Theories of Cognitive
Development. Jean Piaget-Swiss psychologist
(1896-1980). His theory provided many central concepts in the field of
developmental psychology and concerned the growth of the intelligence, which
for Piaget, meant the ability to more accurately represent the world and
perform logical operations on representations of the concepts grounded in the
world. The theory concerns the emergence and acquisitions of the
schemata-schemes, of one perceives the world in the developmental stages‖,
time when children are acquiring new ways of mentally representing- information.
Sensorimotor period (years 0 - 2 )
Infants are born with a set
of congenital reflexes, according to Piaget, in addition to explore their
world. Their initial schemas are formed through differentiation of the
congenital reflexes:
•
The first sub-stage,
known as the reflex schema stage, occurs form birth to six weeks and is
associated primarily with the developmental reflexes. Three primary reflexes
are described by Piaget: sucking of objects in the mouth following moving or
interesting objects with the eyes, and closing of the hand when an object makes
contact with the palm (palmar grasp). Over this first six weeks of life, these
reflexes begin to become voluntary actions; for example, the palmar reflex
becomes intentional grasping.
•
The second sub-stage,
primary circular reaction phase, occurs form six weeks to four months and is
associates primarily with the development of habits. Primary circular reactions
or repeating of an action involving only one‘s body begins. An example of this
type of reaction would involve something like an infant repeating the motion of
passing their hands before their face. The schema developed during this stage
inform the infant about the relationships among his body parts (e.g. in passing
the hand in form of his eyes he develop a motor schema for moving his arm so
that the hand becomes visible.
•
The third sub-stage, the
secondary circular reactions phase, occurs from four to nine months and is
associated primarily with the development of coordination between vision and apprehension.
Three
new abilities occur at this stage: intentional grasping for a desired object, secondary
circular reactions, and differentiations between ends and means. At this stage,
infants will intentionally grasp the air in the direction of a desired object,
often to the amusement of friends, family, younger and older siblings,
grandparents, etc. Secondary circular reactions, or the repetition of an action
involving an external object begin; for example, moving a switch to turn on a
light repeatedly. The differentiation between means also occurs. This is
perhaps of one of the most important stages of a child‘s growth as it signifies
the drawn for logic. However, babies still only have a very early rudimentary
grasp of this and most of their discoveries have an accidental‖
quality to them in that the initial performance of what will soon become a secondary
circular reactions occurs by chance; but the operant conditioning causes the
initial accidental‖ behavior (which was
followed by an interesting pattern of stimulation) to be repeated. And the
ability to repeat the act is the result of primary circular reactions
established in the previous stage. For example, when the infant‘s hand
accidentally makes contact with an object in hid field of vision is based on
the primary circular reaction bringing his hand into his field of vision. Thus,
the child learns (at the level of schemata) that if he can see it then he can
also touch it‖ and this results in a schemata which is the
knowledge that is external environment is populated with solid objects.
•
The fourth sub-stage,
called the coordination of secondary circular reactions stage, which occurs
from nine to twelve months, is when Piaget thought that object permanence
developed. In addition, the stage is called the coordination of secondary
circular reactions stage, and is primarily with the development of logic and
the coordination between means and ends, this is extremely important marks the
beginning of goal orientation or intentionally, the deliberate planning of
steps to meet an objective.
•
The fifth sub-stage,
tertiary circular reactions phase, occurs from twelve to eighteen months and is
associated primarily with the discovery of new means to meet goals. Piaget
describes the child at this juncture as the ―young scientist‖,
conducting pseudo-experiments to discover new methods of meeting challenges.
•
The six sub-stage,
considered ―beginning of symbolic representation‖, is
associated primarily with the beginnings of insight, or true creativity. In
this stag the trial- and error application of schemata, which was observable
during the previous stage, occurs internally (at the level of schemata rather
than of motor responses), resulting in the sudden appearance of new effective
behaviors (without any observable trial-and-error). This is also the time when
symbols (words and images) begin to stand for other objects. This marks the
passage into the preoperational stage.
Preoperational period (years 2 – 7)
The Preoperational stage is
the second of four stage of cognitive development. By observing sequence of
play, Piaget was able to demonstrate that towards the end of the second year a qualitatively
new kind of psychological functioning occurs (Pre) Operatory Thought in
Piagetian theory is any procedure for mentally acting on objects. The hallmark
of the preoperational stage is spare and logically inadequate mental
operations.
According to Piaget, the Pre
Operational stage of development follows the sensorimotor stage and occur
between 2-7 years of age. It includes the following processes.
