Unit 1: Developmental

psychology and primary

education. Implications
for the teaching-learning
process
Psicología del Desarrollo

SANDRA GARCIA DONOSO

Universidad de Oviedo
INTRODUCTION: Developmental psychology

1. History and developmental psychology theories

2. Psychoanalysis
3. Behaviorism and neo-behaviorism
4. Vigotsky
5. Piaget and the neo-piagetians
6. Cognitive information processing

INTRODUCTION: DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

o Developmental psychology is the branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social
change of humans throughout their life cycle.
o Three factors
 Life stage
 Cultural circumstances
 Personal experiences
 1 History and developmental
psychology theories
o Educational interests
- Plato, Aristotle: emphasis in educational aspect
- Renaissance (Luis Vives, Erasmus, Comenius, Rosseau or Pestalozzi): study of children’s
characteristics in order to improve education.
o Medical interests
- Children’s health and welfare
- XVI century: promote normal development
o Philosophical and scientific interests
- Causes and origin of thought, language…

ORIGIN OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

1. From ancient Greece to the end of the XIX century

2. Foundation of developmental psychology
3. Consolidation of developmental psychology

1. FROM ANCIENT GREECE TO THE END OF THE XIX CENTURY

o Sporadic observation of children, not systematic

o Aristotle worried about children’s educational problems. Advices to “promote the formation of
freemen”. Only education, not development.
o Middle Ages: childhood as an evolutionary moment that had to pass as fast as possible
o Children seen as small adults, fragile and less intelligent
o Innate idea of mankind (children born with a genetic programming. Determinism)
o Development as inheritance unfolding

Changes since XVI and XVII centuries

o New ideas about the concept of man (Renaissance)

o Philosophical and cultural movements, like the Enlightenment (XVIII century)
o Scientific advances achieved by medicine and other sciences
o New vision of childhood, more dynamic and less predetermined. A stage different from adulthood,
with its own characteristics.
o Relevance of children’s education: it influences their development (XVI and XVII)
o Erasmus of Rotterdam, Vives: stages in children’s development. Individual differences in children
require differential treatment at school.
o Comenius (1592-1670): teach with kindness, in a clear and precise way
o Locke (1632-1704), one of the founders of empiricism and associationism
o Rousseau, (Émile ou de l’éducation) (1762).
o Naturalistic ideas about education
o Stages of individual development
o Forefather of the positivist and naturalistic paradigm in pedagogy and psychology
o Great influence in the movement for Pedagogical Renovation (Pestalozzi, Froebel, Montessori,
Claparéde)
o End of XVIII century, first systematic observations of children
o Pestalozzi (1746-1827), diary of development and education of his son
o Education focused on the child and worried about his development
o Tiedemann (1748-1803), systematic biography of his son’s development from birth to two and a half
years.
o Feral child Victor of Aveyron (1799)
o Itard (1774-1838) aimed for Victor to become a normal human being
o Biographical studies: one subject
- Advantage: depth of analysis
- Disadvantage: difficulties to generalize to the whole population, especially normal children

2. FOUNDATION OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

o Social and historical changes (end of the XIX century) caused more interest for the study of children
(industrialization)
o Creation of the first psychological laboratory (Wundt, 1789)
- Two kinds of psychic elements
 Objective contents: sensations
 Subjective contents: sentiments
o Introspective study, but in an experimental context
o Birth of the Scientific Psychology
o Freud (psychoanalysis). Importance of the first experiences

3. CONSOLIDATION OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

o Two main approaches

- Behaviourism (Pavlov, Watson, Skinner)
- Organicism (Freud, Piaget, Gesell)
o 1913 birth of behaviourism (Watson, psychology as the behaviourist views it) Classical conditioning
o Neo-behaviourism: Skinner (1938) operating conditioning, and Bandura (1963), observational
conditioning
o Gestalt: Wertheimer (1880-1943), Köhler (1887-1967) and Koffka (1886-1941)
o Lewin (1890-1947), field theory. Explains every theory talking into account the whole situation, the
context (field).
o Piaget’s psychogenetic theory: process of cognitive development
o Vygotsky’s social constructivism: cultural and historical development.
 2 Psychoanalysis
PSYCHOANALYTICAL THEORY (SIGMUND FREUD, 1856-1939)

