cognitive & social development

SENSORI MOTOR (0-2YRS) 

• develops understanding of world via coordinating sensory experience (seeing, hearing) with motor experience (reaching, touching).
• learn via trial & error that they can move body in particular ways & eventually learn they can deliberately move objects.
• also learn to distinguish between humans & objects & basic language
• 8 months = object pernamence (objects still exist when out of sight)

EVALUATION

Challenging research = found 3mth children w/ object pernamence, but look for ibjects in more subtle ways. used infrared cameras in dark & found them to conitnue reaching for objects, so P may have underestimated age of object pernamence.

Issue w/ methodology = children may have not searched for object due to lack of motor skills, rather than object pernamence, also may have not been interested in toy or thought that it being covered meant it was forbidden. shows failure to search for toy doesnt mean they are unaware it still exists.

PROCEDURE: hid toy under blanket whilst child watched & observed if they went to search for it. searching for toy would signal object pernamence & mental representation of it. 

FINDINGS: 8mths + would search for toy, showing younger children lacked object pernamence & were unable to form mental representation of object in mind.

PRE OPERATIONAL (2-7YRS)

• cant use logic to transform, combine or seperate ideas, thus rely solely on what they see, so understanding is governed by outward appearances
• difficulty w/ class inclusion = ability to understand that the same object can be part of a subordinate group as well as a superordinate group at the same time e.g. fruit consists of apples, oranges etc.
• egocentrism

EVALUATION 

Challenging research = Egocentrism: 90% children aged 3.5 - 5yrs could 'hide' doll between intersecting walls so police dolls couldnt see it but they could, showing their ability to decentre. Class inclusion: 5yr old children undertook class inclusion taks & when their incorrect answers were explained to them, their class inclusion skills dramatically improved, showing P may have underestimated abilities.

Issues w/ methodology = children may have given different answers when asked if the quantity was the same before & after transformation (conservation task) as they may have thought experimenter wanted another answer which was different. study found when child only asked question once, they made less errors

 CLASS INCLUSION: understanding that the same object can belong to subordinate & superordinate catagories at the same time e.g. fruit can be oranges, pears etc

PROCEDURE: showed children 20 wooden beads (18 brown & 2 white) & asked "are there more brown beads or wooden beads?"

FINDINGS: children from pre-operational would asnwer brown/incorrectly, showing they lack class inclusion as they assumed that the brown beads belonged to one class & were the majority.

CONSERVATION: understanding that when shape/appearance of object changes, its quanitiy remains the same if nothing has been added or taken away.

PROCEDURE: several conservation tasks on mass, number, volume & length e.g. glasses of water, balls of clays, two sticks. presented children w/ 2 objects w/ equal quantities & ask if same/different, then would change appearance e.g. pouring water into taller beaker, & ask same question.

FINDINGS: children from pre-operational would give incorrect answers to post-transformation object question.

EGOCENTRISM: children can only see world from their perspective & unable to see things from others' viewpoints.

PROCEDURE: used 3 mountain models on a taable, each topped with different things: a cross, a house & snow.

3-8yr olds explored models & walked around to see it from all sides.

then, doll was placed at different points & several tasks done to test ability to 'see' from dolls viewpoint e.g. given 10 images & asked to choose which one doll could see, asked to pick any imge & then say where doll would need to stand to see that point of view. 

FINDINGS: 4yr olds aways picked image they could see & showed no awareness that doll's view would be different. 6yr olds chose image different from their view, but still not dolls' view. 7/8yr olds consistently picked image representing doll's viewpoint, showing from 7yrs+ are no longer egocentric.

CONCRETE OPERATIONAL (7-11YRS) can use logical thought & apply to physical objects/events but struggle to reason/imagine abstract ideas, but have developed conservation, class inclusion & less egocentric.

FORMAL OPERATIONAL (11YRS+) adolescents can deal with abstract ideas, can solve problems logically (rather than trial & error) and can provide many solutions to hypothetical problems 

EVALUATION OF FORMAL OPERATIONAL

Challenging research = few adults have thinmking required for sceintific reasonning, even in industrialised society. tested 12-18 females on formal operational sceince problems, such as pendulum problem & only 2 succeeded on all problems. also found 40-60% of college students fail at formal operational tasks & claimed only 1/3 adults ever reach formal operational stage.

