Chapter 9: Early Childhood: Cognitive Development
Outer Speech (Vygotsky)
- During first year, vocalizations and thoughts are separate. - During second year, thought and language combine. Children discover objects have labels; Learning labels becomes more self-directed
Piaget's 4 Stages of Cognitive Development
1. sensorimotor (1-2 yrs) 2. preoperational (2-7 yrs) 3. concrete operational (7-12 yrs) 4. formal operational (12+ yrs)
Imaginary Friends
65% preschoolers have imaginary friends. NOT sign of loneliness or psychological problems. Children with imaginary friends are less aggressive, more cooperative, more creative, nurturing. Show good ability to concentrate, more advanced in language development.
Appearance-Reality Distinction (Theory of Mind)
A Clear understanding of the difference between real and mental events. Knowing the differencee between real events on the one hand, and mental events, fantasies, misleading appearances on the other hand. Appearance-reality distinction may appear at 3 yrs (way earlier than Piaget's prediction). This understanding is very important in acquiring theory of mind.
Theory of Mind
A common sense understanding/ awareness of how the mind works. Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states (beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc)...to ones self and others, and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one's own.
Fast Mapping
A process of quickly determining a words meaning, which facilitates children's vocabulary development. Key to this, child's early cognitive biases.
Precausal Thinking
A type of thought in which natural cause-and-effect relationships are attributed to WILL and other pre-operational concepts. Ex. thinking sun set because "it is tired". Believe things happen for a reason, usually egocentric in nature...Ex. Why does it snow?..."so I can play in it". **Cause and Effects attributed to WILL**
Grammatical Morpheme
A unit of language that carries little meaning by itself, but that changes the meaning of words or sentences in a systematic way. Smallest unit of meaning in language. Ex. Played.."play" "ed" morpehemes.
Flexibility (operations)
Ability to use different thinking strategies and mental frameworks at the same time.
Scripts
Abstract, generalized accounts of familiar REPEATED events. Scripts can be formed after 1 experience. Scripts become more elaborate with repetition. Young children are able to create scripts for reoccurring events in life (Birthday parties, Christmas morning, etc). Detail of scripts improve with age.
Origins of Knowledge (Theory of Mind)
Another aspect of theory of mind is the understanding if how we acquire knowledge. Age 3- Realize we gain knowledge by looking at things (observation). Age 4- Children understand that particular senses provide info about certain qualities of an object/ event. (Ex. know colour by our eyes (sight), weight by feeling, etc).
Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory
Approach that emphasizes how cognitive development proceeds as a result of social interactions between members of a culture.
Language Development Preceding Cognitive Development
Argues children create cognitive cases to understand things labelled by words...experience the WORD 1ST, then classify according to its meaning.
Whole-Object Assumption
Assumption that words refer to whole objects and NOT to their component parts or characteristics. Ex. Assuming "doggy" refers to whole dog, NOT tail, colour, bark, etc.
Mental States
Beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, dreams, wishes, etc.
HOME (Home Observation for the Measurement of the Environment) (Betty Caldwell)
Caldwell developed a measure for evaluating children's hoe environment. H- Home O- Observation for the M- Measurement of the E- Environment Contains 6 Home scales: 1. Parental emotional and verbal responsiveness (response to child) 2. Avoidance of restriction of punishment (< 3x) 3. Organization of the Environment (safe, no hazards) 4. Appropriate play materials (1 push-pull toy) 5. Parental Involvement 6. Opportunities for variety simulation (outings 4x week, read min 3x week). HOME INVENTORY SCALE ITEMS ARE BETTER PREDICTORS OF IQ THAN SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS.
Pre-operational confusion between mental and physical events.
Children 2-4 years: Show confusion between symbols and the things they represent. Don't understand words are arbitrary and can have more than one meaning (nicknames). Believe their thoughts reflect external reality. Believe dreams are true. Ex. pre-operational children have no problem pretending to be something that does not exist (Wug, Galaprock). EGOCENTRISM contributes to child's assumptions that their thoughts reflect exactly external reality.
