Cognitive Development (education)

Abstract

The term cognitive development describes the way in which individuals learn about and perceive themselves and their environment. The pioneering theorist of the field was Jean Piaget, who contributed stage independent and stage dependent, but other theorists have built upon his work with theories like information-processing, social cognition, and sociocultural perspectives. Biological and cultural factors can also affect cognitive development across the lifespan. Educators can apply these theories to the classroom as they work with both young and adult learners to develop higher-order thinking.

Keywords Cognitive Development; Concrete Operational Stage; Emerging Adulthood; Formal Operational Stage; Information-Processing; Operations; Piaget, Jean; Post-formal Thought; Preoperational Stage; Schemata; Sensori-motor Stage; Socio-cultural; Social Cognition; Socio-cultural Approaches to Cognitive Development; Structures; Theory of Mind

Educational Psychology > Cognitive Development

Overview

At the heart of the study of cognitive development are the questions: "What do we know?" and "How did we come to know it?" Answering these questions involves examination of the multiple processes that influence mental and intellectual functioning across the lifespan. In that regard, it is of interest to explore aspects of cognitive development such as cognition, which entails thinking and perception, language, memory, and attention as they pertain to individuals from infancy and throughout adulthood.

The investigation of cognitive development begins with the seminal work of Jean Piaget. It then addresses other theories and recent work in cognitive development such as sociocultural approaches and theory of mind. Some applications of cognitive development theories are discussed in relation to moral development and classroom strategies. Issues of culture and life-stage are also explored in relation to cognitive development.

Piaget on Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget was a Swiss scholar who, though untrained in psychology, made a tremendous impact on the field—particularly in the areas of cognitive, developmental, and educational psychology. Among his many contributions, Piaget posited theories on cognitive development that were stage-independent and stage-dependent. At the heart of his theories of cognitive development was the understanding that knowledge could be innate, learned, or developed through a self-regulated process (Egan, 1982). Piaget's stage-independent theory presents a number of concepts integral to understanding the process of cognitive development detailed in his stage-dependent theory.

Stage-Independent Theory

Schemata, structures, equilibration, and operations are the constructs of interest in Piaget's stage-independent theory on cognitive development (Muuss, 1996). A schema is a cognitive representation of concepts or behaviors that have meaning in people's everyday lives. Schemata, or more than one schema, are adapted repeatedly over the lifespan due to maturation and experience. Structures arise as schemata become more complex and organized in relationship to one another. Cognitive development proceeds as individuals engage with structures in their environment and mature as a result of these experiences. Aiding this process is what Piaget referred to as equilibration.

Equilibration is characterized by dual practices of assimilation and accommodation. When an individual encounters unfamiliar information in their environment they must address the disruption to their equilibrium that results by making accommodations to existing structures. Adapting to new information by integrating it into current structures is assimilation. The actions taken in the equilibration process, and many other processes, are what Piaget termed operations. Operations are extensions of schemata and structures and are integral to Piaget's stage-dependent theory of cognitive development.

Stage-Dependent Theory: The Four Stages of Cognitive Development

As Muuss (1996) details, according to Piaget, the four broad stages of cognitive development are the:

• Sensorimotor

• Preoperational

• Concrete operational

• Formal operational stages.

The time frame for the stages ranges from birth through adolescence with stages ordered sequentially. From birth through the age of two years, the sensorimotor stage sees children move from reflex actions to intentional movement. Children also become aware of object permanence and begin to use schemata to explore new situations. In the preoperational stage, children from age two to seven years see their language skills grow and learn based on how things appear to them at a surface level. Children in this stage remain egocentric for the most part but do begin to internalize representations.

The concrete operational stage involves children age seven to eleven years who develop abilities such as classifying objects and seeing how such objects relate to one another. Conservation is probably the hallmark of the concrete operational stage and it entails the recognition that manipulating an object in different ways does not change its properties. The most well-known example of the principle of conservation is recognizing that pouring all of the water from a short, wide glass into a tall, thin glass does not increase the amount of water.

The final stage in Piaget's stage-theory of cognitive development is the formal operations stage. This stage is thought to begin at adolescence and entails abstract and logical thought. It also involves youth being able to reflect about what they are thinking (also known as metacognition), create theories on various topics, and explore the relationship between reality and possibility (Muuss, 1996). Piaget suggested that formal operations might be experienced by adolescents in diverse ways based on their unique abilities, proclivities, and skills.

