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Theories of child development are important for 3 reasons.

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1. Provide frameworks for understanding important child phenomena (such as object permanence). 2. Raise fundamental questions about human nature. 3. Motivate new research that increase our understanding of children.

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Four main theories of cognitive development.

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1. Piaget 2. Information-processing 3. Sociocultural 4. Dynamic systems

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Piaget's theory addresses which of the main questions of developmental psychology? (3)

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1. Active child 2. Continuity/discontinuity 3. Nature/nurture

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Information-processing theory addresses which of the main questions of developmental psychology? (2)

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1. Nature/nurture 2. Mechanisms of change

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Sociocultural theory addresses which of the main questions of developmental psychology? (3)

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1. Nature/nurture 2. Mechanisms of change 3. Influence of the sociocultural context

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Dynamic systems theory addresses which of the main questions of developmental psychology? (3)

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1. Active child 2. Mechanisms of change 3. Nature/nurture

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Constructivist approach

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Depicts children as constructing knowledge for themselves in response to their experiences.

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The 3 Piaget's fundamental assumptions about children.

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1. Children are mentally and physically active from the moment of birth, and their activity greatly contributes to their own development -- constructivist, active child. 2. Children learn many important lessons on their own, without the help of any adults or older children -- same. 3. Children are intrinsically motivated to learn and do not need rewards from other people to do so.

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Three constructive processes performed by children, according to Piaget?

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1. Generating hypotheses 2. Performing experiments 3. Drawing conclusions from their observations

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Metaphor for Piaget's theory

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"The child as a scientist" -- starts at around 1 year of age.

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Where did Piaget see Nature in children?

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a. Children's maturing brain and body. b. Their ability to perceive, act and learn from experience. c. Their tendency to integrate particular observations into coherent knowledge.

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Where did Piaget see Nurture in children?

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a. Experiences of nurture provided by parents and caregivers. b. Every other experience children encounter.

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Three processes of continuity

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1. Assimilation 2. Accommodation 2. Equilibration

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Assimilation

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Process by which people incorporate incoming information into concepts they already understand.

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Accommodation

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Process by which people improve their current understanding in response to new experiences -- expand the initial concept.

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Equilibration

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Process by which people balance assimilation and accommodation to create a stable understanding. Has 3 phases: 1. Equilibrium: you are satisfied with your understanding of the concept. 2. Disequilibrium: a new experience makes you realize your understanding has shortcomings but can't generate a better one yet. 3. Equilibration: a new stable understanding is born, eliminating the shortcomings of the previous one, and encompassing a broader range of observations that can now be understood.

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Four central properties of Piaget's cognitive development theory.

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1. Qualitative change 2. Broad applicability 3. Brief transitions 4. Invariant sequence

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Qualitative change -- central property of Piaget's theory.

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Children of different ages think in qualitatively different ways.

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Broad applicability -- central property of Piaget's theory.

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The type of thinking of each stage of development influences children's thinking across diverse topics and contexts.

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Brief transitions -- central property of Piaget's theory.

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Before entering a new stage children briefly fluctuate between the new way of thinking and the new one.

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Invariant sequence -- central property of Piaget's theory.

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Everyone progresses through the stages in the same order, without skipping any of them.

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Piaget's 4 stages of cognitive development

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1. Sensorimotor 2. Preoperational 3. Concrete operational 4. Formal operational

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Sensorimotor stage of development

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a. Birth to 2 years old b. Use of motor and sensory abilities to explore the world and learn about objects external to their bodies. c. Reflexes such as sucking and grasping become more specialized and also integrated into the same behaviour (grasp and then suck on an object). d. Middle of first year: repetition of behaviours such as banging a rattle or squeezing a rubber duck again and again to observe the result of their action. e. Learn about fundamental concepts such as time, space and causality. f. Memory of experiences is very limited: infants live largely in the here and now, bound to their immediate perceptions.

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Object Permanence (Sensorimotor)

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The knowledge that objects and people continue to exist even though their are not in sight/can't be perceived. Starts at around 8 months of age.

