Chapter 2: Cognitive Development

Definition of Development: orderly, adaptive changes that humans go through from conception
to death
 Types of Development
o Physical development: changes in the body (ie. Maturation)
o Personal development: changes in an individual’s personality
o Social development: changes in the way an individual relates to others
o Cognitive development: changes in thinking, reasoning, and decision making
 Changes occur due to: growth, maturation (naturally + spontaneously), learning
o Nature vs nurture
Theories Debating Questions
 Nature vs Nurture (what is the source of development):
o Nature: heredity, genes, biological processes, maturation
o Nurture: environmental contexts like education, parenting, culture, social policies
o Current view: complex coactions (joint actions) of nature and nurture
 A calm child will elicit a different reaction that a very energic child
 Continuity vs Discontinuity (What is the shape of development):
o Continuous: process of adding to and increasing abilities (Gradual improvements)
 Ie. Adolescent growing taller
o Discontinuity: process of leaps to new stages when abilities actually change
 Ie. Puberty: teens undergo several changes all at once
 Timing Critical Periods + earlier vs later experiences (Is it too late?):
o Early experiences especially ones with adverse consequences can have long term
consequences for development
o Later experiences: powerful + change the direction of development
o Sensitive periods (better term than critical period): person is especially ready for
or responsive to certain experiences
General Principles of Development
 People develop at different rates
 Development is relatively orderly
o People develop certain abilities before others (adding  algebra)
 Development takes place gradually

The Brain + Cognitive Development

Components
 Neurons: specialized nerve cells that accumulate and transmit
information in the brain (grey matter) and nervous system
o Brain contains billions of neurons
 At birth: 100-200 billion neurons
 1st year: fibres that reach out from neurons and
synapses b/t the fibre ends increase
 2-3: each neuron has around 15 000 synapses
 Pruning: only neurons that are used survive
  What can help: stimulating environments
 Brain doubles in size in the first year and doubles again around puberty
 Experience-expectant: synapses are overproduced in certain parts of the
brain during the first months of life
 When an infant receives visual and auditory stimulation then
visual and auditory regions of the brain will develop
 Experience-dependent: synaptic connections are formed based on the
individual’s experience. New synapses are formed in response to neural
activity in very localized areas of the brain when person is not properly
processing info
 Involved in learning: Mastering unfamiliar sound in a second language
o Neurogenesis: production of neurons occurs from birth to adulthood
 Synapses: space b/t neurons where chemical messages are sent
o Axons transmit information out to muscles, glands, or other neurons
o Dendrites receive information and transmit it to the neuron cells themselves
o Connections become stronger (when used) or weaker (when not used)
depending on the pattern of use (synaptic plasticity)
 Glial Cells (white matter of the brain)
o Functions: fighting infections, controlling blood flow, communication among
neurons, and providing the myelin coating on axons
 Myelination: the coating of axon neurons with an insulating fatty glial
covering that improves message transmission and makes it more efficient
 Occurs early in early years and continues gradually into
adolescence
 Cerebral Cortex
o Role: complex problem solving + language
o Last part of the brain to fully develop (parts mature at different rates)
 Thus, most susceptible to environmental influences
 Cortex maturing pattern: frontal lobe (physical movement/coordination),
parietal lobe (complex senses region), temporal lobe (emotions,
judgement, language not developed till high school) frontal lobe (higher
order thinking)
 To accomplish complex function such as reading or speaking various areas
of the cortex must communicate and work together
o Lateralization: specialization of the 2 sides or hemispheres of the brain
 Each half of the brain controls the opposite side of the body
 Left hemisphere: verbal + language processing,
Right hemisphere handles: spatial-visual information and emotions
(nonverbal information), social perception, creativity
 This can be reversed for left-handed people + there is less
specialization altogether in females
 Differences in performance is due to one hemisphere being more
efficient than the other for performing certain functions
 o Plasticity (adaptability): the brain’s anatomical differentiation is use-dependent
(nature and nurture both contribute)
 young children’s brains show more plasticity b/c their brains are not as
lateralized as in older children or adults
 Damage to one region of the brain can be compensated by
another
 Experience plays a critical role in brain development.
 Maturation of the brain
 Areas governing basic sensory and motor skills mature during the
first 3 years of life.
 Perceptual and instinctive centers: strongly affected by early
childhood experiences.
 Prefrontal cortex and cerebellum are not rewired until 5 to 7 years
old.
 Major restructuring occurs from ages 9 to 11 due to pubertal
development and again in adolescence.
 Consequences of traumatic experience may be difficult to change.
 Problems occurring at a younger age are associated with more
severe organic disorders and complications.
 Safeguards are important in reducing the risk of complications and
lifelong disabilities.
o Examples: proper prenatal care, proper nutrition, and
avoidance of tobacco or alcohol during pregnancy
o Implications for teachers:
 tasks require simultaneous participation of many parts of the brain
 Can help thrill seeking adolescents by devoting their energy and passion
to areas like politics, environment, social causes

