Chapter 7 Cognition. Chapter 7: Cognition Cognition: the activity of knowing and the processes...

Chapter 7

Cognition

Chapter 7: Cognition

• Cognition: the activity of knowing and the processes through which knowledge is acquired and problems are solved

• Constructivism – people are active learners

2.3

Cognition unfolds in a sequence of four stages.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

• Genetic Epistemology

– How we come to know reality

• Clinical Method

– Question and answer technique

– Used to discover how children think about problems

Clinical Method (example of a 6 year old)

• Piaget: Why is it dark at night?

• Van: Because we sleep better, and so that it shall be dark in the rooms.

• Piaget: Where does the darkness come from?

• Van: Because the sky becomes grey.

• Piaget: What makes the sky become grey?

• Van: The clouds become dark.

• Piaget: How is that?

• Van: G-d makes the clouds become dark.

Piaget• Intelligence: How well we adapt

– Scheme (s) or schema (schemata)/cognitive structures

• Organization

- Children systematically combine existing schemes into new and more complex ones.

• Adaptation– Adjusting to the environment– Using assimilation and accommodation

• Assimilation – Using existing schemes to interpret new

experiences– E.g., Birds are things that fly

• Accommodation– Modifying schemes to fit new experience– E.g., Butterflies are different than Birds

even though they both fly

• Equilibrium- A resolution of conflict to create a balance

Process of Change in Jean Piaget’s Theory

Piaget’s Four Stages

Cognition unfolds in a sequence of four stages.

•Each is age-related and distinctive.

•Each stage is discontinuous from and more advanced than another.

Cognitive DevelopmentPiaget’s Theory

Piaget

• Sensorimotor Stage

– Newborn uses reflexes to understand world

– Eventually - mental representation

• Object Permanence

• A, not B, error – 8 to 12 month-olds search for an object in the place where they last found it (A) rather than in its new hiding place (B).

The Sensorimotor Period

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Symbolic Function Substage(2-4 Years)

• Symbolic thought: Mental representation of an object that is not present

Copyright (c) 2001 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Egocentrism: The inability to distinguish between one’s own perspective and someone else’s perspective.

Animism: The belief that inanimate objects have “lifelike” qualities and are capable of action.

Can this boy report what the clown doll sees?


They Centrate: Focusing on one characteristic to the exclusion of others.

No Conservation: Some characteristic of an object stays the same even though the object might change in appearance.

Piaget’s Conservation Task

Intuitive substage (4-7 years)

• Intuitive rather than logical

• Lack classification ability

• Lack transformational thought

• Lack conservation due to static thinking, irreversible thought and centration

• Asks a lot of questions– signals the emergence of the interest in reasoning– reflects intellectual curiosity


Class Inclusion

How would you group these?


Classification

This grouping is by shape and size and color. It is multiple classification. The child has to think of three

dimensions at once. In what stage could the child do this?

vv


Preoperational stage

Conservation of Length

Is one of these lines longer or are they they same?What would the pre-operational child say?



The preoperational child would say the one on the top is longer. Pre-operational children

base their concepts on perception, not logic. Copyright (c) 2001 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.


Are all of these lines the same length? Is one longer?What would the pre-operational child say?



Preoperational children are tricked by perception. The think the one “out front” is longer.


Conservation of Area Which side has more green?


Both have the same area of green. Preoperational children rely on perception and think the one on the right has more.


Conservation of Number

Do these two rows have the same number of balls?

Do these two rows have the same number of balls?Which has more?


Conservation of Number

Pre-operational children think the row on the bottom has more. Later they develop

one-to-one correspondence. They understand there is one for this

one, one for that one, and one for that one, etc.Copyright (c) 2001 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Concrete Operations

• Age 7-11

• Can conserve

• Decentration

• Reversible thinking

• Logical thinking (limited to reality)

– Seriation and classification

– Transitive thinking:

• “ If J is taller than M, and M is taller than S, who is taller – J or S?”

Figure 7.4

Comparison of Preoperational and Concrete-Operational Thinking

Formal Operations

• Adolescence/puberty

• Logical thinking about ideas

– Hypothetical and abstract thinking

– Hypothetical-deductive reasoning – from general ideas to their specific implications

• Decontextual thinking

– Ability to separate prior knowledge/beliefs from new evidence to the contrary

Hypothetical-deductive reasoning

Which factor makes the pendulum go faster or slower?

1)Length of string2)Weight3)Point of release4)Amount of impetus

The shorter the string the faster the swing

The Pendulum Problem

Expertise and Formal Pperations

• Adolescent egocentrism

– Enhanced ability to reflect on one’s own and other’s thoughts

• Imaginary audience

• Personal fable

–“No one has ever felt like this before!”

–“I drive better when I’m drunk!”

Cognition in Adulthood

• Formal operations requires

– Normal intelligence

– Higher education (scientific thinking)

• Lower performance on formal operations

• Use only in field of expertise

• Postformal thought

– Relativistic thinking: Labouvie-Vief

– No absolute answer in many situations

• Dialectical thinking– Detecting paradoxes and inconsistencies

among ideas and trying to reconcile them

Aging and Cognitive Skills

• Some mental abilities decline as the average person ages

• Other explanations– Cohort effect– May be differences in style– Lack of motivation

Piaget

• Contributions

– Stimulated much research

– Correct about the sequence of cognitive development

• Challenges

– Underestimated young minds

– Focused on competence

– Domain specific rather than stages

– Social influences left out (too much the “isolated scientist.”

A Modern Take on Constructivism

• Neuroconstructivism theory– New knowledge is constructed in the

context of existing knowledge and is constrained by genetic as well as environmental factors

– Believe that the neural structures in the brain underlying cognitive phenomenon develop and change in response to experience

Vygotsky

• Emphasized the socio-cultural context

– Culture affects how and what we think

• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

– Accomplishment with guidance

– Where lessons should be aimed

• Guided participation (a form of scaffolding) learning

• Private speech/ guides behavior (3 & 4 yr olds)

Cognitive Development Vygotsky’s Theory

The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

student can work with the student can workassistance of an instructor ________________________ independently

Language and Thought• Develop independently of each other• Have external or social origins

ScaffoldingTeacher adjusts the level of support as performance

rises

ZPD

Scaffolding

1. New Task = Mentor + Learner

2. Time Passes = Gradual Release

3. Learner Takes on the Responsibility for learning

Applications of Vygotsky’s Theory

A Comparison of Vygotsky and Piaget

7.3 Fischer’s Dynamic Skill Framework

• Kurt Fischer– Not possible to analyze behavior outside

the context in which it occurs – Behavior emerges from interactions

between person and context– Human performance is dynamic

• Changes in response to changes in context

Comparison to Piaget and Vygotsky

• Piaget – Tested children in artificial settings– Cognitive structures develop

• Fischer– Study of development should happen in

natural context– Skill levels change and develop


• Fischer proposes a series of four tiers– Reflexive– Sensorimotor action– Representations– Abstractions


• Uses concept of zone of proximal development:– To explain how cognition advances from

one level to another

• Uses term developmental range:– To better capture their findings that

people’s abilities vary with context

Chapter 7 Cognition. Chapter 7: Cognition Cognition: the activity of knowing and the processes...

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