Modules 47-48

Modules 47-48

Infancy and Childhood: Social and Cognitive Development

Open Ended

Explain how Vygotsky and Piaget's models for cognitive development are different? Which one do you think helps you to learn better or easier?

Open Ended

How would you describe your own temperament? Is it similar to or different from other family members?

Piaget

• asked how did your mind grow once conscious?

• developmental psychologist

• 5 month old display same brain signature as adults of visual awareness

• studied children's cognition - all the mental activities involved with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Piaget

• spent 50 years studying children's minds and realized their way of thinking is different than adults and sometimes "wildly illogical ways"

• theory that children developed over stages -light turns on in head

• core idea that our intellectual progression reflects an unceasing struggle to make sense of our experiences

Piaget

• maturing brain builds schema (a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information)

• two concepts by Piaget to use/adjust schemas

• 1. we assimilate new experiences

• 2. we accommodate/adjust our schemas

• schemas increase as we age

Piaget's Theory

• contains 4 major theories of cognitive development 1. sensorimotor 2. preoperational 3. concrete operational 4. formal operational

• Piaget believed that children construct their understanding of the world while interacting with it

• minds experience spurts of change followed by greater stability as they move from one to another

Multiple Choice

Who created the current theories on childhood development?

• Skinner

• Freud

• Piaget

• Watson

Sensorimotor Stage

• from birth to nearly age 2

• babies learn of the world through senses and actions

• before 6 months infants lack object permanence (the awareness that objects continue to exist even when not perceived)

• object permanence unfolds gradually

• AP Exam Tip pg. 499

Preoperational Stage

• from 2 to 6 children in preoperational stage and are able to represent things with words and images but are too young to perform mental operations

• before age of 6, children lack conservatism (principle that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape)

• stage transitions no abrupt

• pretend play occurs at this stage

Preoperational Stage

• Egocentrism - difficulty in seeing another's view

• curse - believe what you see is in someone else's head

• begin forming a theory of mind (people' ideas about their own mind and other's mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict

• AP Exam Tip pg. 501

• children with autism struggle with this

Concrete Operational Stage

• begin at age 7 when given concrete (physical) materials, children begin to grasp operations such as conservatism

• become able to comprehend mathematical transformations and conservation

• ends around age 11

Multiple Choice

What is the correct order of Piaget's stages?

• formal operational, concrete operational, sensorimotor, and preoperational

• preoperational, sensorimotor, concrete operational, formal operational

• concrete operational, preoperational, sensorimotor, and formal operational

• sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational

Formal Operational Stage

• begins at age 12 and stage of cognitive development where people began to think logically about abstract concepts

• can ponder hypothetical propositions and deduce consequences ex. if this, then that

• AP Exam Tip pg. 503

• Know chart on pg. 503!

Multiple Choice

What is the correct order of Piaget's stages?

• formal operational, concrete operational, sensorimotor, and preoperational

• preoperational, sensorimotor, concrete operational, formal operational

• concrete operational, preoperational, sensorimotor, and formal operational

• sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational

An Alternative Viewpoint

• same time as Piaget: Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky was studying how children think and learn

• emphasis that children grow through social interaction

• create scaffold (framework) from which children can step to higher levels of thinking

• child's zone of proximal development what a child can and can't do

• accomplished through language (age 7)

Modern Researchers

• Piaget - the best

• development as continuous but Piaget missed some things like conceptual thinking at earlier stages

• for children to learn, they have to be engaged and given opportunities

• AP Exam Tip pg. 504

Poll

Have you interacted with someone on the Autism spectrum?

• Yes

• No

• Maybe/Unsure

Autism Spectrum Disorder

• a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors

• diagnosis usually around age 3 - permanent at 7

• increase in diagnosis

• runs in families and may occur with other disabilities