·
Symbolic functioning-
characterized by the use of mental symbols, words, or pictures, which the child
uses to represent something which is not physically present
·
Centration-characterized by a child focusing or
attending to only one aspect of a stimulus or situation. For example, in
pouring a quantity of liquid from a narrow beaker into a shallow dish, a
preschool child might judge the quantity of liquid to have decreased, because
it is lower‖- that is, the child
attends to the height of the water, but not the compensating increase in the diameter
of the container.
·
Intuitive thought- occurs when the child is able to believe in
something without knowing why she or he believes it.
·
Egocentrism- a version of centration, this denotes a
tendency of a child to only think for her or his own point of view. Also, the
inability of a child to take the point of view of others. Example, if a child
is in trouble, he or she might cover her eyes thinking if I cannot see myself
my mom cannot either.
·
Inability to conserve- though Piaget‘s conservation experiments
(conservation of mass, volume and number after the original form has been
changed. For example, a child in this phase will believe that a string which
has up in ‖o-o-o-o‖ pattern will have a
larger number of beads than a string which has a oooo: pattern, because the
latter pattern has less space between Os; or that a tall, thin 8-ounce cup has
more liquid in it than a wide, short 8-ounce cup.
·
Animism- The child believes that inanimate objects
have: lifelike‖ qualities and are
capable of action. Example, a child plays with a doll and treats it likes a
real person. In a way this like using their imagination.
Concrete
operational period (years 7 – 11)
The Concrete operational stage is the third
of four stages of cognitive development in Piaget‘s theory. This stage, which
follows the Preoperational stage, occurs between the ages 7 and 11 years and is
characterized by the appropriate use of logic. Important process during this
stage are:
·
Seriation - the ability to arrange objects in an order according
to size, shape, or any other characteristic. For example, if given
different-shaded objects they may make a color gradient.
·
Classification - the ability to name and identify sets of
objects according to appearance, size or other characteristic, including the
idea that one set of objects can include another, a child is no longer subject
to the illogical limitations of animism ( the belief that all objects are alive
and therefore have feelings)
·
Decentering - where the child takes into account multiple
aspects of a problem to solve it. For example, the child will no longer
perceive an exceptionally wide but short cup to contain less than a
normally-wide, taller cup.
·
Reversibility - where the child understands that numbers or
objects can be changed, then returned to their original state. For this reason,
a child will be able to rapidly determine that if 4 +4 equals 8, 8/4 will equal
4, the original quantity
·
Conservation - understanding that quantity, length or
number of items is unrelated to the arrangement or appearance of the object or
items. For instance, when a child is presented with two equally-sized, full cup
they will be able to discern that if water is transferred to a pitcher it will
conserve the quantity and be equal to the other filled up.
•
Elimination of Egocentrism - the ability to
view things from another‘s perspective (even if they think incorrectly). For
instance, show a child a comic in whom Jane puts a doll under the box leaves
the room, and then Sarah moves the doll to a drawer, and Jane comes back. A
child in the concrete operation stage will stay that Jane will still think it‘s
under the box even through the child knows it is in the drawer.
Formal
operation period (years 11 adulthood)
The formal operational period is the fourth
and final of the periods of cognitive development in the Piaget‘s theory. This
stage, which follows the Concrete Operational stage, commences at around 11
years of age (puberty) and continuous into adulthood. It is characterized by
acquisition of the ability to think abstractly, reason logically and draw
conclusions from the information available. During this stage the young adult
is able to understand such things as love ―shades of gray‖, logical proofs, and
values,
Lev Vygotsky-Psychologist, was born in 1896 in
Orsha, Belarys (then a part of the Russian Empire). Vygotsky was tutored
privately by Solomon Asphiz and graduated from Moscow State University in 1917.
Later, he attended the Institute of Psychology in Moscow (1924-34), where he
worked extensively on ideas about cognitive development, particularly the
relationship between language and thinking. His writings emphasized the roles
of historical cultural, and social factors in cognition and argued that
language was the most important symbolic tool provided by society.
Perhaps Vygotsky‘s most important
contribution concerns the inter-relationship of language development and
thought. This concept, explored in Vygotsky‘s book ―Thinking and Speaking‖, establishes the
explicit and profound connection between speech (both silent inner speech and
oral language), and the development of mental concepts and cognitive awareness.
It should be noted that Vygotsky described inner speech as being qualitatively
different than normal (external) speech, For Vygotsky, social interaction is
important for learning, i.e. children learn adults and other children.