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Development of thinking and Reasoning Piaget (1896-1980) Piagetian terminology Schema – an organized mental representation of the world, such as how to interact with objects in the world. Grasping and sucking schema Assimilation - applying an old schema to new material or information. Accommodation modifying an old schema to fit the new material or information. Baby with a new toy Ball. Try to suck it like a bottle Open mouth more to suck it assimilation of sucking schema accommodation of sucking schema Grasp and shake it assimilates ball to grasping schema accommodating it to fit the ball. Piaget’s stages of intellectual development Sensorimotor - birth to 2 years preoperational - 2 to 7 concrete-operations - 7 to 11 formal-operations - 12 on The sensorimotor stage: Infancy (birth to 2 years) At this stage behavior consists mostly of simple motor responses to sensory stimuli. They can grasp things, they can suck things. Babies do not look for things they cannot see Lack object permanence Lack cognitive abilities. Preoperational stage (2-7 yrs) Piaget called this the preoperational stage because he thought the child lacked operations. Operations are reversible mental processes A boy with one brother, will say that his brother does not have a brother. He is unable to apply the concept of brother to himself. The peoperational stage Lack concept of conservation too much milk in a tall skinny class, becomes acceptable if poured into a short wide glass The peoperational stage Tend to be egocentric if asked to show you a book they might tend to hold it facing themselves. They think you see what they see. When asked to describe how a model of three mountains looks to someone standing on the opposite side from them they describe their own view Can this boy report what the clown doll sees? Egocentric Communication Communicate from their own perspective Collective monologues Frequently talk “at” rather than “with” people John: “My dad is a fireman.” Mike: “So what, I’m 6 years old.” John: “He is a real hero.” Mike: “I had my birthday yesterday.” Declines between ages of 4 & 7 Lack Theory of Mind When asked what was in a Band Aid box. Children said Band Aids They were surprised to find pencils Researchers then asked what other children would expect to find in the Box. 3 yr olds said pencils By age 4 to 5 children’s theory of mind had increased. They were delighted to think that their friends would expect Band Aids More Theory of Mind A child sat in front of a screen covering four cups and watched as one adult hid a surprise under one of the cups. Then, that adult and another (who had not been present initially) each pointed to one of the cups to signal where the surprise was hidden. Many 4 year olds consistently followed the advice of the informed adult; 3 – year olds did not. Using models of the real world A 2 1/2 year old cannot use a model of a room to find an object in a large room. At about 3 they can. What if they are tested differently? Hide object in model of the room. Tell the child you are going to expand the room. They hear noises (chunkata, chunkata, chunkata). Now 2 1/2 year olds can find the object. Seems they are unable to use a model to represent reality, unless they are tricked into it. The concrete operations stage - later childhood (7-11 yrs old) The beginning of this stage is marked by mastery of the principle of conservation. they now think logically, and are no longer egocentric understand the principle of reversibility roll a ball of clay into a long sausage shape understand that the ball can be reproduced by reversing the action Concrete operations continued Limitations They are bound to the concrete, physical reality of the world. They have difficulty understanding questions of an abstract or hypothetical nature If you could have a third eye anywhere on your body where would you put it? The formal operations stage: adolescence to adulthood (12 yrs – adult) Formal operations - Piaget’s term for the mental processes used to deal with abstract, hypothetical situations. The pendulum problem What determines how fast a pendulum swings? Length of string weight of the pendulum force at which the pendulum is pushed Children in the concrete operations stage will approach this problem haphazardly. Change string length weight and force all at the same time. People in the formal operations stage approach this problem systematically scientifically. They change one variable at a time and examine the effects. They rule out competing possibilities Infant abilities Newborns can only make purposeful mouth and eye movements. That is why it is hard to study them. Vision. Look at pictures of faces more than other types of pictures An indication that they can see and can discriminate between faces and nonfaces Imitation Newborns can imitate sticking out your tongue, or opening your mouth wide. Shows they can see Implies that imitation is reflexive? Newborn Hearing. Measure sucking on a pacifier. First time an infant hears a sound they will suck more. As they hear it more often they suck less Play a new sound and infant starts sucking faster habituation. dishabituation Using this procedure, researchers have found newborns can discriminate between ba and pa. At 4 weeks infants can process information across sensory modalities Learning and memory of newborns Can learn to suck a pacifier at a certain response rate to turn on a tape recording of the mother, at 3 days old. Learning Prefer recording of mom over another female voice. memory perhaps from before birth? Rovee-Collier Trained infants to kick their leg to jiggle a mobile. String attached to leg went up to mobile. Can remember this for several days. Train task = press bar to make a train go around a track Infants of the ages tested in the mobile and train tasks, from left to right, they are 2, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 months of age. Note the dramatic physical and behavioral differences between the younger and older infants. The maximum duration of retention (in weeks) over the first 18 months of life. Independent groups of infants were studied in the mobile (2-6 months) and the train (6-18 months) tasks. Six-month-olds were trained and tested in both tasks. Newborns and object permanence Peak-a-boo. Piaget thought infants lacked object permanence. Won’t reach