LECTURE
10
Preoperational
Stage
(2-7 years):
- Child has language
- Develops ability to
use symbols (such as words) and to treat objects as symbolic of things
other than themselves
- Ability to use
symbolic representations is the greatest cognitive strength of
preoperational stage children
Symbolic
Capacity:
- Ability to use one
thing to represent something else, including:
- Actions
- Mental Images
- Objects
- Words
Symbolic
Play:
- Also called pretend
play
- Capacity to adopt
roles other than that of the self
Children
Who Engage in Lots of Pretend Play:
- Are more popular
- Are better
perspective-takers and more empathetic
- Are generally more
socially mature
- Perform better on
tests of Piagetian cognitive development, language skills, and
creativity
Contrasting
Stages:
Preoperational
stage
(2-7
years) contrasted with
Concrete
operational stage
(7-11
years)
Preoperational
vs. Concrete Operational:
- Thinking at the preoperational
stage is egocentric
Egocentrism: tendency to view world from one's own perspective
while failing to recognize that others may have different points of
view
- What develops in concrete
operational stage?
Perspective-taking: ability to know what another person sees,
feels, or knows
Preoperational
vs. Concrete Operational (Cont):
- Thinking at the
preoperational stage centers on the dominant perceptual
characteristic
Centration: tendency to focus on only one aspect of a situation or
problem when two or more aspects or dimensions are relevant
- What develops in concrete
operational stage?
Decentration: ability to focus on two or more aspects or dimensions
of a situation or problem at one time
Preoperational
vs. Concrete Operational (Cont):
- Thinking at the preoperational
stage fails to conserve
- What develops in concrete
operational stage?
Conservation : recognition that certain properties of an object or
substance do not change when its appearance is altered in some superficial
way
Preoperational
vs. Concrete Operational (Cont):
- Thinking at the preoperational
stage is nonreversible
- What develops in concrete
operational stage?
Reversibility : ability to reverse or negate an action by mentally
performing opposite action
Preoperational
vs. Concrete Operational (Cont):
- Thinking at the preoperational
stage cannot reason simultaneously about part of the whole and the
whole
- What develops in concrete
operational stage?
Class Inclusion: logical understanding that parts or subclasses are
included in the whole class & that the whole is greater than any of its
parts
Preoperational
vs. Concrete Operational (Cont):
- Thinking at the preoperational
stage fails to seriate
- What develops in concrete
operational stage?
Seriation: logical operation that allows one to mentally order a
set of stimuli along a quantifiable dimension, such as height or weight
Transitivity: ability to recognize the necessary or logical
relations among elements in a serial order (EX: if A > B, & B > C,
then A must be > C)
Formal
Operational Stage
(12+ years)
- Abstract thought
- Systematic
problem-solving
- Hypothetical-deductive
logic
- Separation and
control of variables
- Metaphoric thinking
Formal
Thought is Made More Likely By:
- Intelligence
- Training in
scientific reasoning
- Expertise in a
domain of knowledge
Beyond
Formal Operations:
Factors that constitute post-formal
thought:
- Dialectical thinking
- Relativism
- Systems thinking
Conceptions
of Death:
- In our culture, "mature"
conceptions of death include notions of finality, irreversibility,
universality, and biological causality
- Understandings of
death vary as a function of cognitive development
Conceptions
of Death (Cont):
- Infants at least 6 mos old who lose an
attachment figure will become depressed
- Preschool children
think of death as a lessening (rather than cessation) of life processes
- Children aged 5-7
make considerable progress in acquiring a mature concept of death
The
Information Processing View:
- Older children have
a larger short-term (working) memory available for use than younger
children
- Revision of Piaget:
Preoperational children center, not because they lack certain cognitive
structures
- They center because
they don't have enough short-term, i.e., working, memory capacity to
keep both pieces of information in mind at the same time
Zone
of Proximal Development (ZPD)
(Vygotsky):
- The difference
between what a learner can accomplish independently & what he/she
can accomplish with the guidance & encouragement of a skilled
partner
- People learn best in
the ZPD: it is the zone where sensitive instruction should be aimed
END
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