Overview and

Perspectives
in Human
Development
UNIT 7 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT7
Structure
7.0 Introduction
7.1 Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
7.1.1 Sensorimotor Stage
7.1.2 Preoperational Stage
7.1.3 Concrete Operational Stage
7.1.4 Formal Operational Stage

7.2 Assessing Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

7.3 The Core Knowledge Perspective
7.3.1 The Domain of Objects
7.3.2 The Domain of Numbers

7.4 Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development

7.4.1 The Zone of Proximal Development
7.4.2 Scaffolding
7.4.3 Private Speech

7.5 Comparison between Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s theories

7.6 Information Processing
7.6.1 Attention
7.6.2 Memory
7.6.3 Metacogniton

7.7 Summary
7.8 Keywords
7.9 Review questions
7.10 References and Further Reading
7.11 Additional Online Resources

Learning objectives:
After reading this unit, you will be able to:

• explain Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development and what occurs at

each stage;
• identify the basic processes discussed by Vygotsky’s sociocultural
theory;
• describe the theory of core knowledge;

7 Vrushali Pathak, Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New
166 Delhi.
• explain the information processing approach, and Perspectives On
Human
• outline the developmental changes in attention, memory, and Development Ii:
Cognitive
metacognition. Perspective

7.0 INTRODUCTION
An intriguing aspect of human development is thinking. We often wonder
about the thoughts of a child. How the intellectual capacities of a child
changes into that of an adolescent or eventually an adult. The difference
between how children think and how adults think is not just about how much
they know of the world around them, it also lies in the very way they make
sense (think and understand) of their experiences. The inner processes and
products of mind that leads to ‘knowing’ is called as cognition (Berk, 2013).
All mental activities are a part of it, such as attention, planning, categorizing,
problem solving, reasoning, creativity, symbolizing etc. Some important
aspects considered by researches in making sense of cognitive development
are- (i) mapping out a typical course to identify if most children go through
similar transformations, (ii) examining individual differences, and (iii) how
genetic and environmental factors work together to govern change. You have
learnt about cognitive perspective to human development in Unit 3. In this
Unit, we will learn about theories and researches that contribute to the current
understanding of cognitive development.

7.1 PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE

DEVELOPMENT
There is no doubt that the Swiss cognitive theorist Jean Piaget revolutionized
the study of cognitive development in children. Although his theory received
criticisms and has undergone various revisions over the years, it definitely
provides a set of basic cognitive principles guiding much research even
today. Some of these important ideas are as follows:

• Intelligence is an active, constructive and dynamic process.

• Mistakes made by children help us in making sense of their thought
process at that particular stage of development.
• With time, structure of thinking changes in children but these new modes
are based on their earlier structures (Flavell, Miller, & Miller, 2002).
Piaget’s theory tries to unify how biology and experience shapes cognitive
development. He believed that like our physical bodies which adapt to the
world, we also build mental structures which help us in adapting to the world.
We actively and systematically try to make sense of our experiences to adapt
to our environment, that is, we organize our experiences into schemas,
frameworks that place concepts, objects etc. into categories. All of us have
unique ways of organizing our experiences based on the schemas we develop.

Schema is a specific psychological structure which is understood as

organized ways we use to make sense of the experiences around us. These are
actions and mental representations that change with age. According to Piaget, 167
Overview and behavioral schemes (physical activities) involving sensorimotor action
Perspectives patterns characterize infancy- such as sucking, grasping; and mental schemes
in Human
Development (cognitive activities) develop in childhood (Lamb, Bornstein, & Teti, 2002)
involving skills such as problem solving, categorization etc. Cognitive
approaches are based on mental representations-internal depiction of
information which the mind can manipulate. Images (mental pictures of
objects, people etc.) and concepts (categories to group similar objects or
events) are two of the mental representations. Piaget discussed two process
which are important for the change from sensorimotor to representational
schemes- adaptation and organization.

Whenever we have a new experience, we try to make sense of it by fitting it

into a schema we already have. For example, a child may have a new kind of
sandwich (with different filling but very similar to the one he/she had earlier)
that he/she understands as a food that was consumed earlier. Fitting new
experiences easily into our preexisting schemas is called as assimilation.
However, if the child is served with food, he/she has never seen earlier, they
may not connect it with their schema for food. This may throw them in a state
of confusion and this is called as disequilibrium.Disequilibrium can be an
uncomfortable state for an individual, so they would try to make sense out of
it in order to return to a comfortable state, a process called as equilibration.
In order to change the schema to fit our new experience, we use
accommodation because now we will be changing or accommodating the
way we think about certain things to understand this new information. Thus,
if the parent can convince the child to eat a burger or a taco, he/she may
discover that it is a delicious food, and accommodate the existing schema for
including burger or taco in it and equilibrium is restored. Thus, the child soon
fine tunes the category to accommodate burger and taco in the scheme. In
accommodation, we either create new schemes such as calling it a taco here
or adjust the old ones after realizing that the current scheme does not capture
the environment completely. In this case, the child may call taco, a “crispy
sandwich”. When children are not changing much, they assimilate more than
they accommodate maintaining their equilibrium and shift to accommodation
due to cognitive discomfort of not being able to make sense of the
information. After they modify their schema (accommodate), they again shift
back to assimilation until they have to modify it again. Thus, adaptation
involves building schemes through direct interaction with the environment
and both assimilation and accommodation help in it. Another process that
helps in changing the schemes is called as organization. Once new schemas
are formed, children rearrange them as they also link them with other existing
schemas, this creates an interconnected cognitive system. Thus, organization
is grouping of isolated behavior and thoughts and continuous refinement of
organization is an integral part of development in humans. Piaget
(1936/1952) discussed that schema actually reach equilibrium as they become
part of a broader network which we eventually apply to our world.

Piaget identified four stages in the cognitive development process (Figure

7.1) from infancy to adolescence. Each stage represents different qualities of
thought and is built on the abilities acquired during the previous stage.
According to Piaget, these stages occur in a prescribed order, that is, in order
168
to reach the 4th stage, the child has to systematically go through the each one Perspectives On
and cannot jump from 2nd to 4th suddenly. Human
Development Ii:
Cognitive
Perspective

Figure. 7.1 Stages of cognitive development by Piaget

7.1.1 Sensorimotor Stage

As the name suggests, infants organize their world by means of their senses
and the physical actions they take on it. Piaget divided this stage further into
six substages but also said that, “the fact remains so complicated and their
sequence can be so rapid that it would be dangerous to separate these stages
too much” (Piaget, 1952, p. 331). Table 7.1 summarizes the six substages as
discussed by Piaget which point at four basic trends in development: (1)
moving from reflexes to goal-directed activity, (2) attention from one’s body
to the outside world, (3) development of object permanence, and (4) shift
from motor action to mental representation. They are discussed in detail in
the following section.

