Cognitive development (from the English Cognitive development) - the development of all types of mental processes, such as perception, memory, concept formation, problem solving, imagination and logic. The theory of cognitive development was developed by the Swiss philosopher and psychologist Jean Piaget. His epistemological theory provided many basic concepts in the field of developmental psychology and explores the growth of intelligence, which, according to Piaget, means the ability to more accurately reflect the world around us and perform logical operations on the images of concepts that arise in interaction with the outside world. The theory considers the emergence and construction of schemas—schemes of how the world is perceived—during the “developmental stage,” a time when children learn new ways of representing information in the brain. The theory is considered "constructivist" in the sense that, unlike nativist theories (which describe cognitive development as the unfolding of innate knowledge and abilities) or empiricist theories (which describe cognitive development as the gradual acquisition of knowledge through experience), it posits that we self-construct our cognitive abilities through our own actions in the environment.
Stages of development of intelligence (J. Piaget)
According to Jean Piaget's theory of intelligence, human intelligence goes through several main stages in its development. From birth to 2 years, the period of sensorimotor intelligence continues; from 2 to 11 years - the period of preparation and organization of specific operations, in which a sub-period of pre-operational ideas (from 2 to 7 years) and a sub-period of specific operations (from 7 to 11 years) are distinguished; From the age of 11 to approximately 15, the period of formal operations lasts.
Period of sensorimotor intelligence (0-2 years)
From birth to two years, the organization of perceptual and motor interactions with the outside world gradually develops. This development goes from being limited by innate reflexes to the associated organization of sensorimotor actions in relation to the immediate environment. At this stage, only direct manipulations with things are possible, but not actions with symbols and ideas on the internal plane.
The period of sensorimotor intelligence is divided into six stages:
1. First stage (0-1 month)
At this age, the child’s capabilities are practically limited by innate reflexes.
2. Second stage (1-4 months)
Under the influence of experience, reflexes begin to transform and coordinate with each other. The first simple skills (primary circular reactions) appear. “For example, when a child constantly sucks his finger, no longer as a result of accidental contact with it, but due to the coordination of his hand and mouth, this can be called acquired accommodation.”
3. Third stage (4-8 months)
The child’s actions acquire a more pronounced focus on objects and events that exist outside and independently of him. Through repetition, movements are consolidated, initially random, leading to changes in the external environment that are interesting to the child (secondary circular reactions). “Motor recognition” of familiar objects appears, which is expressed in the fact that “the child, faced with objects or scenes that usually activate his secondary circular reactions, is limited to giving only a sketch of ordinary movements, but not actually performing them.”
4. Fourth stage (8-12 months)
The ability to coordinate secondary circular reactions arises, combining them into new formations in which one action (for example, removing an obstacle) serves as a means that makes it possible to carry out another - target - action, which means the emergence of undoubtedly intentional actions.
5. Fifth stage (12-18 months)
The child no longer only uses actions known to him as a means of achieving goals, but is also able to search and find new ones, varying the action already known to him and noting the difference in the result; Piaget calls this “the discovery of new means of achieving an end through active experimentation.” That is, here not only new coordinations of actions-means and actions-goals known to the child arise, but also new actions-means.
6. Sixth stage (after 18 months)
Unlike the previous stage, here the child is already able to discover new actions and means not through experimentation, but through internal, mental coordination - internal experimentation.
Period of preparation and organization of specific operations (2-11 years)
Sub-period of pre-operational ideas (2-7 years)
Here a transition is made from sensorimotor functions to internal - symbolic ones, i.e. to actions with ideas, and not with external objects. The symbolic function is “the ability to distinguish the designation from the signified and, as a result, the ability to use the first in order to remember or point to the second.” In infancy, although a child can perceive a sensory signal as a sign of an event that will follow it, he is not able to reproduce internally the sign of an event that is not actually perceived, which is not a specific part of this event.
Concepts called preconcepts at this stage are figurative and concrete, they do not refer to individual objects or classes of things, and are related to each other through transductive reasoning.
The child’s egocentrism is expressed in the inability to look at his own point of view from the outside, as one of the possible ones. The child is not able to make the process of his thinking the object of his thinking, to think about his thoughts. He does not seek to substantiate his reasoning or look for contradictions in them.
Children at this age are characterized by concentration (concentration) on one, the most noticeable feature of an object, and neglect in reasoning of its other features.
