Jean Piaget Cognitive Development

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Jean PiagetCognitive Development

• Chapter 4

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Cognition

• Cognition all mental activities associated with
  thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
• Jean Piaget
• Theory of Cognitive Development
• Actually studied children to develop his theory

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Cognitive Development (Jean Piaget)

• A childs mind develop through stages
• The maturing brain builds schemas a framework
  to organize information

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Assimilation and Accommodation

• Using and adjusting our schemas
• Assimilate new experiences child uses old
  experiences to deal with new situations
• Ex. Doggies have four legs, all four legged
  creatures are doggies
• Accommodate our schemas to fit new experiences
  child changes old method to adjust to new
  situations.
• Ex. Learning that all four legged creatures are
  not doggies and that to tell a doggie from a pig,
  you should look at its face
• VIDEO- Schema, Assimilation, Accommodation
• Start at 40-310

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Stages of Cognitive Development

• Activity Complete Piagetan Tasks
• Sensorimotor Stage Birth to Age 2
• Discovering the world through senses
• (Parents excited about walking for first time..a
  few days later they are bumming why?
• If still have toys from when you were 1 might
  have bite marks in them.
• First schemas begin to form
• Young infants lack object permanence (until about
  8 months old)
• The awareness that objects continue to exist when
  not perceived
• At 8 months old, infants begin to look
  momentarily for toys that are hidden
• Video Object Permanence

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Stages of Cognitive Development

• Preoperational Stage Preschool (About Age 2 to
  Age 6)
• Children at this age are too young to perform
  mental operations
• Video Preoperational Thinking
• (if babysitting and only 3 crackers left here is
  a way to get more)
• Child lacks the concepts of conservation
• Quantity remains the same despite changes in
  shape.
• Ex. Milk in a short glass filled to the rim vs.
  that same amount of milk poured into a larger
  glass.

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Egocentrism, Theory of Mind and Autism

• Egocentric Children fail to see things from
  anothers point of view. Many parents mistakenly
  view their child as being very selfish (up till
  age 4
• Ex.- sharing difficulty
• Ex.- reaction to friend getting very hurt.
• Ex- unable to lie.
• Q When was your first lie?
• theory of mind- change of mind (430)
• Theory of mind Children come to realize (about
  age 4) that people have minds and thus they
  think, feel and perceive.

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Autism

• Autism a disorder that appears in children and
  is marked by deficient communication, social
  interaction, and impaired theory of mind.
• Personal experiences with Autism

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Preoperation Cont.

• The "False Belief" Test

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Animism (preoperational stage)

• refers to the tendency of children to believe
  that all objects, animals, and things are living
  and capable of having feelings, intentions, and
  emotions. Objects are personified. For example, a
  preoperational child may explain that it is
  raining because, "the sun is sad and it's
  crying." When a child accidentally falls into a
  wall, he or she may hit it afterwards, as if the
  wall intended to hurt him or her.

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Stages of Cognitive Development

• Concrete Operational Stage Age 7 to Age 11
• Child begins to grasp conservation. (Change in
  shape does not mean change in quantity)
• Volume, Area, and Number.
• Ex.- cutting a sandwich in half or cutting up a
  pizza into more slices
• Review using video from England
• REVIEW- BBC DVD on Preoperational vs. Concrete
  Operational children

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Stages of Cognitive Development

• Formal Operation Stage Age 12 through Adulthood
• Adolescents and adults develop the ability to
  think about and solve abstract problems in a
  logical manner
• Solve hypothetical propositions
• Q Beginning tomorrow every baby in the world is
  born with one leg (doesnt matter right or left)
• formal operational child
• Develop capacity for moral reasoning NOT
  necessarily high morals. Re p. 167

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Criticisms of Piaget

• Basically, the sequence of cognitive development
  unfolds as Piaget suggests
• Piaget underestimated children
• Movement from stage to stage is not abrupt rather
  it is a gradual development.
• Movement from stage to stage happens faster than
  Piaget thought
• Theory does not explain how the change occurs
  from stage to stage

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Santa and Piaget

• Describe what a child in each of Piagets stages
  would think about Santa Clause.
• Sensorimotor
• Preoperational
• Concrete Operational
• Formal Operational