Other Perspectives on Cognitive Development

Information-Processing

The information-processing approach to cognitive development focuses on how individuals respond to stimuli in their environment. Integral aspects of this theory are:

• Attention

• Memory

• Processing speed (Arnett, 2004).

Information-processing can occur consciously or unconsciously and involves individuals creating and acting upon cognitive representations of stimuli (David, Miclea, & Opre, 2004). At any given time there are myriad stimuli at play in the environment. When individuals encounter these stimuli they must make decisions as to what they will pay attention to in that moment; this information will then exist at the sensory memory level.

Processing information using perceptual and learning skills helps transition it into either short-term or long-term memory. Information stays in short-term memory for brief periods of time while it can be stored for retrieval at any time in long-term memory. Processing speed refers to the length of time it takes an individual to attend to stimuli, work with information in their memory, and then offer a response of some sort. The components of the information—processing approach-attention, memory, and processing speed—operate in continuous and concurrent ways. As individuals mature, they are able to attend to more than one stimulus at a time, hold more information in their short- and long-term memory, and process information more quickly and more accurately (Arnett, 2004; David et al., 2004).

Social Cognition

Albert Bandura is a social psychologist whose contributions to the field of psychology span across decades and topics. His perspective on cognitive development is one that emphasizes social learning or social cognition. By social cognition, Bandura meant the process by which individuals think about and subsequently act within the social environment (Grusec, 1992). Social cognition relates to how people—from childhood through adulthood—regulate, reflect upon, and reinforce their behavior as they interact in the world at large (Muuss, 1996). Another integral concept in social cognition is self-efficacy, or an individual's belief in their ability to exert control on their environment (Bandura, 1993).

Cognitive, motivational, affective, and selection processes exert influence in social cognition. Selection relates to what individuals attend to and engage with in their environment. Affective states, such as anxiety or depression, are what Bandura (1993) refers to as "emotional mediators" and they can impact all facets of social learning particularly self-efficacy. Motivational processes include the attributions made, expectations held, and goals set by individuals (Bandura, 1993). Of relevance to the motivational process is vicarious reinforcement, or the impact that the observation of others' behavior and the response to that behavior has on an individual's thoughts and actions (Muuss, 1996). Forethought, or the ability to think into the future in regard to goals and expectations, is a salient cognitive process in the realm of social cognition (Bandura, 1993).

Sociocultural Approaches

Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist whose work from the early part of the twentieth century has grown in impact in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century (Arnett, 2004). For Vygotsky, development was "the transformation of socially shared activities into internalized processes" (John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996, p. 192). History and language are examples of the "socially shared activities" Vygotsky believed were internalized by individuals as they lived and acted within particular cultural contexts.

Vygotsky's constructs of scaffolding and the zone of proximal development have been major contributions in the area of cognitive development (Arnett, 2004). The zone of proximal development is "each person's range of potential for learning" (McInerney, 2006, p. 591). When individuals are in the zone of proximal development they are at the upper range of their ability and skill and need assistance from others to achieve a goal or complete a task. Scaffolding occurs when individuals are provided more assistance as they first encounter a challenging task and less assistance as they develop mastery in the area. It is important to be aware of an individual's zone of proximal development when using scaffolding techniques in order to provide the appropriate amount and type of assistance and maximize learning potential.

Rogoff and Chavajay (1995) build upon Vygotsky's framework in their cross-cultural exploration of cognitive development. They found that some aspects of Western theories of cognitive development did not hold the same meaning in non-Western cultures. Rogoff and Chavajay describe Piaget's acknowledgment that the formal operation stage of his theory of cognitive development was likely to vary across cultures. This cultural variance is supported in a collection of studies on cognitive development (Keller, 2011). Rogoff and Chavajay further assert that learning is both structured by and comprised of sociocultural activities grounded in specific contexts. In that regard, the indicators of cognitive development, and the meaning ascribed to them, are influenced by the social and historical factors at play in any given environment.

New Vantage Points on Cognitive Development

The notion of theory of mind has gained prominence since the late twentieth century. In theory of mind, individuals are seen as "intentional agents" (Carlson, Mandell, & Williams, 2004, p. 1105) who seek to understand themselves and the world through mental representations. Researchers have used false-belief, appearance-reality, and visual perspective-taking tasks to assess the mental states that comprise theory of mind (Flavell, 2000). Much of the research in theory of mind focuses on infants and young children in order to ascertain at what age various components of theory of mind develop (Rakoczy, 2012). In his review of theory of mind research, Flavell (1999) notes that a developing theory of mind is characterized in infancy by the ability to discriminate stimuli, such as faces, and an awareness of how people relate to objects, also known as "aboutness." He describes beliefs, desires, pretense, and thinking as mental states in theory of mind that develop after age one through early childhood.

