PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Object Permanence, Codevelopment, Anthropomorphism
19 May 2018
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Constructivist theories of cognitive development
Cognition
• All mental activities e.g. thinking, problem solving, learning, remembering, paying attention
Cognitive development
• Processes by which humans come to think and understand
Piaget - theoretical approach
• What is the origin of knowledge
• How is knowledge acquired
• How is it used to reason
• How does it change with devleopment
Theories of development
• Determine how we explain development and advice given
1. Nature (biological factors) or nurture (environment)
• Predeterminists - environment plays small role, maturation has major role
• Environmentalists (behaviourists) - environment has pre-eminent role
• Interactionsists - both nature and nurture play part
2. Continuous or discontinuous development
Stage theory of development
• Form of interactionism called CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Children born with no knowledge, construct it from perception of the world and actions on the
world
• Argued pure-nurture based theories where children learn from taking in environment and
pure-nature based theories - where genes direct development, suggest child is passive in its
own development
• PIAGET ARGUES…child is a self-driven learner, constructs own mental life
• Stage theory - relied on learning and maturation for child to advance
o Stage theories - discontinuity in development
o Stages represent periods of qualitative change
o Individuals pass through series of qualitatively different levels/stages of structural
organisation
o Development involves changing underlying structures
o Sequence of stage progression is invariant
o Stages universal
o Interactionist - both nature and nurture
Cognitive development - Piaget
• Main features: STAGE THEORY AND CONSTRUCTIVIST
• Children's thought qualitatively different from adults
• Children are constructors of knowledge, not passive recipients
• Schemes/schemata - mental structures that capture common properties of behaviours,
objects, experiences
• Knowledge thoughts and ideas develop through ADAPTION (modification of schema)
• Adaption
o 2 complementary processes
o Assimilation - making sense of experiences in terms of existing schema, taking in info
and changing it to fit existing schema or structure
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Document Summary
Cognition: all mental activities e. g. thinking, problem solving, learning, remembering, paying attention. Cognitive development: processes by which humans come to think and understand. Piaget - theoretical approach: what is the origin of knowledge, how is knowledge acquired, how is it used to reason, how does it change with devleopment. Theories of development: determine how we explain development and advice given, nature (biological factors) or nurture (environment, predeterminists - environment plays small role, maturation has major role, environmentalists (behaviourists) - environment has pre-eminent role. Interactionsists - both nature and nurture play part: continuous or discontinuous development. Stage theory - relied on learning and maturation for child to advance: stage theories - discontinuity in development, stages represent periods of qualitative change. Individuals pass through series of qualitatively different levels/stages of structural organisation: development involves changing underlying structures, sequence of stage progression is invariant, stages universal.