• children think/reason differently to adults (agrees w/ P)
• social context/ culture of childs surroundings is prime determinant of individual development
• cognitive maturation is driven biologically, but most importantly is a product of social interctions with others'
• "mini apprentices" 
• language plays major role in shaping thought

• children born (biological, shared with other mammals) with 4 elementary mental functions: attention, sensation, perception & memory.
• social & cultural environment allow us to reach higher mental functions (exclusively human)
• higher mental functions are developed through MKO's, ZPD & language development.

MKO's/EXPERTS = people with greater knowledge interacts with child & guides through problem solving (taking most of responsibility) child learns through this process & eventually responsiblity transfers to child.

LANGUAGE = culture is transmitted through use of expert's language/semiotics to child.

1) language is external - shared dialogue between adult & child

2) develops mental representation skills & can communicate with themselves (egocentric speech)

3) leads to development of inner speech/thought

therefore, reasoning abilities learnt via language of others' means they will acquire reasonning abilties of that particular person, explaining cultural differences in development, as children pick up these 'mental tools' and use them for the rest of their life.

ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT: region where development takes place, consisting of the gap between the childs' current stage of development & what they could potentially understand & develop to with the help of MKO's. Experts assist children to cross the ZPD, but still limited to some extent by development stage. They develop more sdvanced understanding of a situation which leads to more advanced learning abilities from learning from others'. 

SCAFFOLDING: Bruner identified 5 steps of general scaffolding (how MKO's assist):

1) Recruitment - engaging childs' interest in taks

2) Reducing degrees of freedom - focussing child on task & where to start to solve it

3) Direction maintenance - encouraging child to help motivate them & continue trying to complete task

4) Marking critical features - highlighting most important aspects of task

5) Demonstation - showing child how to perfrom aspects of task

RESEARCH = gave 4-5yr olds task of estimating number of sweets in box. when working alone, most children failed to give good estimate, but when in expert help condition (paired with older child) they were given prompts & pointed in right direction, leading to most children successfully mastering tasks, showing w/ assistance, children can master new learning abilities, adding validity to concept of ZPD.

ACCOUNTS OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCES = cross-cultural research of 272 children from 22 schools in Papa New Guinea were assessed on mathmatical knowledge & found on average, when using their own traditional counting systems & language, they spent less time & made fewer mistakes on tasks compared to children using non-counting systems & English language, showing importance of culture & language in enhanced cognitive development.

Animal research on Bonobo apes such as Kanzi found when exposed to language-rich culture/humans, they could communicate via lexigram, showing elementary functions exist in animals & they can reach higher functions via cultural/language immersment.

APPLICATIONS = scaffolding used in classroom via help of teacher (trained to give guidance in this way) & peer work used to pair those with different abilities to make use of reciprocal/peer teaching.

ALTERNATIVE THEORIES
1) Vgotsky's & Piaget's different approaches could reflect their individual differences, as V was communist, valued role of society/community in developing individual & P was part of indivdualist European society.

2) Although they talk about differernt learning styles, they both emphasise interactionist approach of complex development, abstract/scientific thought is reached at end of stages & learner is active rather than passive.

3) However, they also have differences:

VIOLATION OF EXPECTATION = infant will show suprise when witnessing an impossible event

PROCEDURE: 24 infants (5-6mths) shown tall & short rabbit moving a long a track behind a screen with a window.

Familiarisation stage - infants observed different sized rabbits moving across track.

Test event stage - possible/non-magical: shown a small rabbit passing window, but is too small to be visible, the tall rabbit is visible when passing window as it's big enough.

impossible/magical: both rabbits pass through screen, but short rabbit is visible in window & tall rabbit is not visible.

FINDINGS: avg. 33.07secs spent watching impossible event, compared to 25.11secs for possible event. This shows infants were suprised that tall rabbit wasnt visible in window, showing they have understanding of object pernamence.

PHYSICAL REASONNING SYSTEM = babies are equipped with innate PRS which comprise of basic understanding of physical world & also abilities to learn details more easily from experiences. 

UNVEILING PHENOMENON = when babies first learn a new physical phenomenon, they approach it with an 'all or nothing' concept & later add to the concept when they find other variables which affect it.

