COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

TOPICS

Definition of Development

The Brain and Cognitive Development

Lessons for Teachers: General Principles

What is Development?
in its most general psychological sense refers to certain
changes that occur in human beings (or animals) between
conception and death
patterns of development
Cephalocaudal Development
Proximodistal Development
Aspects of Development
Physical development
 Changes in the body

Personal development
 Changes in an individual’s personality

Social development
 Changes in the way an individual relates to others

Cognitive development
 Changes in thinking, reasoning and decision making

Maturation refers to changes that occur naturally and spontaneously and that are, to a large extent,
genetically programmed.
 General Principles of Development

People develop at different rates

Development is relatively orderly
Development takes place gradually
 BRAIN AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Cerebellum coordinates and orchestrates balance and
smooth, skilled movements
Hippocampus is critical in recalling new information and
recent experiences
Amygdala directs emotions
Thalamus is involved in our ability to learn new
information, particularly if it is verbal

Note: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI)

Event-related potential (ERP) Positron emission
tomography (PET)
The Developing Brain: Neurons
Neurons - the specialized nerve cells that
accumulate and transmit information (in the form
of electrical activity) in the brain and other parts
of the nervous system. (gray matter)
neurogenesis - the production of new
neurons continues into adulthood, especially in
the hippocampus region.
axons and dendrites long arm- and branch-like
fibers to connect with other neuron cells. Axons
sends messages and dendrites receives
messages.
 The Developing Brain: Neurons
Synapses tiny spaces between axons and dendrites
where neurons share information by using electrical
signals and by releasing chemicals that jump across it.
Synaptic Plasticity - connections between neurons
become stronger with use or practice and weaker when
not use
The Developing Brain: Neurons
Glial Cells - white matter of the brain. they
greatly outnumber neurons. Glial cells appear
to have many functions, such as fighting
infections, controlling blood flow and
communication among neurons, and providing
the myelin coating around axon fibers.
Myelination, the coating of axon neuron fibers
with an insulating fatty glial covering,
influences thinking and learning. This myelin
coating makes message transmission faster
and more efficient.
The Developing Brain: Neurons
2 Kinds of
Overproduction and
Pruning Process
1. experience-expectant because
synapses are overproduced in certain
parts of the brain during specific
developmental periods, awaiting
(expecting) stimulation.
2. experience-dependent. Here,
synaptic connections are formed
based on the individual’s experiences.
New synapses are formed in response
to neural activity in very localized
areas of the brain.
Developing Brain: Cerebral Cortex
Physical Motor Cortex

Complex Senses (vision & hearing)

Frontal lobe (higher order thinking)

Temporal Lobe (emotion, language, &

Judgement) develops until high
school years or later

lateralization, or the specialization

of the two hemispheres of the brain.
Left Hemisphere - is a major
factor in language processing, and the
right hemisphere handles much of our
spatial-visual information and
emotions (nonverbal information).

Right Hemisphere - is better at

figuring out the meaning of a story,
but the left side is where grammar and
syntax are understood
Adolescent Development and the
Brain ▪ During adolescence, changes in the brain
increase individuals’ abilities to control
their behavior in both low-stress and
high-stress situations, to be more
purposeful and organized, and to inhibit
impulsive behavior. “high horse power,
poor steering”
Limbic System develops earlier; it is involved
with emotions and reward-
seeking/novelty/risk-taking/sensation-seeking
behaviors.
Prefrontal Lobe takes more time to develop;
it is involved with judgment and decision
making.
Putting It All Together: How the Brain Works

Is the brain a culture-

free container that
holds knowledge the
same way for
everyone?
Neuroscience, Learning, and
Teaching
What can we learn from neuroscience?