- Cultural revolution
- Increased knowledge and study of mankind

o One of the first theories to explain children’s development

o Genetic perspective in the study of the human psique
o Manifest behaviour depends on latent causes, unconscious for the subject
o Nature mainly sexual and aggressive
o Influenced by Charcot (hypnosis) and Breuer (catharsis)
o Free association: method whereby the patients are encouraged to talk freely about wherever ideas or
memories occurred to them, without needing to use a logical discourse.
o Those ideas are used by the therapist to make conscious the repressed memories which were causing
the symptoms
o Main aim of psychoanalysis: the subject must admit the repressed content, making it conscious, and
accept what he had always rejected.
o Unconscious memories of sexual content in early childhood
o The unconscious and sexual nature of the conflict causes the psychiatric disorders
o Same explanation for the normal development
o 2 main concepts
- The libido (sexual and psychological energy)
- The unconscious (formed by repressed content, not conscious for the subject)  dreams

2.1 BASIC CONCEPTS

o The libido: the psychological energy, in which sexual instinct manifest itself
 Mechanical model to explain the energy flux (tension-action-release-relaxation)
o Drives, the expressions of that energy
 Self-preservation
 Aggressive or destructive (Thanatos)
 Sexual (Eros)
o The conflict appears when these drives, following the pleasure principle, crash against reality, and
are unable to satisfy their desires and release the energy
o Normal development: the energy is reoriented towards different objects, or is used as a basis for
different mental processes
o If the drive is too intense, uncontrollable or is seen as unacceptable: repression (it blocks energy,
moving it out for the consciousness and making the subject forget about it)

DEFENCE MECHANISMS

o Repression: using this mechanism the ego keeps the disturbing or threatening content out of the
conscious mind, making them unconscious
o Denial: blocking external events from awareness
o Projection: the subjects attribute their own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and motives to another
person
o Sublimation: satisfying an impulse with another object in a socially acceptable way

STRUCTURE OF THE PSYCHE

o ID
 Source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and
aggressive drives
 Acts according to the pleasure principle (the psychic force that motivates the tendency to
seek immediate gratification of any impulse)
 Filled with energy, but without organization (source of all the psychic energy)
 Contains everything that is inherited, that is present at birth. From it the ego and superego
will develop
o EGO
 Organized part of the personality structure that includes defensive, perceptual, intellectual-
cognitive, and executive functions. It starts to form during the first months, when the ID
meets the reality, and appears around 2 years
 It’s composed by conscious and unconscious content, like the defence mechanisms
 Takes the psychic energy from the ID to carry on its functions
 Acts according to the reality principle (it seeks to please the ID’s drives realistic ways that
will benefit in the long term)
 Tries to balance the ID’s demands, the impositions of reality and the norms and morals of
the super-ego.
o SUPER-EGO
 Represents the moral compass, the rules that establishes what is right and wrong
 Ideal ego
 Its formation takes place during the dissolution of the Oedipus complex, around 5-6 years,
and is formed by an identification with and internalisation of the father figure
 Strives to act in a socially appropriate manner, controlling our sense of right and wrong and
guilt. It helps us fit into society by getting us to act in socially acceptable ways
 Internalization of cultural rules, mainly taught by parents applying their guidance and
influence
 Functions: inhibit the ID’s drives, persuade the ID to be moral, and strive for perfection.
 Comparison of Freud’s Three Systems of Personality

ID EGO SUPEREGO

Represents biological Represents societal and

NATURE Represents psychological aspect
aspect parental aspect

Conscious, preconscious, and Conscious, preconscious, and

LEVEL Unconscious
unconscious unconscious

PRINCIPLE Pleasure Reality Moralistic and idealistic

Seek pleasure and avoid Adapt to reality while controlling the

PURPOSE Represent right and wrong
pain ID and super-ego

Safety, compromise, and delayed

ALM Immediate gratification Perfection
gratification

2.2 PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

o Development determined by inner factors, following a biological programming, and influenced by

ambient factors (conflicts and resolutions)
o Human beings, from birth, possess an instinctual libido that develops in 5 stages
o The libido is preserved throughout the whole process moving and fixating in different places and
objects
o This change is produced by a dynamic interaction between the passions and the reality
o Evolution in stages, biologically programmed, that follows a corporal topography and a universal
chronology. (Oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital)
o Characteristics of the stages
 A primary erogenous zone
 An object of satisfaction
 A conflict between passions and reality
 A specific organization of the personality