The child usually focuses on the states of a thing and does not pay attention to the transformations (or, if he does, it is very difficult for him to understand them) that transfer it from one state to another
Sub-period of specific operations (7-11 years)
Even at the stage of pre-operational ideas, the child acquires the ability to perform certain actions with ideas. But only during the period of specific operations do these actions begin to be combined and coordinated with each other, forming systems of integrated actions (as opposed to associative links). Such actions are called operations. Operations are “actions internalized and organized into the structures of the whole”; An operation is “any act of representation that is an integral part of an organized network of acts related to each other.” Every performed (actualized) operation is an element of an integral system of possible (potential) operations in a given situation.
The child develops special cognitive structures called groupings. Grouping is a form of moving equilibrium of operations, “a system of balancing exchanges and transformations that endlessly compensate each other.” One of the simplest groupings is the classification grouping, or hierarchical inclusion of classes. Thanks to this and other groupings, the child acquires the ability to perform operations with classes and establish logical relationships between classes, uniting them in hierarchies, whereas previously his capabilities were limited to transduction and the establishment of associative connections.
The limitation of this stage is that operations can only be performed with specific objects, but not with statements. Starting from 7-8 years old, “one can observe the formation of systems of logical operations on the objects themselves, their classes and relationships, which do not yet concern propositions as such and are formed only in relation to real or imaginary manipulation with these objects.” Operations logically structure the external actions performed, but they cannot yet structure verbal reasoning in the same way.
Period of formal operations (11-15 years)
The main ability that appears at the stage of formal operations is the ability to deal with the possible, with the hypothetical, and to perceive external reality as a special case of what is possible, what could be. Reality and the child’s own beliefs no longer necessarily determine the course of reasoning. The child now looks at the problem not only from the point of view of what is immediately given in it, but first of all asks the question about all the possible relationships in which elements of the immediately given can consist or be included.
Cognition becomes hypothetico-deductive. The child can now think in hypotheses (which are essentially descriptions of various possibilities), which can be tested in order to choose the one that corresponds to the actual state of affairs.
The child acquires the ability to think in sentences and establish formal relationships (inclusion, conjunction, disjunction, etc.) between them. At the stage of concrete operations, such relations could be established only within one sentence, that is, between individual objects or events, which constitute concrete operations. Now logical relations are established between sentences, that is, between the results of specific operations. Therefore, Piaget calls these operations second-stage operations, or formal operations, while operations within a sentence are concrete operations.
A child at this stage is also able to systematically identify all the variables essential to solving a problem and systematically go through all possible combinations of these variables.
A classic experiment demonstrates the abilities that appear in a child at the stage of formal operations. The child is given a bottle of liquid and shown how adding a few drops of this liquid to a glass with another liquid unknown to the child causes it to turn yellow. After this, the child receives four flasks with different, but colorless and odorless liquids, and he is asked to reproduce the yellow color, using these four flasks at his discretion. This result is achieved by combining liquids from flasks 1 and 3; You can come to this decision by sequentially sorting out, first one after another, all the liquids from the four flasks, and then all possible paired combinations of liquids. The experiment showed that such a systematic search of paired combinations is available only to a child at the stage of formal operations. Younger children are limited to a few combinations of liquids, which do not exhaust all possible combinations.
Studies of the period of formal operations after Piaget
There are also more recent studies of the stage of formal operations, complementing and clarifying the results of Jean Piaget.
Elements of formal operational thinking were discovered in intellectually gifted young children. On the contrary, some adolescents and adults do not achieve true formal operational thinking due to limited abilities or cultural characteristics. Thus, in one study of solving verbal problems requiring logical reasoning, a linear increase in the number of schoolchildren solving problems in accordance with the criteria of the formal operations stage was revealed from 4th to 12th grade (from approximately 10-15% to 80% respectively).
The transition to formal operations is not completely abrupt and universal, but is more specific in relation to areas of knowledge in which the teenager is especially competent.
The age at which a child reaches the stage of formal operations depends on what social class he belongs to.
Even teenagers and adults with high intelligence do not always solve problems at the level of formal operational thinking accessible to them. This can happen if the task seems too far from reality to the person, if the person is tired, bored, overly emotionally excited, or frustrated.
