Piaget's Contributions to Psychology - Book Report/Review Example

Developmental Psychology: Cognitive Theories 2008 Developmental Psychology: Cognitive Theories Te main feature of cognitive approachin developmental psychology is the principle of conscious information processing, which means that people not simply receive information and react to it but also interpret it according to the prior experience. Jean Piaget, Lev S. Vygotsky, and Jerome Bruner are the brightest representatives of this approach. Cognitive perspective emerged as a reaction to behaviorist views that dominated psychology a century ago. While behaviorists treated human being as a sort of processor responding to external stimuli by producing certain behavioral patterns, proponents of cognitive tradition emphasized what occurred inside the processor - the process of cognition, and how people organize, treat and interpret the information (Ormrod, 1995). One of Piaget's most important contributions to psychology of learning was the idea of children who make sense of reality like inborn scientists working alone on the physical, logical and mathematical material of the world. Children develop cognitive structures on their own through many processes including adaptation, accommodation and assimilation (Pulaski, & Ann, 1980). Piaget suggested four major stages, or "periods" of human development such as the sensory-motor, pre-operational, concrete-operational, and formal-operational. Over each of these four stages children and adolescents master various types of mental skills, and acquire the ability to use symbols and reason in abstract ways (Huitt and Hummel, 2003). Child's thinking develops gradually and systematically as he progresses through these stages. Although Piaget admits that children do benefit from interactions with peers, such interactions in his opinion contribute insignificantly to the radical cognitive transformation. Piaget views cognitive development as biologically based process, and does not believe that the child is able to extend their cognitive capabilities beyond their stage of development. Correspondingly, Piaget does not find any use in teaching children principles that are beyond their current stage of cognitive development. During the process of cognitive development the child becomes increasingly social, and social factors begin to play more important role in the child's learning of moral judgments (Pulaski, & Ann, 1980). Language comes about as the sensory-motor period ends and new cognitive tools develop. Piaget considers that infants are born with schemes operating at birth that he called 'reflexes' (Huitt and Hummel, 2003). Although in animals these reflexes control behavior throughout life, in human beings they act as adaptive tools that facilitate adaptation of the infant to environment. Piaget outlines the following four stages of cognitive development: "Sensorimotor stage (infancy) - during this period the child demonstrates intelligence solely through motor activity and is unable to use any symbols. The child's knowledge the world gradually develops but is still because it relies exclusively on the experience of physical interactions. Initial symbolic abilities in the form of language develop only at the end of this stage; Pre-operational stage (toddler and early childhood) - this phase involves demonstration of intelligence the use of symbols. The use of language gradually advances and becomes more complex, and simultaneously memory and imagination also develop though thinking still follows illogical nonreversible largely egocentric patterns; Concrete operational stage (elementary and early adolescence) - the child demonstrates intelligence through systematic and logical use of symbols related to concrete objects. During this stage, reversible operational thinking develops which involves diminishing egocentric thinking; Formal operational stage (adolescence and adulthood) - during this period the child demonstrates intelligence through the coherent and logical use of symbols that relate to abstract objects and concepts (Huitt and Hummel, 2003). Piaget argued that an essential aspect of the cognitive progress that occurs during the concrete operational stage is physiological maturation claiming that elaborate thinking is not possible unless the central nervous system is refined and differentiated properly on the physiological level. According to Piaget, the cognitive development is based on the child's self-initiated interactions with the physical surroundings and biological development that drive the human development from one cognitive stage to the next (Huitt and Hummel, 2003). While Piaget emphasizes biological aspect of cognitive development, Vygotsky focuses primarily on social influences claiming that learning comes first, and stimulates cognitive development (Hausfather, 1996). Vygotsky identified several key problems such as how a person overcomes her 'animal nature' developing cultural, moral and social norms. The scientists believed that all these phenomena emerge only due to social nature of human being (Gillani and Relan, 1997). Consequently, the key idea of Vygotsky's theory is that the source of cognitive development is rather social than biological. The elements of consciousness emerge as a form of collective behavior of a child and only by lapse of time they became individual functions of a person. A good illustration to this idea is phenomenon of speech that is widely perceived as communication tool then it becomes inner one and obtains its intellectual function. In his theory of cognitive development Vygotsky outlines 'zones of proximal development'. These stages 'range between the lower limit of what the student knows, and the upper limits of what the student has the potential of accomplishing' (Gillani