of the social

environmentLack of evidence for qualitatively different

stages

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Information-Processing Perspective

Focuses on the mind as a system, analogous to a computer, for analyzing information from the environment

Developmental improvements reflect increased capacity of working memory faster speed of processing new algorithims (methods) more stored knowledge

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Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Perspective

Emphasized the child’s interaction with the social world (other people) as a cause of development

Vygotsky believed language to be the foundation for social interaction and thought

Piaget believed language was a byproduct of thought

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Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Perspective

Vygotsky - children learn from interactions with other people Zone of proximal development - what a child

can do by interacting with another person, but can’t do alone.

Critical thinking based on dialouge with others who challenge ideas

Piaget - focused on children’s interaction with the physical world

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Language Development

Preview Universal Characteristics of Human

Language Course of Development Supports for Language Development Language Learning among Nonhuman

Apes

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Universal Characteristics of Human Language

Language development similar across cultures. What are the common elements?

Morphemes - smallest meaningful units of language content morphemes (e.g., nouns, verbs,

adjectives, adverbs) grammatical morphemes (e.g., articles,

conjunctions, some prefixes and suffixes)

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Universal Characteristics of Human Language

Phonemes - elementary vowel and consonant sounds

Grammar - rules of language phonology - how phonemes can be combined

to make morphemes morphology -how morphemes can be

combined to make words syntax - how words can be combined to make

phrases and sentences

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Language Development

Infant preference for human speech over other sounds before 6 months can hear differences used in all

languages after 6 months begin to hear only differences used in

native language

Cooing - vowel sounds produced 2-4 months Babbling - consonant/vowel sounds between 4 to

6 months Even deaf infants coo and babble

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Language Development

MONTH Speech Characteristic

2 Cooing vowel sounds 4 Babbling consonant/vowel 10 Babbling native language sounds12 One-word stage 24 Two-word stage24 + Sentences

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Features of Young Children’s Speech

TelegraphicOverextensionUnderextensionMean length of utterance (MLU)

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Supports for Language Development

Chomsky’s language-acquisition device (LAD) - innate foundations for grammar and learning the unique rules of a culture’s language Language-acquisition support system - aspects

of the social world that help infants acquire language (e.g., parentese)

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Animal communicationCan animals learn language? Depends on

definition of language. primate studies--because of articulatory

difficulties, many were taught sign languagecan acquire vocabulary with much effort, similar to a

child’s learning of first wordscannot acquire grammardo not understand turn-taking in conversationanswer questions with words contained in the

questions