ORAL STAGE (BIRTH – 1 YEAR)

o The primary erogenous zone is the mouth of the infant, and, in a broad sense, the upper digestive
tract and the phonatory and sensorial system.

o The mouth is the main source of pleasure and knowledge of the world.

o The objects used to satisfy the libido are the food, the suction objects (specially the mother’s breast),
caresses, hugs, and ludic sensorial stimulation.
o The conflict that must be resolved in this stage is satisfaction vs. frustration (the environment has to
provide food, care and love. If those needs are not met, if the passions aren’t satisfied, the infant will
suffer frustration)

ANAL STAGE (1 – 3 YEARS)

o The primary erogenous zones of this stage are the anus and the lower digestive tract. The satisfaction
is achieved throughout defecation and urination.

o The main conflict is authority vs. rebellion: adults demand compliance, and control of the anal
sphincter (toilet training). The child can comply, and learn, or not comply and rebel.

PHALLIC STAGE (3 – 6 YEARS)

o The primary erogenous zone is the child’s genitalia.

o The object of gratification is exterior (parent of the opposite gender)
o Conflict: Oedipus complex (boys) and Electra complex (girls)
o The Oedipus complex is resolved when the child internalizes the paternal figures, and with a change
in the parent-children relationship (non-sexual)
o If this doesn't happen, the child might develop a pathology

LATENCY STAGE (6 YEARS – PUBERTY)

o Consolidation of the character habits developed in the three earlier stages

o The drives become latent (hidden) and the gratification is delayed
o This will change with the psycho-physiological changes of puberty

GENITAL STAGE (PUBERTY – ADULT LIFE)

o Sexual drives are reactivated, but the object of satisfaction is outside the family context

o The libido focuses on the sexual organs

o The conflicts of the past stages are reactivated, but now they refer to different contents and objects.

o Fixation: stagnation in a stage that doesn’t match the chronological age. The development program
is paralyzed, and the libido remains anchored
o Regression: temporary or long-term reversion to an earlier stage of development rather than handling
unacceptable impulses in a more adult way
2.3. OTHER PSYCHOANALITIC AUTHORS

- Anna Freud: children

- C.G. Jung: emotional state

- Alfred Adler: social determinants

 3. Behaviourism and Neo-
behaviourism
 Watson (1912). First scientific paradigm in Psychology, opposed to mentalism

o only public events (behaviours of an individual) can be objectively observed, and therefore
private events (thoughts and emotions) should be ignored

 Behaviourism became the dominant paradigm in Psychology until the late 50s

Subject of study in psychology:

 Observable behaviour

 Ambient stimuli associated to that behaviour

Objective: describe every behaviour in terms of stimulus-response

CONCEPT OF DEVELOPMENT

o Person as a passive organism that react to the external stimuli

o Based on empiricism (Locke, mind as tabula rasa)

o Development: sequence of interactions between behaviour and environment

o Main process that explains the behavioural changes: learning

o Development as addition of experiences (quantitative)

o Development = learning

o Universal learning laws

o Main paradigm to explain changes until the 60s and 70s (first evolutionary theories of psychological
change)

BASIC LEARNING PROCESSES IN BEHAVIOURISM

a. Habituation

b. Classical conditioning
c. Operant conditioning

d. Observational conditioning

HABITUATION

Form of learning in which an organism decreases or ceases to respond to a stimulus after repeated
presentations.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Discovered by Ivan Pavlov, who studied the salivation and digestive processes in dogs

Learning processes in which an innate response to a biologically potent stimulus comes to be elicited in
response to a previously neutral stimulus; this is achieved by repeated pairings of the neutral stimulus
with the potent stimulus.

ELEMENTS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

o The UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS (US). A stimulus that reflexively elicits a response. In

Pavlov’s experiments the US typically was meat powder
o The UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE (UR). The response to the unconditioned stimulus that the
experimenter measures. In Pavlov’s experiments the UR was salivation.
o The NEUTRAL STIMULUS. A stimulus that initially doesn’t elicit the response to be
conditionate
o The CONDITIONED STIMULUS (CS). The neutral stimulus after it has acquired the ability,
through conditioning, to elicit a response
o The CONDITIONED RESPONSE (CR). The response conditioned to the CS. In Pavlov’s
experiment, the CR was salivation.