Literature
1 Piaget J. Selected psychological works. M., 1994.
2 Piaget J. Speech and thinking of a child. M., 1994.
3 Flavell John H. Genetic psychology of Jean Piaget. M., 1967.
4 Piaget, J. (1954). “The construction of reality in the child.” New York: Basic Books.
5 Inhelder B., Piaget J. The growth of logical thinking from childhood to adolescence. New York, 1958.
Piaget, J. (1977). The Essential Piaget. ed by Howard E. Gruber and J. Jacques Voneche Gruber, New York: Basic Books.
Piaget, J. (1983). "Piaget's theory". In P. Mussen (ed). Handbook of Child Psychology. 4th edition. Vol. 1. New York: Wiley.
Piaget, J. (1995). Sociological Studies. London: Routledge.
Piaget, J. (2000). "Commentary on Vygotsky". New Ideas in Psychology, 18, 241-259.
Piaget, J. (2001). Studies in Reflecting Abstraction. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
Seifer, Calvin "Educational Psychology"
Cole, M, et al. (2005). The Development of Children. New York: Worth Publishers.
How does thought processes develop from childhood to adulthood? According to J. Bruner's concepts(1966), at the first stage, sensorimotor reflection, Our knowledge of the world is primarily of a sensory and motor nature. At the second stage, iconic display, the child retains in memory images of real objects perceived by him, and learns about the world with the help of mental images and ideas. During adolescence and adolescence, this world of images gradually gives way to concepts - symbolic representations of objects. The stimulus for this transition to symbolic representation is mainly speech.
J. Bruner emphasizes that language is the most important tool for the development of cognitive processes. The same point of view, according to which the development of cognitive processes is inseparable from the development of speech, was expressed back in 1934 by the Soviet psychologist L. S. Vygotsky. Language is not only a means of transmitting cultural heritage, but also a regulator of behavior (since a word can cause or suppress a particular action).
According to concepts AND. Piaget(1966), the development of cognitive processes represents result permanent attempts person adapt to environmental changes. External influences force the body either to modify existing activity structures if they no longer meet the requirements of adaptation, or, if necessary, to develop new structures, i.e. adaptation is carried out using two mechanisms: 1) assimilation, in which a person tries to adapt a new situation to existing structures and skills; 2) accommodation, in which old patterns and methods of response are modified in order to adapt them to a new situation.
The theory of J. Piaget considers mental development as a continuous and unchanging sequence of stages, each of which is prepared by the previous one and in turn prepares the next.
J. Piaget identifies three main stages in the development of cognitive processes.
- 1. Sensorimotor stage- formation and development of sensory and motor structures (the first two years of a child’s life); The sensorimotor stage is characterized by the development of perception, active actions, the formation and functioning of visual-effective thinking, and includes six substages:
- a) from the first hours after birth, children are able to distinguish sounds of different intensities, recognize the mother’s voice, and exhibit unconditioned reflexes of sucking and blinking;
- b) in a two-month-old baby, visual perception is still poorly developed, he poorly distinguishes shades of colors and has low visual acuity. But he already recognizes his mother’s face, he forms conditioned reflexes to repeated stimuli;
- c) by four months, the child begins to distinguish blue, red, yellow and green colors, grasps and feels objects with his hand, motor skills are formed (from 1 to 4 months) - conditioned reflexes as a result of the child’s interaction with the environment (grasping a bottle with a pacifier, etc. .P.);
- d) circular reactions are formed (from 4 to 8 months) - the development of coordination between perceptual systems and motor movements (grasping a rope, causing a rattle to shake, in order to make it rattle); by 6 months the child begins to recognize objects and other people’s faces, perceives the depth of space; but up to 7 months, the child will not reach for the toy if the toy is covered with a blanket: if the object has disappeared from sight, it means that it does not exist for the baby;
- e) coordination of means and goals (from 8 to 12 months) - the child’s actions are more and more deliberate, aimed at achieving their goal;
- f) random discovery of new funds (from 12 to 18 months) - (by pulling the tablecloth, you can get objects lying on the table, etc.);
- g) invention of new means (from 18 to 24 months) - search for new solutions to achieve goals, getting desired items, solving 2-3-phase problems.
The sensorimotor stage is characterized by the functioning of visual thinking and the formation of visual-figurative thinking.
- 2. Specific Operations Stage includes:
- A) preoperative level(from 2 to 5 years) - it is characterized by the formation of visual-figurative thinking, figurative symbolic thinking, which allows the child to imagine objects using mental images and designate them with names or symbols. The thinking of a child differs significantly from the thinking of an adult both in form and content. The structure of a child’s thinking is characterized by the main features: egocentrism and syncretism.
