User:Phlsph7/Cognition - Development

Development

Main article: Cognitive development

Cognitive development is the progressive growth of mental abilities from infancy through adulthood as individuals acquire improved cognitive skills and learn from experience. Some changes occur continuously as gradual improvements over extended periods. Others involve discontinuous transitions in the form of abrupt reorganizations resulting in qualitative changes. They are typically conceptualized as stages through which the individual passes.

The nature versus nurture debate addresses the causes of cognitive development, contrasting the influences of inborn dispositions with the effects of environment and experience. Empiricists identify environment and experience as the main factors. This view is inspired by John Locke's idea that the mind of an infant is a blank slate that initially knows nothing of the world. According to this outlook, children learn through sense data by associating and generalizing impressions. Nativists, by contrast, argue that the mind has innate knowledge of abstract patterns. They suggest that this inborn framework organizes sensory information and guides learning.

Various theories of the general mechanisms and stages of cognitive development have been proposed. Jean Piaget's theory divides cognitive development into four stages, each marked by an increasing capacity for abstraction and systematic understanding. In the initial sensory-motor stage, from birth to about two years, children explore sensory impressions and motor capacities, learning that things continue to exist when not observed. During the pre-operational stage, up to about age seven, children begin to understand and use symbols intuitively. In the following stages of concrete and formal operation, children first apply logical reasoning to concrete physical objects and then, from around age twelve, also to abstract ideas.

In contrast to Piaget's approach, Lev Vygotsky's theory sees social interaction as the primary driver of cognitive development without clearly demarcated stages. It holds that children learn new skills by engaging in tasks under the guidance of knowledgeable others. This view emphasizes the role of language acquisition, suggesting that children internalize language and use it in private speech as a tool for planning, self-regulation, and problem solving. Other approaches examine the role of different types of representation in cognitive development. For example, Annette Karmiloff-Smith proposes that cognitive developments involve a shift from implicit to explicit representations, making knowledge more complex and easier to access. A further theory, proposed by Robert S. Siegler, asserts that children use multiple cognitive strategies to solve problems and become more adept at selecting effective strategies as they develop.

Cognitive development is most rapid during childhood. Some influences occur even before birth, due to factors like nutrition, maternal stress, and harmful substances like alcohol during pregnancy. Developments in childhood affect all major cognitive faculties, including perception, memory, thinking, and language. Cognitive changes also happen during adulthood but are less pronounced. In old age, overall cognition declines, affecting reasoning, comprehension, novel problem solving, and memory.

References

Sources

• Newcombe, Nora S. (2006). "Development". In Nadel, Lynn (ed.). Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. John Wiley & Sons. doi:10.1002/0470018860. ISBN 9780470016190.
• Mareschal, Denis (2006). "Cognitive Development, Computational Models of". In Nadel, Lynn (ed.). Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. John Wiley & Sons. doi:10.1002/0470018860. ISBN 9780470016190.
• Gelman, Rochel; Baird, Jodie A. (2001). "Cognitive Development". In Wilson, Robert A.; Keil, Frank C. (eds.). The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (MITECS). MIT Press. pp. 128–129. ISBN 978-0-262-73144-7.
• Berk, Laura E.; Harris, Sara (2006). "Vygotsky, Lev". In Nadel, Lynn (ed.). Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. John Wiley & Sons. doi:10.1002/0470018860. ISBN 9780470016190.