Today

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Todays session
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Piagets stage theory of cognitive development The sensorimotor stage Object permanence Distinguish between gradualist and stage theories Describe and criticise ways of investigating infant cognition Invent mnemonics to help you remember facts in exams
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Piagets stage theory

• Piaget said that childrens cognitive development
  unfolds in stages.
• Where have we encountered stage theories before?
• What does a stage theory imply about development?

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Gradualist vs. Stage theories
Psychological attribute
How might the line representing a stage theory be
different?
Time
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Stage Theories

• Development is discontinuous
• Each stage is qualitatively distinct
• The sequence is universal and invariant
• These statements are true of all stage theories
  of development. What might they mean as applied
  to cognitive development?

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Piagets stage theory

• Childrens ability to understand, think about and
  solve problems in the world develops in a
  stop-start manner.
• At each stage of development, the childs
  thinking is qualitatively different from the
  other stages.
• All children go through the same stages in the
  same order (but not all at the same rate)

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Piagets Stage Theory of Cognitive Development
Stage Stage Characteristics Typical Age
Sensorimotor stage Substages 1-3 Ability to deal with situations is limited to i) Having sensations and producing actions ii) The here and now 0-8 months
Sensorimotor stage Substages 4-6 Intentional actions emerge trial and error behaviour object concept object permanence develops simple pretend play language acquisition 8-24 months
Preoperational stage Preconceptual period Symbolic thought develops egocentrism animism centration 2-4 years
Preoperational stage Intuitive period Judgements based on appearance not logical thought less egocentric unable to conserve 4-7 years
Concrete operational stage Concrete operational stage Conservation seriation transitivity class inclusion 7-11 years
Formal operational stage Formal operational stage Abstract concepts hypothetical thinking flexibility in thinking 12 years
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Homework pt. 1

• Invent a mnemonic to help you remember the names
  and order of Piagets stages.

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Sensorimotor stage

• In the first stage, the child thinks by sensing
  (sensori-) and by performing actions on
  (-motor) the world around it.
• It does not think by manipulating mental
  representations, like an adult does.

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General Symbolic Function

• During the sensorimotor stage a range of
  cognitive abilities develop. These include
• Object permanence
• Self-recognition
• Deferred imitation
• Representational play
• They relate to the emergence of the general
  symbolic function, which is the capacity to
  represent the world mentally

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Object permanence

• Infants do not realise that objects exist
  independently of them
• Out of sight, out of mind
• Object permanence is the understanding that
  objects continue to exist when the child cannot
  see them

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• How could we investigate whether a child has
  object permanence?

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Piaget (1963) search tasks
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Object permanence
Typical age Search behaviour
Before 8m Does not search for hidden object at all.
8-12m Searches for hidden object in initial hiding place even if the object is moved to a second hiding place while the child watches (the A not B error)
12-18m Searches in most recent hiding place.
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Homework pt. 2

• Is Piagets search task a valid test of whether a
  child has developed object permanence?
• Does a childs failure to search mean that it has
  no idea that the object still exists?
• Might this task be measuring something else
  instead?
• Two students will be presenting their views to
  the class at the start of next lesson, so be
  prepared.

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Review

• Pair up. Decide who will be infant and who will
  be investigator.
• Investigator must test infants object permanence
  using the two hiding place method.
• Infant must decide which stage of development she
  is at and respond accordingly.
• Investigator must identify childs likely age and
  explain why.