Table 7.1 Six substages of sensorimotor development

Source: Adapted from Santrock (2011) Child Development, 13th ed.
Substage Age Description/Characteristics Example
Simple Reflexes Birth Coordination of sensation Infants make
to1 and action through reflexive sucking motion
month behavior with mouth
(reflexive)
when stroked
on the cheek
First habits and 1 to 4 Adaptation of reflexes to Infants adjust
primary circular months environment sucking to
reactions accommodate
to a new
pacifier
Secondary 4 to 8 Infants become more object- Infant moves
circular months oriented, repetition of and swings the
reactions actions that make interesting arm to hit the
events last bell, he/she
169
Overview and repeats the
Perspectives
in Human
action many
Development times
Coordination of 8 to 12 Action schemas applied, Infant taps a
secondary months eye-hand coordination, bell and it
circular coordination of schemes and rings, tries
reactions intentionality tapping another
object similarly
Tertiary circular 12 to 18 Intrigued by various Rings the bell
reactions, months properties of the object; and discovers
novelty and intentional discovery to hitting bell with
curiosity explore environment a stick also
makes it ring
Internalization 18 to 24 Use of mental activity to Sees a
of schemes months help with exploration playmate
throwing a
tantrum, retains
a memory of it
and throws one
himself the
next day
• Simple reflexes (Birth to 1 month): In this substage, sensation and action
are coordinated mainly through reflexive behavior- sucking, grasping.
Soon the baby would produce behaviors resembling the reflexes even in
the absence of the usual stimulus for the reflex, that is, they might suck
even when the bottle or nipple is nearby rather than when it is directly
placed in the mouth, as was in the beginning.
• First habits and primary circular reactions (1 to 4 months): in this
substage, sensation and two types of schemes- habits and primary
circular reactions are coordinated. Habit can be understood as a reflex (as
discussed in the previous substage) that has become independent from its
stimulus- now the infant may suck even when the bottle is not present or
nowhere around him/her. A primary circular reaction is reproducing an
event later that had occurred by chance in the first place. Babies may
also vary their behavior to adapt to the environmental demands- opening
mouth differently for nipple than a spoon. Anticipation of events can also
be seen in this substage, that is, a hungry infant may stop crying as the
mother would enter the room, a signal to be fed.
• Secondary circular reactions (4 to 8 months): Infants become object-
oriented by this substage. They may improve their skill of sitting up,
reaching for an object and manipulating it. Their motor achievements
support their secondary circular reaction and they try to repeat interesting
events around them. Piaget (1936/1952) hung a few dolls in front of his
4-month-old baby which he knocked accidentally to produce a swinging
movement, fascinated by it he built a scheme of “hitting”. The infant
repeats actions but is not able to coordinate them. They are able to
170
 imitate certain actions, at least the ones that they have already been Perspectives On
doing. Human
Development Ii:
Cognitive
• Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8 to 12 months): Eye- Perspective
hand coordination is an important aspect of this substage. Infants
combine and recombine schemes that they have learnt earlier in a much
more coordinated way. For instance, they might look at a toy, grasp it
and explore it with their fingers. Intentionality can also be seen in the
infants as they may hit and remove one block to reach and play with
another. Thus, by this substage, they can engage in intentional, goal-
directed behavior, and coordinate schemes to solve some problems. For
instance, Piaget, designed an object-hiding task wherein an attractive toy
was hidden under a cover. The infant could retrieve the toy by “pushing”
the obstacle aside and “grasping” the toy. This is also indicative that
object permanence- understanding that the object exists even when it is
out of sight, has begun. Despite this they make A-not-B search error,
indicating that object permanence is not yet complete, that is, if they find
an object at one hiding place (A) and even if they see it being moved to
another place (B), they still search for it in its original place (A).
• Tertiary circular reactions (12 to 18 months): this stage marks the
beginning of human curiosity and novelty. Infants get fascinated by
various properties of an object and try to explore it- a block can rotate at
its place, hit another one, can be stacked on others, slid across the table
etc. This exploratory approach also makes them a better problem solver.
By this substage, object permanence becomes better and A-B search is
more accurate.
• Internalization of schemes (18 to 24 months): by the final sensorimotor
substage, infants develop their ability to use symbols- an internalized
sensory image that represents an event. For instance, Piaget’s daughter
saw a matchbox being opened and closed and later mimicked the event
by opening and closing her mouth- an expression of her image of the
event. A sign of the development of their mental representation is their
capacity to arrive at solutions to problems suddenly (by “thinking”)
rather than through trial-and-error. They can also solve invisible
displacement problems- finding a toy that was moved when out of
sight. The ability to remember and copy behavior of models not present,
can also be seen during this substage, paving way for make-believe play,
known as deferred imitation..

Piaget portrayed the cognitive development of infants as a neat package, yet

some of his concepts and explanations have been challenged and are debated
upon by researchers (Luo & Baillargeon, 2005). Box 7.1 discusses some of
the criticisms of sensorimotor stage.

171
Overview and
Perspectives
in Human Box 7.1 Evaluation of Sensorimotor stage
Development

• Various theorists believe that infants’ perceptual abilities are better

developed than Piaget anticipated very early in life (Bremner, 2010;
Gibson, 2001).
• Researchers believe that infants see objects as unitary, solid figures,
separate from their background right after the birth or shortly
thereafter, but definitely by 3 to 4 months of age which is much
earlier than what Piaget had envisioned.
• Various researchers claimed that object permanence develops in the
first few months itself- by three and a half months (Baillargeon &
DeVos, 1991; Bjorklund, 2005).
• As per Piaget, infants lead a sensorimotor life till 18 months and
mentally represent experiences only after that but, their ability to
recall (at the age of 8 months) the location of a hidden object even
after a delay of more than one minute is indicative of the fact that
they construct mental representations of objects (Mc Donough,
1999).
• Some laboratory studies have revealed that deferred imitation is
present even at six weeks of age! Infants who saw even an
unfamiliar adult’s facial expression could imitate it when they were
exposed to the same adult after 24 hours (Meltzoff & Moore, 1994).

Check Your Progress 1

1. Define schemes.
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
2. What is object permanence?
……………………………………………………………………………
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3. Differentiate between assimilation and accommodation.
……………………………………………………………………………
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4. Name the six substages of sensorimotor stage.
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172 ……………………………………………………………………………
7.1.2 Preoperational Stage Perspectives On
Human
As Piaget gives the label preoperational to this substage, it is important to Development Ii:
Cognitive
understand the term first. Operations are internalized actions which permit a Perspective
child to do things mentally that he/she was doing physically earlier. These are
reversible mental actions, thus mentally adding numbers is considered as
operations. The child is not capable of performing operations mentally yet.
However, preoperational thought is the beginning of an ability to reconstruct
in thought what was previously established in behavior. The major
achievement of this substage is the ability to use symbols. For instance,
children can tell us about the ‘orange’ they ate yesterday, unlike the infant
who would show us the ‘orange’. Although, it is important to note here that
symbols at this stage are concrete and not abstract. It is basically a
transitional stage, a waiting period for the next stage, as by the end of
sensorimotor stage, the child has achieved equilibrium at a behavioral level
and concrete operational stage would represent new higher order equilibrium.
Preoperational stage can be further divided into 2 substages-Symbolic
function substage and Intuitive thought.

Symbolic function substage

Between the ages of 2-4 years, the child gains an ability to mentally represent
an object that is not present. Thus, he/she represents the world with words,
images, and drawings (Deloache, 2011). Mental representation advances of
this substage are discussed below:

1. Language and thought: Piaget acknowledged language to be our most

flexible means of mental representation and yet didnot attribute it a
major role in cognitive development. Instead, he believed that
sensorimotor activity would lead to internal images of experiences which
children would eventually label with words (Piaget, 1952). Gopnik and
Meltzoff (1997) pointed towards the development of action-oriented
language. For instance, term “all gone” may emerge for disappearance of
an object at about the same time as mastery of advanced object-
permanence problems.
2. Development of Make-Believe play: through pretend play, children
practice and strengthen the representational schemes they have acquired.
With time children are able to pretend with less realistic toys and become
more flexible with their actions. For example, a child with age less than 2
years can pretend to talk using a toy telephone. After the age of 2, they
may use a block for a telephone (O’Reilly, 1995). Overtime, play also
becomes less centered, that is, they can pretend actions towards other
objects and later they may also act as a detached participant who make a
doll feed itself or play as a third party with a family of dolls acting on its
own. Box 7.2 discusses some of the benefits of the make-believe play.
3. Drawings: in children, it starts with a scribble (around the age of 2 years)
which contains intended representation and by the age of 3, they start
drawing recognizable shapes. Most children use line drawing making
simple forms of different figures. With improvement in cognitive and
fine motor skills, they create more complex and realistic drawings with 173
Overview and more details. It would be interesting to note that in cultures with
Perspectives emphasis on artistic expression, children produce better and elaborate
in Human
Development drawings whereas in cultures with little interest in it, even the
adolescents produce extremely simple drawings.
4. Symbol-Real World Relations: in an interesting study by De Loache
(1987) two and a half and three-year-old watched an adult hiding a toy in
a model of a room which they could retrieve. Then they had to find a
larger toy hidden in the room similar to the model (a representation),
which they could do only after the age of 3. Dual representation is
visualization of an object as both a symbol and an object it its own right,
but the young preschoolers have a difficulty with this concept. They
cannot understand that a drawing (an object in its own right) can also
represent real world objects (Callaghan, 1999).