IMPORTANT CONCEPTS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

o ACQUISITION: After a number of CS-US pairings, the CS elicits a conditioned response (CR)
that increases in magnitude and frequency
o INTERSTIMULUS INTERVAL: Conditioning is optimal if the US precedes the CS. Usually the
best interstimulus interval is 0.5 seconds.
o EXTINCTION: once the conditioned response is established, if the unconditioned stimulus is
omitted repeatedly the conditioned response gradually diminishes.
o GENERALIZATION: the tendency for the conditioned stimulus to evoke similar responses after
the response has been conditioned. For example, if a child has been conditioned to fear a stuffed
white rabbit, the child will exhibit fear of objects like the conditioned stimulus.
o DISCRIMINATION: differentiation between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that haven’t
been paired with an unconditioned stimulus. For example, if a bell tone were the conditioned
stimulus, discrimination would involve being able to tell the difference between the bell tone and
other similar sounds.
o SECOND ORDER AND HIGHER ORDER CONDITIONING: This form of conditioning

follows a 2-step procedure. First neutral stimulus (CS1) comes to signal a US through conditioning.
Then a second neutral stimulus (CS2) is paired with the first (CS1) and comes to yield its own
conditioned response.  writing

CONCLUSIONS

 One of the basic learning mechanisms

 Fundamental for survival
 It appears very early (new-borns)
OPERANT CONDITIONING

o Formulated by B.F. Skinner (“The Behaviour of Organisms”, 1938)  Walden II

o The subjects learn to associate his behaviour with a stimulus or the consequences of that behaviour
o Study of the observable behaviour and its equally observable consequences
o Laboratory studies (Skinner box: subjects such as pigeons and rats were isolated and could be
exposed to carefully controlled stimuli)
o The animals learned that their behaviour (operational response) has a consequence (reinforcer)
o To be most effective, reinforcement should occur consistently after responses and not at other times
(contingency).
o The discriminative stimulus: a stimulus in the presence of which a particular response will be
reinforced
 A-B-C
o The reinforcer can be appetitive or aversive, depending on the motivational value
o The behavior can have as consequence the addition or the removal of a consequence

o Positive: presence of a stimulus (add a consequence)

o Negative: absence or removal or a stimulus (take something away)
o Reinforcement: Increases the probability of the behavior (most likely to happen again)
o Punishment: decreases the probability of the behavior (make people feel bad) (most likely not to
happen again)

Motivational Value
Appetitive Aversive
Addition of a Positive Positive
Consequence of the consequence Reinforcement Punishment
behavior Removal of a Negative Negative
consequence Punishment Reinforcement

SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT

o Continuous reinforcement. The reinforcer occurs after each response.

o Intermittent reinforcement. The reinforcer appears following only some instances of the same
response
o Learning may be slower if reinforcement is intermittent, but responses reinforced intermittently are
usually much slower to extinguish

INTERMITTENT REINFORCEMENT

o Ratio: depending on the number of responses

o Interval: depending on the amount of time
o Fixed: the criteria are constant
o Variable: the criteria can change
o Fixed ratio schedule: reinforcement occurs after a fixed number of responses have been emitted
since the previous reinforcement.
o Variable ratio schedule: Reinforcement occurs after a variable of number have been emitted since
the previous reinforcement.

SHAPING

o Used in animal training and in teaching non-verbal humans

o Phases
 Identifying the desired final behavior (target)
 Choosing a behavior that the animal or person already emits some probability
 The form of this behavior is then gradually changed across successive trials by rewarding
behaviors that approximate the target behavior more and more closely.

