Psyco 105 Individual and Social Behaviour Help Psych home
Sec. M1, MWF 2:00 E-mail
Cognitive Development: Overheads

Conceptualizing development 

  • Stages or continuous? 
  • Individual differences? 
  • Coherence or independence? 
  • Sources of development? 
Theories of Cognitive Development
  • Piagetian 
  • Information Processing
Stages or Continuous?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Individual differences?

Invariant sequence, prerequisite development leads to subsequent development 

  • "You have to crawl before you can walk" 
Normative 
  • "Children usually crawl between 5-11 months" 
  • "Children usually walk between 9-17 months" 

 
 
 

Coherence or independence?

Mind develops as a whole 

Modular development
 
 
 
 
 

Sources of development?

Nature 

Nurture
 
 
 
 
 

Piagetian Theory

Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) - Father of (Modern) Developmental Psychology 

Genetic Epistomology 
 

Adaptation --------->  Schemata built up/refined

-Assimilation

-Accomodation
 
 

 Stages

Sensory Motor Stage (birth to 2 years) 

  • Gradual differentiation of self and world 
  • Coordination of sensory and motor systems 
Preoperational Stage (2 - 7 years) 
  • Ability to operate on objects in the physical world 
Concrete Operational Stage (7 - 12 years) 
  • Ability to operate on mental representation of physical objects 
Formal Operational Period (12 years) 
  • Systematic and logical thought about abstract principles

 
 

Information Processing Theory

Concentrates on development in the information processing system:
 
 
 

  Sensory Input  ------->  Sensory Store -----> Short-term Store -----> Long-term Store
 
 
 
 
 
 

What Develops?

Capacity and processing in Short-term Store 

  • Increased specificity of encoding 
  • Strategy development 
  • Strategy generalization 
  • Automaticity

 

Combination of Chemicals Problem

Piaget: Ability to solve the Combination of Chemicals Problem reflects formal operational thought 

Information Processing: Strategies used to (attempt to) solve the problem demonstrate cognitive development
 
 
 
 
 

Strategies

Vary - One -Thing - At-A - Time (VOTAT) 

Hold - One -Thing - At-A -Time (HOTAT) 

Change All (CA)
 
 

Information Processing researchers examine trial-by-trial performance to study strategy use
 
 
 
 
 

Comparing Piagetian & Info. Processing Theories
  Piaget Information Processing
Stages/Continuity Stages Continuity
Individual Differences Minimal Many
Coherence/Independence Coherence Independence
Sources of Development Interaction Interaction