Egocentrism thinking is manifested in the fact that the child perceives the world as his continuation, which makes sense only in terms of satisfying his needs, is not able to look at the world from someone else’s point of view and grasp the connection between objects (for example, a child calls his grandmother on the phone and says: “Grandma, look how beautiful my doll is!”).
Syncretism thinking is manifested in the fact that the child isolates individual details from the whole, but cannot connect them with each other and with the whole, “everything is mixed up indiscriminately,” cannot establish connections between different elements of the situation, and therefore, explain his actions, give arguments in the benefit of what it claims confuses cause and effect. According to J. Piaget, the child’s way of thinking is also characterized "children's realism"(for example, he draws not what he sees, but what he knows, hence the “transparency” of children’s drawings), animism(projects his “I” onto things, endowing moving objects with consciousness and life: cars, sun, clouds, rivers, etc.), artificialism(the child is convinced that everything that exists is created by the will of man and is intended to serve him: for example, to the question: “What is the sun?” he answers: “This is to shine for us,” to the question: “Who is mother?” - “This who cooks the food.");
- b) level of concrete actions(from 2 before 11 years): words increasingly begin to mean specific objects, and actions are gradually interiorized. This is how thinking develops. At first it is only subjective in nature: it is focused on what the child sees or knows, and not on reality in itself. Thus, the child’s thinking at this stage is egocentric, but allows him to manipulate objects, compare them, classify them, and carry out specific operations on them;
- V) first level of specific operations(from 5-6 to 7-8 years) - the child acquires the ability to arrange objects to reduce their size and classify them (for example, pictures of birds - to a group of birds, fish - to fish), an idea of preserving material is formed;
- G) second level of specific operations(from 8 to 11 years) - ideas about the conservation of mass and volume, an idea about time and speed, as well as about measurement using a standard are formed. And only by the age of 10 does a child acquire the ability to objectively interpret concrete reality. This ability is finally formed at the third stage - formal operations.
- 3. Formal Operations Stage(from 11 - 12 to 15 years old). Mental operations can be carried out without any specific support, conceptual thinking is formed, functioning with the help of concepts, hypotheses and logical rules of deduction, abstract thinking develops, allowing a teenager to imagine numbers as far from concrete experience as a billion, facts from the distant past, or to assimilate complex classifications in biology, etc.
According to J. Piaget, this stage reaches full development by 14-16 years. However, many studies have shown that only a portion of people (25-50%) can actually think abstractly.
The works of J. Piaget showed that the development of intelligence consists of a transition from egocentrism through decentration to the objective position of the child in relation to the outside world and himself.
A person’s mental abilities reach their peak by the age of 18-20 and do not decline significantly until the age of 60. Differences between mental potential in old age and youth are revealed if we take into account the speed of mental reaction and the level of memory. With age, the speed of thinking decreases, short-term memory, the speed of learning and receiving information deteriorate, and the process of organizing material during memorization becomes more difficult. A sharp weakening of mental activity is observed in people shortly before death. Disturbances in cognitive processes can occur as a result of somatic and mental illnesses
Cognitive thinking is the development of all types of thought processes. These include perception, memory, problem solving, and concept creation. Such processes promote interconnection with the outside world. Such processes operate differently at different stages of human maturation. The change is observed as the child grows.
Cognitive thinking: what is it?
Cognitive thinking is emotional intelligence. It depends on cognitive skills due to the individuality of the human body. Cognitive skills include:
- act;
- clarification;
- memory;
- concentration;
- concentration;
- fantasy;
- making decisions;
An individual who has mastered all abilities at once is undoubtedly considered talented. Such an individual can immediately remember a lot of useful information, can concentrate his attention on what he really needs, and not waste time on trifles. He can make the right conclusions and make the right decisions.
Also, thanks to such abilities, a person can think both creatively and logically at the same time. An individual always makes firm decisions. This is why cognitive thinking is more important than any other.
Each individual can begin to develop such abilities. There are many tasks and trainings that will help improve any of the skills.
The thought process and the process of perception are an important component of human life. There are many rather unusual methods for developing your cognitive thinking:
- Watch your diet. The first thing you need to do is look at the foods that a person eats. It is not enough to simply eat those foods that are commonly called the best. The human brain must receive sufficient amounts of vitamins and microelements. Particular attention should be paid to sugar, fatty acids, antioxidants and amino acids. The most beneficial foods for the brain are eggs, nuts, green vegetables, and chocolate.