Other Brain structures and functions mentioned in slideshow

 The brain stem handles most of the autonomic functions necessary to stay alive
 Hindbrain (medulla, pons, and cerebellum) - provides regulation of autonomic
activities
 Midbrain - coordinates movement with sensory input; contains reticular activating
system (RAS)
 Diencephalon (thalamus and hypothalamus)
 Regulates behavior and emotion
 Functions primarily as a relay between the forebrain and the lower areas of brain stem
 Limbic system: Regulates emotional experiences and expressions; plays a significant
role in learning and impulse control
 Regulates basic drives of sex, aggression, hunger, and thirst

Adolescent Development + the brain
 Adolescents’ brains are not fully developed
o Changes in brain increase one’s ability to control their behaviour in both low and
high stress situations, to be more purposeful and organized, and to inhibit
impulsive behaviour (happens in early 20s)
 Adolescents become more responsive to pleasure seeking and emotional stimulation as
their limbic system matures.
 Their less-mature prefrontal lobe may not be equipped to sense risk (not able to avoid
risk and controlling impulses)
o Result of differences in the pace of development for 2 components of the brain:
 Limbic system (develops earlier): involved with emotions + reward-
seeking/risk-taking/sensation-seeking behaviors
 As the limbic system matures adolescents become more
responsive to pleasure seeking and emotional stimulation
 Risk taking can be positive factors for adolescents when they try
new ideas and behaviour and learning is stimulated
 Prefrontal lobe (more time to develop): judgement + decision making

 thrill seeking wins out over caution, at least until the prefrontal
lobe catches up and becomes more integrated with the limbic
system in late adolescence.
 Been explained as “high horsepower, poor steering”
 Internal clock is reset impacting sleep. They need 9 hours of sleep per night
o Consequences of sleep deprivation: concentrating, learning, mood swings,
behaviour problems, drowsy driving
How the Brain works?
 All experiences sculpt the brain: play and deliberate practice,
formal and informal learning
 Culture shapes the brain through plasticity

o when adult Chinese speakers added and compared

Arabic numerals, they showed brain activity in the
motor (or movement) areas of their brains, whereas
adult English speakers performing the same tasks
showed activity in the language areas of their brains.
Chinese children are taught arithmetic using an
abacus calculation tool that involves movement and
spatial positions.

Neuroscience + Teaching
Instruction and Brain Development
 students who simply memorized answers showed greater activity in the area of the
brain that specializes in retrieving verbal information
  students who used a strategy showed greater activity in the visual-spatial processing
portion of the brain
Brain + Learning to Read
 Reading is a complex integration of the systems in the brain that recognize sounds,
written symbols, meaning, and sequences, and then connect with what the reader
already knows
 Suggested reading strategies: teach sounds, spelling, meanings, sequencing, vocabulary
through reading writing, discussing, explaining, drawing, modelling
Emotions, Learning and the Brain
 Learning suffers when students: feel unsafe and anxious, not challenged, or uninterested