Neuroscience is the study of the biology

behind thoughts, perceptions, emotions,
motivations, decisions and actions. You
explore the amazing neurological
connections between the brain and
behavior.
PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
4 factors that Interact to Influences Changes in Thinking
1. MATURATION, the unfolding of the biological changes that
are genetically programmed.
2. ACTIVITY, With physical maturation comes the increasing
ability to act on
the environment and learn from it.
3. SOCIAL TRANSMISSION, or learning from others.
4. EQUILIBRATION—the act of searching for a balance. The actual
changes in thinking take place through this process. *disequilibrium
Basic Tendencies in Thinking
▪ ORGANIZATION—the ▪ ADAPTATION -- the tendency
+combining, arranging, to adapt to their environment.
recombining, and rearranging
of behaviors and thoughts Assimilation takes place when we
into coherent systems use our existing schemes to
make sense of events in our
+Schemes are the basic building world.
blocks of thinking. They are
organized systems of actions or Accommodation occurs when we
thought that allow us to must change existing schemes
mentally represent or “think to respond to a new situation.
about” the objects and events in
our world.
Four Stages of
Cognitive
Development
Four Stages of Cognitive
Development
1. Sensory Motor
object permanence - the understanding that objects exist in the
environment whether they perceive them or not.
goal-directed actions, Learning to reverse actions is a basic
accomplishment of the sensorimotor stage
2. Preoperational
semiotic function - this ability to work with symbols to represent
an object that is not present.
Conservation - the principle that 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.
+*centering and decentering
Four Stages of Cognitive
Development
3. Concrete Operational
Basic aspects of reasoning:
 identity, the student knows that if nothing is added or taken
away, the material remains the same.
 compensation, the student knows that an apparent change in
one direction can be compensated for by a change in another
direction.
 reversibility, the student can mentally cancel out the change that
has been made.
Classification depends on a student’s abilities to focus on a
single characteristic of objects in a set (e.g., color) and group
the objects according to that characteristic.
Four Stages of Cognitive
Development
+4. Formal Operations - A mental system for controlling sets of
variables and working through a set of possibilities is needed.
The focus of thinking can shift from what is to what might be.
+—hypothetico-deductive/inductive reasoning
+---infer relationships between
+adolescent egocentrism. Unlike egocentric young children,
adolescents do not deny that other people may have different
perceptions and beliefs; the adolescents just become very
focused on their own ideas. This leads to what Elkind (1981)
calls the sense of an imaginary audience—the feeling that
VYGOTSKY’S SOCIOCULTURAL
PERSPECTIVE
“Vygotsky conceptualized development as the transformation of
socially shared activities into internalized processes” (John-Steiner
& Mahn, 1996, p. 192).
Vygotsky believed that human activities take place in cultural settings
and that they cannot be understood apart from these settings. One of
his key ideas was that our specific mental structures and processes
can be traced to our interactions with others. These social interactions
are more than simple influences on cognitive development—they
actually create our cognitive structures and thinking processes
(Palincsar, 1998).
3 Themes in Vygotsky’s Theory
1. The Social Sources of Individual Thinking
co-constructed during shared activities between the child and another
person. Then these co-constructed processes are internalized by the child and
become part of that child’s cognitive development.
Ex. A six-year-old has lost a toy and asks her father for help. The father
asks her where she last saw the toy; the child says “I can’t remember.” He asks
a series of questions—did you have it in your room? Outside? Next door? To
each question, the child answers, “no.” When he says “in the car?” she says “I
think so” and goes to retrieve the toy. (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988, p. 14)
3 Themes in Vygotsky’s Theory
2. Cultural Tools and Cognitive Development
TECHNICAL TOOLS IN A DIGITAL AGE (Is student learning
harmed or helped by these technology supports?)
PSYCHOLOGICAL TOOLS
In Vygotsky’s theory, language is the most important symbol system in
the tool kit, and it is the one that helps to fill the kit with other tools.
And Vygotsky believed that language in the form of private speech
(talking to yourself) guides cognitive development.
*Private Speech
*Inner Speech
3 Themes in Vygotsky’s Theory
3 Themes in Vygotsky’s Theory
3. The Zone of Proximal Development
The area between the child’s current performance (the problems the child
can solve independently without any support) and the level of performance
that the child could achieve with adult guidance or by working with “a more
fully
developed child” (p. 202). It is a dynamic and changing space as student
and
teacher interact and understandings are exchanged. This is the area
where instruction can succeed.
 Understanding students’ thinking

Implications of ‘Match’ teaching to cognitive

stage
Piaget’s • Presentation strategies
Theory for • Illustrations and examples
•
Teachers •
Assignments
Use disequilibrium to motivate
Individuals ‘construct’
knowledge
 Stage theory
inconsistencies
Underestimating
Limitations of children's abilities
Piaget Cognitive development &
information processing
Overlooks influence of
cultural and social groups
IMPLICATIONS OF VGOTSKY’S THEORY
+Sociocultural theory considers learning as a semiotic process
where participation in socially mediated activities is essential.
+Social interaction emphasized that effective learning happens
through participation in social activities, making the social
context of learning crucial.
+Vgotsky theory was important in education since these works
provide tools for the development of individuals learning.
What can we Learn?
Piaget Vygotsky
Believed that cognitive development Vygotsky believed that learning is
has to come before learning—the an active process that does not
child had to be cognitively “ready” to have to wait for readiness. In fact,
learn. “properly organized learning results
He said that “learning is subordinated in mental development and sets in
to motion a variety of developmental
development and not vice-versa” processes that would be impossible
apart from learning”
He believed that the main goal of
education should be to help children Vygotsky believed that the main goal
learn how to learn, and that of education was the development of
education should “form not furnish” higher mental functions, not simply
the minds of students filling students’ memories with facts.
+*Imitative, Instructed, Collaborative