- Mission "Elephant". You just need to stand with weak knees. Touch your shoulder with your left ear. The ear should be brought as closely as possible to the shoulder. Stretch your hand forward and mentally draw the number eight with your index finger. Only the torso should participate in the process. Don't take your eyes off your finger. Recreate the actions several times.
- Overcoming gravity. You need to sit comfortably on a chair and place your lower limbs in front of you. Feet should touch the floor. Next, cross your legs at the ankle joint and bend your knees slightly. As you exhale slowly, you need to bend forward a little. Stretch your arms parallel in front of you. While inhaling, you need to take the primary position. Repeat this exercise at least three times. Then cross your legs in a different way and repeat the session again. A sense of balance is established, and the ability to understand returns to normal.
- Synchronized drawing. To complete the training you will need a huge piece of paper and two pens in each hand. You need to start drawing mirror drawings with both hands at the same time. These can be bagels, circles, squares. With the help of this exercise, eye coordination is improved. Motor skills improve.
- Training “Alphabet – Eight”. Take a piece of paper and start drawing the numbers eight lying on top of each other. At the same time, do not take your hand off the sheet. Draw three figures of eight with your left hand, right hand and simultaneously with two hands. Then write a small letter “a” and again three eights. Then the letter “b” and again three eights. The task is to reproduce up to the letter “d”.
- Task "Crossing Movement". This training is extremely easy. It is necessary to take a horizontal position. Bring your leg together at the knee and touch it to your elbow. Right knee to left elbow and vice versa. Perform all actions smoothly. Exercise has a positive effect on more than just the mind. But also on the body as a whole.
- Exercise. With greater physical exertion, the individual’s brain improves much faster.
- Improve memory. You need to take out an old photo album and spend time with your memories.
- To solve a riddle. To activate your brain, you can solve crosswords, mosaics and various logical riddles. This way you can keep your brain active.
Important! You can develop cognitive thinking only through regular training. It will not be enough to set aside one day to perform one or another exercise. You need to constantly work on yourself, develop yourself and learn.
Many children feel frustrated with learning, finding it too difficult, simply because they do not have the cognitive skills needed to process information. That is, those specific basic skills that ensure successful learning. Extra workload at school, homework, or special attention to the lack of these skills increases their frustration and further increases their reading problems and difficulties in acquiring new knowledge.
Most schools do not provide enough money or time for the individualized instruction needed for students with weak cognitive skills. In addition, teachers have to read the curriculum at a pace that is difficult for these children to maintain. They cannot keep up with their peers and have difficulty learning, falling further and further behind, often becoming a lifelong problem.
Cognitive stages of child development - stages of learning
Learning is a complex process that develops in stages. It relies on innate abilities, inherited and genetically encoded at birth. But few of us learn with the maximum efficiency that is genetically determined. This is why study and practice improve learning ability and productivity in most people.
Our learning progresses through stages of sensory and motor skills, then cognitive skills, and finally the ability to learn formal instructions. Deficiency in any of the stages can lead to problems in subsequent dependent stages.
Schools, government programs, and special education focus on academic instruction (capstone). Unfortunately, they rarely acknowledge that not all children have adequately developed cognitive skills necessary to effectively process and understand information provided through academic instruction. Without the development of appropriate cognitive skills, granular academic instruction and tutoring do not lead to improved learning ability, and all efforts to help a student learn are wasted.
A closer look at the stages of learning reveals the importance of developing cognitive skills.
- Innate abilities. Human innate abilities are the basis of the learning process. They represent the genetically determined capabilities and limitations that we have at birth and which we inherit from our parents and ancestors. Mozart certainly had more innate musical ability than most of us, but with practice, most of us can improve our musical abilities too. The upper limits of our capabilities are determined by our innate abilities, but how close we approach these upper limits is determined by other elements necessary for learning.
- Sensory and motor skills. Sensory and motor skills develop from our innate abilities. Sensory skills include vision, hearing and touch. They are responsible for receiving information. Motor skills refer to muscles and movement and include the ability to crawl, walk, run, write and speak. Motor skills express and display information received and processed by our senses. Both sensory and motor skills are partly determined by the genetic code and partly acquired through repeated interaction with the environment. For almost all people, these skills can be improved with proper targeted practice. They are the basis for playing sports and playing musical instruments, physical therapy, and other similar efforts to enhance performance.
