Development of Thought & Language

1. Development of Thought & Language

2. Infant as an explorer • Infancy: first 18 – 24 months • All sensory systems are functional at birth • Exploration driven by… • Novelty seeking • Control

3. Cognitive development • Piaget’s Theory • Overview • Features of the theory • Sensorimotor stage • Preoperational stage • Concrete operations stage • Formal operations stage • Problems with the theory • Learning Outcomes

4. What is cognition? • Inner processes and products of the mind that lead to “knowing” • Includes all mental activity • Attending, remembering, symbolizing, categorizing, planning, reasoning, fantasizing etc…. • Virtually everything we do involves thinking or cognitive functioning • Recalling a phone number • Remembering a list • Following directions

5. What is cognition? • Research focuses on • What typical courses of development are • Identifying individual differences • Mechanisms of cognitive development

6. Piaget’s Theory • Stage theory • 1) Sensorimotor stage • 0-2 years • 2) Preoperational stage • 2-7 years • 3) Concrete operational stage • 7-11 years • 4) Formal operation stage • 11+ years • Stages are invariant and universal

7. Piagetian Ideas • Cognitive development occurs through each child’s actions on the environment • Allows us to begin making sense out of our experiences • Infants react toward events in the environment on a reflexive level • Gradually gain control of actions as they develop SCHEMES, or mental representations of actions • Begin with a few basic schema: cognitive structure or concept used to identify/interpret info

8. Piaget’s Terminology • Scheme-mental blueprints for actions • Most primitive schemes elicited by the presence of an object/stimulus (sucking, grasping, smiling) • Assimilation—process of incorporating new experiences/info into existing schemes • Adaptation- existing schemes expand/change in order to accommodate the new info • Modifying a scheme to fit new events, objects, etc.

9. Piaget’s Theory • 4 Stages of Development • Sensorimotor • Pre-Operational • Concrete Operational • Formal Operational • Represent increasingly sophisticated ways of understanding the physical environment

10. 1. Sensorimotor Stage • Represents development from birth to about 2 years • Thought and overt physical action are one in the same • Task 1: develop classes of schemes specific for different objects • i.e., determining what types of behaviours are appropriate and effective for influencing specific things around me • Task 2: develop object permanence

11. Trends in the Sensorimotor Stage • Rigidity  flexibility • Behaviour adapts to larger range of stimuli • Isolation  coordination • Series of different actions can be performed on an object • Reactivity  intentionality • Progression to planned behaviour • Overt actions  mental representations • Objects and people are represented symbolically

12. Object permanence • Objects are tied to infant’s awareness of them • “out of sight, out of mind” • Hidden toy experiment • 4 months: no attempt to search for hidden object • 4-9 months: visual search for object • 9 months: search for and retrieve hidden object

13. 2. Preoperational Stage • Ages 2 – 7 • Now that child has mental representations, begins to utilize symbols • Can symbolize objects/events that are absent • E.g, language, creative play • By manipulating symbols, child is in effect thinking in a way he/she would not be able to in the absence of props

14. 2. Preoperational Stage • Egocentrism – thinks everyone experiences the world exactly as they do • Single view point • Anamistic: Inanimate objects have lifelike qualities just like themselves • E.g., sun is angry at clouds and chased them away • 3 mountains task

15. 2. Preoperational Stage • Lack of conservation • Irreversibility

16. 3. Concrete Operational Stage • Conservation • Can do logical operations • Understand reversibility

17. Formal Operations • Age 12 + years • Capacity for abstract/hypothetical thought • Hyptothetico-deductive reasoning • Start with general theory-deduce specific hypothesis • Propositional Thought • Can reason contrary to experience • Imaginary Audience and Personal Fable consequences

18. Criticism of Piaget • Not enough attention to individual differences • Underestimates abilities of some exceptional children • Children are more advanced cognitively, and adults are less competent cognitively than Piaget believed

19. Information processing perspective • Piaget viewed the mind as a single entity • I.P. perspective = mind is a set of interacting components • Computer analogy • I.P. approach relies on our memory model • Attention mechanisms for gathering info • Working memory for “thinking” • Long term memory

20. Information processing perspective • Presumes that cognitive developmental improvements result from changes in these 3 systems. • Increased working memory and ability to (a) contemplate more information at one time, and (b) process that information more quickly • Evidence shows that attention, ability to encode and recall info into/from LT memory increases with age

21. Information processing perspective • Places heavy emphasis on importance of biological development and maturity as a precursor for cognitive growth • Also holds that cog development improves not only by improvements to the physical machinery, but also through acquisition of rules/strategies for problem solving. • Increasingly sophisticated and efficient

22. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory • 1896-1934 • Largely unknown b/c Stalin banned his work after his death • Didn’t find it’s way to Western scientists until fall of communism • Sociocultural environment is most important element in cognitive development

23. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory • Child still manipulates his/her world, but culture and social influences dramatically effect child’s cognition—socially formed mind • Cognitive processes (e.g., language, thought, reasoning) develop through social interaction • These develop first 2 yrs with direct environmental contact • Development is a product of Culture

24. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory • Emphasized the role of • Social interaction • Instruction • Zone of Proximal Development • The discrepancy between level of actual development and potential development

25. Vygotsky – Make believe play • Form of proximal development where children advance themselves as they try out a wide variety of skills

26. Vygotsky – Role of Language • Piaget’s view: language is just another mental representation, under-developed until age 6-7 • Simply one consequence of other developmental processes • Vygotsky: Language essential to cognitive development • Cog development the product of social interaction, and subsequently, language

27. Vygotsky – Role of Language • Private speech – children talk to themselves • Adults give instructions to children (social speech) • Kids start to use parents instructions to direct their own behaviour (private speech) • Private speech becomes internalized as thought processes (silent statements) • Internalized speech used to plan and guide behaviour == Cognitive Development

28. Summary of Vygotsky • Culture and social interaction very important for cognitive development • Social interactions with knowledgeable others moves development forward (ZPD) • Language is central to cognitive development • Social speech –> Private Speech - Thought

29. Theory of mind • We are all psychologists in our every day lives • Understanding of mental states (e.g., feelings, intentions), and their causal role in behavior • Crying person described as “sad” • Person drinking is thirsty • Develops by approximately age 3

30. Autism • Suppose you were oblivious to the minds of other people. • Wouldn’t feel self conscious or embarrassed • No concern of their thoughts of you • Wouldn’t ask about others thoughts, or share own • No social connections – people are just a means to an end at best, and scenery at worst

31. Autism • Severe deficits in social interaction • Language acquisition deficits • Repetitive behaviors • Narrow focus of interest • Self stimulating tendencies • Early signs • Failure to sustain eye contact, share visual attention, or synchronize emotional expression

32. Autism • Elly • Learned words curve, triangle and heptagon • Couldn’t learn love, friend, good, bad, think, see, etc. • Problems with pronouns (e.g., I, you)

33. Autism • Kids with other developmental disabilities engage in imaginative play • Rain man

34. Section Summary • Piaget – mind consists of schemes (mental blueprints for actions) • Cognitive growth occurs when kids assimilate/accomodate new experiences into existing schemes

35. 4 Stages of Mental Development • Sensorimotor: thought inseparable from physical action • Preoperational: can symbolize objects/events that are absent • Concrete Operational: know that certain actions (operations) are reversible, and principles of conservation • Formal Operational: abstract understanding, hypothetical thoughts

36. Info Processing Perspective Summary • Mind like a computer • Reasoning ability improves with age as result of increased processing speed and capacity

37. Sociocultural PerspectiveSummary • Vygotsky • Key to mental growth is acquisition of language • Language permits learning from others and provides foundation for verbal thought • Children are apprentice-like • Zone of proximal development

38. Autism • ….?

39. Development of Language • 3000 languages in world • All fundamentally similar, but distinct enough that one makes no sense to another • Linguists cannot explain all the rules of English language • Language is represented by symbols • Every person, object, concept can be represented as a symbol

40. Language • Communication system in which a limited number of symbols that can be combined according to agreed upon rules to produce an infinite number of messages

41. Process of mastery • Learning basic sounds • Combining sounds to form words • Combining words to form statements • Understanding of statements

42. First sounds • Burps, grunts, sneezes – exercise vocal chords • First sounds create dialogues between infant & caregiver • 6-8 weeks “cooing” begins • Repeated, drawn out vowels (oooooh, eeeeeh)

43. First sounds • 4-6 Months: cooing becomes babbling • Repeated consonant and vowel sounds (paa-paa-paa, do-do-do) • Cooing and babbling occur most when hapy • Vocal play serves as exercise for fundamental muscle movements

44. First Words • First Year • Holophrases: single words • Intonation: question, request, demand • Nouns first: names of familiar things • 18 Months: vocabulary spurt (30-50 words) • 24 Months: 180+ words • Significant individual differences

45. First Mistakes • 2 year olds • Overextension: Too broad • Under-extension: Too narrow • Over-regularization: Misapplication of rules • E.g., “foots” or “go-ed”

46. 2 Year Olds • 2+ word utterances • Functional grammar • Context important • Rules inferred from adult speech

47. 2-5 Years • Adult-like speech • First grade: 10,000 words • Early adolescence: understand on conceptual level, can define words, notice incorrect grammar, etc.