Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Cognition Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development: A long time ago, people basically thought children were miniature versions of adults and thought is largely the same way Piaget came along and showed that children are actively constructing the way that they think through different stages Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development Age Stage Major Development 0-2 yrs. Sensorimotor: infants largely gather information about the world through their senses Object (eyes,permanence is established during this stage, ears, etc.) and are very active in the world (i.e. children moving around and licking everything) meaning that infants don’t realize that an object exists even though you can’t see it 2-7 yrs. Preoperational: when children start to imagine more and understand symbols (i.e. children Pretend play becomes popular at this age begin to talk and understand that words symbolize things). Children here are also very egocentric, meaning they don’t understand that other people have a different point of view than they do 7-11 Concrete yrs. Operational: children begin to learn the idea of quantity, time, and space Conservation (they is established during this age range (i.e. the begin reasoning out mathematics) fluid in two different glasses) 11+ years Formal Operational: children begin to reason our abstract thinking and children begin Moral to reasoning is achieved during this stage reason more like adults These stages aren’t as solid as one may think. It is more fluid and children could achieve things in a different way, but on average it seems relatively constant. - Schemas, Assimilation, & Accommodation: We build schemas (or mental models) in order to better understand and make sense of the world around us Assimilation has to do with how we understand new experiences in terms of our current understanding/schemas Accommodation describes how we adjust or even create brand new schemas in order to better incorporate new experiences This leads to learning new information because it is a way to counteract the disequilibrium formed from a new piece of information that doesn’t fit any previous schemas Problem Solving: Problems can be generally put into one of two categories: - Well-Defined Problems: have a clear starting and ending point (i.e. turning the lights on) - Ill-Defined Problems: more ambiguous problems (i.e. how to be happy), can still be worked to solve but you don’t necessarily know what the end product will look like Methods of Problem-Solving 1. Trial & Error: means that you take random guesses until something works (takes forever) 2. Algorithm strategy: means that you use a logical step-by-step procedure until you hit the correct answer (guaranteed to find the right solution eventually) 3. Heuristics: these are mental shortcuts that allows us to find a solution much more quickly a. Means-End Analysis: this is when you analyze the main problem and break it down into smaller problems, then attack the biggest small problem b. Working backwards: start with the goal state and use it to suggest connections back to the current state Fixation is when you get stuck on a wrong approach Insight is the sudden “aha!” moment when the solution pops up into your head Incubation is when you let a problem sit in your mind; insight is typically preceded by this 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. Decision Making: Availability Heuristic: uses examples that come to mind or are easily available from memory in order to make a decision Representativeness Heuristic: judge the probability of an event based on our existing concept of what is difficult (i.e. match prototypes) but sometimes leads to a conjunction fallacy (when people think the co occurrence of two instances is more likely than a single one) Bias Examples: Overconfidence bias: our tendency to be more confident than correct Belief Perseverance: is when you ignore/rationalize disconfirming facts (i.e. you hear something you don’t like about your political candidate, you ignore it or rationalize it) Confirmation Bias: is when you actively seek out information that further confirms your own beliefs (i.e. only reading stories about how wonderful your political candidate is) Framing Effect is how you present a situation and can affect decision making Intelligence: Intelligence is difficult to define but most psychologists agree it to be a mental quality allowing you to learn from experience, solve problems, and adapt to new situations Theories for a couple of intelligences: 1 General intelligence states you’re likely good at verbal and math, indicated higher G factor 3 Intelligences: show analytical (academic abilities), creative (ability to react to new situations and general novel ideas), and practical intelligence (the ability to solve ill defined problems) Emotional intelligence is another proposed intelligence which describes the ability to perceive, understand, and use emotions in our interactions with others Fluid intelligence is our ability to reason quickly and abstractly, such as when we solve novel problems (tends to decrease with age) Crystalized intelligence is our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills (tends to increase or stay the same with age) Nature vs. Nurture is the debate as to how much intelligence has to do with genes and how much does it have to do with the environment you are raised in Fixed vs. Growth Mindset where fixed means you are born with how intelligent you are and growth has to do with intelligence being able to be malleable with effort Theories of Intelligence: Cognitive Dissonance: People strive for consistency with their attitudes and behaviors Cognitive Dissonance is the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change (leads to discomfort) → basically we don’t like contradiction (i.e. smoking but knowing 1. 2. 3. 4. smoking leads to cancer) Modify one or two of cognitions (i.e. I don’t smoke THAT much) Trivialize or making something less important (i.e. the evidence is weak that smoking causes cancer) Adding more cognitions (i.e. I exercise so much that it doesn’t matter that I smoke) Denying cognitions all together (i.e. Saying there is no evidence that smoking leads to cancer We strive for harmony and balance, and when there is contradiction, then you do one of the above in order to harmonize the conflict