Box 7.2 Benefits of Make-Believe play

• It has an emotionally integrative function. For instance, they may

revisit anxiety provoking events in their play and may try to take
control and power, thus compensating for their unpleasant
experiences (Ginsburg, 2007).
• Preschoolers who spend a lot of time at sociodramatic play have
been seen as more socially competent (Connolly & Doyle, 1984).
• It strengthens sustained attention, memory, logical reasoning,
language, creativity, imagination, self-reflection, and perspective
taking (Berk & Meyers, 2013).
• Through their play, they get to pretend that they are adults and learn
to act out their emotions. This also has a role to play on developing
a sense of empathy and self-esteem.

Intuitive thoughts substage

Around the age of 4-5 years, children are found to be asking a lot of “why”
questions. For instance, “why is the sky blue?” “Why does the sun shine?”
“Who was the mother when everyone was a baby?” “How do we grow?” etc.
These questions are a signal of increasing curiosity in children and
emergence of interest in reasoning and figuring the world they live in
(Elkind, 1976). This stage has been called intuitive as the children are sure
about their knowledge but are not aware of its source. Beginning of primitive
reasoning is an important highlight of this substage.

174
 Box 7.3 What children lack during preoperational thought?
1. Egocentrism: While representing their world, children focus on their Perspectives On
Human
own viewpoint ignoring others’. Piaget has explained this through a Development Ii:
3-mountains problem. A display of 3 mountains was prepared Cognitive
Perspective
wherein each one could be distinguished from other- one had a red
cross, another one with a small house, and third one had a snow-
capped peak. A child was asked to walk around the display finally
settling down on one side. A doll was placed on various locations and
the child had to select from different pictures the one that would
show the mountains from the doll’s perspective. Until, the age 6 or 7
children select photos that show their perspective.
2. Animistic Thinking: It is the belief that inanimate objects such as
scooter, toy etc. has lifelike qualities- thoughts, feelings, and
intentions, just like themselves (Gelman &Opfer, 2004). They
describe and draw sun, moon etc. with human-like features.
3. Inability to conserve: Conservation is the ability to understand that a
certain quantity remains same despite the changes or adjustments in
the apparent size, shape or container. A child is shown two tall
glasses filled with water and once the child agrees that both glasses
are equally filled, water from one glass is poured into a wider
container. Now, if the child is asked if both the container and the
remaining taller glass has equal amount of water, the child disagrees.
4. Lack of hierarchical classification: Preoperational children cannot
organize objects on the basis of classes and sub classes by
differentiating them on the basis of their similarities and differences.
They fail the class inclusion problem of Piaget. If children are shown
12 pencils, 4 of which are red and 8 are yellow and when asked “if
there are more yellow pencils or more pencils?” they respond “more
yellow pencils” completely failing to realize that both yellow and red
pencils are under the category of pencils.

Box 7.4 Evaluation of Preoperational Stage

• It was found that when given simplified and familiar tasks children are
able to perform many of the Piagetian problems that they had failed. For
instance, when researchers change the nature of 3 mountains problem
and use of picture selection method, even 4-year-olds are able to take
others’ vantage point (Newcombe & Huttenlocher, 1992).
• Some researchers have argued that Piaget overestimated the animistic
belief of the preschoolers. The objects to which they mainly attribute
human-like qualities appear to be self-moving, a characteristic of living
beings and also some life-like qualities, for instance, headlights of a car
may actually look like eyes.
• Some questions have been raised against the Piagetian belief of poor
conservation skills in young preschoolers. Gelman (1969) believed that
attention is important in explaining conservation and demonstrated that
with attentional training on one aspect (such as number), improvement is
visible in another dimension as well (such as mass). Other researches
demonstrated how conservation can also be taught to the preschoolers. 175
Overview and Many of the limitations found in a properational child (as discussed in Box
Perspectives 7.3) are overcome by him/her by the time they reach the next stage where
in Human
Development they can perform concrete operations.

Check Your Progress 2

1. Define animistic thinking.
……………………………………………………………………………
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2. Why is make-believe play important for cognitive development in
children?
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3. What is conservation?
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4. Preschoolers are described as egocentric because they are selfish. True or
False.
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7.1.3 Concrete Operational Stage
This stage is considered as a significant turning point in the cognitive
development of children. Concrete operational reasoning is much more
logical, flexible and organized than sensorimotor or preoperational thought.
They apply their reasoning to concrete and specific information which can be
directly perceived. Their mental operations are very poor with abstract ideas.
Let’s discuss some of the achievements or abilities specific to this stage.

1. Conservation: the ability to conserve (as discussed in the previous stage)

provides a clear evidence of operations. In conservation of liquid
(discussed in Box 7.3), the child at this stage is able to engage in
decentration-recognition that change in one aspect (height) is
compensated for by change in another (width). By now, they are not
distracted by superficial perceptual appearances and they show
reversibility. It is the ability of the child to imagine water being returned
(poured back) to the original glass as a proof of conservation. Thus, they
do not ignore the transformation and are able to connect the initial and
the final state of water as two related events, unlike the previous stage.
Conservation is usually acquired in a sequence- number, length, quantity,
mass, area, weight, and volume of objects.
176
2. Hierarchical classification: Between ages 7 to 10 children are able to Perspectives On
pass the class inclusion problem (discussed in Box 7.3), thus becoming Human
Development Ii:
aware of classification hierarchies and relationships between general and Cognitive
specific categories. They are also able to draw and understand basic Perspective

family trees (Furth & Wachs, 1975).

3. Seriation: It is the ability to order items along a particular dimension
such as length or weight. For instance, arranging pencils from shortest to
longest. Interestingly, children can also seriate mentally, that is, they are
capable of transitive inference. If stick A is longer than stick B and stick
B is longer than stick C, children can draw the mental inference that stick
A is longer thanstick C. They keep improving at their analogical
reasoning but still are not able to deal with a hypothetical version of this
task because of its abstract nature.

4. Spatial Reasoning: This stage clearly demonstrates that children are

capable of understanding directions, distance, and maps. By this age (7
to 11 years), they understand that a filled space has same value as an
empty space (Piaget, Inhelder, & Szeminska, 1960). They can perform
mental rotations, that is they can align the self’s frame to match another
person. So, they can tell the difference from left to right from another
individual’s perspective also. In the early school years itself children’s
maps become much more organized. They get better at drawing
landmarks along a route they travel and can also read maps when they
are rotated.

