CHAPTER 7 COGNITION

1. CHAPTER 7COGNITION

2. Chapter 7: Cognition • Cognition: The activity of knowing and processing through which knowledge is acquired and problems are solved. • Typical of humans throughout lifespan • Changes across the lifespan • Piaget and Vygotsky

3. Piaget How do we come to know reality? • Clinical Method • Observation • Question and answer technique • Used to discover how children reason • Intelligence: How well we adapt • Schemes/cognitive structures • Represent reality

4. Piaget—Basic Issues • Schemas • A structured cluster of pre-conceived ideas. • An organized pattern of thought or behavior. • A specific knowledge structure or cognitive representation of the self. • A mental framework centering around a specific theme, that helps us to organize social information. • Structures that organize our knowledge and assumptions about something and are used for interpreting and processing information.

5. Piaget • Assimilation • Using existing schemes to interpret new experiences • e.g., Birds are things that fly • Accommodation • Modifyingexisting schemes to fit new experience • e.g., Butterflies are different than birds even though they both fly

6. Piaget • Adaptation • Adjusting to the environment • Using assimilation and accommodation • Intelligence = Adaptation • Constructivism • Children construct own reality • Use their experiences (schemes)

7. Piaget • Four stages/changes in ability to reason • Sensorimotor: birth to 2 years • Preoperational: 2 to 7 years • Concrete operations: 7 to 11 years • Formal operations: 12+ years • At each new stage, children think in a qualitativelydifferent way • Rates may vary, but children do not skip stages • Requires maturation and experience

8. Piaget • Sensorimotor Stage • Newborn uses reflexes to understand world (sensory & motoric intelligence) • Outcome of Stage • Mental representation • Evidence:Object Permanence • A not B error • Study with SMA children • Symbolic Capacity • Evidence: Language

9. Preoperational Stage • Ages 2–7: Preschool • May have imaginary companions • Egocentric Thinkers • Flavell et. al (1981) • Animism • Problem Solving Limited • Classification and seriation problems • Lack Conservation • Perceptual salience, Irreversible thinking • Centration—only focus on one dimension • DCCS

10. Some common tests of the child’s ability to conserve.

12. Concrete Operations • Age 7-11 • Can Conserve • Decentration • Reversible thinking • Logical thinking (limited to reality) • Concrete (literal) thinking • Seriation and classification • Transitive thinking: • “ If J is taller than M, and M is taller than S, who is taller – J or S?”

13. Formal Operations • Adolescence/Puberty • Logical Thinking About Ideas • Hypothetical and abstract thinking • Hypothetical-deductive reasoning • Decontextual Thinking • Ability to separate prior knowledge/beliefs from new evidence to the contrary

14. Formal Operations 2 • Adolescent Egocentrism (Elkind) • Differentiating own thoughts from others’ • Imaginary audience • Also, learning to present themselves to a real audience • Personal fable • “No one has ever felt like this before!” • “I drive better when I’m drunk!”

15. Cognition in Adulthood • Formal Operations Require • Normal intelligence • Higher education (scientific thinking) • Lower Performance on Formal Operations • Why? Use only in field of expertise • Postformal Thought (Highest Level) • Relativistic thinking – knowledge depends on CONTEXT • : Labouvie-Vief (page 230) • No absolute answer in many situations

16. Piaget • Contributions • Stimulated much research • Correct about cognitive development • Challenges • Underestimated competencies • Focused on performance not competence • Domain growth rather than stages • Social influences left out

17. Vygotsky • Emphasized the SocioculturalContext • Culture effects how and what we think • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) • Accomplishment with guidance • Where lessons should be aimed • Guided Participation Learning • Private Speech Guides Behavior • (3&4 yr olds)