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A-not-B Error (Sensorimotor)

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The tendency to reach for a hidden object where it was last found, rather than in the new location where it was last hidden. Lasts until around 1 year of age.

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Child as Scientist (Sensorimotor)

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1. Starts at around 1 year of age. 2. Children start showing random behaviours such as dropping different objects in the toilet, "just to see what happens".

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Deferred immitation (Sensorimotor)

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The repetition of other people's behaviour, after a substantial amount of time after it originally occurred/was witnessed. Example: pretend to shave their "beard" days after seeing dad do the same. Starts at 18 to 24 months of age.

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Three trends of Piaget's theory about cognitive development.

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1. Infant activities center on their own bodies at first, then their activities start to include the world around them. 2. Early goals are concrete, later goals are more abstract. 3. Mental representations are absent in the early days, but they endure longer and longer as the child grows.

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Preoperational Stage of Development

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a. 2 to 7 years old. b. Characterized by: symbolic representations, egocentrism and centration. c. Able to internally represent the world through language and mental imagery. d. Slowly move away from egocentrism throughout this phase.

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Symbolic representation (Preoperational)

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The use of one object to represent another. For example, a stick becomes a sword in play. Objects of representation become more and more similar to the ones they represent as the child grows older. (Instead of a stick, they later need a plastic sword to play)

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Egocentrism (Preoperational)

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Tendency to perceive the world solely from their own perspective; failure to perceive another person's perspective. Children in preoperational stage usually play side by side but not with one another.

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Centration (Preoperational)

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Children are only able to focus on one striking feature of an object, and not on others which are equally important.

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Conservation concept

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The idea that merely changing the appearance of objects does not necessarily change other key properties. The amount of juice poured into a taller glass is still the same amount of juice it was in a shorter glass. Starts at around 7 years of age.

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How does Egocentrism play a role in children's failure to pass the Conservation test?

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Preoperational children's egocentrism leads to their failing to understand that their own perspective can be misleading.

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How does Centration play a role in children's failure to pass the Conservation test?

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a. Preoperational children focus on the single, most perceptually salient feature of an object, ignoring other relevant dimensions. b. Their inability to focus on the transition instead of the static object makes them unable to perceive conservation.

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Concrete Operational Stage

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a. 7 to 12 years of age. b. Develop the concept of conservation. c. Can reason logically about concrete features of the world. d. Limited to concrete, cannot think systematically. e. Design biased (unsystematic) experiments to test their hypotheses. f. Able to understand that events are influenced by multiple factors, not just one. g. Able to classify objects into precisely defined categories.

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Pendulum problem -- Piaget and Inhelder (Concrete operational)

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The task is to compare the motions of longer and shorter strings,with lighter and heavier weights attached, in order to determine the influence of weight, string length and dropping point on the time it takes for the pendulum to swing back and forth. Children younger than 12 usually perform unsystematic experiments and draw incorrect conclusions.

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Formal Operational Stage

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a. Age 12 and beyond. b. Unlike the 3 previous stages, this one is not universal: not all people reach it. c. Formal operational thinkers can see their reality as being one of many possible realities. d. Able to ponder about justice, truth and morality. e. Reasoning capacity reaches its adult levels -- doesn't mean all adolescents think reasonably all the time, though.

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Limitations of Piaget's Theory (4)

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1. Piaget believe that once the child reached one of the stages, their thinking evolved for every situation/problem presented. This has been challenged by new evidence. 2. Children are more cognitively competent than he recognized. The tests given were fairly difficult and new studies with easier versions of the same tests showed how younger children can have object permanence, for example. 3. His theory understates the role of sociocultural influences on cognitive development. 4. His theory is vague about the cognitive processes that give rise to children's thinking and about the mechanisms that produce cognitive growth.

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Information-processing thories

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a. A class of theories that focus on the structure of the cognitive system and the mental activities used to deploy attention and memory to solve problems. b. Precisely specifies the processes involved in children's thinking. c. See thinking as an activity that happens over time, reflecting a series of mental operations executed in a specific order. d. The increasing speed and accuracy of these operations reflect cognitive growth.