OBSERVATIONAL CONDITIONING

o Alternative to the classic and operational conditioning to explain the acquisition of new responses
o One of the bridges from behaviorism to cognitive models for learning
o Also called OBSERVATIONAL LERNING
o Formulated by Bandura
o Learning by observing a model and then duplicating a skill, process, strategy, or task that is
demonstrated by the model
o Learning can occur without direct reinforcement or motor reproduction. We can learn without
behavior, for example with observation
o Bobo doll experiment: kids copy the acts they see
o Vicarious reinforcement: a change in the behavior of observers as a function of witnessing the
consequences accompanying the performance of others (Bandura, 1971)

PROCESSES IN OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

o Attention: the individual notices something in the environment

o Retention: the individual remembers what was noticed
o Reproduction: the individual produces an action that is a copy of what was noticed
o Motivation: the environment delivers a consequence that changes the probability the behavior will
be emitted again (reinforcement or punishment)

ATTENTIONAL PROCESSES

o The individual must pay attention to

 The model
 The behavior
o The attention processes regulate exploration and perception
o Influenced by …

- CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OBSERVER

o Perceptual capabilities
o Perceptual set (“si tienes una amiga embarazada, las ves por todos lados”)
o Cognitive capability (understand the behavior)
o Arousal level
o Acquired preferences
 - CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MODEL AND THE BEHAVIOR

o Functional value
o Complexity (if something is very easy or very difficult, they won’t pay attention)
o Prevalence (we pain attention to different situations or strange)
o Distinctiveness (something that isn’t new but is a little bit different)
o Affective valence
o Attraction to the model (we pay attention when we are attracted to)
o Similarity (identify) (is it like me, or not?)

RETENTION PROCESSES

o Symbolic coding (coin example)

o Cognitive organization (something that is not external
o Symbolic rehearsal (imagine ourselves doing it)
o Motor rehearsal
o Latent learning

MOTOR REPRODUCTION PROCCESES

o Physical capabilities
o Availability of component responses
o Self-observation of reproduction
o Accuracy of feedback

MOTIVATIONAL PROCESSES

o External reinforcement
o Vicarious reinforcement
o Self - reinforcement

MOTIVATIONAL VARIABLES

o Perception of control (behavior)

o Self-efficacy
o Expectatives

CONCLUSIONS

o Mechanism involved in the acquisition of several abilities and behaviors

 Moral development
 Pro-social and interpersonal behavior
 Affective behavior
 Linguistic development
o It requires
 A certain level of development (cognitive and madurative processes)
 Symbolic representation

LEARNING THEORIES IN DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

o These theories assume that every acquisition can be explained by stimulus-response associations, and
by modelling processes
o According to them, any behavior can be learned at any moment
o The behavioral principles explain certain acquisitions
o They are not enough, on their own, to explain the whole developmental process (we can’t explain
everything)

NEW THEORIES

o Relevance of different factors, not directly observable

o New principles to explain development (not only learning)
o New variables, apart from behavior:
 Maturation
 Cultural factors
 Intra-individual factors
o Temporal limitations of development
o Qualitative and quantitative acquisitions
4. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory
THE SOCIAL ORIGIN OF THE HIGHER COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS:
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY

o The symbolic nature of the thought can’t be explained because of individual psychological processes
o Higher mental processes in the individual have their origin in social processes, the social interaction
o The development of reasoning is mediated by sings and symbols, built during social interaction
(communicating demands)
o Used for sharing a common way of describing interpreting and reasoning about reality
o The sings:
 Are tools of the thought
 Have a function of cultural mediation
 Are built throughout social interaction
o Double-formation law:
Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later,
on the individual level; first, between people (inter-psychological) and then inside the child (intra-
psychological)
o This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts
o All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals
o Internalization: the internal reconstruction of an external operation
o Origin of all the higher psychological processes
 An operation that initially represents an external activity is reconstructed and begins to
occur internally
 An interpersonal process is transformed into an intrapersonal one
 The transformation of an interpersonal process into an intrapersonal one is the result of a
long series of developmental events.
o Development: process of adaptation to the environment’s demands
 communication

TWO DIFFERENT MENTAL FUNCTIONS

o Lower mental functions

o Higher mental functions

LOWER MENTAL FUNCTIONS (NATURAL)

o Common for animals and humans

o Created by adaptation to physical environment

HIGHER MENTAL FUNCTIONS (CULTURAL)

o Specifically human
o Product of adapting to the social and cultural environment
o Development: phylogenesis + cultural history
o Process of interactive construction
  Maturation
 Cultural development (mastering the mediation tools given by the cultural environment)
o Children are born with basic biological functions
o Each culture provides what as tools of intellectual adaptation. These tools allow children to use
their basic mental abilities in a way that is adaptive to the culture in which they live