Child with Theory of Mind
Children are... -able to infer the perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of others in certain situations. -understand that mental states affect behaviour. -understand difference between external and internal mental events. -Have an idea of how peoples minds work. -Does NOT solely rely on the perceived world (what they see, hear, smell...). -Begin to understand where knowledge comes from. -Rudimentary ability to distinguish appearance from reality.
Origins of Knowledge (Theory of Mind) O'Neill and Gopnick Ball-Tunnel experiment.
Children feel (not see) ball inside tunnel. 4-5 yrs- no trouble identifying object as ball. 3 yrs- trouble identifying source of their knowledge; after feeling NOT seeing ball inside tunnel, they told experimenter it was a BLUE ball... child does not realize it is impossible to know colour of ball by just feeling it.
Changes in Mental State
Children have trouble understanding changes in their mental states. Crayon-Box-Candle experiment...children asked what they think is in a crayon box "crayons", open box to reveal candles. Asked again, "what did you first the box?" pre-operational children will answer "candles". Children also have trouble understanding the relationship between a scale model and the represented object.
Commercials and Children
Children's cognitive limitations make them susceptible to commercials, may be misleading and harmful. Preschoolers cant discriminate between commercials and program content. Heavy TV watchers more likely to believe commercial claims.
Children and Questions
Children's first questions are telegraphic, and are characterized by a rising pitch at end (signifying question mark)...shows knowledge that question is structured differently than statement. "Wh" questions appear latter 3rd year...some too complex.
Development of Concepts of Race and Ethnicity
Children, like adults are NOT colourblind... there are levels to understanding race & ethnicity: 3-6 yrs: Think about racial differences in physical terms (skin colour due to surgery/ sun). 6-10 yrs: Race is a matter of ancestry that affects language, diet, leisure activities. 10-14 yrs: Race and ethnicity is linked to social class (race/income correlate). Middle childhood/ early adolescence is best time to prevent development of prejudice and racism...children now have a more complex understanding, more open to forming diverse relationships. **Quintana study CNN*
Magical Thinking
Cognitive feature of pre-operational children; another statagey used by children to make sense of their world. Child uses magical (wishful) thinking to explain occurrences that DO NOT have realistic explanations.
False Beliefs
Concept involves children's ability to separate their beliefs from those of another person who has false knowledge of a situation. The ability to understand false beliefs is related to the development of executive functioning, working memory, ability to sustain attention to problems, and self control. Ability to understand false beliefs is important indication child understands mental states affect behaviour.
Transductive Reasoning
Connecting two events in a cause-effect relationship simply because they occur together in time (pre-operational thinking). Confusing correlation for causality (Ex. we get tired because it is dark outside)
Interactionist View of Language Development (Vygotsky)
Created relationship between concepts and words. Vygotsky believed during 1st year, vocalizations and thought are separate. 2nd year; thought and speech (cognitive and language) usually COMBINE FORCES...children discover LABELS.
Vocabulary Development
Development of vocabulary proceeds at extraordinary pace during early childhood. (2-5 yrs). Preschoolers learn average of 9 new words a day....word accusation does not happen gradually...FAST-MAPPING PROCESS.
False Belief Experiment: Cathy, Crayons, Clown (John Flavell)
Flavell' Cathy, Crayons, Clown experiment (1990). Children were shown video of Cathy w bag of crayons. Cathy leaves room, a clown enter. Clown removes crayons from bag, puts rocks in bag, and hides crayons in drawer. Clown leaves and Cathy returns...children are asked "Does Cathy think there ate crayons or rocks in bag?" most children will reply with "Rocks". 3 yrs- incorrectly respond, shows difficulty understanding that other persons belief (Cathy's) would be different than their own. 4-5 yrs- correctly respond, can understand Cathy has different belief than their own. Pre-operational children (3) also unable to understand concept of deception, until about age 4-5 (developed concept of false belief) (sodian experiment).