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Task analysis

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Research technique of identifying goals, relevant information in the environment and potential processing strategies for a problem.

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How does the understanding of cognitive development of children differ between Information-processing theories and Piaget's theory?

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Information-processing sees this development occurring continuously in small increments; Piaget sees it occurring in qualitatively distinct stages, separated by brief transitions periods.

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Information-processing theories see children's cognitive capacity incrementing over time in three main characteristics:

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1. Amount of information they can process at one time (memory). 2. Speed with which they can process thoughts. 3. Acquisition of new strategies and knowledge.

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How do Information-processing theories see Nature in children?

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a. Children have limited-capacity to process information, which increments over time. b. Children are active problem-solvers, and their capacity to problem-solve increments over time.

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Problem solving

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The process of attaining a goal by using strategies to overcome obstacles to the goal.

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What is the emphasis of Information-processing theories?

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Their emphasis is on precise descriptions of HOW CHANGE OCCURS.

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Three categories of memory under Information-processing theories.

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1. Working memory 2. Long-term memory 3. Executive functions

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Working memory

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a. Involves actively attending to, gathering, maintaining, storing and processing information. b. Limited by its capacity (amount of information it can store) and by the length of time it can retain information without updating it. c. Both capacity and speed increase over time and relevant experience. d. Growth of working memory are believed to occur because of increasing knowledge of content and because of maturational processes in the brain.

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Long-term memory

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a. Information retained on an enduring basis. b. Knowledge accumulated over the life-time. c. Includes: factual, conceptual, and procedural knowledge; attitudes; reasoning strategies; and so on.

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How do long-term and working memory relate to one another?

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Long-term memory is the totality of one's knowledge. Working memory is the subset of that knowledge being processed at a given time.

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Executive Functioning

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a. Functions that involve control of cognition. b. Lead by the pre-frontal cortex. c. Integrate information from working memory and long-term memory to accomplish goals. d. Involves 3 major executive functions: inhibiting counterproductive behaviours; enhancing working memory by implementing strategies; being cognitively flexible in taking different perspectives. e. Ability to implement these functions increases greatly during preschool and early elementary school years. f. Quality of executive functioning in early childhood is highly predictive of important life outcomes such as academic achievement.

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Three major Executive Functions

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1. Inhibiting counterproductive behaviours; 2. Enhancing working memory by implementing strategies; 3. Being cognitively flexible in taking different perspectives.

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Three capacities that influence quality of memory over time in children.

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1. Basic processes (e.g. associating, encoding) 2. Strategies (e.g. rehearsal and selective attention) 3. Content knowledge (through experience and learning)

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Basic Processes of memory

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a. The simplest and most frequently used mental activities. b. Include: encoding, associating, recognizing, recalling and generalizing.

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Encoding

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a. Process of computing information that draws our attention or is considered important, such as specific features of objects and events. b. "Selective memory": not all we experience is encoded. If it's not encoded, it is not remembered later.

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Two biological processes that influence speed of thought processing in children.

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1. Myelination: contributes to the ability to resist distractions. 2. Synaptogenesis among brain regions: increases the efficiency of communication among brain areas.

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Strategies of memory

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a. Mental processes that are actively used to improve memory of an object, concept or event. E.g. rehearsal and selective attention. b. Children start using strategies between the ages of 5 and 8.

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Rehearsal

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Repeating information multiple times to aid memory of it.

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Selective attention

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Intentionally focusing on the information that is most relevant to the current goal.

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Content knowledge

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a. Knowledge about the world acquired through experience. b. Increases over a broad range of topics as children grow. c. Add up to long-term memory. d. Increase in content knowledge improves recall and the ability to understand new material, because it can be associated to previous knowledge. e. Prior content knowledge improves memory of new information through: improving encoding; providing useful associations; and guiding memory in useful directions.

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How does Content Knowledge improve memory of new information? (3)

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1. Improving encoding; 2. Providing useful associations; 3. Guiding memory in useful directions.

