Introduction to

cognitive development.
Main Topics
Cognitive development
Javier Aroztegui
Who are they?
What place is that?
How do they manage to survive?

(CC License. Photo downloaded from pxfule.com)

 Who are they?
Narrow view: They are the !Kung
Wide view: It's us
What place is that?
Narrow view: The Kalahari desert
Wide view: Our natural environment, the environment
to which our mind has been evolutionarily adapted
How do they manage to survive?
Narrow view: They use their mental capacities
to discover where to find food, water,
shelter from the sun and the night cold, from
predators, …
Wide view: Due to the capabilities that mature during
psychological development and learning
What are we going to see in this topic...
2
1

What does Developmental How psychological development

Psychology studies? takes place? Development Principles
Introduction
3
6
Are there different periods?
What are the
Stages of development
main forms
to understand
development?
Development theories

What are the main debates?

How can we get to know
Development Controversies
how development deploys?
Study Methods 4
5
What does developmental psychology
studies?
Introduction
What's included...

Social and
Cognitive Emotional
Development Development

Physical
Development

Developmental
Psychology
Definition
• Development: Change linked with the passage of time
• Cognitive development +
• Describe
• Explain
• Change taking place linked to time in:
• Knowledge structures
• Cognitive processes
• Perception
• Concept formation
• Memory
• Thought
• Other processes
How psychological development takes
place?
Development principles
Development characteristics…

Takes place over

the Lifetime Multidimensional

Physical
Development
Cognitive Development

Social and
Emotional
Development

Multidirectional
Development characteristics…

Plasticity

Importance
Resistance to
of First
Adversity
Experiences
Development characteristics…

Multicontextual

Development

Performance Context
Are there different periods?
Stages of development
What are we going to see at this point…
Prenatal
Infancy and Toddlerhood

Early childhood

Middle childhood

Adolescence

Adulthood +

Late Adulthood +
What are we going to see at this point…
Prenatal

• Beginning
• Nutrition and health of the mother
• Teratogens
• Birth

image by lunar

licensed under CC BY 2.0

What are we going to see at this point...
Toddlerhood
Image by Han Myo Htwe on Unsplash

• First two years

• Great change of… • Carers of…
• Good earing • Feeding
• Bad vision • Hygiene
• Great dependency • Schedules
• TO… • TO…
• Walk • Guides in motion
• Talk • Attention
What are we going to see at this point…
Early childhood

• 3 to 5 years old
• Preschool years
• Language learning
• Sense of self
image by Alaric Sim on Unsplash
• More independence
• Begins to understand the physical world
• Initial conceptions
• Fear of “going down the bathtub drain”
What are we going to see at this point…
Middle childhood

• From 6 to 11 years old

• First school years
• Academic learning
image by Wayne Lee- Sing
• Test skills on Unsplash
• Sports and activity games
• Improvement of motor skills
• Measure yourself with others
• Social relationships beyond the family
What are we going to see at this point…
Adolescence
• Great physical change
• Sexual maturation (puberty)
• Cognitive change, formal thinking
• Think about the possible, beyond the current situation
• Dichotomous thinking
• New, more abstract concepts
• Love, freedom, justice, …
• Feeling of being invincible
• Higher risk
• Accidents
• Illness Image by Matheus Ferrero
on Unsplash
 What are we going to see at this point…
Adulthood

• From 18 to 65 years old

• Beginning (18 to 25 years old)
• Explore your own identity
• Instability (various areas) Image by startupstockphotos
in pixabay .
• Focused on your projects
• Feeling “in between” (adolescence and adulthood)
• Time of many possibilities, optimism
What are we going to see at this point…
Adulthood
Early and middle adulthood (change at 40)
• Maximum physical ability is reached
Image in domain
• Greater cognitive maturity
wikimedia
• Economic independence
• Intimate relationships of cohabitation, sons/daughters
• Postformal Thought
• Think about the probable, realism
• Less influenced by other people
• More flexible thinking, dialectical thinking, integrates
aspects of different or opposing perspectives
• Continuous learning
• Fast changing society
• Changes in middle adulthood
What are we going to see at this point...
late adulthood

• From the age of 65 to the end of life

• Job changes
• Social changes
• Cognitive impairment
• Cognitive maintenance

Image from
What are the main debates?
Development controversies
What are we going to see at this point…

?
Nature vs.
? Continuity vs.
Discontinuity
Nurture

Activity vs.
?
Passivity

Normative vs.
?
Idiographic +
Nature vs. nurture
• Genetics
• Atmosphere
• Upbringing, education, context, culture
• Genetics environment interaction. Epigenetics.+
• Stereotypes in relation to genetics
• Stereotypes in relation to the environment
• Evolution strategy
• Specialization vs. generalist
• Evolution of Homo sapiens
• Duration of psychological development ?
• Comparison of capabilities of adults with respect to other mammals ?
• Comparison of capabilities at the beginning with respect to other mammals ?
Chromosome Image from Smashicons . Freepik Book image from Freepick. Both with
flaticon License.
Continuity vs. Discontinuity
• Continuity
• Cumulative, quantitative changes
• Continuous changes
• Gradual changes
• Summative
• Discontinuity
• Qualitative changes
• Abrupt changes
Image by NOBA has license
• Emergentism CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
• Holistic, non-reductionist effects
Activity vs. Passivity
• Agent or patient of developmental change
• Difference between activity and awareness
• Examples
• Behaviorism
• Piaget
• Erikson
• Controlled or Automatic processes
• Metacognition
• Cognitive flexibility
• Epistemological beliefs +
Normative vs. Idiographic
• Normative
• Follow general, common rules
• Developmental Similarities
• General Psychology a b c
• Idiographic
• Emphasize specific processes
• Development divergences
• Individual differences

a b c