Studies summaries
Brain development
Stages of structural brain develop:
4. Pruning – elimination of unnecessary connections and neurons therefore children have more neural connections than adults; better at learning new things but cannot focus
- Develops back to front
- neurons are overproduced
- finished before birth
- Transportation of newly formed neurons to their correct location along special glia fibers from inner to outer layers of the brain
4. Pruning – elimination of unnecessary connections and neurons therefore children have more neural connections than adults; better at learning new things but cannot focus
- Studies:
- Chugani(1999) – the brain structural development correspondences to patterns of behaviour
- Werker et al(1981) – infants have a natural ability to discriminate between phonemes and this ability is lost due to pruning.
- Ability vs strategy – either less develop OR using wrong strategy
- Maturation vs learning
- Correlational
- Localization of function will change over time therefore an adult’s brain and a child’s brain may be different
Piaget individual cognitive development
Main concepts:
- Children are ‘active scientists’ – they interact with the social and physical environment to learn how they work
- Children use strategies in thinking and problem solving
- There is biological maturation
- Development is universal therefore all humans are the same
- Sensorimotor intelligence(0-2years)
- Learn through movements and sensation eg. Touching, hearing, hearing, put in mouth
- No control over movements so movements are not purposeful
- Pre-operational(2-7 years)
- learns to speak
- egocentric world
- only from their viewpoint and cognitive limitation
- Piaget and Inhelder(1956) – 3 mountain task
- CC: Hughes(1975) and Borke(1975)– task is too difficult
- No concept of conversation – physical properties remain the same. Eg. All the water in a tall glass in poured into a low basin, which had more?
- Li et al(1999) – education also affects cognitive development
- Concrete operational thought(7-12 years)
- Can do simple problem solving
- Formal operations( above 12 years)
- Can use formal and abstract logic, understand concept of ‘could’
- Speed to reach this stage is also affected by education - Li et al(1999) – education also affects cognitive development
- 8 months start, around 18-24 months fully developed
- CC: Baillargeon(1986) – starts as early as 3.5 months
Vygotsky social cognitive development
Main concept:
1. Pre-intellectual speech – social contact eg. Crying
2. Autonomous speech(12 months) – invent words for objects
3. Naïve psychology (12-24) – can use adult words but express simple words for many meanings
4. Communicative and egocentric speech(3 years) –
- Culture affects cognitive development
- There is biological maturation
- Children are ‘active scientists’ – they interact with the social and physical environment to learn how they work
- Role of language:
- Private speech – talking aloud to themselves. The more they do, the more socially competent they are later – Winster et al(2003)
1. Pre-intellectual speech – social contact eg. Crying
2. Autonomous speech(12 months) – invent words for objects
3. Naïve psychology (12-24) – can use adult words but express simple words for many meanings
4. Communicative and egocentric speech(3 years) –
- Communicative speech - can convey meaning to others
- Egocentric speech – self-talk which guides the child through the task
- CC Prior and Welling(2001) – contradicts theory
Information is mostly complied from:
Popov, Alexey. Psychology: for the IB Diploma. 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2018.
Crane, John. “IB Psychology.” ThinkIB Student Pages, www.student.thinkib.net/psychology?lg=8007.
Photo: Dwyer, Lexi. “When Do Babies Start Smiling?” TODAY.com, 24 June 2019, www.today.com/parents/when-do-babies-start-smiling-t153698.
Popov, Alexey. Psychology: for the IB Diploma. 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2018.
Crane, John. “IB Psychology.” ThinkIB Student Pages, www.student.thinkib.net/psychology?lg=8007.
Photo: Dwyer, Lexi. “When Do Babies Start Smiling?” TODAY.com, 24 June 2019, www.today.com/parents/when-do-babies-start-smiling-t153698.