Operations
Flexible, reversible mental manipulations of objects, in which objects can be mentally transformed and then returned to their original states. (MENTAL ACTS/ SCHEMES INVOLVING TRANSFORMATION). Pre-operational children are unable to perform these reversible and flexible mental operations. Ex: Checkers requires focus on different parts of the board; By considering several moves= flexibility. By picturing board after move's made= reversibility.
Irreversibility
In Piaget's theory, the inability of the pre-operational child to mentally reverse an action, or even recognize that actions can be reversed. Ex. in conservation tests, child does not understand that that you can pour the water in tall glass back into short glass, and water remains same amount. or rolling flat piece of play dough back into ball, restoring things.
Factors influencing Memory
Includes: -The type of memory/ what child is asked to remember. -Interest level of child. -Availability of Retrieval cues/ reminders. -Types of Measurement (verbal??). A child's ability to express a memory seems to be linked w language development, more difficult if less skilled.
Causality
Is influenced by pre-operational, egocentric thinking in young children. Explanation of behaviour its extended to innaminate objects. Children responses to complex questions often egocentric in nature. Their answer usually puts them at center of conceptual universe...age 3.
Private (Inner) Speech (Vygotsky)
Key feature in Vygotsky's interactionist language development position. Private speech is Vygotsky's concept internal dialogue is the ultimate binding of language and thought. Private speech originates in vocalizations that may regulate child's behaviour, facilities learning, and become internalized by age 6-7. Ex.child playing "out loud", talking to oneself
Educational Television
May have superior effects on child's development. Sesame Street; increases children's learning of numbers, letters, cognitive skills. sorting/ categorization skills...found in all viewers. Increases impulse control/ concentration among preschoolers.
Feuerstein's Learning Potential Assessment Device
Measures the child's ability to learn new things with the guidance of an adult who provides increasingly helpful cues. Children are taught new knowledge with the guidance of an adult (teacher, parent, tutor), who can provide hints....aligns with VYGOTSKY'S sociocultural theory of cog-dev.
Competence of Early Childhood memory
Memory is best for meaningful and familiar events or sequences, Children remember what they WANT to remember. Children as young as 11 months can remember organized sequences. Children use scripts to organize memories.
Reversible Thinking (Operatios)
Mental ability to reverse a physical operation. According to Piaget, this ability develops during the concrete operational stage.
Recall Memory
More difficult type of memory task. Child must reproduce material solely from memory, without using any cues, prompts or hints. Ex. Written response. To test, show list of objects, take away list, ask child what they can recall from list. Ability to recall increases with age. Easier to recall activities vs objects.
Grammar Explosion (Grammar Development)
Occurs during 3rd year, sentence structure usually expands, words fill in gaps of telegraphic speech. Children use: -Articles (a, the, an) -Conjunctions (and, but, or). -Prepositions (in, on, over). -Pronouns (her, he, they). Age 3-4; show knowledge for rules for combing phrases and clauses into complex sentences..."you goed and mommy goed"= "you and mommy went"
Overregularization
Occurs when grammatical rules are incorrectly generalized to irregular cases where they do not apply. The application of regular grammar rules to irregular verbs and nouns. Ex: "I hitted the ball." Ex: "I seed the cat" Overregularization reflects accurate understanding of grammar..and represents advances in syntax. "Daddy goed away"...means "daddy went away"...child knows a past tense must be used, just over regularized the "ed".
Cog-Dev Preceding Language Development (Piaget)
Piaget argues: Children must first understand concept, before using words to describe that concept (object permanence) Vocabulary explosion (18 months) related to categorization.
Piaget and Theory of Mind
Piaget believed pre-operational children were too EGOCENTRIC, and too focused on misleading EXTERNAL events to have any concept of theory of mind. BUT, its been proven preschoolers can predict and explain human action/ emotion in terms of mental states.
Evaluation of Piaget's Pre-operational Stage
Piaget underestimated pre-schoolers abilities. 3 mountain test; errors possibly not attributed to child's egocentrism. Causality; logical understanding appear more sophisticated. Artificialism; asking too open ended questions, rather than directed questions. Conservation; , "watch carefully", making child second guess themselves perhaps.