Box 7.5 Evaluation of Concrete Operational Stage

• Research suggests that taking part in everyday activities usually help
children in mastering conservation and other such tasks (Fahrmeier,
1978; Light & Perrett-Clemont, 1989). The experience of school
promoted the mastery of many Piagetian tasks as children learnt formally
about many of these situations in their curriculum.
• It was also found that many children from tribal areas or the ones not
going to school could not perform well on these Piagetian tasks but could
solve similar problems when they were presented in everyday life.
7.1.4 Formal Operational Stage
The ability to work on abstract concepts and operations begin around the age
of 11 years. By this stage, children do not require concrete things and events;
instead, they can come up with general and logical rules about things. Thus,
they just do not “operate on reality” (like concrete operational children) but
can also “operate on operations” (Inhelder& Piaget, 1958). They solve
problems using hypothetico-deductive reasoning rather than trial and error.
They try to come up with all possible hypotheses (possible solutions or
predictions), then test them to see which one would actually work. Piaget’s
pendulum problem illustrated hypothetico-deductive reasoning in
adolescents. Various school children and adolescents were given strings of
different lengths, objects with different weights and a bar with which the
strings could be hung. There were asked to determine what would influence
the speed of the pendulum. Formal operational adolescents could come up 177
Overview and with different hypotheses and by varying one factor at a time, keeping others
Perspectives constant they could figure out that the string’slength was responsible for
in Human
Development speed.
Unlike school children, adolescents can evaluate the logic of verbal
statements or propositions. They do not have to necessarily refer to real-
world situations to relate to it. For instance, researchers asked a group of
participants to tell if each statement that they presented was true, false or
uncertain. The statements used were: “Either chip in my hand is green or it is
not green” and “The chip in my hand is green and it is not green”. Osherson
and Markman (1975) found that school children ended up focusing on the
concrete properties of the chip and not on the logic of the statements. In
contrast, adolescents analyzed the propositions, thus, they understood that an
“either-or” statement is always true and the “and” statement is false,
regardless of the actual color property of the chip. It is important to mention
here that although Piaget did not give language a central role in cognitive
development but acknowledged its increasing importance in adolescence.
Piaget discussed about a new kind of egocentrism which develops during this
stage- the inability to differentiate between the abstract perspectives of self
and others. Adolescents have a heightened sense of self-consciousness and
they believe that others have a lot of interest in them and their lives, almost as
much as they are interested in themselves. Elkind (1978) divided it into two
types of social thinking- imaginary audience and personal fable.
Adolescents usually feel that they are always on stage and are a focus of
everyone’s attention around them, that is, they have an imaginary audience.
This can be justified by the amount of time they spend in front of the mirror
inspecting their appearance or the lengths they go to for grooming
themselves. This also makes them sensitive to public criticism. As they are so
certain that they are being observed and scrutinized all the time, they develop
an inflated opinion of their importance and self. Due to this they may view
themselves reaching heights of achievement and glory or feeling great
despair (Elkind, 1994). Some researchers have indicated that their reckless
behavior may be a result of a sense of invincibility that comes from this sort
of personal fable. Both imaginary audience and personal fable are strongest
during the transition from concrete to formal operations and it gradually
declines as abstract thinking develops. Like all the other stages, even formal
operational stage had its share of criticisms, some of which are discussed in
Box 7.6.

Box 7.6 Evaluation of Formal Operational Stage

• One of the biggest criticisms has been that almost 40 to 60 percent
of college students fail Piaget’s formal operational tasks. They found
that extensive experience and the courses they took helped them in
formal reasoning. So, Mathematics and Science helped with
propositional thought, whereas Social Science in methodological
and statistical reasoning (Lehman & Nisbett, 1990).
• In many tribal societies formal operations are never mastered. Thus,
the question that arises- is this stage actually children’s independent
effort to make sense of their world or is it a culturally transmitted
way of thinking?
178
 Perspectives On
Human
Box 7.7 Imaginary Audience Scale Development Ii:
Cognitive
Perspective
Elkind developed the Imaginary Audience Scale (IAS) to measure the aspect
of adolescent egocentrism (Elkind & Bowen, 1979). As an example, we are
discussing one of its items in detail.

Instruction: Read the following stories carefully and assume that the events
have happened to you in reality. Place a check next to the answer that best
describes what would you feel or do in the real situation.

You are sitting in class and have realized that the jeans you are wearing has a
small but noticeable split along the side seam. The teacher has offered extra
credit toward his/her course grade to anyone who can write the correct
answer to a question written on the blackboard. Would you get up in front of
the class and go to the blackboard, or would you prefer remaining in your
seat?
• Go to the blackboard as though nothing had happened.
• Go to the blackboard and try to hide the split.
• Remain seated.
(Elkind & Bowen, 1979)
The first answer would reflect a willingness to be exposed to an imaginary
audience. The second one, is about discomfort the individual would face, and
the third one reflects the most discomfort with exposure. The highest scores
on this scale are indicative of an acute awareness of an imaginary audience.
Takishima-Lacasa and colleagues (2014) found it very high in children who
were in eighth grade- a time when adolescents are very sensitive about their
appearance. It would be significant to note here that thoughts about
imaginary audience may vary depending upon the life events they may come
across (Galanaki, 2012).

Check Your Progress 3

1. What is reversibility?
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
2. Explain seriation and transitive inference.
……………………………………………………………………………
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3. Define hypothetico-deductive reasoning.
……………………………………………………………………………
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Overview and 4. What kind of egocentrism develops during formal operational stage?
Perspectives
in Human ……………………………………………………………………………
Development
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………

7.2 ASSESSING PIAGET’S THEORY OF

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Contribution
• Piaget paved way for psychologists and educators to a perspective that
children are knowledge seekers and a curious one at that. Thus, they
contribute to their own development. His theory act as “road map” for
various other upcoming theories.
• Piaget did not just describe but rather explained the cognitive
development of children. He gave accounts of various biological,
environmental, and psychological factors responsible for it.
• Careful observation adopted by Piaget became an important tool to study
children and their behavior. His emphasis on studying shifts from one
stage to another (example, from preoperational to concrete operations)
and process involved in that also paved way for many new concepts and
theories. Another important aspect that can be learnt from is that the
concepts do not emerge suddenly, there is a gradual mastery involved,
thus recognizing the steps in it.
• Piaget has put psychological insight ahead of operationalized theories
which many before him had neglected.

Criticisms
Like many other theories, Piaget’s theory has also not gone unchallenged
(Byrnes, 2003; Mandler, 2004).
• Children acquire many cognitive skills and concepts at a much earlier
age than Piaget assumed (Wang et al., 2005). Research has also indicated
that various training programs can enable students to learn certain
concepts before they have reached certain stages. Thus, there has been an
oversimplification of structurally distinct stages.
• Interestingly, cognitive development is not always self-generating. If left
to their own devices, children may not notice certain aspects of situation
that are needed for an improved understanding (Kuhn, 2008).
• Piaget’s work is characterized by lack of controls (from the standpoint of
experimental design), small sample, and absence of statistical analysis.
Reliability of his observations has been questioned due to the generality
of his results.
• Piaget’s clinical method of data collection was highly debated, especially
with young children. It has been seen that preschoolers can be very social
180 in their speech and approach without being egocentric.
• It seems Piaget overlooked the effect of cultural and social groups while Perspectives On
studying cognitive development in children. For instance, in many Human
Development Ii:
cultures such as Wolof in West Africa, central Australia, New Guinea, Cognitive
many of 10–13-year-old are not able to attain conservation successfully Perspective

(Cole, 2006).
• Much of the empirical data has never been published. We only have a
sample of verbatim excerpts to substantiate empirical statements made
by Piaget. The generalizations offered by Piaget are intended to be
representative but seemed to be biased and favoring certain selected
hypotheses.
Despite all the criticism and arguments, it would be essential to emphasize
that Piaget had accomplished an important task of theorizing; and what
remains is to test it by designing more experiments with better controls and
different situations. Even if some of the experiments disconfirm certain
concepts of the theory, it does not reduce its value, rather gives scope to
refine and advance the theory further.

