Cognitive Development

Elizabeth Lanning
Jean Piaget’s Cognative Development Theory
PSY 104: Child and Adolecent Development
Barbars Hollinger
December 14, 2009

Cognition is defined as the mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary.   Piagets Cognitive Development Theory was a unique concept at the time the idea was conceived. This idea was the first in depth theory on the subject and has remained as the authority on the subject for quite some time. The author will answer question in this paper like: are changes in cognitive development domain-general or domain-specific? Are changes in development gradual or smooth? Is development due to learning or does something changes in the brain?
In order to truly understand Cognitive development theory one must also take a look at others that have studied Cognitive development. Piagets may have been the first to develop the concept of Cognitive development Theory; there are others such as Vygotsky that have also studied the topic.   Vygotsky was also a great contributor to Cognative Development Theory. Unlike Piaget however Vygotsky believed that learning happens prior to development, which children learn because of history and symbolism (slavin 2003). Piaget believed however that intelligence comes from action, that children learn by interacting with their surroundings and then development takes place. Vygotsky also argued that children value input from their surroundings and others. While Piaget’s theory consists of four different stages in Cognitive Development, Vygotsky argues that there are no set stages involved. There are a few aspects to Vytgotskys Cognitive development theory, the first is referred to as private speech, and this is when one talks to self. He found private speech to be important because he believed that this is how children worked issues out and allowed them to think through a solution (Slaving 2003). Vygotsky's... [continues]

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