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THOUGHT

o Acquisition of word meaning

o Communicative origins

ACQUISITION OF WORD MEANING

o First words not symbolic (communicative function)

o From two years: communicative and symbolic function
o Abstraction will develop later

COMMUNICATIVE ORIGINS

o Language starts as a tool external to the child used for social interaction (inter-psychological,
external speech)
o Internalization (private speech)
o Intra-psychological (language)

STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

o Natural or primitive stage (0-2). Lack of speech (no verbal thought)

 Experiments with sound production
 Acquisition of the first words
 No relation between language and thought
o Naive psychology (2-7)
 Grammar and syntax become integral parts of the child’s speech
 The child uses language to communicate needs an ideas
 Practical intelligence, experimenting with the physical properties
 Language represents things, not ideas
o Third stage: egocentric speech (7-12). External signs
 Close interaction between thought and language
 Children talk to themselves constantly
 Helps to solve internal problems
 Appears when children use language to
 Guide their activity
 Solve problems
 Personal adaptation
o Fourth stage: internalization of the external operations, egocentric language stops being audible, and
it transforms
o Language becomes verbal thought

ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT AND SCAFFOLDING

o Two levels in a child’s development

  Actual development level (the things you can do on your own without help)
 Potential development level (things I can do with help) Eventually they will be done on their
own.
o Zone of proximal development (ZPD): The difference between the actual development level as
determined by individual problem solving and the level of potential development as determined
through problem solving under adult guidance or collaboration with knowledgeable peers.

o Bruner: scaffolding. When an adult provides support for a child, they will adjust the amount of help
they give defending on their progress
o This progression of different levels of help is scaffolding. It draws parallels from real scaffolding for
buildings; it’s used as a support for construction of new material (the skill/information to be learnt)
and them removed once the building is complete (the skill/information has been learnt)
 5. Piaget’s psychogenic theory
He was a biologist, studied the animals. Then, he became a father, and he did experiments with his
children. The experiments always had the same results and he wanted to explain why.

o Most widely known theory of cognitive development

o First psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development
o Constructivism author: learning as an active process of construction rather than a passive assimilation
of information
 Active learning as opposed to simply absorbing information
 The child is seen as a “little scientist” constructing understandings of the world largely alone
o Two aspects of the theory
 Structure (schemata, stages)
 Function (adaptation though assimilation and accommodation)

STRUCTURE OF KNOWLEDGE

o Knowledge comes from the interaction between subject and object

o That interaction happens through actions.
o Actions: ways to act that imply a transformation of reality
o Include
 Elementary sensorimotor actions (push, pull…)
 Intellectual operations (order, compare…)

To Piaget, Intelligence comes from the coordination of actions

o Object
 Physical elements
 People, animals

What is relevant is the interaction between subject and object

o Schemata (sing. Schema): mental operations and cognitive structures that can be transferred and
generalized, created as children interact with their physical and social environments
o It’s not observable, but it can be inferred from the actions
o The reflexes (innate and involuntary behaviors, rigid and stereotyped)
o Are applied to different objects, and become behavioral schemata, that coordinate between
themselves
o Those behavioral schemata are interiorized, and mentally represented, becoming symbolic schemata

REFLEXES  ACTIONS  COORD BEHAVIONAL SCH

INTERN ACTIONS. SYMBOLIC SCH (they can do it in their mind)

coordinate
Operational sch

o The first structures are formed from the coordination of behavioral schemata
o In what coordinates are interiorized actions, (7 years), the result are operational schemata

o Behavioral schemata: organized patterns of behavior that are used to represent and respond to
objects and experiences

o Symbolic schemata: internal mental symbols (such as images or verbal codes) that one uses to
represent aspects of experience

o Operational schemata: internal mental activity that one performs on objects of thought

o The structures

 Aren’t observable, they can be inferred from the performance

 Envolve

o Development = structural changes

o Evolution in stages, qualitatively different

o Four stages in cognitive development

 Stage 1: Sensorimotor (birth – 2 yrs)

 Stage 2: Preoperational (2 – 7 yrs)

 Stage 3: Concrete Operations (7 – 11 yrs)

 Stage 4: Formal Operations (11 – on)

THE STAGES

o Are universal
o Appear in the same order (can be before or after, but always in the same order)
o Had a characteristic structure
o Are integrated in the following ones
o Have a preparation time

o The structure of the 1st stage of cognitive development:

 Is composed by coordinations of behavioral schemata
 Knowledge is achieved through activity
o The preoperational stage (2nd) stage involves
 The symbolic function (2 years)
 The knowledge is amplified to the internalized actions, the symbolic schemata, and the
conceptual development starts
o Concrete operations, determined by the development of
 The operational schemata, a system of coordination of interiorized schemata that are
reversible
o Formal operations stage
 The operations are applied not only to real objects and transformations, but to all the
possible ones, to hypothesis, formulated in propositions
FACTORS INVOLVED IN DEVELOPMENT

o Maturation
o Physical environment (experience)
o Social environment (necessary, but not enough)
o Equilibration

FUNCTIONAL ASPECT

o Intelligence as a form of adaptation

o The organism changes depending on the environment, and that change creates more changes in the
environment and in the organism
o Two biological mechanisms (functional invariants):
- Assimilation – The process of interpreting new experiences by incorporating them into
existing schemes
- Accommodation – The process of modifying existing schemes in order to incorporate or
adapt to new experiences

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND THOUGHT

o Language acquisition linked to cognitive development

o Cognitive determinism
o Language as an expression of the cognitive abilities

o Until 3 years, egocentric language

 No social function
 Echolalia (verbal repetitions, vocal exercises)
 Monologue that accompanies the actions and reinforces them
 Collective monologue, the child talks next to others, not to them
o Two characteristics of the egocentric language
 The child speaks without interaction, without expecting answers
 Doesn’t distinguish his own point of view from the others’
o End of sensorimotor stage
 Deferred imitation
 Pretend play
 Mental images (object permanence)
 Language

COGNITIVE PREREQUISTIES TO ACQUIRE LANGUAGE

o Object permanence
o Spatial and temporal comprehension
o Ability to relate objects and actions
 6. Cognitive prerequisites to
acquire language
o Study of the complex mental processes
o Mental activities not directly observable

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COGNITIVE PROCESSION

THEORIES

o Humans process the information they receive, rather than merely responding to stimuli
o Compare the mind to a mind to a computer, responsible for analysing information from the
environment
o Processing as a manipulation of symbols
o Human cognition
- Is composed by individual processes
- That operate sequentially in order to produce an output
o The information had to be codified and stored, using a symbolic representation
o The structural models describe the processes the information goes through
- Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

o Sensory memory holds information associated with the senses just long enough for the information
to be processed further (mere seconds)
o Short-term memory (STM) functions as a temporary working memory (further processing)
o Long-term memory (LTM) is the permanent storehouse of information (unlimited capacity)
o Craik and Lockhart (1972)
o In order for the information to pass to the LMT, it should be understood and must have gained
meaning. This way it will last longer.
o Levels of processing

o The structural level focuses on the appearance of the word

o The phonetic level refers to the sound processing of information
o The semantic level refers to the meaning of the word
o Baddeley and Hitch (1974): working memory

o An alternative model of STM called working memory

o Working memory is not a unitary store, there are different systems for different types of information
o Central executive
- Drives the whole system
- Allocates data to the subsystems
- Deals with cognitive tasks such as mental arithmetic and problem solving
o Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad
- Stores and processes information in a visual or spatial form
- Used for navigation
o Articulatory control process
- Linked to speech production
- Used to rehearse and store verbal information from the phonological store
o Newell and Simon: problem space theory
o Interaction between
- A task
- A subject
- An environment
o Building a problem space
- Initial state of the problem
- Goal state
- Possible mental operations that can be applied
- All the intermediate states

On one side of a river are three hobbits and three orcs. They have a boat on their side that is capable of
carrying two creatures at a time across the river. The goal is to transport all six creatures across to the
other side of the river. At no point on either side of the river can orcs outnumber hobbits (or the orcs
would eat the outnumbered hobbits). The problem, then, is to find a method of transporting all six
creatures across the river without the hobbits ever being outnumbered.

EXPLANATION OF DEVELOPMENT

o It’s not an objective of these theories

o Source of hypothesis about
o Children’s performance in different tasks
o Mechanisms to explain the performance differences in different ages

GENERAL MECHANISMS OF DEVELOPMENT

o Reject structural changes in the processing ability

o Extension and amplification of strategies
o Specific knowledge of a subject
o Metacognition