7.3 THE CORE KNOWLEDGE PERSPECTIVE

Core knowledge theory addresses the question of what capacities are innate
(thus, a product of evolution) and what are acquired through experience. The
theory emphasizes that infants begin their life with innate, special purpose
knowledge systems. These are called as core domains of thought. Initial
knowledge is considered innate but it expands and elaborates as the child
starts exploring the environment, play with various objects and others, and
interact with people around him/her (Leslie, 2004; Spelke & Kinzler, 2007).
An important tenet of this approach is that in humans there exists a set of
perceptual and conceptual capacities that are common in everyone. These
innate capacities help in relating to new information; this supports early and
rapid cognitive development (Leslie, 2004). Each core domain is considered
essential for survival and thus has evolved over years (Spelke, 2004). Spelke
and Kinzler (2007) presented evidence for four major areas of core
knowledge, which are as follows:

• Knowledge of an object moving as an organized and interrelated unit

• Knowledge that people act purposefully towards a goal- infants
understand that objects do not act with a goal “in mind” like humans.
• They have a knowledge of number (within limits) and experience in all
modalities- for instance, seeing a number of objects
• Knowledge of spatial relationships

Two of the core domains to be discussed here are: physical knowledge

(understanding of objects and their effects on others) and numerical
knowledge (keeping track of different objects and adding or subtracting small
quantities from it).

181
Overview and 7.3.1 The Domain of Objects
Perspectives
in Human It is interesting that how we never receive clear instructions about the
Development
behavior of a particular object(s) or how to relate to it, yet we end up drawing
more or less similar expectations and conclusions about it. For instance, we
are expected to have a basic understanding of gravity that an unsupported
object would fall down. We agree that objects remain in the same place
unless they are moved (object permanence). It has been found that
expectations about objects are evident not only in humans but also in other
species. These abilities may have a history and thus could be a product of the
evolutionary processes. Hespos and vanMarle (2012) explained that from an
early age infants can explain or understand the visual array into objects and
events. For instance, in an experiment, 2 months old infant were found to
have object permanence and that two objects cannot occupy the same space
at the same time (Hespos & Baillargeon, 2001). At 9½ months, they expect
an object placed inside a transparent container to be visible through it
(Baillargeon et al., 2009). Although object knowledge is present early in life,
it is not fully mature at birth. During the course of development, infants learn
what will let them predict an event’s outcome in a more precise manner.
They achieve this through associative learning, memory abilities and
interaction with environment which become integrated with the core
knowledge systems. For example, at the age of 2 months, they know that an
object placed inside a container will move as the container is moved from one
location to another but they cannot identify various other variable such as that
height of the object determines how much of it will remain hidden inside the
container, this is achieved by the age of 8 months. These findings provide
evidence that the change which has occurred in the object knowledge is of
elaboration and refinement mainly.

7.3.2 The Domain of Numbers

Very much like the objects, we also have knowledge about numbers. Without
even counting we can tell the difference between eight lines and sixteen lines.
Many other primates like monkeys, rats, pigeons etc. can also make such
judgments. In a study done with 5-month-old infants, they were shown a
single toy which was then hidden behind a screen. Then they watched a hand
placing a second toy behind the screen. Finally, the screen was removed and
either one or two toys were revealed. It was observed that infants looked
longer at the impossible event that is when only one toy was found after the
screen was removed, suggesting that they kept track of the two objects and
were expecting that. This would require them to add one object to another.
Further investigations have revealed that infants can differentiate up to three
and use this knowledge to perform basic addition and subtraction (Kobayashi
et al., 2004; Kobayashi, Hiraki, & Hasegawa, 2005). Interestingly, this ability
to differentiate is found to be based on analog magnitudes- the proportions
and not absolute differences or values. Infants from an early age of 6 months
can detect a 1:2 ratio change in large numbers, but they cannot detect 2:3
ratio change. They achieve this precision by the age of 9 months only. This
ability helps in predicting performance across other stimuli as well, such as
objects, tones, and actions (for instance, jumps of a toy). This ability to
182
abstract numerical information across a variety of stimuli is based on ratios Perspectives On
and similar to object knowledge, the change over time appears to be one of Human
Development Ii:
elaboration and refinement. Cognitive
Perspective
Children are considered as naïve theorists, building on these concepts of core
knowledge to explain their day-to-day experience in different areas- physical,
psychological, and biological. According to this theory theory (that is, theory
of children as theorists), children observe an event and then take help of their
innate concepts to explain it or attribute a cause to it. They also test their
naïve theory against experience around them. They revise it when new
information they encounter does not fit it (Gelman & Kalish, 2006). This
aspect is similar to Piagetian theory, but theorists claim that because children
start with innate knowledge, their reasoning advances rapidly, that is much
earlier than what Piaget proposed. This theory has also been criticized by
many researchers. For instance, it has been pointed out that these abilities are
not innate but learned at a very early stage. Woodward (2009) concluded that
infants understand others’ intentions in reaching for objects because they
themselves learn to intentionally reach for an object. Cole and Cagigas
(2010) concluded that this approach is “woefully inadequate to fully explain
adult human functioning” (p. 131). They have discussed how culture has an
important role to play in shaping the nature of cognition.

7.4 VYGOTSKY’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE

DEVELOPMENT
The theories discussed so far highlight the biological aspect of cognitive
development. According to Piagetian theory and core knowledge perspective,
child is the most important source, who like an explorer forms ideas and also
tests them. Lev Vygotsky, on the other hand, emphasized the effects of social
and cultural context in cognitive development. His view included a focus on
the process of development, collective activities, and importance of making
sense of development in the context of cultural and historical context of the
child (Gielen & Jeshmaridian, 1999).

As discussed, Piaget saw the child as an active and an independent learner,

but Vygotsky believed that ideas and learning begin mainly in the social
world. Thus, he argued that because we are situated within a culture, our
learning is based on it. Consequently, cultural tools such as language, actions,
behavior etc. shape the cognitive abilities of a child (Gauvain & Parke, 2010).
Vygotsky emphasized that children learn by collaborating with someone who
is more knowledgeable than them. In his theory, other people and language
have an important role to play. There are three ways discussed in his theory
that help a child in shaping his/her ideas: the zone of proximal development,
scaffolding, and private speech.

7.4.1 The Zonal of Proximal Development

Zone of proximal development (ZPD) is a term for a range of tasks that the
child cannot do or master independently but they can be learned with some
assistance and guidance of an adult or some other more skilled child. So, it is
183
Overview and the difference between what a child can do independently and what he/she
Perspectives can do with some help and support (Vygotsky, 1978). Therefore, the lower
in Human
Development limit of ZPD is the level of skill reached by the child on his/her own, that is
independently and the upper limit is the level of additional responsibility that
the child can accept with assistance of an instructor.

7.4.2 Scaffolding
The concept of scaffolding is closely linked to the idea of ZPD. It means
changing the level of support as per the child’s need. During a teaching
session, a skilled teacher adjusts his/her instructions as per the amount of
guidance required for the child to master the skill (DeVries, 2001). Let’s take
an example to understand this. When teaching someone to tie her shoes, the
instructions change as per the stage and need of the child. For an infant, we
would just simply tie her shoes. For a 2-year-old, we may hold her hands and
do it with her. For a preschooler, we may show them a simple approach, in
which she forms two loops and circles one around the other. By the age of 6
or 7, we may teach a child how to wrap a string around the other. So, the
amount of help that we have provided to the child at each step is the scaffold
that supports the child’s learning. Finally, when the child can perform the
task on her own, there would be no need for scaffolding. It’s like helping the
child achieve what is out of reach and then stepping back when the child can
do it alone. The learning occurs when instructions are effective and most
importantly in the right zone- just a little beyond the child’s current level.
Thus, dialogue is an important tool of scaffolding in the ZPD.