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Overlapping-waves theory of Problem Solving

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a. Theory that children will use many different strategies of problem solving, not a single one at each stage--as predicted by Piaget. b. Repeated trials of the same problem showed variability of strategies over time for the same age group. c. Problem-solving abilities improve over time: discovery of new strategies, get better at old strategies, choose strategies more suited to particular problems.

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According to overlapping-waves theory of problem-solving, how do children improve in ability to problem solve over time?

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1. Discovery of new, more effective strategies. 2. Get more efficient in applying new and old strategies. 3. Choose strategies more suited to particular problems.

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How do Information-processing theories explain children's (and teenager's) inability to plan in problem solving?

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a. They over-estimate their abilities and think they can solve the problem without planning. b. They can't inhibit the desire to solve the problem right away, instead of planning the best approach. c. Maturation of the pre-frontal cortex, very important in inhibition and planning is still incomplete.

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Sociocultural Theories of Cognitive Development

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Emphasize the contributions of other people and the surrounding culture on children's cognitive development.

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Guided participation

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a. Process in which more knowledgeable individuals organize activities in ways that allow less knowledgeable people to learn. b. Often occurs in practical situations, such as building a toy or baking a cake.

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Cultural tools

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Symbols, systems, artifacts, skills, values, language, and so on; which characterize a specific culture.

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Who is the founder of the Sociocultural approach to development?

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Russian psychologist Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky. His work was largely unknown outside of Russia until the 1970s.

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Central metaphor of sociocultural theories?

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Children are social learners, shaped by, and shaping, their cultural contexts.

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Main differences between Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories of cognitive development? (3)

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1. Piaget saw children as the main creators of their own learning (little scientists); Vygotsky saw them as social learners, having the help of the community. 2. Piaget thought children as acquiring knowledge and skills that were broad and applicable to all times and places; Vygotsky saw them acquiring only those specific to their local setting and what was available to them. 3. Piaget emphasized qualitative changes in cognition; Vygotsky emhasized quantitative and continuous changes. 4. Piaget saw language and thought as largely unrelated; Vygotsky viewed them as integrally related, believing that thought was in fact internalized speech, originating from statements the child hears from parents and other adults.

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Private Speech

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Phase of learning when children develop their self-regulation and problem-solving abilities by repeating to themselves what their parents told them, first aloud and later in their mind (internalized private speech, thought).

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Internalization of thought

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a. Children's learning method to acquire the ability to self-regulate and to problem solve. b. 3 phases: hear it from caregivers; repeat to themselves aloud; repeat in their minds--thought. c. Vygotsky's theory.

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Michael Tomasello's more contemporary view of sociocultural cognitive development

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a. Children are learners as well as teachers. The inclination to teach emerges as early as 2 years of age, when children point and name different objects to convey their knowledge. b. Humans are unique as species due to this mutual desire to learn and to teach.

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Process vs. Content in sociocultural theories

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Much of the processes of learning, such as guided participation, are the same across cultures. What changes is the content of what is being taught. This makes children the product of their culture.

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Three specific ideas of how change occurs -- relevant to sociocultural theories.

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1. Guided participation 2. Intersubjectivity 3. Social scaffolding

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Intersubjectivity

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a. The mutual understanding that people share during communication. b. Effective communication requires participants to focus on the same topic, as well as on one another's reactions to whatever is being communicated.

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Joint attention

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a. Process in which social partners intentionally focus on a common referent in the external environment. b. Children's ability in joint attention predicts their later vocabulary and general language development.

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Social Scaffolding

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a. Process in which more competent people provide a temporary framework that supports children's thinking at a higher level than they could manage on their own. b. Includes explaining the goal of a task, demonstrating how it can be done, and helping the child with the most difficult parts of the task. c. Support from a more knowledgeable person tends to become less and less needed until the higher level of thinking is fully internalized/learned.

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What is the difference between social scaffolding and guided participation?

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a. The goal of both is the same: to allow children to learn by doing. b. Scaffolding tends to involve more explicit instruction and explanation. c. Guided participation tends to involve adults in organizing tasks so that children can take an increasingly active and responsible role.