Pre-Operational Stage (Piaget)
Piaget's 2nd stage of cognitive development. Ages 2-7 years. Characterized by inflexibility and irreversible mental manipulations of symbols (symbolic thought and objects). Characterized by - Egocentrism. - Immature notions about causation. - Confusion between mental and physical events. - Ability to only focus on 1 dimension at time.
3 Mountain Test (Piaget, Egocentrism)
Piaget's experiment to test EGOCENTRISM. Child shown a 3-D model of a mountain scene. Pre-operational children were asked to observe the model from their perspective and were then asked to describe another persons point of view from different angles. Piaget displays egocentrism literally prevents young children from taking the perspective (POV) of others (have 1D thinking). 5-6 years still usually egocentric.
Symbolic or Pretend Play
Play in which children make believe that objects and toys are other than what they actually are. Requires cognitive sophistication. 12-13 months; familiar activities (sleeping, eating). 15-20 months; focus on others (feed dolly). 30 months; Imaginary friends (more common among 1st born/ only children). Ability to engage in pretend play is based on the use and recollection of SYMBOLS (mental representations) of things child experiences/ learned.
Transductive Reasoning (Precausal Thinking)
Pre-causal thought that connects one specific observation to another specific observation by creating causal links where none exist. Ex: 3 year old may think just because it is light outside, they should go play outside. 2 separate events (day light) and (playing outside) are thought as having a cause-and-effect relationship...no causation tho.
Symbolic Thought
Pre-operational thought characterized by the use of SYMBOLS to represent objects and relationships among them. Most important symbolic thought is LANGUAGE. Symbolism also expressed as symbolic/ pretend play. Symbolism also expressed in children drawings, things from child's life.
Couch Potato Effect
Preschool children who watch more TV likely to be over weight more than peers who watch less TV. Children <2 NO screen time. Children 2-4 <1 hour per day.
Preschool Education
Preschool education enables children to get an early head start on achievement in school. Pre-schooling (HEAD START PROGRAMS) for DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN provide environmental enrichment, and can enhance cognitive development... Designed to promote school readiness. Provide health care and social services to child and family. Encourage parental involvement.
Egocentrism
Putting oneself at the center of things such that one is unable to perceive the world from another person's point of view. Egocentrism is normal in early childhood, characteristic of pre-operational thinking. Egocentrism caused by 1-dimensional thinking. Child does NOT understand others have different expectations/ view of the world. May view world as thing that is created to meet only their needs, and amuse them (selfish). Young children may assume parents are aware of everything that is happening to them, even when not present. ***3 MOUNTAIN TEST
Scaffolding within ZPD and Recall
Scaffolding within a ZPD promotes children's learning, and children's memory. Children are better able to recall and retell when caregivers focus attention to them, encouraged child to discuss and is actively engaged. Studies where children watched a film and asked to recall, was more efficient when parent actively discussed and child engaged.
Preschool Benefits
Short-term benefits: -Positive influence on IQ scores. -Gains in school readiness and achievement. Long-term Benefits: -Better high school grad rates. Less likely to be delinquent, unemployed, or on welfare.
Bilingualism/ Multilingualism in Children
Speeds up the development of cognitive functions dealing with attention and inhibition.
French Immersion Schools
Students tend to do well (or better) in main subject areas as their only-english peers. Advantages may be societal and culturally based.
Television and Children
TV has great potential for teaching variety of cognitive skills, social behaviours, attitudes. TV provides children with important window on the outside world, and cognitive skills required to succeed in the world. BUT entertainment may be harmful.
Mental Representations Experiment (Cookie-Eraser)
Taylor & Hort; Show 3-5 year olds objects with MISLEADING APPEARANCES. Shown eraser that resembles a cookie...says it looks like cookie, once they found out it was an eraser, reported it looked like a eraser...not an eraser that looked like a cookie. Children could NOT mentally represent the eraser as BOTH being an eraser and looking like a cookie simultaneously. Same w nicknames... cannot be more than 1 name.