Lessons for Teachers

 Instead of switch learning from using your brain to changing your brain
 Human capabilities (intelligence, communication, problem solving) emerge from each
persons unique synaptic activity overlaid on his or her genetically endowed brain
anatomy; nature and nurture are in constant activity together.
o brain can have some limits on learning in the form of genetic brain anomalies in
neural wiring or structure, but learning can occur through alternate pathways in
the brain (as Nico and Brooke demonstrated). So, there are multiple ways both
to teach and to learn a skill, depending on the student
 Many cognitive functions are differentiated; they are associated with different parts of
the brain. So learners are likely to have preferred modes of processing (e.g., visual or
verbal) as well as varying capabilities in these modes. Using a range of modalities for
instruction and activities that draw on different senses may support learning for
example using maps and songs to teach geography. Assessment should be
differentiated, too.
 The brain is relatively plastic, so enriched, active environments and flexible instruc-tional
strategies are likely to support cognitive development in young children and learning in
adults.
 Some learning disorders may have a neurological basis; neurological testing may assist
in diagnosing and treating these disorders, as well as in evaluating the effects of various
treatments.
 The brain can change, but it takes time. Teachers must be consistent, patient, and
compassionate in teaching and reteaching in different ways, as Nicos and Brookes
parents and teachers could tell you. Learning from real-life problems and concrete
experiences helps students construct knowledge and also gives them multiple pathways
for learning and retrieving information.
 The brain seeks meaningful patterns and connections with existing networks, so
teachers should tie new information to what students already understand and help
them form new connections. Information that is not linked to existing knowledge will be
easily forgotten.
 It takes a long time to build and consolidate knowledge. Numerous visits in different
contexts over time (not all at once) help to form strong, multiple connections.
  Large, general concepts should be emphasized over small specific facts so that students
can build enduring, useful knowledge categories and associations that are not
constantly changing.
 Stories should be used in teaching. Stories engage many areas of the brainmemories,
experiences, feelings, and beliefs. Stories also are organized and have a sequence
beginning, middle, endso they are easier to remember than unrelated or unorganized
information.
 Helping students understand how activity (practice, problem solving, making connec-
tions, inquiry, etc.) changes their brain and how emotions and stress affect attention
and memory can be motivating, leading to greater self-efficacy and self-regulated
learning (we talk more about this in Chapter 11). One important message to students is
that they are responsible for doing what it takes to change their own brains; you have to
work (and play) to learn.

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Influences on Development
 Cognitive skills change because people are constantly trying to make sense of the world.
 Changes are influenced by:
o Maturation: biological changes
o Activity: act on environment (explore, test, observe)
o Social Experiences: learning from others
 Without this we would need to reinvent all the knowledge already offered
by our culture
o Equilibration
 Structures (schemes) are unobservable mental systems that underlie intelligence.
o Structures are most simply viewed as some enduring knowledge base by which
children interpret their world.
o Basic building blocks of thinking
o Organized systems of actions of thought that allow us to mentally represent or
think out the objects and events in our world
 Can be small and specific or general
 Recognizing a rose scheme, categorizing plants scheme
 Intrinsic activity
o Children are active initiators and seekers of stimulation.
o Structures are intrinsically active and must be exercised so that they can be
strengthened, consolidated, and developed.
o Piaget made the child not only the focus of development but also its major
perpetrator.
Basic Tendencies in Thinking
 Organization: ongoing process of arranging, combining, recombining, and rearranging
information and experience into mental systems or categories
o Every intellectual operation is related to all other acts of intelligence
 o Very young infants can either look at an object or grasp it when it comes in
contact with their hands. They cannot coordinate looking and grasping at the
same time. As they develop, however, infants organize these two separate
behavioural structures into
o Schemes
 Adaptation
o Assimilation is the incorporation of new information into already-existing
schemes.
 First time kids see a raccoon they call it kitty, they try to match the new
experience with an existing scheme for identifying animals
o Accommodation is the modification of a scheme to incorporate new information
 If fata cannot be made to fit any existing schemes, more appropriate
structures must be developed
 Child adds the recognizing raccoon to their scheme identifying animals

