Cognitive Development According to Piaget
Psychology 122
February 2, 2012
Cognitive Development according to Piaget
Structures (mental categories, or how knowledge is organized – ever-changing)
IWN — Cognitive structure
Gender Schema Theory — Cognitive structure
Development — refers to the growth of these structures
Not what we know, how we organize what we know
Functions (processes of growth – present at all ages) Universally present in all humans
Mechanisms of change: Assimilation, Adaptation — complementary processes, always happening
Assimilation
Assimilating things in environment, part of function that creates change in structure
Makings sense of new things in light of what is already known
Sometimes involves modifying or destroying new information (ex. memory test of girl chopping wood — remembered as boy chopping wood by child) reinforces/strengthens existing structure
Accommodation sophistication, new type of organization twisting cognitive structure to fit with new information, modifying structure ex. baby learns how to drink out of a cup by changing her sucking pattern
Stages — we exist in qualitatively different beings at different stages, 4 major stages of development:
Sensorimotor (0-2 years)
Only know world through their sensory and motor systems
Don’t understand the world through mental systems
Learn how to differentiate self from external world
Acquire representational thought
Cannot decenter
Object Permanence: objects continue to exist even though they cannot be immediately sensed
8 months: successful search for objects, still commit number of errors
9-12 months: A not B error (ex. object is hidden under box A, child searches for object under box A and finds it. After hiding object under box A several times, the experimenter moves object under box B—Child will still search for object under box A. Incomplete understanding of object permanence.
12-18 months: difficulty with invisible displacements — ex. possible vs. impossible events
February 2, 2012
Cognitive Development according to Piaget
Structures (mental categories, or how knowledge is organized – ever-changing)
IWN — Cognitive structure
Gender Schema Theory — Cognitive structure
Development — refers to the growth of these structures
Not what we know, how we organize what we know
Functions (processes of growth – present at all ages) Universally present in all humans
Mechanisms of change: Assimilation, Adaptation — complementary processes, always happening
Assimilation
Assimilating things in environment, part of function that creates change in structure
Makings sense of new things in light of what is already known
Sometimes involves modifying or destroying new information (ex. memory test of girl chopping wood — remembered as boy chopping wood by child) reinforces/strengthens existing structure
Accommodation sophistication, new type of organization twisting cognitive structure to fit with new information, modifying structure ex. baby learns how to drink out of a cup by changing her sucking pattern
Stages — we exist in qualitatively different beings at different stages, 4 major stages of development:
Sensorimotor (0-2 years)
Only know world through their sensory and motor systems
Don’t understand the world through mental systems
Learn how to differentiate self from external world
Acquire representational thought
Cannot decenter
Object Permanence: objects continue to exist even though they cannot be immediately sensed
8 months: successful search for objects, still commit number of errors
9-12 months: A not B error (ex. object is hidden under box A, child searches for object under box A and finds it. After hiding object under box A several times, the experimenter moves object under box B—Child will still search for object under box A. Incomplete understanding of object permanence.
12-18 months: difficulty with invisible displacements — ex. possible vs. impossible events