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Cognitive development refers to the changes and progression in mental abilities, such as thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making, throughout the lifespan. It involves how individuals acquire, process, and store information and how these cognitive skills influence behavior and decision-making.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
While conducting intelligence tests on children, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget began to investigate how children think. According to Piaget, children’s thought processes change as they mature physically and interact with the world around them. Piaget believed children develop schemas, or mental models, to represent the world. These schemas are built through continuous and discontinuous processes such as assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the broadening of an existing schema to include new information. Accommodation is the modification of a schema as new information is incorporated.
Example: Suppose a young boy knows his pet parrot is a bird. When he sees a robin outside and calls it a bird too, he exhibits assimilation, since he broadened his bird schema to include characteristics of both parrots and robins. His bird schema might be “all things that fly.” Now suppose a bat flaps out at him one night and he shrieks, “Bird!” If he learns it was a bat that startled him, he’ll have to modify his bird schema to “things that fly and have feathers.” In modifying his definition, he enacts accommodation.
Piaget proposed that children go through four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.
Stage 1: Sensorimotor Period
In this stage, which lasts from birth to roughly two years, children learn by using their senses and moving around. A key milestone of this stage is the development of object permanence, which is the ability to recognize that an object can exist even when it’s no longer perceived or in one’s sight. Before object permanence is established, a baby might believe that a toy that is hidden no longer exists.
Example: If a three-month-old baby sees a ball, she will probably be fascinated by it. But if someone hides the ball, the baby won’t show any interest in looking for it. For a very young child, out of sight is literally out of mind. When the baby is older and has acquired object permanence, she will start to look for things that are hidden because she will know that things can exist even when they can’t be seen.
Stage 2: Preoperational Period
This stage lasts from about two to seven years of age. During this stage, children get better at symbolic thought (using mental symbols) and engage in pretend play, but they can’t yet reason. According to Piaget, children aren’t capable of conservation during this stage. Conservation is the ability to recognize that measurable physical features of objects, such as length, area, and volume, can be the same even when objects appear different.
Example: Suppose a researcher gives a three-year-old girl two full bottles of juice. The girl will agree that they both contain the same amount of juice. But if the researcher pours the contents of one bottle into a short, fat tumbler, the girl will then say that the bottle has more. She doesn’t realize that the same volume of juice is conserved in the tumbler.
Piaget argued that children are not capable of conservation during the preoperational stage because of three cognitive errors that characterize this stage of development: centration, irreversibility, and egocentrism:
Centration is the tendency to focus on one aspect of a problem and ignore other key aspects. In the example above, the three-year-old looks only at the higher juice level in the bottle and ignores the fact that the bottle is narrower than the tumbler. Because of centration, children in the preoperational stage cannot carry out hierarchical classification, which means they can’t classify things according to more than one level.
Irreversibility is the inability to mentally reverse an operation. In the example, the three-year-old can’t imagine pouring the juice from the tumbler back into the bottle. If she poured the juice back, she’d understand that the tumbler holds the same amount of liquid as the bottle.
Egocentrism is the inability to take someone else’s point of view. Animism, or the belief that even inanimate objects are living, results from egocentrism. Children assume that since they are alive, all other things must be too. Animism explains the popularity of children’s movies featuring characters such as talking vegetables or singing candlesticks. Young children can readily believe that objects around them are alive, which means they can be entertained by stories involving living objects. Children and adolescents past the age of seven generally lose interest in heroic toasters and prefer stories about people.
Precausal Thinking
Piaget coined the term precausal thinking to describe the type of reasoning children in Stage 2 engage in before they develop the ability to think logically and understand causality. Children rely on their immediate perceptions and intuitive explanations rather than logical reasoning. In fact, Piaget referred to this stage as the “intuitive substage.” Egocentrism and animism are examples of precausal thinking as well as transductive reasoning and magical thinking.
Transductive reasoning is a hallmark of precausal thinking where children link two unrelated events simply because they happen close together in time. For example, a child might believe that his or her wish to stay indoors caused a storm to happen or that getting hurt is punishment for bad behavior.
Precausal thinking often incorporates magical thinking, that is, believing that objects or actions have special powers, such as thinking that speaking a wish out loud can make it come true or that toys have emotions and thoughts.
Theory of Mind
During Stage 2, children also begin to develop theory of mind, which is the understanding that others have thoughts, feelings, and perspectives different from their own. It should be noted, however, that while Piaget did not explicitly address the concept of theory of mind, he discussed related concepts such as egocentrism, which is considered to be a limitation of the preoperational period and is related to the idea of understanding the perspectives of others. The concept of theory of mind was later developed by researchers who expanded upon Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and his explanations of how children move from egocentrism to understanding the perspectives of others. The development of theory of mind is gradual and can begin as early as age two to three, when children begin showing signs of understanding that others have desires and intentions that are separate from their own. By ages four to five, most children can pass tasks like the Sally-Anne test.