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Role of social scaffolding in autobiographical memories?

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Parents help children encode memories of their own experiences by elaborating on events and pointing out aspects that the child can't recognize on his/her own. Example: "bird fly away", "yes, the bird flew away because you got too close and scared it". Now the child knows to keep a distance.

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Founder researchers of the Dynamic-Systems approach to cognitive development?

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Esther Thelen and Linda Smith

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Dynamic-Systems Theories

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a. Class of theories that focus on HOW change occurs over time in complex systems. b. Research under this theory reveals that analyses of the development of infant's basic actions such as crawling and reaching can yield surprising information. c. For example, study showed how the ability to crawl changes infant's relationship with parents, and thus shape their learning. d. Studies under this theory also showed that development is much more unique to each child, and that it can have progressive as well as regressive moments. d. Depict development as a process in which "change is the only constant".

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How do Dynamic-systems theories explain change?

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Propose that at all points of development, thought and action change from moment to moment, in response to: a. The current situation, b. The child's immediate past history, c. The child's long-term history of actions in related situations.

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How do Dynamic-systems theories see Nature in children?

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a. Development is dynamic, unique to each child, and discontinuous--with progressions and regressions. b. A child is a seen as an organized system, with many subsystems such as perception, action, memory, language, social interaction, and so on. c. In a nutshell: development is dynamic and functions as an organized system to produce change.

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How do Dynamic-systems theories relate to Piaget's, Information-processing and Sociocultural theories?

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1. Piaget: also see the child as an active explorer of the environment, with innate motivation to learn. 2. Information-processing: emphasize precise analyses of problem-solving activity. 3. Sociocultural: emphasize the formative influence of other people in the child's development.

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Motivators of development (Dynamic-systems theories)

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1. Innate motivation: children persist practising new skills in which they are not yet good at, despite the fact that they have already mastered similar skills. Example: crawling vs. walking. 2. Social interest: observing other people, imitating their actions and attracting their attention are also strong motivators.

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Centrality of action (Dynamic-systems theories)

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a. These theories emphasize the role action has in shaping children's development--active child idea. b. Experiments have shown that action influences: motor skills, categorization, memory and vocabulary acquisition.

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For Dynamic-systems theories, how is development accomplished?

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a. Development is a process of self-organization that involves bringing together and integrating attention, memory, emotions, and actions as needed to adapt to a continuously changing environment. b. Soft assembly: components of development are reorganized each moment, rather than being governed by rigid stages that are consistently applied to all situations.

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Soft assembly (Dynamic-systems theories)

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Components of development - attention, memory, emotions, and actions - are reorganized each moment, rather than being governed by rigid stages that are consistently applied to all situations.

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Different results of the A-not-B test under the Dynamic-systems theories and Piaget's theory.

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1. Piaget: children reach for A location, not B, because they haven't developed Object Permanence - cognitive perception, conceptual understanding. 2. Children's performance is influenced by the strength of the habit of reaching to A, the memory demands of the task, the child's attention focus, and the match between muscular forces required to reach in the old and new situations. So, many factors, not just conceptual understanding.

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For Dynamic-systems theories, how do changes in cognition occur over time?

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a. Mechanisms of variation and selection: - Variation: use of different behaviours to pursue the same goal. - Selection: increasingly frequent choice of behaviours that are effective in meeting the goal over less effective ones. b. Selection involves appreciating: - Relative success of the behaviour over time. - Efficiency of the behaviour over other ones. - Novelty: lure of trying something new and the potential of the new behaviour to become more effective over time, even though it is less effective in the beginning.

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Selection of a behaviour over others involves contemplating 3 aspects.

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1. Relative success of the behaviour over time: through experimenting they increasingly rely on approaches that produced the desired outcomes. 2. Efficiency of the behaviour over other ones: behaviours that get them to the goal more quickly and with less effort. 3. Novelty: lure of trying something new and the potential of the new behaviour to become more effective over time, even though it is less effective in the beginning.

Child Development – Chapter 4 – Flashcards

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