Infants shown a cover with a bulge (suggesting there's something beneath it). 9.5mths old showed suprise when there was nothing beneath the cover, but aren't suprise when the bject beneath is smaller than the bulge suggested. However, by 12.5mths, they do show surprise at mismatched sizes. 

This shows existence of PRS: FIRST, formation of concept that bulge indicates an object, THEN, they identify a variable which effects the concept e.g. size.

Proposed that this is the application of innate learning systems to available data.

Research = controlled research, as she used a diverse sample by using a birth announcement in the local paper (P used M/C children) so it has higher population validity. Also asked parent to close eyes & not interact w/ infant to avoid unconscious cues being given & used multiple observers on every trial w/ use of double bind (observers weren't aware of if it was a possible/impossible event).

Internal validity = DV of 'looking' to measure VOE has issues as it means we're inferring what a baby understands. Also, looking for different periods of time could indicate that they're recognising a difference between 2 conditions & mutliple reasons could explain why they find one more interesting.

Alternative = demonstrating object pernamence doesn't signal a true understanding of it, P suggests that cogitive development includes understanding of the principle rather than acting in accordance with it, so B just proved that P underestimated children's abilities.

Nature/Nurture = other studies show we're born w/ basic understanding of physical world, such as babies understand that letting go of a keyring will cause it to drop to the floor, showing PRS, which is universal, allowing rapid learning, thus aiding survival.

• psychological perspective taking is the central dynamic in social development as it allows children to gain insight into how other's are thinking/feeling.
• the more mature insights that children develop, the more developed their social relations become.
• role-taking abilities correlate with age, showing developmental sequence.

RESEARCH = measured perspective taking abilities by using a range of dilemmas which required taking on others' perspectives & assessed their reasonning when met with conflicting feelings.

STAGE 0 = (3-6YRS) Undifferentiated/Egocentric: can distinguish between self & others' but largely governed by own perspective.

STAGE 1 = 6-8YRS) Social-informational: aware of differing perspectives from their own, but assume this is because they don't have the correct information available to them. only their perspective is valid & will attempt to allign others' perspectives to match theirs.

SATGE 2 = (8-10YRS) Self-reflective: can view thoughts & feelings from others' perspectives, truly empathetic & can step into others' shoes & consider how their thinking/feeling.

STAGE 3 = (10-12YRS) Mutual: can step into 3rd impartial party to view how self & other is feeling & can consider 2 different viewpoints stimultaneously. 

STSGE 4 = (12-15+) Societal: '3rd party' is actually influenced by societal & cultural context, relating to where the bystander lives. varrying neutral perspectives are possible, each reflecting by values of the social/cultural context in which the situation occurs.

Research = Selman's orignal research included a cross-sectional sample of 225 PP's (4.5-32yrs). analysis conducted 2yrs later re-interviewed 48 boys & found 40 had progressed through stages & none regressed, showing age relation. further 3rd analysis further validated that no boys had regressed & some had progressed. range of studies adds validity.

Importance = study found mature perspective taking psitively correlated w/ pro-social behaviour & negatively related to aggression. found those w/ poor perspective taking abilties suffered difficulties forming relationships, showing it's importance in developing social relations. however, causation issues w/ correlational research.

Applications = social skills training (SST) programmes used w/ older children in theraputic environments who suffer from mental/behavioural problems. also has been used in prisons for criminals who lack empathy/perspective taking to develop skills & empathetical concern for others'.

THEORY OF MIND: not a psychological theory, it's our personal understanding of what others' are thinking & feeling. having ToM means we can understand 'what is in someone elses mind'.

has been used as an explanation of austistic/ASD symptoms, who may lack ToMM (biological mechanism maturing at around age 4 to increase infants understanding of others' behaviour)

SAMPLE: 20 children w/ ASD (avg. age 12yrs), 14 children w/ Downs syndrome (same age, but different mental age) & 27 normal childre (avg. age 4yrs)

PROCEDURE: told story about marble & box w/ 2 dolls (Salley & Ann), then asked control questions: "where is the marble really?" to check they saw, followed by false belief question "where will Salley look for the marble?".