In the Sally-Anne test, children are shown a scenario involving two dolls, Sally and Anne. Sally has a basket, and Anne has a box. Sally places a marble in her basket and then leaves the scene. While Sally is away, Anne moves the marble from the basket to her box. The children are then asked where Sally will look for her marble when she returns. To pass the test, the child must understand that Sally, who did not see Anne move the marble, will still believe it is in the basket. This demonstrates the child’s ability to recognize that Sally holds a belief that is different from their own knowledge of the marble’s location. Therefore, children who have developed theory of mind will answer that Sally will look in her basket. However, younger children or those who have not yet developed theory of mind typically respond that Sally will look in the box, reflecting the knowledge they’ve acquired from their own experience and perspective rather than Sally’s perspective. This study has also been significant in research on autism, as children with autism spectrum disorder often struggle with tasks involving theory of mind.
Stage 3: Concrete Operational Period
From the age of seven to about 11, children become capable of performing mental operations or working through problems and ideas in their minds. However, they can perform operations only on tangible objects and real events. Children also achieve conservation, reversibility, and decentration during this stage: Reversibility is the ability to mentally reverse actions. Decentration is the ability to focus simultaneously on several aspects of a problem. During this stage, children also become capable of classification, the skill to group objects based on shared characteristics and sort them into categories, as well as seriation, the ability to arrange objects in an ordered series, such as by size, length, or weight. Furthermore, children become less egocentric during this stage as they start to consider simultaneously different ways of looking at a problem. While children in the concrete operational stage are capable of logical thinking for concrete information, they often still have difficulty with abstract reasoning or hypothetical scenarios and they struggle to think systematically.
Stage 4: Formal Operational Period
In this stage, which begins around 11 years of age and continues through adulthood, children become capable of applying mental operations to abstract concepts. They can imagine and reason about hypothetical situations. From this point on, people start to think in abstract, systematic, and logical ways. Here are some key cognitive abilities that are acquired during the formal operational period:
Abstract thinking: the ability to think about concepts and ideas that are not directly tied to concrete experiences or objects, like justice or freedom.
Hypothetical-deductive reasoning: the capacity to develop hypotheses or best guesses and systematically test them to arrive at conclusions.
Metacognition: the ability to think about one’s own thinking processes and reflect on how one learns and understands.
Consideration of multiple perspectives: the ability to see complex issues from multiple viewpoints and consider different possibilities or outcomes.
According to Piaget, not all individuals fully reach or consistently utilize formal operational thinking. The ability to engage in this type of thought is influenced by factors such as education, cultural experiences, and exposure to problem-solving opportunities.
Critiques of Piaget’s Theories
Although Piaget made important contributions to the research on cognitive development, his theory has come under attack for several reasons:
- Recent research has shown that Piaget greatly underestimated children’s capabilities. For example, researchers have shown that babies achieve object permanence much sooner than Piaget said they do.
- Children sometimes simultaneously develop skills that are characteristic of more than one stage, which makes the idea of stages seem less viable.
- Piaget ignored cultural influences. Research has shown that children from different cultures tend to go through Piaget’s stages in the same order, but the timing and length of stages vary from culture to culture.
- Some people never develop the capacity for formal reasoning, even as adults.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Key aspects of Piaget's theory of cognitive development are listed below:
|
Stage |
Age |
Important Features |
|
Stage 1: Sensorimotor |
First two years of life |
Object permanence |
|
Stage 2: Preoperational |
2–7 years |
Symbolic thought, centration, irreversibility, egocentrism, and animism |
|
Stage 3: Concrete operational |
7–11 years |
Reversibility, decentration, decrease in egocentrism, conservation |
|
Stage 4: Formal operational |
11 through adulthood |
Abstract thought, hypothetical reasoning |
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
Influenced by Piaget, who believed that moral reasoning depends on the level of cognitive development, American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg proposed that people pass through three levels of moral development. He divided each level into two stages.
Level 1: The Preconventional Level
At this level, children ascribe great importance to the authority of adults. For children in the first stage of this level, an action is wrong if it’s punished, whereas in the second stage, an action is right if it’s rewarded.
Level 2: The Conventional Level
In the next level, children value rules, which they follow in order to get approval from others. In the first stage of this level, children want the approval only of people who are close to them. In the second stage, children become more concerned with the rules of the broader society.
Level 3: The Postconventional Level
In the final level, people become more flexible and consider what’s personally important to them. In the first stage of this level, people still want to follow society’s rules, but they don’t see those rules as absolute. In the second stage, people figure out right and wrong for themselves, based on abstract ethical principles. Only a small proportion of people reach this last stage of moral reasoning.