7.4.3 Private Speech

According to Vygotsky, speech is not just used for social communication, but
also to solve tasks. Children’s use of language for self-regulation is called as
private speech. Children use it to plan, monitor, and guide their own
behavior. Scaffolding is done by the adults, but private speech is what the
child does to change external interactions into internal thoughts. For instance,
an adult might scaffold a child’s attempt to put together pieces of puzzles,
he/she may also give instructions to the child in the process. But then we may
hear the child saying to himself/herself, “Find flat pieces first, c’mon”. Here
the child is talking to himself/herself to guide his/her own actions. It is
believed that as the difficulty level of the task increases, children talk more to
themselves in this way (Aro, et al., 2015).

Vygotsky believed that language and thought develop independently at first

and then they merge with each other. It is important to note here that children
must communicate externally and use language for a long period before they
make the transition from external to internal speech. Thus, gradually the self-
directed or private speech becomes inner, unvocalized, and finally it becomes
a thought. Interestingly, children also use private speech when they are not
learning a new skill or performing a difficult task. Many children are seen
talking to themselves during make-believe play or before they go to bed. This
is called as “crib speech” (Nelson, 2015). Piaget believed that self-talk is
egocentric and reflects immaturity, however, Vygotsky considered it to have
184
a positive role in child development and researchers have also supported this Perspectives On
view (Winsler, Diaz, & Montero, 1997; Winsler, Carlton, & Barry, 2000). Human
Development Ii:
Cognitive
Box 7.8 Teaching strategies according to Vygotsky’s theory Perspective

Vygotsky’s theory has been appreciated and applied by many teachers to the
field of education (Rowe &Wertsch, 2004). Here are some of the ways in
which his theory can be used:

• Assess the child’s ZPD: skilled helper should present the child with tasks
of varying levels of difficulty to determine the level at which instructions
should begin.
• Use the child’s ZPD in teaching: teaching should begin towards the
upper limit of the child’s zone and one should offer ‘just enough’
assistance or support only when needed.
• Use more-skilled peers as teachers: children also benefit from support of
their skilled peers or children who are slightly elder to them.
• Monitor and encourage children’s use of private speech: in the
elementary school years, encourage the child to internalize and regulate
their talk to themselves.
• Place the instructions in a meaningful context: provide students with
opportunities to experience learning in real world setting.

7.5 COMPARISON BETWEEN VYGOTSKY’S

AND PIAGET’S THEORIES
Vygotsky’s is a social constructivist approach, which emphasizes the social
context of learning and construction of knowledge through social interaction
(Mooney, 2006), unlike Piaget who adopted a cognitive constructivist
approach as he believed that children themselves discover or construct all
knowledge about their world through their own activity. Interestingly, from
Piaget to Vygotsky, a shift is evident from individual to collaboration, social
interaction and cultural influence. Piaget had a strong emphasis on the stages
of cognitive development and its sequence, but Vygotsky did not propose any
general stages of development. Thus, unlike Piaget, Vygotsky’s endpoint of
cognitive development would depend upon the skill that is considered most
important in a particular culture. In the Vygotskian perspective, language is
considered to play an important role in shaping thought which was given
minimal importance by Piaget. Their views on education were also quite
different. For Vygotsky, education plays a central role and helps children in
learning the tools of the culture; whereas for Piaget, education refines the
child’s cognitive skills that have already emerged. But, both of them believed
that teacher should act as a facilitator and guide, not as a director.

185
Overview and Check Your Progress 4
Perspectives
in Human 1. Name four areas of core knowledge that have been identified.
Development
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
2. What is the zone of proximal development?
……………………………………………………………………………
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……………………………………………………………………………
3. What is the function of scaffolding in the Vygotskian view of cognitive
development?
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………

For Vygotsky cognition and learning existed within the context of culture and
history of an individual. By contrast, in the following section we would
understand information processing- a theory which focuses on various
internal cognitive processes that is connected with individual brain function.

7.6 INFORMATION PROCESSING

Information processing is an important contemporary approach to the study
of cognitive development. A computer metaphor exemplifies very well how
information processing approach can be used for cognitive development.
Information processing in a computer is governed by its hardware and
software. For instance, the hardware limitations include amount of data the
machine can process, its capacity, speed etc. and the software decides the
kind of data that can be used as input, how it can be manipulated etc.
Similarly, in a child’s case information processing is limited by capacity and
speed along with their ability to apply different skills and strategies to acquire
and use knowledge.
Both capacity and speed of processing highly influence the developmental
changes in information processing. They are called as cognitive resources
which are impacted by both biology and experience (Goldstein, 2011). For
instance, we can process information faster in our native language in
comparison to a second language. Changes in the brain, such as the ones at
the neuronal level, structural level etc. provide biological foundation for
increased cognitive resources. In the following section, we will talk about the
processes which allow us to take in information, manipulate it, and think
about the things we are acting upon. These processes include attention,
memory, executive function, and metacognition.

186
 Perspectives On
Human
Development Ii:
7.6.1 Attention Cognitive
Perspective
‘Paying attention’ is a very common phrase that we hear in our daily lives.
What it actually means is that we should focus our mental processes on one
thing and not on others. It means tuning in to certain things while tuning out
others and also maintaining focus over time (Fan et al., 2009). At a given
point of time, we can pay attention to only a limited amount of information
but it has a crucial role in improving cognitive processing for many tasks. We
allocate our attention in different ways (Refer Box 7.9). Next, we would
examine how these aspects of attention develop during infancy, childhood,
and adolescence.

Box 7.9 Different ways of allocating attention

• Selective attention: tuning in to specific things or aspects of an
experience while tuning out others that are irrelevant. For instance,
paying attention to teacher’s words and ignoring friend’s conversation in
the class.
• Divided attention: concentrating on more than one activity at the same
time. For instance, listening to music and reading a novel at the same
time.
• Sustained attention: maintaining focus to a selected stimulus over time.
It is also called as focused attention and vigilance.
• Executive attention: involves planning, allocating attention to goals,
detection of errors, monitoring progress, and also dealing with new or
difficult situations.
• Joint attention: also called as shared attention. It is the shared focus of
two individuals on one object or event. One individual directs another
one’s attention towards an object by verbal or non-verbal communication
which is followed by reciprocal interaction.
• Habituation: reduction in the response to a stimulus that is repeated.

