Development & Mental Health 1: introduction SUMMARY of lectures and book chapters from lecture 6 onwards

Development notes

Weblecture 6
6B cognitive development: 3 dimensions
1. quantitative and qualitative development.
quantitative: smooth, continuous changes
qualitative: distinct changes in structure, entirely different kind of capacity, often made up of
small gradually changes
2. domain-general (global) and domain-specific (local)
general: broad changes in mental capacities, used in every domain of knowledge
specific: each domain has its own unique change.
3. foundational constraints and emergent constraints
foundational: development is limited from the outset, often due to genetics. For example: not
able to fly.
Emergent: development is emerging over time, in response to environment, depending on
specific experiences

Piaget's theory:
 qualitative changes
 domain-general development
 emergent constraints

preoperational stage:
 2-7 years
 emergence of language
 only one aspect of a problem, rest ignored (centration)
 fails on tasks of:
o classification
o conservation
o seriation
o transitive reasoning

logical operators:
 compensation: change in one dimension compensates for a change in another dimension
 reversibility: 'undo' things can return to intial state
 identity: noting that values stay the same
--> lack of logical operators lead to:
centration: focusing excessively on one dimension of a transformation while ignoring other relevant
dimensions.
conservation task: do children use logical operators?

 identity
 compensation
 reversibility
(rope, stones, water volume)

seriation task:
 seriation of objects: order obejct to shared property (lentgth, size)
 transitive reasoning: make logical inferences about relations (A>B, B>C, A>C)

,classification tasks
 classification tasks: sorting objects, consistent criterium (color, shape, size)
 class-inclusion relations: hierarchy of superordinate and subordinate categories
animal -> dog
information integration theory: younger children focus on one dimension of a problem (intentions
or consequences):
 7-12 years of age
 child now has mental operators that he previously lacked
 responds correctly on conservation-, seriation- and classification tasks
 no hypothetical reasoning

formal operational period
 from >12 years of age
 hypothetico-deductive reasoning: think systematically about different possibilities that might
depart from current reality
 scientific model: isolating individual variables and seeing how they change when they are
systemetically manipulated one at a time
 not all people achieve this stage, not even in adulthood

pendalum task:
 what variables determine the rate of the swing
 systemetically control variables so as to unambiguously isolate length as the only critical
variable

Why did children fail Piaget’s tasks?
 Piaget: children lack the requisite cognitive structures
 Other explanations:
o Children lack cognitive abilities that the task tests (memory, attention, inhibition)
o Children don’t understand which elements of the task are relevant (wrong focus)
o Children try to please the experimenter (they anticipate the ‘desired’ response)

Core domain: basic universal cognitive components.
 Spatial knowledge: cognitive map. Mental representation of the spatial layout that can be
used for navigation. Allocentric and egocentric.
Allocentric spatial representations:
o Using beacons: noticing that an object is located directly under or right next to
another salient and permanent object
o Using landmarks: being able to use distance and direction from salient objects
o Geometric cues: noticing that the environment has a particular shape
>5 years: children can combine landmark and geometric information.
Age 3-7: language and mathematical skills develop

Number specific domain:
 Foundational constraints: number/estimation skills. Quantitative development
 Emergent constraints: number-rich language. Qualitative shift in number concepts.

Intuitive theories: ideas about how something works, never learned about through formal
instruction

, Influences on development
 Piaget: experience leads to development
 Vygotsky: You develop, then learn things and then develop again. (sociocultural influences)

Vygotsky’s view
 Zone of proximal development
o Next level of a skill
o Next step in cognitive development
 Scaffolding. Adults guide children in a manner that enables the child to take part in a more
advanced task then they could perform alone (support without doing it for them).

Theories about learning and development
1. Constructivism: Development always precedes learning; children first need to meet a
maturation level before learning occurs
2. Behaviourism: Learning and development cannot be separated but occur simultaneously.
Essentially, learning is development.
3. Vygotsky: Learning precedes development

Weblecture 7 and Keil chapter 7
Basic emotions: appear early in development, universal in human species. (closely linked to
amygdala)
Complex emotions: build on and occur developmentally later than basic emotions. (other brain
regions in interaction with amygdala)

Functionalist approach: emotions are ways of mobilizing ourselves to take action toward a goal;
stresses the function of emotional responses.

The 6 basic (primary) emotions:
 Joy
 Anger
 Sadness
 Disgust
 Surprise
 Fear
 Appear very early in development
 Are considered human universals




Self-conscious emotions: the emotional experience itself requires some degree of self-awareness.
(guilt, shame, embarrassment, pride, jealousy, envy, empathy)

Machiavellian emotions: meant to influence others and don’t simply reflect an internal state.