Carlson et al. (2004) have posited that theory of mind is related to another burgeoning area of interest within the field of cognitive development—executive functioning. Zelazo, Carter, Reznick, and Frye (1997) define executive function as the process by which individuals recognize a problem exists, determine and implement steps to solve the problem, and assess how successful those steps have been. In other words, Zelazo et al. (1997) assert that executive function consists of four components:

• Representation

• Planning

• Execution

• Evaluation

Results of their review of a body of research on executive function illustrate that between two and five years of age all aspects of executive function grow in a variety of ways such that children come to exert more control in problem-solving.

Applications

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Educators have implemented strategies or programming in their classrooms based on aspects of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. For instance, Moran (1991) implemented classroom strategies to promote post-formal thought, or ways of thinking that emphasize the relative nature of knowledge, with adult learners. He delineated the following steps:

• Choose a topic in an area familiar to the learner

• Have a facilitator create a dilemma to be solved in that topic area and then provide information that promotes post-formal thinking

• Require learners to gather and present information on the dilemma and later receive critique from peers or the facilitator

• Support the learner's integration of critiques into the resolution they came up with for the dilemma

Another prime example of an application of Piaget's theories is Lawrence Kohlberg's cognitive-developmental theory of morality. Kohlberg posits three levels (consisting of two stages at each level) of moral development: the pre-conventional level, or the view that events or behaviors are good or bad based on feedback received or the power of those enforcing the rules; the conventional level, or maintenance of the moral status quo; and the post-conventional level, or a self-definition of morality based on external or internal principles. The post-conventional level is also referred to as the autonomous or principled level.

Kohlberg asserted that aspects of Piaget's theory of development shape moral development. He cited the ability to perform concrete and formal operations as related to skills in moral reasoning. Kohlberg posited that individuals in the concrete operational stage of cognitive development were usually at the pre-conventional level of moral development. As people progressed in formal operational thought, Kohlberg believed they would move through the conventional level of morality and potentially into the post-conventional level (though he did not believe more than 10 percent of adults at the formal operational stage of cognitive development would attain a post-conventional level of morality).

Along with the theoretical work of Kohlberg and other scholars, a good deal of research was conducted based on Piaget's ideas. Whereas some results supported many aspects of Piaget's theory, results of other studies led to revision of aspects of Piaget's work by Piaget himself and theorists that came to be known as neo-Piagetians. In time, perspectives from other theorists in the area of cognitive development garnered their share of attention.

Gauvain (2005) asserts that fruitful information may be gleaned from investigations of the relationship between biological factors and social context in cognitive development. The following sections examine neuroscientific and then cultural and contextual perspectives in understanding cognitive development.

Neuroscience and Cognitive Development

Nelson, Moulson, and Richmond (2006) discuss the role of neuroscience in cognitive development. They reference neuron-imaging, such as fMRI, and neuron-physiological techniques, for example, event-related potentials (ERP), as providing insight into how regions of the brain function and relate to aspects of cognition (such as face recognition by infants and the development of distinct types of memory). Nelson et al. (2006) posit that cognitive development is influenced by sensitive periods of development and argue for long-term studies that will further elucidate the relationship between cognition and activities in the neural system. The role of neuroscience in cognitive development is an intriguing area of study that will undoubtedly garner more attention from researchers (Kelly, 2011).

Culture and context also play important roles in understanding cognitive development. Since definitions of adolescence or adulthood are culturally situated, new conceptions of adolescence or adulthood or changes in functioning during these periods of life bring about unique views on cognitive development. Burgeoning research in the area of emerging adulthood as well as increased attention to older adulthood are prime examples.

Cognitive Development and Emerging Adulthood

Arnett (2004) posits that the period between eighteen and the mid-twenties no longer fits into the traditional view of adulthood, nor is it a part of adolescence. He refers to this time of life as emerging adulthood and has devoted more than a decade of work to providing information about this developmental period. According to Arnett (2004), emerging adulthood is characterized by exploring identity and possibilities, feelings of instability and being in-between, and being focused on the self.

Labouvie-Vief (2006) discusses the development of mature thought among emerging adults. Labouvie-Vief asserts that when emergent adults participate in contexts where they are challenged to think in more complicated ways, be it through education or social interactions, a movement to a more mature level of thought, beyond Piaget's formal operational thought and Kohlberg's post-conventional level of morality takes place. Arnett (2004) contends that pragmatism and reflective judgment, or the evaluation of the soundness of a line of reasoning, are examples of the mature thought patterns, or post-formal thought that develop during emerging adulthood.