o People adapt to their increasingly complex environments by using existing

schemes whenever these schemes work (assimilation) and by modifying and
adding to their schemes when something new is needed (accommodation).
 Even using an established pattern, such as sucking through a straw, may
require some accommodation if you are used to a straw of a different size
or length. If you have tried drinking juice from box packages, you know
that you have to add a new skill to your sucking scheme do not squeeze
the box or you will shoot juice through the straw, straight up into the air,
and into your lap.
o Whenever new experiences are assimilated into an existing scheme, the scheme
is enlarged and changed somewhat, so assimilation involves some
accommodation
 Equilibration: search for mental balance b/t cognitive schemes and information from the
environment
o the organism’s attempt to keep its cognitive structures in balance
o If we apply a scheme to a situation and it works, we have equilibrium. If it does
not work, we experience disequilibrium.
Stages of Cognitive Development
 First 3 stages are universal (b/c they focus on the physical environment)
 Stage 4 (Formal Operations) not fully developed in everyone, post-secondary
strengthens the formal operation skills such as hypothetical problems
Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years)
 Learns through reflexes, senses, and movement (actions on the environment).
 What can the child do:
o Development of imitation, memory, and thought
o shifts to symbolic thinking
o Recognition of object permanence
 Comes to understand that objects exist when they are in and out of sight
  Leads to mental representation
o Beginning of goal-directed actions: deliberate actions towards a goal
 Moves from reflexive actions to intentional activity
o Solve problems by trial and error

Mentioned in slideshow: Some Everyday Expressions of the Symbolic Function: Symbolic Play
 Fantasy play/pretend play/make-believe
 Sociodramatic play beginning about 3 years
 Increases over preschool years, peaks around age 6, decreases into adolescence
 Constitutes between 10% and 30% of preschool children’s waking day
 Some sex differences in symbolic play

 SUBSTAGES
o Substage 1: The use of reflexes (birth to 1 month). Infants enter the world with a
set of inherited action patterns, or reflexes, through which they interpret their
experiences.
o Substage 2: Primary circular reactions (1 to 4 months). Reflexes are extended so
that new patterns of behavior are acquired that were not part of the basic
biological apparatus with which the child was born.
o Substage 3: Secondary circular reactions (4 to 8 months). Repetitive behaviors
that are not based on reflexes but represent the first acquired adaptations of
new (i.e., not reflexive) behaviors.
o Substage 4: Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8 to 12 months). One
circular reaction can be used in the service of another. The first incidence of
goal-directed behavior and the beginning of the differentiation between means
and ends (i.e., cause and effect).
o Substage 5: Tertiary circular reactions (12 to 18 months). Children can now make
subtle alterations in their existing schemes that are directly related to obtaining a
solution to their conundrum. This, Piaget stated, reflects a process of active
experimentation.
o Substage 6: Invention of new means through mental combinations (18 to 24
months). Advent of symbolic function and transition to preoperational period.
Preoperational Period (2 to 7 years)
 Language acquisition and use
 Symbolic thinking: using symbols to represent objects
o Involves using words, gestures, signs, images, etc.
o Semiotic function: ability to use symbols (language, pictures, signs, gestures) to
represent actions or objects mentally
 Pretending to ride a horse to represent a real horse that is not actually present
 Children not able to talk will communicate they want a drink by pretending to
drink this is semiotic function
 May have imaginary friends
  Has difficult with past and future (thinks presently)
 Logical reasoning
 Lack of conservation
Due to:
o Centration thinking: think of the world in terms of one variable at a time
 Conservation requires decentering: focusing on 1+ aspect at a time
o Irreversible thinking
o Perceptual salience (appearance vs reality)
 Trouble with problem solving (classification + seriation problems)
 Egocentric: all about them, cannot understand others points of view
o Shown in Piaget’s 3 mountains task
 Solve problems by trial and error
Concrete Operations (7 to 11 years)
 Operations: actions that are carried out and reserved
mentally rather then physically
o Conservations, classification, seriation
 Thinks logically and concretely
o Solve logical problems through manipulation
 Understand reversibility: can mentally undo actions
o Understands laws of conservation: the amount or
number of something remains the same even if the
arrangement or appearance is changed, as long as
nothing is added and nothing is taken away
o Depends on:
 Decentration
 Identity: person or object remains the same over time
 Logical thinking (limited to reality)
 Compensation: changes in one dimension can be offset by
changes in another dimension
 Reversibility: ability to think through a series of steps, then mentally
reverse the steps and return to the starting point
 Classification: ability to focus on a single characteristic of objects in a set and group the
objects according to those characters (colour, shape)
o Advanced classification: realizing one class fits into another (a city can be in a
particular province and Canada)
 Seriation: arrangement of objects in sequential order according to one aspect (size,
weight, volume)
o B is bigger than A but smaller than C (ABC)
 Understands past, present, future
o Starts to think through situations (can reimagine where to put furniture in a room)
Formal Operations (11 to adult)
 Abstract thinking
  Hypothetico-deductive reasoning: Individual begins by identifying all the factors that
might affect a problem and then deduces and systematically evaluates specific solutions
o Scientific reasoning (logico-mathematical)
 Inductive reasoning: using specific observations to identify general principles
 Deductive logic: reasoning from the general to specific
 Horizontal Decalage: Applying same kinds of thinking to new kinds of problems; kids can
solve same kinds of concrete operations problems earlier than others
 Social, multilayered, complex thinking
 Adolescent egocentrism: become very focused on their own ideas instead of others
Leads to
o imaginary audience: feeling that everyone is watching and analyzing them
(everyone is looking at my pimple!)
o Personal Fable: feeling like no one understands how you feel + like nothing will
happen to you (drinking and driving)

