Cognitive
Development:
Cognitive
Processes
orm rocessin ysie
a g m
■ Sensation
» detecting stimuli in the
environment
■ Perception
› interpreting those stimuli
• Developmental change
■ newborns can sense and
discriminate
• sights, sounds, tastes, & smells
• prefer new & interesting stimuli
• preference for social stimuli
faces, mother's voice, people walking
sensory perceptual capabilities
improve
significantly during infancy
■ vision, depth perception —
• •‹
,..“ --
.•
’
■ APected by stimulus characteristics
■ novelty vs. familiarity
■ people vs. inanimate objects
■ Developmental
change
■ distractibility
decreases
■ sustained attention
increases
■ aRention becomes
increasingly
purposeful
the Central Executive
■ Working memory
■ enables people to think actively about &
process small amount of information
■ Central executive
• oversees flow of information
throughout
system
the Central
Executive
■ Developmentalchange
• processing speed
increases
■ automatization
• capacity of WN increases
• central executive takes
control
Knowledge
• content (where are cookies)
base
› procedures (how to ride bike)
• both universal and culturally
specific
Unlimited capacity
■ Memories last longer if used
frequently
■ Developmental change
■ begins before birth
• sounds, tastes
■ becomes more conscious by preschool
• infantile amnesia
■ amount of stored knowledge increases
dramatically
■ knowledge becomes more integrated
• schemas and scripts
■ Provide a variety of sensory experiences
■ Help children pay attention to things
that are
important
■ Relate new information to existing
knowledge
base
■ Remember that children can only think
about
a small amount of information at any
one time
• •‹
— ,..“ --
.•
• Consider both verbal and nonverbal ’
behaviors
& Cognitive
Strategies
■ Netacognition
■ knowledge about own cognitive
processes
■ intentional use of cognitive processes to
improve
learning and memory
■ Cognitive strategy
■ men%l process used to acquire or
manipulate
information
■ example: learning strategy
1
■ repeating over and over; repetition
Rehearsal
■ Organization
■ identifying relations among pieces of
information
• categorization
■ Elaboration
■ using prior knowledge to embellish new
information
Appear as early as TO months but not consistentfy used
through
prade sc/7oo/
■ Appear by 12 months
largely behavioral (pull cloth to reach
string
attached to toy)
■ Become increasingly mental by
school age
• applying rules (e.g., balance task)
Balance Scale The equ pment Bztfance Md
and Weights
weights
T 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
z0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 10
A beam without weights
balances on a fulcrum
located at its center. After
weights are hung from the
The
beam in the manner shown problem
2 3 4 S 6
here, will the beam continue l0 9 B
to balance? If not, which
side of the beam will drop?
• Children
gradually
replace simple
Strategy cognitive
2 strategies
with more
advanced
Witheffective
time and
Strategy and
4 practice, children
ones.
become more adept
at applying
strategies
efficiently, flexibly,
and successfully.
How five different slrategies for dealing with
the same task might change in frequency
over time
• Reflecting on the nature of the thinking
process
• Developmental change
■ preschoolers
• aware of existence of thought
■ limited awareness of own thought processes
• language precedes full understanding
know, remember, forpe¢ appear in preschool
• overly optimistic about memory
beneficial for cognitive development
■ elementary-school children
■ better able to reflect on their own thought
processes
• increasingly aware of nature of their thinking and
learning
• knowledge about and use of effective strategies
• early adolescence
• repetition and elaboration increasingly understood
Directing and controlling one's own cognitive
to learn
processes
successfully
■ set:ting goals for learning activity
• planning study time
• identifying and using appropriate learning
strategies
• monitoring progress toward goals
• evaluating the final knowledge gained
■ Comprehension monitoring
• checking oneself to make sure of understanding
• grade-school children overestimate understanding
■ even adolescents sometimes have difficulty
self-repu/ated/earninp virtua//y nonexistent in
prade-schoo/students many secondary students have
difficu/fyse/F-repulatinp learning
1 Beliefs regarding the nature of
knowledge & knowledge acquisition
■ certainty, structure, source of knowledge
• speed at which learning occurs
■ nature of learning ability
■ Developmental change
■ absolute truth about any topic “out
there” to be discovered (children)
■ knowledge may be subjective
(adolescents)
Nore advanced lerelz ofachierement brinp abont more
advanced
views abaut know/edpe and learning
■ Western culture
■ acquisition of knowledge for personal benefit
• focus on making sense of classroom material
■ East Asian culture
■ learning has moral and social dimensions
• encourage rehearsal and rote memorization
■ African culture
• strategies for remembering orally transmitted
stories
• Australian aborigine culture
■ strategies for remembering spatial arrangements
of objects
Strategic
■ Development
Engage children in discussions about
thinking & the mind
■ Model and teach elective cognitive
strategies Expect and encourage
increasingly independent learning over
time
■ Provide oppolunities for children to
evaluate their
learning; help them develop
mechanisms for doing so
ePectively
■ Promote more sophisticated
epistemological beliefs
Information Processing
Theory
■ Intersubjectivity
• awareness of shared understandings & perceptions
• as early as 2 months
• Joint attention
• two people (e.g., child and caregiver) simultaneously
focus on
responses
same object or event, monitor each other's attention,
• coordinate
9 or 10 months of
■ Social
age referencing
looking at someone else (e.g., caregiver) for clues
about how to
respond
■ 12-15 months
3 Adults help children reconstruct shared
■ children more likely to remember event if they
events
talk about it
■ children learn important things to remember
■ children learn cultural values
• children learn narrative structure
• BUT: children are susceptible to leading
questions
Strategies
• Co-regulated learning
■ adult & child share responsibility
for directing child's learning
■ scaPolding decreases as child gains
mastery
Through Social
Interaction
■ Regularly engage infants in social
exchanges
■ Talk with children about their
experiences
■ Involve children & adolescents in joint
activities that require new strategies
■ Theory integrated belief system about
topic
■ Theory theory
• researchers' theory that children develop theories
■ belief that children construct integrated,
complex
explanations of the world
Example: Chi/dren”z theories oTthe physical world
■ infants know that objects
• are substantive entities with definite boundaries
■ fall unless something holds them up
• move in a continuous manner across space
• early conceptions provide foundation for more
elaborate theory
■ knowledge may be biologically preprogrammed
(nativisml
..
. . Facilitating Children's Theory
Construction
■ When teaching something new, determine
what
children already know, believe
■ When children have a misconception,
work actively to help them acquire more
accurate understandings
■ ask challenging questions
■ present phenomena that children cannot explain
within their existing perspectives
■ discuss pros and cons of various explanations of the • •‹
— ,..“ --
observed phenomena .•
’
Learning
• significant deficit in one or more cognitive
disability
processes
■ special educational services are required
■ does not include mental retardation, behavioral
disorders, or
sensory impairments
■ appear to have biological basis; often genetic
• Ahention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• deficit in central executive
easily distracted, daydream, trouble listening and
following
directions, give up easily
■ excess energy (hyperactivity)
■ fidgety, move around, talk excessively,
difficulty working or playing quietly
• impulsivity
blurt answers, interrupt, make careless mistakes, act out
without
thinking through the consequences
.
.. With Children Who
Working
Have .
Information Processing
Difficulties
■ Examine children's work for clues
about specific processing diPiculties
■ Help children keep their abention on
the task at hand
■ Teach strategies for controlling
hyperactivity and impulsivity
■ Provide extra scaPolding for studying, —
• •‹
,..“ --
doing .•
homework, completing other learning ’
tasks