Lev Vygotsky’s Theory of Sociocultural Development
Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky emphasized that learning normally has a strong sociocultural component. In contrast with Piaget’s stage-focused theory, which views children as more independent learners who acquire knowledge through interaction with their environment, Vygotsky emphasizes social and collaborative learning driven by interaction with a more capable helper—a sibling, a parent, a teacher, or some other form of mentor. He observed that children are fundamentally social learners who acquire knowledge and skills through interactions with others within a sociocultural context.
Scaffolding
A key concept in Vygotsky’s theory is scaffolding, which refers to the structured support provided by more capable helpers to assist a child in learning new skills or concepts. Scaffolding involves tailoring assistance to fit the child’s current level of performance and gradually reducing support and assistance as the child becomes more capable and proficient. For instance, a teacher might initially offer significant help in solving a math problem but progressively offer less guidance as the student gains confidence and understanding.
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Vygotsky coined the term Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which describes the range of tasks that a child can perform with the help and guidance of others but cannot yet do independently. Learning ideally happens within a child’s zone of proximal development. The skills within a child’s ZPD are best for learning because they are attainable with assistance, which means they can be practiced with guidance and support until they can be acquired without assistance. A child’s zone of proximal development changes as the child learns and acquires new skills.
The Role of Language
Vygotsky considered language to be a crucial tool for cognitive development and learning. Given Vygotsky’s focus on the fundamentally social nature of learning, he viewed language as more than just a means of communication. He considered language to be the primary tool by which adults transmit knowledge to children. According to Vygotsky, there are three main types of speech that play different roles in cognitive development: social speech, private speech, and inner speech.
Social speech, also referred to as external speech, is the main form of communication used between individuals. Social speech serves as a means for sharing information, expressing needs and desires, and participating in social interactions. Children initially acquire language and knowledge through social speech, that is, conversations and interactions with adults and peers. Social speech lays the foundation for more complex cognitive processes by exposing children to language structures and ideas.
Private speech, originally coined “egocentric speech” by Piaget and later referred to as private speech by Vygotsky, is the self-directed speech that children use aloud to guide their own behavior and thinking. It is often spoken out loud but directed at oneself rather than others. Private speech helps children regulate their actions, solve problems, and plan their activities. Vygotsky viewed it as a critical step in the development of self-regulation and cognitive control. Children can often be heard using private speech when engaged in challenging tasks. Children might speak aloud to themselves to reinforce their understanding or remind themselves of the next steps. This type of speech peaks during early childhood and gradually decreases as children mature, transforming their private speech into inner speech. It is worth noting, however, that even adults may use private speech from time to time, especially during challenging tasks, though it is typically more subtle, such as whispering to oneself.
Finally, inner speech is the internalized form of private speech. It is the silent, inner dialogue that individuals use to guide their thoughts and actions without vocalizing them. Inner speech functions as a mental tool for thought and self-regulation. It allows individuals to think through problems, plan actions, and reflect on their experiences internally. This internal dialogue is essential for higher cognitive functions, such as abstract thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making.
Vygotsky proposed that the progression from social speech to private speech and finally to inner speech begins with learning language through social interactions (social speech), using it to guide oneself out loud (private speech), and eventually thinking silently through inner speech. This transformation exemplifies how children go from being dependent on external guidance to developing independent and self-regulated cognitive processes.
The Role of Play
According to Vygotsky, play is an essential component of cognitive development, serving as a space in which children learn and develop higher-order thinking skills. Vygotsky believed that through play, children engage in activities that stretch beyond their current capabilities, allowing them to experiment with social roles (such as playing house), practice self-regulation, and develop complex cognitive abilities.
Vygotsky focused particularly on imaginative or pretend play, a type of play that involves children using objects or enacting scenarios to represent something other than what they are. For example, using a stick as a magic wand or pretending to be a doctor treating a patient. Pretend play fosters symbolic thinking, the cognitive ability to use symbols, such as words or images, to represent objects, events, or ideas that are not physically present, which is essential for the development of abstract thought. Pretend play also helps children practice social roles and rules within a safe environment.
According to Vygotsky, children primarily play within their zone of proximal development, incorporating elements of what they have learned from social interactions in an interactive process with their peers, which helps them build problem-solving skills, language, and social competencies. Vygotsky also viewed imaginative play as a way for children to experiment with new roles, ideas, and scenarios that may not exist in their daily lives. This fosters creativity and the ability to think beyond one’s immediate reality, which is important for developing problem-solving and adapting to complex situations in the future.