Information Processing and Neo-Piagetian Views of Cognitive Development

 Executive functioning: processes used to organize, coordinate, and perform goal-
directed intentional actions
o Skills including focusing attention, inhibiting impulsive responses, making and
changing plans, and using memory to hold and manipulate information
o Responsible for child’s better attention, process information quickly, hold more
memory
 Non-Piagetian theories: integrate findings about attention, memory, and strategy use
with Piaget’s insights about children’s thinking and the construction of knowledge

o Robbie Case: children develop in stages within specific domains such as

numerical concepts, spatial concepts, social tasks, storytelling, reasoning about
physical objects, and motor development. As children practise using the schemes
in a particular domain (e.g., using counting schemes in the number concept
area), accomplishing the schemes takes less attention. The schemes become
more automatic because the child does not have to think so hard about it. This
frees up mental resources and memory to do more. The child now can combine
simple schemes into more complex ones and invent new schemes when needed
(assimilation and accommodation in action).

Limitations of Piaget’s Theory

 Agree with how children think DISAGREE with why thinking develops
 Stages: questioned the existence of 4 separate stages of thinking due to
o lack of consistency in children’s thinking (can grasp conservation of numbers way
before conservation of weight)
o process may be more continuous
 Underestimating Children’s Abilities
 o Piaget test may have been too difficult and too many directions for participates
to follow
 Does not explain how even young children can perform at an advanced level
 Children do not have to be naturally or developmentally ready to learn
o Children can be instructed to perform conservation tasks
 Overlooks important effects of the child’s cultural and social group
o Children in western countries move to the next stage 2-3 years before children in
non-western countries
o When a culture emphasizes a cognitive ability, children growing up in that culture
tend to acquire that ability sooner
 Chinese young children can grasp conservation tasks sooner than
American young children b/c the Chinese education system puts more
emphasis on math and science in the early grades

Appy to teaching
 Understanding and building on Student’s Thinking
 Disequilibrium needs to be kept just right to encourage growth
 Require differentiated instruction
 Activity and Constructing knowledge: individuals construct their own understanding
o Students need to be actively engaged (use of manipulators)
o Receive adequate constructive feedback
o Students should act, manipulate, observe, and talk or write about what they
have experienced
 Value of play
o Brain develops with stimulation which is provided through play

Sociocultural Theory: Vygotsky (incorporates culture)

 Sociocultural theory: emphasizes the role in development of cooperative dialogues b/t
children and more knowledgeable members of society. Children learn the culture of
their community (ways of thinking and behaving) through these interactions
o Cultures that encourage cooperation and sharing teach these skills early,
whereas cultures that encourage competition nurture competitive abilities in
their children
Social Sources of Individual Thinking
 Co-constructed: people interact and negotiate to create an understanding or to solve a
problem, the final product is shaped by all participants
o Child internalizing adults actions and words