- Cognitive skills- cognitive (cognitive) abilities allow us to process the sensory information that we receive. They include our ability to analyze, evaluate, store information, recall experiences, compare and determine actions. Although some cognitive skills are innate, most of them are learned. If their development does not occur naturally, cognitive impairment is formed, which reduces learning potential and is difficult to correct without special and appropriate (medical) intervention. Just like sensory and motor skills, cognitive skills can also be trained and improved with the right training. Cognitive changes can be observed when trauma affects a specific area of the brain. The right therapy can often “repair” a patient’s brain, and, accordingly, restore or improve cognitive function. This also applies to students. Weak cognitive skills can be strengthened and normal cognitive skills can be improved, thereby increasing the ease and productivity of the learning process.
- Perception of instructions. Formal acceptance and following of instructions is the last and most heterogeneous level of learning. It includes the study of academic subjects such as algebra, reading, writing - those that cannot be mastered either intuitively or independently (for the most part). These subjects are learned through formal education and learning these subjects successfully and easily depends on the basic cognitive skills of an individual. The knowledge base in every subject can be expanded, but without the proper foundation of effective cognitive skills already established, performing well can be a frustrating and difficult task.
Cognitive skills can be trained and improved
As a person matures and academic tasks become more complex, it is important that basic problem-solving skills are present and functioning properly. Strong cognitive skills are the key to high academic achievement. Without them, a person with a learning or reading disability cannot reach their full potential.
If your child is having difficulty learning or reading, it may be due to underdevelopment of one or more basic cognitive skills. If this is indeed the reason, it must be corrected with the help of special individual training programs aimed at overcoming “weak points” specific to each individual child, which means that the information from the school curriculum will be absorbed much faster and better as a result.
The term “cognitive” in connection with the concept of “development” is not widely used in the domestic psychological literature. It is associated with the name of one of the areas of modern psychology that originated in the USA in the 60s of the twentieth century: “cognitive psychology”. The terms “cognitive” and “mental” are synonymous with it. In educational and scientific psychological literature, the concept of cognitive development is not disclosed. As a rule, definitions are given that are devoid of any conceptual content. Thus, Henry Gleitman and his co-authors define cognitive development as “a person’s mental growth from infancy to adulthood.” In the textbook “Cognitive Psychology”, published under the editorship of V.N. Druzhinin and D.V. Ushakova defines cognitive development as the ways in which intellectual abilities and knowledge about the world change as the child develops. It is emphasized that cognitive psychology analyzes and describes these paths. In S. Miller’s monograph “Developmental Psychology: Research Methods,” cognitive development is not defined at all. The well-known specialist in cognitive psychology R. Solso does not give a clear definition of the concept in question. He will only note that “from a developmental point of view, the thinking of an adult is a complex result of his long growth, starting from the very moment of birth.”
We will assume that cognitive development is the development of all types of mental processes, such as perception, memory, concept formation, problem solving, imagination and logic, and the study of cognitive development boils down to the study of how the above-mentioned mental processes change with age.
Cognitive development is often analyzed as the development of individual cognitive processes, among which thinking is the leading one. The object of cognitive development can also be cognitive abilities. Cognitive abilities are those human properties that are a condition for the successful implementation of individual stages of the cognitive process, as a process of operating knowledge. V.N. Druzhinin developed the concept of developing such cognitive abilities as learning ability, creativity and intelligence. He attributed these mental abilities to the general abilities of a person.
The methodological principle developed by P.G. Shchedrovitsky, is focused on the fact that the principle of development cannot be objectified at all on any specific object (or group of objects). The object of development is development itself. He views cognitive development as a process of changing cognitive structures and their attributive properties.
Appendices A and B show the characteristics of the most influential schools of genetic psychology in world psychology: J. Piaget and cultural-historical psychology of L.S. Vygotsky.
Piaget and other cognitive psychologists are called structuralists, because they are interested in the structure of thinking and how the intellect processes information. The key feature of the theory intellectual development Piaget was the idea of the active participation of the psyche and human thinking in the learning process. According to Piaget, children learn through their active exploration of what is in the environment that we already know, and since new experiences are rarely exactly the same as old ones, we also notice and work through differences.
