PSYCH211 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Cognitive Development, Dual Representation, Intersubjectivity

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH211
• Professor: Kathleen Bloom

Document Summary

Cognitive development in early childhood: piaget"s theo(cid:396)(cid:455): the p(cid:396)eope(cid:396)atio(cid:374)al stage. As children move from the sensorimotor to the preoperational stage, which spans the years 2 to 7, the most obvious change is an extraordinary increase in representational, or symbolic, activity. Piaget acknowledged that language is our most flexible means of mental representation. But piaget did(cid:374)"t (cid:396)ega(cid:396)d la(cid:374)guage as a p(cid:396)i(cid:373)a(cid:396)(cid:455) i(cid:374)g(cid:396)edie(cid:374)t i(cid:374) (cid:272)hildhood (cid:272)og(cid:374)iti(cid:448)e (cid:272)ha(cid:374)ge. I(cid:374)stead, he (cid:271)elie(cid:448)ed that sensorimotor activity leads to internal images of experience, which children then label with words. Make-believe play is another excellent example of the development of representation in early childhood. Piaget believed that through pretending, young children practice and strengthen newly acquired representational schemes. 3 i(cid:373)po(cid:396)ta(cid:374)t (cid:272)ha(cid:374)ges that (cid:396)efle(cid:272)t the p(cid:396)es(cid:272)hool (cid:272)hild"s g(cid:396)o(cid:449)i(cid:374)g s(cid:455)(cid:373)(cid:271)oli(cid:272) (cid:373)aste(cid:396)(cid:455): play detaches from the real-life conditions associated with it. In early pretending, toddlers use only realistic objects. Their earliest pretend acts usually i(cid:373)itate adults" a(cid:272)tio(cid:374)s a(cid:396)e (cid:374)ot (cid:455)et fle(cid:454)i(cid:271)le: play becomes less self-centered.