 Open discussions students asking and answering each other’s questions were better
than teacher-dominated discussion for the development of these argument forms. Over
time, these ways of presenting, attacking, and defending positions could be internalized
as mental reasoning and decision making for the individual students.
Cultural Tools

 Cultural tools: real tools (computers, scales) and symbol systems (numbers, language,
graphs) that allow people in a society to communicate, think, solve problems, and
create knowledge
o If a culture only uses roman numerals to represent quantity, long division will be
impossible
 Technology tools: Reliance on spell check has decreased our ability to spell. Reliance on
calculators has improved our ability to complete complex math problems
 Psychological tools: mediate (help to accomplish) all higher-order mental processes such
as reasoning and problem solving.
o Help children to transform their thinking by enabling them to grain greater
mastery of their own cognitive processes
o As children engage in activities with adults or more capable peers, they exchange
ideas and ways of thinking about or representing concepts drawing maps, for
example, as a way to represent spaces and places. Children internalize these co-
created ideas. Thus, childrens knowledge, ideas, attitudes, and values develop
through appropriating or taking for themselves the ways of acting and thinking
provided by their culture and by the more capable members of their group
Role of Language
 Thinking depends on speech on the means of thinking, and on the child’s socio-cultural
experience
 Private speech (talking to yourself) guides cognitive development
o Leads to self-regulation: ability to plan, monitor, and guide one’s own thinking +
problem solving
o Internal plane of verbal thinking: guide to how to do a task
 Often replicates adults speech (Turn the puzzle!)
o Changes from spoken to whispered speech to silent lip movement
 Peaks at age 9
Zone of Proximal Development
 ZPD: a child can master a task if given appropriate help/support
 Entail: structure, clues, reminders, help with remembering details/steps,
encouragement to keep trying
 Connection to private speech: adult helps a child with a task using verbal scaffolding
eventually these turns into private speech with the child making the prompts to
themselves
 Role of Learning + Development: learning is an active process
o Learning is a tool inn development
Limitations
 We may be born with some cognitive tools (children seem to figure out a lot about the
world before they have a chance to learn from teachers or cultures)
 Consists mostly of general ideas (limited test results)
Apply to Teaching
 Role of adults + peers: children need support (scaffolding + ZPD) while they build a
 firm understanding that will eventually allow them to solve the problems on their
own
 Assisted Learning: learning from the student what is needed such as info, reminders,
prompts, encouragement, adapting materials,
 Provide access to powerful tools that support thinking (computers, speadsheets,
dictonaries)
 Group learning (peer tutoring)

Tools of the mind

 A curriculum for preschool through 2nd grade based on Vygotsky’s theory
 Children make Play Plans: Children draw a picture of how they plan to play that day, and
then describe it to the teacher, who may make notes on the page and thus model
literacy activities. Plans become more complex and detailed as children become better
planners.
 Connection to Vygotsky’s Theory:
o Children develop mental tools (ie. Strategies for focusing attention)
o Play (especially dramatic pretend play) supports holistic development by learning
to focus attention, control impulses, follow rules, use symbols, regulate their
own behaviour, cooperate with others

Differences between Piaget and Vygotsky

Piaget Vygotsky
Role of interaction Creates disequilibrium Needs to be with people who
necessary to expand are more capable or
knowledge advanced in their thinking
(needs to be peers on an
equal basis to challenge each
other’s thinking)
Role of Language  Collective  Private speech:
monologue: form of talking to yourself
speech in which (similar to collective
children in a group monolgue)
talk but do not really  Thinking depends on
interact or speech on the means
communicate of thinking, and on
o Also known as the child’s socio-
egocentric cultural experience
speech  Gradually loses its
o Children audibility to become
talking to more internal verbal
themselves as
thought
they play
o Sign of
 cognitive
immuniturity
 Declines with age

Learning child needs to be

developmentally ready to
learn. Development is an
active construction of
knowledge and learning is a
passive function