Although Piaget's theory has been criticized and has its limitations, it continues to have a strong influence and is constantly evolving.
The line of research of J. Piaget was continued within the framework of the school of socio-genetic psychology created by A.-N. Perret-Clermeau and V.V. Rubtsov. The direction of their research clarifies the role of social interactions in the genesis of cognitive structures.
Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) was the first to emphasize the importance social the context in which much of children's cognitive development occurs, and the significance of the historical development of knowledge and understanding, which is the common property of the entire society.
He posited a fundamental question: How do we collectively extract meaning from the world around us? In attempting to answer this in the context of individual development, Vygotsky brought in sociology, anthropology, and history to help.
An approach that builds on the social and cultural sources of our knowledge and how that knowledge is structured, usually called social cognition. However, compared to Piaget's theory, social cognitive theories tend to be much more clearly defined and focus on specific aspects of development and behavior.
J. Piaget and L.S. Vygotsky developed an ontogenetic line of cognitive development. For them, cognitive development acted as a natural process. From the point of view of J. Piaget, its determinants were logical-mathematical structures that gradually unfold in the intellect as it matures.
L.S. Vygotsky identified cultural mediation, represented primarily by signs and language, as the determinants of cognitive development. In Piaget, externality is understood as an individual action with an object. For L.S. For Vygotsky, the external is a culturally-historically established form of joint activity of people, mediated by signs. By becoming their participant, the individual subject transforms these external collective forms of activity into internal forms.
Experts emphasized that the approaches of Vygotsky and Piaget do not contradict, but, on the contrary, complement each other in understanding holistic cognitive development. Children (and adults) sometimes learn from others, but sometimes they learn things on their own.
Based on the ideas of the school of L.S. Vygotsky's theories of mental development developed by M. Cole, P.Ya. Galperin, V.V. Davydov. Methodological approaches L.S. Vygotsky was used in developing models of formative experiments in the scientific schools of P.Ya. Galperin and V.V. Davydova.
M. Cole focused his attention on the analysis of cultural means of mental development. He developed the theory of artifacts. By artifact, M. Cole understands any cultural device that allows a person to achieve his pragmatic goals.
In the theory of activity A.N. Leontyev (1975), all mental processes are the internalized external activity of a child under the guidance of an adult. In its most pointed form, this idea is developed in the theory of the gradual formation of mental actions by P.Ya. Galperin (1985). In this concept, learning is the only source of cognitive processes.
V.V. Davydov developed the concept of purposeful formation of this type of thinking, which under normal conditions of development arises as an exception. The author builds his concept on the idea of the existence in a cultural environment of a special way of relating to reality, called theoretical. The bottom line is that since objects do not constitute the content of thinking in everyday life, during physical labor and in traditional education, then this way of thinking is not in demand and, therefore, it does not develop in the majority of children and adults. Theoretical thinking can be fully developed only in a system of specially organized developmental education. Theory V.V. Davydova considers cognitive development as a result of developmental education, i.e. as an artificial process. Therefore, it should be classified as a design theory for cognitive development.
Cognitive psychology's major breakthrough in cognitive development occurred in the 1950s as a result of the work of Allen Newell and Herbert Simon and the advent of the first computers resembling modern ones. Newell and Simon studied the problem of artificial intelligence, that is, they worked on a computer program that could perform functions inherent in human thinking. Their theory became known as the information approach to development.
Robert Kegan's theory is known as the theory of meaning systems. He believes that people continue to develop meaning systems even into adulthood. Drawing on Piaget's ideas and theories of cognitive development, he identifies several "levels of development of meaning systems" analogous to stages of development. These meaning systems then shape our experience, organize thinking and feeling, and serve as sources of our behavior. At each stage, the old becomes part of the new, just as in children a concrete understanding of the world becomes part of the initial data for thinking at the stage of formal operations. According to Kegan's theory, most people continue to structure and restructure their understanding of the world, even well into their thirties.
Despite the existence of theoretical disagreements, a certain unanimity has been achieved among psychologists on issues related to cognitive processes, which undergo significant changes during the development of the child. We are talking about acquiring a number of qualities:
Possession of certain skills;
Flexible approach to problem solving;
High speed of information processing;
Ability to plan;
Ability to handle a significant amount of information;
Forethought and consistency in solving problems;
Ability to concentrate attention and effort, etc.
Goncharov V.S.
highlights indicators of cognitive development as a natural process and as a result of design