Preschool: Child-Centred Programs
Teacher provides variety of activities, children permitted to choose things that interest them most...they acquire academic skills through PLAY.
Preschool: Academic Programs
Teachers structure learning experiences and the curricula takes children step-by-step, through learning letters, numbers, shapes, colours. Provides academic competencies...gives child an academic "head start" to learning.
Scaffolding (Vygotsky)
Temporary support as child learns, gradually decreases as a child's skill increases. In education, scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process.
Contrast Assumption
The assumption that objects have only 1 label...AKA Mutually Exclusive Assumption; if a word means one thing, than it cannot mean another. This bias facilitates children's learning of words.
Animism (Precasual Thinking)
The attribution of life and intentions to inanimate objects. (Attributions of causality). Ex. The sun sets because it is tired. Ex. The trees have leaves to keep them warm.
Artificialism (Precausal Thinking)
The belief that environmental features are created by humans. Ex. Mountains grow people people planted stones. Thunder is a man grumbling. Rain is someone pouring a watering can on us.
Conservation
The cog-psych principle (Piaget) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the superficial characteristics (shape, arrangement) of objects. Pre-operational children FAIL understand conservation...as conservations requires the ability to focus on 2 aspects (dimensions) of a situation at once...pre-operational children can only focus on 1-dimension (CENTRATION).
Recognition Memory
The easiest type of memory task. One simply indicates if whether a presented item has been seen before, or which of a number of items has been paired with a stimulus. Ex. Multiple choice questions...easier than written response. Infants capable of simple recognition (moms smell, face). To test toddler, show objects they saw before, observe reaction. Preschool children can recognize more than they can recall.
Autobiographical (Episodic) Memory
The memory of specific events or episodes . ***just memories of a specific event. Seldomly (rarely) last into adulthood. Linked with development of language skills (facilitated by children talking to parents/ others about past events.
Rehearsal (Memory)
The memory strategy that uses repetition, either mental repetition, behavioural/ repetition, or BOTH. Ex. repeat phone # you're trying to remember. Children don't use extensively until age 5 (able to do mentally). Memory strategies able to be taught (rehearsal/ organization...result in higher/ enhanced memory ability in children as young as 3-4.
Mental Representations (Theory of Mind)
The mental forms that a real object or event can take. Pre-operational children have limited understanding of mental representations. Children will have trouble understanding that real objects/ events can take many forms in our minds.
Pragmatics
The practical aspects of language and communication, such as adaptation of language to fit the social situation or context. Ex. manners, role-playing. Age 3-5 develop more pragmatic skills. Represents the ability to comprehend other perspectives, and sensitivity to listener... (egocentric speech gradually disappears, and pragmatic skills develop). Children use pragmatics when participating in infant-direct speech.
Class Inclusion
The principle that one category or class of things can include several subclasses. (Ex. animals, birds, types of automobiles) This concept requires children to focus on more than 1 aspect of situation at one (decentration). Ex. Cats are a subclass of the class of animals. When you show pre-operational child a picture with 5 dogs and 2 cats, and ask "are there more dogs or animals in picture?", they will answer dogs, because they cannot think about the two subclasses (cats & dogs) and the larger class (animals) simultaneously...cant easily compare and recognize that both cats and dogs are animals. PRE-OPERATIONAL CHILDREN DO NOT SHOW CLASS INCLUSION.
Wugs
This is a wug. Now there are two of them, there are two ___? "Wugs". This experiment proves that children understand correct grammar rules. They know to say "Wugs", providing the correct plural for a bogus word.
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Vygotsky's term for the range of tasks a child CAN perform with the help pf a skilled other. The use of conversations, external and internal to guide learning. Gears assistance to child's capabilities.
Passive Sentences
Young children have difficulty understanding passive sentences. Start age 5-6. Errors in comprehension made 70% of time. Ex: "The car was hit by the truck" "The food is being eaten by the dog"
Centration
in Piaget's theory, the tendency of a pre-operational child to focus only on one dimension (feature/aspect) of an object while ignoring other relevant features. Ex: Focusing on only the height of the glass, and not also the width.