Infancy
Researchers have clearly established that infants look longer at novel stimuli.
This also helps them in learning about their world as their attention is focused
on the new object (Amos & Johnson, 2006). The other side of this benefit is
that the infant also loses interest in what they have seen before. So, as they
become habituated to the stimuli, they lose interest in it. Thus, habituation is
the process of decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after it is repeatedly
presented. This process is studied to determine the extent to which babies can
see, hear, smell, taste, and experience touch. The rate of habituation is how
quickly the infant decreases the time duration spent at looking objects which
are being repeated. With age, habituation to familiar stimulus gets quicker,
showing their efficiency at information processing (Colombo & Mitchell,
2009). It is due to sustained attention that they learn about the characteristics
of a stimulus which makes them familiar to it. Although the rate of 187
Overview and habituation is predictive of later cognitive abilities but it is not indicative of
Perspectives intelligence.
in Human
Development
Childhood

With age, children become more capable of directing and sustaining their
attention. In a longitudinal study, parents were asked to rate their 4-year-old
child’s attention span. It was found that those children who were better able
to maintain focused attention and who persisted at it even when they faced
difficulties were good at higher math and reading achievement at the age of
21 (McClelland, et al., 2013). Individual differences exist in this ability as
well which could be genetic and/or experience based. In the preschool years,
attention has been linked to difference in parenting, family environment, and
economic situation of the families. According to a study by Dilworth-Bart,
Khurshid,&Vandell (2007), mothers belonging to low socio-economic
conditions experienced more stress and thus provided lesser stimulation to
their children. These children were found to be more impulsive and with less
sustained attention in comparison to their peers at the age of 5. Low-income
preschoolers were also found to have less selective attention that is, they
would get distracted easily (Neville et al. 2013).

Attention is also shaped by another process called as automaticity- when a

skill becomes well practiced and one can do it without much conscious
thought. This is important in freeing up processing capacity which can be
used for other tasks. For instance, with time, age, and experience children
move from focusing their attention on the process of sounding out words
(which they consider laborious initially) to focus instead on reading words
and sentences for comprehension eventually.
Adolescence

Adolescents definitely have better attentional skills in comparison to

children. Sustained attention and executive attention are considered as two
very important aspects in cognitive development of adolescents. Ability to
sustain attention is crucial for them as they are required to engage in activities
and events that require longer attention spans. Similarly, increase in
executive attention helps in gaining control that is required in completing
complex academic tasks (Rothbart & Gartstein, 2008). Another important
aspect that is important at this stage is the ability to multitask- attending to
several things at the same time. We would often find someone reading a
book, replying to texts with music there in the background. In switching back
and forth between tasks, we often lose track of our original idea and miss
some of the aspects while we make a switch. Some researchers have
concluded that teenagers and young adults who talk on mobile phones while
driving have delayed reaction times to events on roads and are more likely to
have an accident (Drews, et al. 2009). In one of the researches in the area of
study habits it was found that those children who did their homework with
soap operas on TV in background took longer time to finish their homework
and only had a lesser, superficial understanding of it (Pool, Koolstra, & van
der Voort, 2003). Neurological researches have also confirmed that when we
try to do two things at once, the part of brain involved in deep processing
188
does not get utilized properly, rather the part designed for superficial and Perspectives On
rapid processing is used (Foerde, Knowlton, &Poldrack, 2006). Human
Development Ii:
Cognitive
7.6.2 Memory Perspective

After we have paid attention to something, it should be moved to memory,

especially if we wish to use that information in future. Memory is understood
as retention of information over time. It gives continuity to our lives and
makes us perform our daily activities as well.

Processes and types of memory

Encoding, storage, and retrieval are the basic processes required for memory,
and failures can occur in these processes. The process involves getting
information into memory (encoding), retaining it over time (storage), and
later taking the information out of storage (retrieval). When paying attention
to an event, some part of it might not be encoded, thus it is not stored and
consequently we are unable to retrieve it or because the encoding or storage
was not proper, the retrieval also becomes difficult or incomplete.

It was in the late 1960s and early 1970s that information processing theories
emerged. One such important theory is called the store model, which
assumes that information is held or stored in three parts of the mental system
for processing: sensory register, short-term memory, and long-term memory
(Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968). The information flows sequentially (refer to
Figure 7.2) from one part to another and various mental strategies are used to
transform it and increase the chances of retention.

Elaborative
Rehearsal rehearsal
Attention

Perception
Sensory Short-term Long-term
register memory memory
(STM) (LTM)

Retrieval

Forgettin Forgettin Forgettin

g g g

Figure 7.2 Store Model 189

Overview and Information comes in through our senses and enters the sensory register; it is
Perspectives retained there for a brief period of time. For instance, an image of what we
in Human
Development see around persists for a few seconds and then decays unless we attend to it
carefully in comparison to other information that we encounter. Thus, it
stores a fleeting impression of the sensory stimuli and if the information is
attended to, it transfers to the next step of the information processing system,
short-term memory. STM stores the information for up to 30 seconds and has
a capacity of 7 +/- 2 chunks. One way of storing information here is through
maintenance rehearsal-verbally or mentally repeating information, for
instance, remembering a phone number only long enough to make a phone
call immediately. Continuing the rehearsal may “regenerate” or “renew” the
information, making it a stronger memory and transferring it to LTM. Thus,
elaborative rehearsal which allows making meaning of the information,
understanding it and making connections with it transfers it to LTM.
Information is lost through displacement or decay. Further, LTM has an
unlimited capacity and duration. Elaborative rehearsal also involves linking
new information in a meaningful way with information that is already stored
in the LTM. Information can be recalled from LTM to STM whenever it is
needed.

The notion of working memory acknowledges the importance of

manipulation of information that happens in the STM. Working memory is
like a “workbench” where we manipulate and assemble information while
making decision, solving problems, comprehension etc (Baddeley, 1990,
2001). Working memory includes two stores phonological loop
(for speech) and visuo-spatial working memory (for visual and spatial
information), as well as central executive, which monitors and controls the
whole system. Working memory has been found to be linked to various
aspects of development such as reading comprehension, problem solving etc.
(Bjorklund, 2005).
Infancy

In her classic work with infants, Rovee-Collier (1999) designed an

experiment wherein infants were placed in a crib under a mobile with
attractive toys hanging on it. A ribbon was tied from the baby’s ankle to the
mobile so whenever the baby kicked, it would make the mobile shake
followed by a pleasant sound. The babies were brought back into the situation
after a few days and some after a few weeks. She found that babies tried to
kick to make the mobile move, even if the mobile was not tied to their ankle.
If the mobile toy is changed, babies didnot kick and if the similar mobile is
placed again, they would begin kicking (Hayne, 2004). It was concluded that
3-month-olds could remember for 1 week and 18 months old could remember
for 13 weeks. Thus, infants can remember perceptual-motor information.
Bearce and Rovee-Collier (2006) also found that when the experimenter
shook the mobile, 3-month-olds remembered what to do even after 1 month.
Jean Mandler (2000) argued that infants in Rovee-Collier’s experiment were
displaying implicit memory- procedural memory without any conscious
recollection, and not explicit memory- conscious recollection of facts and
190 figures, which starts showing only after 6 months or later. Memory increases
especially between the ages of 1 and 2. Bauer and Leventon (2013) taught Perspectives On
13-, 16-, and 20-month-olds to imitate an action and found that 13-month- Human
Development Ii:
olds failed to remember it even for a month. 16-and 20-month-olds could Cognitive
remember it for a month, but not for 3 months unless they were reminded of Perspective

the action.
Most of us cannot recall events from the first 3 years of our life. This is called
as infantile amnesia or childhood amnesia. It doesnot mean that infants
cannot remember what happens to them but rather, it is difficult for them to
remember it later in life. Let’s look into some of the explanations offered for
infantile amnesia. One of it is that physical changes occur in the brain;
important parts of hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, responsible for storing
memories become functional between 20 and 24 months of age (Bauer,
2007); rapid production of neurons in hippocampus may also interfere with
formation of stable memories (Akers et al., 2014). Another interesting
explanation revolves around the idea that these events cannot be remembered
as the infant has not formed a clear sense of self, thus cannot form a coherent
story. It is difficult to remember random events than the ones that can be tied
in a meaningful way to form a story. It has also been argued that only when
we can talk about events properly, we do remember them in conscious
thought (Fogel, 2002).