for things that were there and now are hidden. The possible vs. impossible experiments. The car and box experiment 6 - 8 months - watch car roll down ramp impossible event a box blocked the cars path. Possible event the box did not block the cars path. A screen was lowered the car went through anyway. Screen was lowered the car went through Infants stared longer at impossible event. What does this say about object permanence? Do infants (5 months) have a concept of number? - Wynn, 1992 Possible = (1+1 =2) or (2-1 =1) impossible = (1+1 = 1) or (2-1 =2). Sense of self? At about 1 1/2 infants will touch a spot placed on them if allowed to look in a mirror. The development of moral reasoning Kohlberg believed that humans develop different reasons for what is right and wrong. Children tend to equate wrong with punishment Adults realize that something can be wrong, even if you are not punished for it According to Kohlberg there are no moral or immoral decisions, just moral and immoral reasons for making decisions He devised moral dilemma’s - problems that pit one moral value against another, to examine people’s moral reasoning Overview of stages Level 1 - Preconventional morality 1. Obedience and punishment orientation Rules are obeyed simply to avoid punishment If I keep the money I could get spanked 2. Naïve egotism and instrumental orientation Rules are obeyed simply to earn rewards If I keep the money I may get to keep some of it. Level 2 - Conventional morality 3. Good boy/girl orientation Rules are conformed to in order to avoid disapproval and gain approval I’m a good boy because I returned the money 4. Authority-maintaining orientation Social conventions blindly accepted to avoid criticism from those in authority. You shouldn’t keep the money because it is against the rules and you will get in trouble if you are caught. Level 3 – Postconventional morality 5. Contractual- legalistic orientation Morality is based on agreement with others to serve the common good and protect the rights of individuals I should return the money – if everyone kept things that don’t belong to them it would lead to anarchy. 6. Universal Ethical Principal Orientation Morality is a reflection of internalized standards Rules are obeyed to avoid self condemnation Right is what is universally ethical and respects human worth, individuality, and other similar abstract concepts. Keeping the money is wrong – period. In order to maintain respect for myself and humanity – I cannot keep something that does not belong to me. Limitations of Kohlberg James Rest (1983) divided moral reasoning into four components 1. Interpret the situation 2. Decide on the morally correct thing to do 3. Decide what you will actually do may not be the morally correct thing 4. Actually do what you decided to do Kohlberg’s stages only relate to the first two things on this list criminals can do well in the abstract, but still do immoral things Gilligan Carol Gilligan argued that Kohlberg only presented one type of moral reasoning “justice” orientation -- focuses on rights and duties. She thought that there was another aspect to morality The “caring” orientation -- focuses on helping oneself and others. Gilligan’s stages Preconventional - what is helpful or harmful to myself conventional - what is helpful or harmful to others postconventional - what is helpful or harmful to myself and others Vietnam - a group of soldiers is ordered to shoot unarmed civilians One soldier’s refusal to shoot would rank high on Kohlberg’s list if he did so because he thought it was wrong to kill when unprovoked. The civilians would still get shot by the other soldiers It would not rank high for Gilligan. For Gilligan saving the civilians would be a more caring approach Attachment A long-term feeling of closeness between people, such as a child and a caregiver comes from satisfaction of biological needs, but also emotional needs such as social attention. Harlow (1958) Studied attachment in Rhesus Monkeys He had tried to raise baby monkeys in isolated bare wire cages. Even though they were well fed they did not survive. He found that if a scrap of terry cloth was in the cage with them, that they did survive. Harlow inferred that the terry cloth provided some measure of security He attempted to discover whether infant monkeys had an inborn desire for love or warmth Contact comfort He raised baby monkeys with “surrogate” mothers. A wire figure covered in terry cloth A wire figure with no terry cloth. Both figures could be fitted with bottles of milk. In some cases the wire mother provided milk, in other cases the terry cloth mother provided milk. Which do you think the babies preferred? Do you think the monkey’s grew up to be normal? Harlow’s Monkeys Did not have normal social and sexual behavior Females, became very poor mothers, that ignored their babies. Later Harlow found that if he took babies reared by artificial mothers and integrated them into a social group of younger monkeys they turned out normal. The message from the Harlow study, is that even for nonhumans, more is needed than just food and water from care givers. For Infants to develop normally, they need comfort and support, as well as social signals. How do we measure Attachment in humans? Ainsworth (1979) - The Strange Situation A mother and an infant (12-18 months) come into a room with many toys. A stranger enters The mother leaves, then returns both the stranger and the mother leave the stranger returns the mother returns A researcher watches the infant through a one-way mirror Four categories of infant responses. 1) Securely attached – Infant uses the mother as base of exploration shows mother toys. Shows some distress when mother leaves, but cries only a little if at all. Baby greets mother with delight when she returns. 2) Anxiously Attached Infant clings to mother Cries profusely when she leaves, as if worried she won’t come back. Clings to mother when she returns. 3) Anxious and avoidant Infant does not interact with mother when she is present. The infant cries when she leaves, but does not go to her when she returns 4) Disorganized The infant pays little attention to the mother Doesn’t seem to notice when she leaves, or when she returns. An anxious and avoidant child can grow up normally, but research shows that a disorganized child is likely to be troubled deviant aggressive behavior by age 5.