FINDINGS: 85% normal children answered correctly, similiar to Downs children (showing lack of ToM isn't linked to low intelligence), compared to only 20% of ASD children, showing impairments in ToM may be explanation of Autism.

LATER RESEARCH ON ADULTS: found most high-functioning adults w/ ASD would pass Salley Ann task, so created 'The Eyes Task'

PROCEDURE: participants shown images of people's eyes & asked to identify 1 of 2 emotions presented, to define what the eyes were showing. 

FINDINGS: adults on ASD spectrum had mean answer of 16.3/25, compared to non-ASD adults who answered avg. 20.3/25. Ranges of scores fairly similiar (13-25 Vs 16-25) showing those w/ ASD faced more difficulty in identifying facial emotions in peoples eyes.

Research = issues with validity as ToM tasks require other abilities such as memory, as the Salley-Ann task is quite a lot of a 3yr old to remember. other repeated studies using memeory aids found that younge children are capable of holding false believe, contradicting the research.

Strength = has biological basis as ToM develops at around 2yrs, & findings of a ToM Module which increases ToM capabilities at avg. age 4yrs. however, NURTURE argument of how ToM appears earlier in large families w/ older siblings as children are met w/ more conflicts which can only be solved by using ToM, showing it's a combination of biological & environmental factors.

Issues = hard to establish cause & effect, as lack of ToM is only present in some autistic people, so if it was integral part of condition, we would expect all to be impaired. also, autism has many traits which inihibit ability to develop ToM, as they lack social functioning & language skills, so this may mean they lack experiences which lead to the development of ToM, rather than having an inherent lack of ToM.

Applications = helps us understand different experiences of those w/ ASD, however the theory can't explain Islets of Ability - superior visual attention & high systematic reasoning.

DISCOVERY OF MIRROR NEURONS: Rizzolatti was recording activity in motor cortex of macaque monkeys' & found when researcher reached for lunch in view of monkey, their motor cortex activiated identically to when the monkey would reach out for food itself. further investigation found same brain cells fired when monkey reached itself Vs watching others' reaching.

MIRROR NEURONS & IMITATION: mirror neurons encode the activity of others' as if the oserver was carrying out the same activity. this imitation is important for aquiring skills of copying behaviour which people observe. 

INTENTION: found that mirror neurons record more than imitation & can account for inention - knowing what the human is intending to do.

PROCEDURE: participants shown 3 different movie clips representing 'tea party scene' & used fMRI scans to measure neural activity.

1) CONTEXT - scene 1 of before tea party (full cup/clean table) & scene 2 for after (crumbs).

2) ACTION - scene 1 of grasping tea cup to drink & then scene 2 of grasping tea cup to clear away.

3) COMBINED - context & action

FINDINGS: highest lvl of neuron activity found in inferior frontal cortex during intention/combined clip, showing this brain area is concerned with understanding why others' are behaving in a certain way, otherwise, similiar activity would have been found for other clips. shows MN's more likely to fire for understanding intention, not just motor activity.

Research = supporting evidence has located specific MN systems in certian areas of the brain which is related to contagious yawning, widely seen as a sign of human empathy, allows us to percieve the mental states of others. fMRI scans were used to locate activity in the Brodmann's area (frontal lobe) of the participants when shown films of others' yawning, which caused them to yawn, the area is believed to be rich in MN's.

Strength = supports gender differences of the notion that females have ligher lvls of social sensitivity/empathy, which we would expect to be reflected in MN activity. study recored EEG activity of men & women whilst both watched a moving dot & a moving hand (only the hand should stimulate MN's). both had same performance for dot, but females showed significant elevated acitivity in reaction to the hand, showing gender differences have a biological basis, not just a social basis.

Applications = studies have found that children w/ ASD show lower activity in inferior frontal gyrus (part of MN system) when shown faces displaying a range of different emotions. However, not any direct reliable evidence (inconsistent findings) which is an issue for 'broken mirror theory' of ASD as there are still strong links of ASD sympptoms & the likley role of MN's in social cognition.

Explanation of evolution = MN's said to be key in understanding the rapid development of human culture & society, as without them, we wouldn't be able to live in such complex cultures characterised by rules & roles, so it's said to have effectively shaped human evolution as a social species.