Cognitive development

Age related changes. How children think and behave differently as they got older

The same stages in a fixed order, that the development of a child's ability to think goes through

The pattern or orderr of development of the development of thinking that is the same for all children everywhere 

Development follows a fixed (invariant) order

The behaviour in question progresses and gets better by the stage 

The order of stages is true for everyone (universal)

Body schemas: The infant recognises that i exists physically (e.g. recognises it's self in a photo)

Motor co-ordination:The infant learns to use different body parts and they learn to co-ordiate their body parts (e.g. moving on their hands and knees to crawl)

Object permanence: The infant knows something exists even if they cannot see it. Thhis is relevant to both objects and people

Children learn to use symbols such as mental images and words

At this stage children overcome;

Egocentrism

Animism

And they can now think backwards

Linguistic humour: Children understand word games and double meanings

Seriation:to be able to rank or put things in order (e.g. smallest to largest, heaviest to lightest)

Conservation: When children know the properties of objects stay the same despite seeming to change. For example, the two rows of counters experiment and the two glasses experiment

Children form the abliilty to solve sophisticated and abstract problems. Also Piaget believed children would start to think hypothetically this involves problem solving scientifically and logically. This allows children to "see the big picture".

The cognitive stages are no as rigid as Piaget said - Some stages and overcoming certain characteristics depends on the sitation the child is in.

Some people do not go through all of the stages of cognitive development.

Piaget ignore the effect of nuture such as parents and teachers. Piaget also ignored the role of emotions.

Piaget ignored differrent kinds of thinking. He ignorred thinking such as creativity in the arts.

Different trypes of thinking develop differently for children everywhere. For example,Aboriginal children develop concrete operational thinking faster than European children as it is key for for physical survival.

Piaget only explains what thinking a child can and cannot do. He doesn't explain how the changes in thinking occur.

Zone of proximal development: The gap between where a child is in their learning and where they can potentially get to with the help and support of others.

According to Piaget children from the age of 2 - 7 years old (in the pre-operational stage) lack the ability to conserve. Children of this stage are influenced by the way things look. For example, if something is more spread out it seems bigger.

Piaget used a cross-sectional of chilren of ifferent ages to test them to on their ability to conserve. The children were shown two identical rows of counters. They were asked which had more counters in. The researcher then changed the layout of one of the rows of counters. They stretched out one row without adding or takin away any counters. The chilren were asked again which row had more counters in.

Piaget was criticised for the way he asked questions towards the children. Repeating the question can make children second guess themselves. The second time the question is asked the children may think that the first time they answere, the answer was wrong. So they say the opposite answer to before.

Piaget was criticised for the nature of the task. The test had been made child-friendly, and it produced results which contradicted Piaget.

There was a small sample size. It would not be representative for children universally.

Piaget and Vygotsky had two different ideas and and explanations on thinking and schooling

The concept of readiness