Cognitive Development in Adulthood

Salthouse (1998, 2011) states that while many aspects of cognitive functioning are maintained through adulthood, functioning in the areas that involve fluidity in cognition can decrease with age. He maintains that a consensus has not been reached on the reason for declines in aspects of cognitive functioning for older adults. Changes in information processing, such as longer processing speed, or deterioration of some physiological functioning, for example, eyesight, have been viewed as plausible explanations.

Happé, Winner, and Brownwell (1998) detail the results of their study of the experience of wisdom for older adults. Theory of mind abilities for older adults was commensurate with, and at times more advanced than, the level of theory of mind displayed by their younger counterparts in the study. Abilities that tapped into memory skills were worse for older adults than for younger participants.

Conclusion

From the foundation laid by Piaget through newer perspectives such as theory of mind, understanding cognitive development requires an approach that examines multiple dimensions of cognition from diverse individuals across the lifespan—from birth through older adulthood. New insights about cognitive development are likely to be discovered as researchers work to understand more about the many social, contextual, and biological factors that can impact individuals as they participate in their environments.

Terms and Concepts

Concrete Operational Stage: The concrete operational stage is the third out of four sequential steps in Piaget's stage-dependent theory of cognitive development. Children in this stage are between 7 to11 years of age. The concrete operational stage is characterized by the achievement of conservation.

Emerging Adulthood: Emerging adulthood occurs when individuals are between 18 and approximately 30 years of age and is distinct from adolescence and adulthood. The development of aspects of post-formal thought, such as pragmatism, takes place during emerging adulthood.

Formal Operational Stage: The formal operational stage is the fourth and final step in Piaget's stage-dependent theory of cognitive development. This stage begins in adolescence and is characterized by abstract and logical thought.

Information-Processing: The information-processing approach to cognitive development addresses how individuals interpret and respond to stimuli in their environment. Attention, memory, and processing speed are key aspects of information-processing.

Operations: Operations are extensions of schemata and structures in Piaget's stage-independent theory of cognitive development.

Piaget: Jean Piaget was a Swiss researcher whose theories of cognitive development included constructs such as schemata and equilibration as well as a stage-dependent theory that focused on cognition from birth through adolescence.

Postformal Thought: Post-formal thought is conceptualized as the next stage of cognitive development after Piaget's formal operational stage. It is seen as developing in emerging adulthood and includes reflective judgment.

Preoperational Stage: The preoperational stage is the second of four sequential steps in Piaget's stage-dependent theory of cognitive development. Children in this stage are between 2 to 7 years of age. The preoperational stage is characterized by increasing language skills and egocentrism.

Schemata: Schemata are cognitive representations of concepts and behavior. They are adapted over time due to maturation and experience.

Sensorimotor Stage: The sensori-motor stage is the first of four sequential steps in Piaget's stage-dependent theory of cognitive development. Children in this stage are between birth and 2 years of age. The sensori-motor stage is characterized by children's movement from reflex to intent and the awareness of object permanence.

Social Cognition: Social cognition theory asserts that cognitive development takes place as people think about and act on the social environment. Self-regulation and self-efficacy are examples of key social cognition constructs.

Sociocultural Approaches to Cognitive Development: Socio-cultural approaches to cognitive development focus on learning as it shaped by social and cultural factors in individuals' environments. Vygotsky's work on the internalization of shared social activities being integral to learning is an example of a socio-cultural approach to cognitive development.

Structures: Structures are more complex schemata organized in relationship with one another.

Theory of Mind: Theory of mind is the notion that individuals are active participants in understanding self and the world through awareness of and attention to their and others' mental states and representations.

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Suggested Reading

Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 1–26. Retrieved from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=4445594&site=ehost-live

Kozulin, A. (1999). Sociocultural contexts of cognitive theory. Human Development, 42, 78–82. Retrieved from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=11375669&site=ehost-live

McGonigle-Chalmers, M. (2015). Understanding cognitive development. Los Angeles: Sage.

Steiner, H., & Carr, M. (2003). Cognitive development in gifted children: Toward a more precise understanding of emerging differences in intelligence. Educational Psychology Review, 15, 215–246. Retrieved from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=10574051&site=ehost-live

Wellman, H., & Gelman, S. (1992). Cognitive development: Foundational theories of core domains. Annual Review of Psychology, 43, 337–375. Retrieved from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9212070680&site=ehost-live