Childhood
It has been found that major changes occur in the working memory as
children develop. Research with memory span task (presenting a short list of
words or digits which the child recalls) suggest that memory span increases
from about 2 digits in 2-year-olds to about 5 digits in 7-year-olds (Alloway,
2010). Speed of processing the information which improves with age may
have a role to play here. Speed of processing increases throughout childhood
and adolescence and it has been linked to changes that happen in structure of
the brain during these years (Erus et al., 2015). This helps in improving
rehearsal skills and retrieving information efficiently.

Fuzzy trace theory suggested another way in which memory may develop
during childhood. According to this theory, when an individual encodes
information, two types of memory representations are created- verbatim trace
(with details) and fuzzy trace or gist (central idea). Young children tend to
encode, store, and retrieve verbatim traces, whereas elementary school aged
children begin to use gist more.

Children also develop different encoding strategies that play a role in storing
and retrieving information. Camos and Barrouillet (2011) found that children
below the age of 5 or 6 do not use specific strategies to remember
information but they can do so if taught. It is only during middle or late
childhood that children use organization as a strategy to remember
information. Elementary school children can be taught to use elaboration as a
strategy to learn a task but they may not be able to do it on their own. Verbal
strategy has been found to be the most effective at this age. They may use
mental scripts to remember what to do in similar situations.
191
Overview and Very much like adults, children’s memories are also constructive and
Perspectives reconstructive. The schemas that children have help them in constructing and
in Human
Development reconstructing these memories. Testimonies by eyewitness at trials have
always been useful in explaining reconstruction and distortion. A study by
Pickrell and Loftus (2001) conducted at Disneyland concluded that in
children various factors can influence the accuracy of their memory. For
instance, preschoolers are more susceptible to suggestions, interviewing
technique used; tone can also produce distortions.

Adolescence
Both long term and working memory keep increasing during adolescence.
The prefrontal cortex continues to develop through adolescence which is
responsible for working memory in adults and also has an important role in
executive functions (ability to regulate behavior, attention, cognitive
flexibility, and inhibitory control). Finn and colleagues (2010) concluded that
younger teens use both prefrontal cortex and hippocampus when working on
a memory task whereas teens by the age of 18 start using only prefrontal
cortex like adults.

7.6.3 Metacognition
Metacognition is cognition about cognition or “knowing about knowing”,
that is the process of thinking about and regulating one’s own thoughts and
cognitive activities (Vrugt& Oort, 2008). It can take various forms such as
knowledge about when and where to use particular strategies for learning or
problem solving, knowledge about memory (metamemory), and knowledge
about one’s own memory.

One of the earliest abilities children develop is called theory of mind-

thoughts about how mental processes work, such as becoming aware that
mind exists, understanding cognitive connections to physical world. It is the
ability to understand that people (and they themselves) experience and act on
mental states such as beliefs, emotions and intentions (Lecce, Demicheli,
Zocchi, & Palladino, 2015). By the age of 2-3 years, children only have a
minimal understanding of how mental life can be linked to behavior. It is by
the age of 4 and 5 years, they begin to understand that mind can represent
objects and events either accurately or inaccurately.

The process of developing cognitive skills continue in the middle childhood

and later as well. In a study, 3rd and 5th grade children were given some new
tasks to learn (Metcalf & Finn, 2013). They reported accurately about the
ones they learned and the ones they could not. When they were given a
chance to choose to study from the material they were given, 5th grade
students chose tasks they could not learn well earlier, whereas 3rd grade
students chose randomly. Thus, it was concluded that metacognitive
knowledge may have been developing for both but the ability to apply it
develops slowly.

192
Check Your Progress 5 Perspectives On
Human
1. What is attention? Development Ii:
Cognitive
…………………………………………………………………………… Perspective

……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
2. Adolescents can study efficiently while listening to a TV show because
by this age they can split their attention between multiple activities. True
or False.
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
3. People have clear memories of what happened in their lives before the
age of 3. True or False.
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
4. Explain theory of mind and how does it change during preschool years.
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………

7.7 SUMMARY
Now that we have come to the end of this Unit, let us list all the major points
that we have learnt:

• Piaget believed that children construct their own cognitive worlds and
build mental structures to adapt to it. Assimilation occurs as the child
incorporates new information into his/her existing schemes.
Accommodation is the child’s adjustment of schemes to for new
information.
• Piaget had proposed four distinct stages of cognitive development-
sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal
operational.
• In sensorimotor stage, the infant organizes and coordinates sensory
experiences with his/her physical movements. Preoperational thought
involves a transition from usage of symbols from primitive to more
sophisticated ones. But the child is still unable to think in an operational
way. Concrete operational stage is characterized by logical thought about
concrete objects, classification, and establishing relationship among
objects. Lastly, formal operational thought is more abstract and logical.
193
Overview and Thus, by now the adolescents start engaging in hypothetico-deductive
Perspectives reasoning.
in Human
Development
• Vygotsky was of the opinion that learning begins in the social world and
is culturally based and children learn through social collaboration with
someone who is more skilled or knowledgeable than them.
• Vygotsky believed that language has an important role to play in
cognitive development. With age and experience, children internalize
their egocentric speech in the form of inner speech, which actually
become their thoughts.
• The information-processing approach makes sense of how individuals
manipulate, monitor, and create strategies to handle information.
Attention, memory, and thinking are the basic processes involved in it.

7.8 KEYWORDS
Assimilation Using current schemas to interpret the outside world.
Attention Focusing and concentrating mental resources
Concrete Operations Third stage of cognitive development (by Piaget) in
which logical thinking starts developing but children still cannot think
abstractly.
Conservation Ability to understand that certain physical characteristics of
objects remain the same even when their outward appearance changes.
Formal Operations Piaget’s fourth stage of cognitive development in which
adolescents can think both logically and abstractly.
Hypothetico-deductive reasoning Ability to form hypotheses regarding how
the world works and reason logically about these hypotheses.
Infantile amnesia Inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories before the
age of three years.
Memory Retention of information over a period of time
Preoperational Stage Piget’s second stage of cognitive development, in
which children (2 to 7 years) do not have the logical thought and instead
think egocentrically and magically.
Private SpeechTalking loudly to oneself in order to guide one’s own actions.
Reversibility Ability to reverse mental operations.
Sensorimotor stage Piagets first stage of cognitive development, in which
infants learn through their senses and actions on the world.
Theory of Mind Awareness of one’s own and others’ mental processes
Zone of Proximal Development It is what a child cannot do on his/her own
but can accomplish with a little assistance from someone more
knowledgeable.

194
7.9 REVIEW QUESTIONS Perspectives On
Human
Development Ii:
1. Discuss the major advances in each of Piaget’s four stages of cognitive Cognitive
Perspective
development.
2. How does personal fable and imaginary audience affect development
during adolescence?
3. What criticisms have been made of Piaget’s theory?
4. Explain the premise of the theory of core knowledge.
5. What role does private speech play in children’s learning?
6. Explain how theories by Piaget and Vygotsky differ from each other and
what are the possible similarities between them?
7. How does attention and memory develop through childhood and
adolescence?
8. What is metacogniton?

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7.11 ADDITIONAL ONLINE RESOURCES

Piaget’s three mountain task by The Wonder Years Project. Copyright 2012.
University of Minnesota Extension Children, Youth and Family Consortium:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4oYOjVDgo0
• A typical child on Piaget’s conservation tasks:
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=gnArvcWaH6I&t=29s
Vygotsky in the Classroom by the Human League:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9CnZoFUlT0&t=96s
Answers to Check Your Progress
Check Your Progress 2
Q.4: False
Check Your Progress 5
Q.2: False;
200 Q.3: False