Vygotsky noted that play often involves rules, whether explicit or implicit, even when play appears spontaneous. For example, when a child pretends to be a doctor, they must follow certain socially constructed roles and expectations associated with that role. Otherwise, they are likely to be corrected by their peers. According to Vygotsky, this introduces the child to self-regulation and the ability to adhere to social norms and rules. Play, according to Vygotsky, is a social activity that fosters interaction and collaboration with others. When children play together, they engage in discussion, negotiation, and problem-solving, which supports their language development and cognitive growth.
Learning in Sociocultural Contexts
Vygotsky emphasized that cognitive development occurs within one’s cultural and social environment. Children learn cultural norms, language, and problem-solving strategies through active participation and dialogue with those in their communities. These social interactions shape their thinking and behavior, highlighting how learning is inherently linked to the values and practices of one’s surrounding culture. For example, in collectivistic cultures, children might develop collaborative problem-solving skills earlier than those in more individualistic cultures.
Implications for Education
Vygotsky’s ideas have significant implications for educational environments. They suggest that effective teaching involves understanding each learner’s zone of proximal development and providing the right level of scaffolding to promote learning. Based on Vygotsky’s theory, teachers and caregivers are encouraged to engage with children in interactive and cooperative ways to help them build on their current abilities while challenging them to expand their skills with support.
Overall, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory highlights the notion that learning is not a solitary process but one that is supported and made possible by social connections and cultural context.
Cognitive Development in Adulthood
As adults age, they experience changes in their cognitive capabilities, which affect various aspects of thinking, memory, and problem-solving. Two important types of intelligence – crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence – highlight different aspects of these cognitive changes.
Crystallized and Fluid Intelligence
Crystallized intelligence refers to the accumulation of knowledge, facts, and skills acquired throughout life. It includes the ability to use learned information and experiences to solve problems and make decisions. This type of intelligence remains relatively stable or even increases as individuals age since it is built upon lifelong learning and experience. Examples of crystallized intelligence include knowing the capitals of countries previously learned, recalling the meaning of vocabulary words, solving math problems using formulas previously learned, answering trivia questions, or remembering historical events.
Fluid intelligence, on the other hand, involves the ability to reason quickly and abstractly, solve new problems, and adapt to new situations. This type of intelligence relies on working memory, speed of processing, and the ability to manipulate information in real time. Fluid intelligence tends to peak in early adulthood and begins to decline gradually in middle age, with more noticeable declines in later adulthood. This decline can make it more challenging for older adults to solve unfamiliar problems or adapt quickly to new information.
Examples of fluid intelligence include learning a new skill quickly, applying new solutions to solve math problems, learning how to use a new app or device, or navigating a new city without a map. The decline in fluid intelligence in older adults is largely due to neurological changes in the brain. This includes a reduced speed of neural processing, which makes it harder to quickly reason through new problems and adapt to unfamiliar situations. Additionally, changes in working memory capacity contribute to difficulties in manipulating and retaining information in real time. These declines are often linked to age-related changes in brain structures such as the prefrontal cortex and a decrease in overall neural connectivity, affecting the brain’s efficiency in processing complex information.
Cognitive Disorders in Adulthood
One of the biggest cognitive challenges in older adulthood is the potential development of cognitive disorders. Dementia is an umbrella term that refers to a decline in cognitive function that is severe enough to interfere with daily life. It encompasses a range of symptoms, including memory loss, impaired judgment, and difficulties with language and problem-solving. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60% to 80% of all cases of dementia, and is characterized by progressive brain cell death and the buildup of abnormal protein deposits in the brain.
Adapting to Cognitive Changes
Despite these changes, many older adults adapt by learning to rely more heavily on their crystallized intelligence, in other words, their accumulated knowledge base. Additionally, engaging in activities that stimulate the brain, such as learning new skills, social interaction, and physical exercise, can help maintain cognitive function and potentially slow the decline of fluid intelligence. This adaptability is supported by the brain’s capacity for neuroplasticity, which refers to the brain’s capacity to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. While neuroplasticity remains throughout the lifespan, it tends to decrease with age, meaning that the brain’s ability to rewire and form new connections becomes more difficult and less efficient in older adulthood. However, research has shown that even in later years, engaging in cognitively stimulating activities and maintaining a healthy lifestyle can support neuroplasticity to help preserve cognitive abilities and adapt to age-related changes.
Lifestyle factors play a significant role in preserving cognitive function as adults age. A balanced diet rich in nutrients, such as omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants, supports brain health and can help maintain cognitive abilities. Sleep quality is equally important, as restorative sleep is essential for memory consolidation and the removal of metabolic waste from the brain. Effective stress management is also crucial, as chronic stress can negatively impact cognitive function by contributing to inflammation and hormonal imbalances that affect brain regions involved in memory and problem-solving. All in all, incorporating healthy habits and managing these factors can help mitigate the decline of cognitive capabilities over time.
