MRCPsych Cognitive Development Dr Mark Worthington Clinical Psychologist

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MRCPsychCognitive DevelopmentDr Mark
WorthingtonClinical Psychologist
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Piagets Model

• Developed through observation.
• The thinking of children is qualitatively
  different from thinking in adults.
• Knowledge and cognitive development depend on the
  childs pre-programmed behaviours interacting
  with the world.
• Development follows sequential stages.

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Key Concepts

• Egocentrism Inability to distinguish
  perspectives
• Schemes/Schemas Patterns of knowledge.
• Operations logical procedures allowing mental
  manipulation of thoughts/concepts.
• Assimilation Attempts to understand novel
  situations in terms of existing schemas.
• Accommodation Ability to modify existing
  schemas in order to understand novel situations.
• Adaptation Assimilation Accommodation

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Four Stages of Cognitive Development

1. Sensorimotor (0 - 18/24m)
2. Pre-Operational (18/24m 7y)
3. Concrete Operational (7 11y)
4. Formal Operational (11y )

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Sensorimotor Stage (0-18 months).

• Through reflexive behaviour stimulus-response/caus
  e-effect relationships are learned.
• Self is differentiated from external world
• Object permanence is achieved knowledge that
  objects continue to exist even if we can no
  longer see them
• No understanding of temporal relationships is
  evident.

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Lack of Object Permanence
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Preoperational Stage (18 months 7th year).

• Symbolic schemas used (e.g. play, drawing).
• Egocentricity gradually declines as the ability
  to understand alternative perspectives develops
  (decentre).
• Perception influences judgement.
• 3 Mountains
• Task

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Conservation Task
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Concrete Operational Stage(7th to 11th year)

• Logical thought appears.
• Mental or physical
• actions can be considered
• in reverse.
• Egocentrism disappears.

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Formal Operational Stage (11th year onwards).

• Reasoning and thought can be purely
  verbal/logical and self reflective
• Reasoning from other perspectives is possible
• Abstract concepts are understandable
• Systems of belief develop
• A complex self identity develops

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Critical Comments

• Problems with formal operations
• Formal operation is rarely reached by 11
• A good proportion of adults rarely or never think
  in such away unless constrained to do so by the
  task
• Underestimates childrens abilities too rigid
• Most researchers agree that children posses many
  of the abilities at an early age than Piaget
  suspected
• Problems with research methods
• Small, unrepresentative sample (own children)
• Style of thinking is influenced by culture

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Thought Communication
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Preoperational Stage

• Growth in communication skills.
• Single words?short sentences?competent but
  unsophisticated language.
• Towards the end Development of linguistic
  pragmatics Rules of appropriate use.
• Social skills requiring appreciation of
  alternative perspectives.
• Understanding of indirect questions, sarcasm,
  hints.
• Politeness.

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Concrete Operational Stage

• Development parallels reduction and disappearance
  of egocentrism.
• Alternative perspective taking becomes fully
  developed.
• Able to say what others know.
• Able to persuade rather than simply to use crude
  requests.
• Development of humour

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Formal Operation Stage

• Increased subtlety.
• Irony and satire.
• Understanding unfamiliar words inferred from
  their context.
• Abstraction and understanding of abstract
  concepts increases egocentrism decreases.

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Consider in Communicating

• Linguistic ability and communicative skill are
  closely related to the Piagetian stages
• As abstraction develops egocentrism declines
  whilst social skills of communication
  (pragmatics) develop
• Spoken language becomes complex and directed at
  achieving goals in a social context.
• Abstract concepts become more readily understood.
• Written communication develops as the
  perspective/needs of the reader are appreciated.

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MRCPsychLanguage Development

• Dr Mark Worthington
• Clinical Psychologist

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Components of Language

• Phonemes Units of sound used to construct word
  sounds
• Phonology rules about structure sequence of
  speech sounds
• Grammar
• Morphemes Word or meaning units, made up of
  phonemes.
• Syntax rules in which words are arranged into
  sentences
• Semantics how concepts are expressed through
  sounds.
• Pragmatics relationships between words and their
  social uses, rules for appropriate and effective
  communication
• Language
• Complex syntactic rules describe language.
• Acquisition of language is the acquisition of
  these rules.

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Chomsky

• Universal Language
• A common underlying structure to languages
  related to genetic factors that enable language
  acquisition (language acquisition device).
• Conditioning is insufficient to account for
  richness and speed of development.
• Language acquisition proceeds through stages.
• Rate of acquisition is related to intelligence.

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First YearPre-linguistic Stage

• Phonological
• Speech sounds cooing/babbling (strings of
  phonemes)
• Categorisation of sounds made by others
• End of year 1 phoneme range specific to native
  language, first words are spoken
• Semantic
• Understanding develops before production
• Recognition of familiar words, use of preverbal
  gestures
• Pragmatic
• Engagement in joint attention and turn-taking
  activities

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Second Year

• Phonological
• Recognise correct pronunciation of familiar words
• No word order (18m) ? rigid word order learned
  from interactions (24m)
• Semantic
• Vocabulary spurt 18-24m 13 ? 300 words
• Grammatical
• Telegraphic speech (two word combinations)
• e.g. big house (attributive), Daddy ball
  (agent-object)
• Pragmatics
• Engage in conversational turn-taking and topic
  maintenance

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Third Year

• Phonological
• Phonological awareness and pronunciation improve
• Semantic
• Rapid word learning
• Difficulty using words correctly e.g.
  Overextensions, underextensions
• Grammatical
• Simple 3-word sentences follow adult rules,
  gradually get refined
• Grammatical morphemes added as these emerge
• over-generalisation of grammatical rules

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Fourth Year

• Phonological
• Simple utterances/sentences
• Semantic
• can understand metaphors
• Grammatical
• Generally correct grammar
• Begin to use future tense
• Understanding still greater than generation

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Fifth Year

• Semantic
• Verbal thought is apparent
• Grammatical
• Several clauses in sentences.
• Pragmatics
• Social rules apply
• Resembles adult language
• Awareness of own ability to use language

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Communicative Competence

• Linguistic skills are a subgroup of communication
  skills
• Many species display communicative competence.
• At what point does word use become language?
• Non-verbal behaviour is closely related.
• Signing as language?

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Critical Periods

• First year crucial for differentiation of
  phonemes.
• Syntactic development over first few years.
• Full competence is never achieved following early
  language deprivation.
• Similar evidence in deaf childrens acquisition
  of sign language.

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Environmental Influences

• Cognitive development necessary but not
  sufficient for acquisition
• Relies on social context, learning relationships
  between objects/people.
• Cognitive development leads.
• Language is one communication skill.
• Phonetic forms are reduced over time according to
  native language.
• Isolation impairs later acquisition.
• Worse if also socially isolated.