and Relan, 1997, p. 232). Passing from one stage to another the child acquires new cognitive skills and develops new structures thus getting prepared for a new cycle of learning: 'In the transition from one age-level to another we find the emergence of new structures that were absent in earlier periods; we can see a reorganization and alteration of the very course of development. Thus the development of the child is but a continuous transition from one age-level to another, accompanied by developmental changes in the child's personality' (Gillani and Relan, 1997, p. 232). Language holds the key role in Vygotsky's theory. The scientist praises language as the essential element to the development of thinking claiming that the school needs to provide many opportunities that allow children to reach the third stage of inner speech, since it is this stage, that is responsible for all higher levels of functioning and the child begins to perceive the world not only through its eyes but also through its speech (Vygotsky, 1997). Language is a basic tool for the child's learning and prior to mastering the behavior the child begins to master the surroundings with the help of speech. The child solves the problem by naming the object and demands new words from adults when he lacks the word for some new object. Vygotsky's theory also pays much attention to the importance of play in cognitive development of children. Through play and imagination the child's conceptual abilities are stretched; children generate opportunities for intellectual development and acquire new skills and knowledge during play (Vygotsky, 1997). The cognitive views of learning imply that human development and language are the main tools of learning. Before the child can master a certain behavioural pattern he should master language that helps correctly perceive the world around him. Evidently, the social determination of the process of learning (Vygotsky) and emphasis on the internal processes of learning (Piaget) represent two different points of view on the process. Unfortunately, there is no clarity up to date regarding which point of view is right. Despite availability of the advanced methods and techniques to study the brain and the process of cognitive development, the debate is still ongoing. The case of dyslexia brightly illustrates the nature of difficulties associated with clarifying the issue. Dyslexia is a specific disorder or learning disability which refers to an '...unexpected difficulty in reading in children and adults who otherwise possess the intelligence, motivation, and schooling considered necessary for accurate and fluent reading' (Shaywitz, 1998, p. 307). The most common types of dyslexia identified in the literature are developmental dyslexia (also termed 'specific reading retardation') and acquired dyslexia (also termed 'deep dyslexia'). Acquired dyslexia is commonly associated with extensive damage of the left hemisphere or the occipital and temporal lobes, and is often termed 'alexia', 'word blindness', 'text blindness' or 'visual aphasia' (Critchley, 1970). Acquired dyslexia is characterised by the occurrence of semantic errors in reading aloud. The damage that can potentially lead to acquired dyslexia occurs in different areas of brain and its severity may differ too. Therefore, symptoms of acquired dyslexia may significantly differ in each particular case. Developmental dyslexia is defined as a '...specific and significant impairment in reading abilities, unexplainable by any kind of deficit in general intelligence, learning opportunity, general motivation or sensory acuity' (Critchley, 1970). This disorder is commonly associated with such conditions as problems in oral language acquisition (dysphasia) and impairments of writing abilities (dysgraphia and misspelling), etc (Ellis, 1987. According to the cognitive theories, the development of reading abilities normally follows the acquisition of spoken language during the earliest stages of life. The existing evidences suggest that conversion of the written word image into its phonological equivalent in the brain is a critical component of the fluent reading ability. Consequently, failure to develop such association between letter and sound is commonly and reasonably believed to be the major characteristic of developmental dyslexia (Bradley, & Bryant, 1983). However, this view is only one alternative in explaining the origins of dyslexia: thus, some family studies suggest that dyslexia may have strong biological (genetic) underpinning because it often runs in families (Elbert et. al., 2000). There are at least four major theories of developmental dyslexia: the phonological theory, the temporal auditory processing theory, the magnocellular theory, and the automaticity theory. Each of these perspectives relies on a solid body of empirical data, while some of them are mutually complementary. However, it is practically impossible that all the four approaches might be equally and simultaneously time in one and the same case: the growing body of empirical data suggests that many types of deficits associated with dyslexia are not present in the whole population of dyslexics. Therefore, developmental dyslexia is likely to be adequately explained only from a highly flexible perspective involving multiple theories (Ramus et. al., 2003). Areas of the brain involved in language and reading activities function abnormally in dyslexic children - this notion underlies the existing intervention strategies in the UK. However, the most recent research involving Chinese children demonstrates that the root cause of dyslexia may be culturally determined. Dyslexic children in China are likely to have problems with other areas of brain than English-speaking children because Chinese language is symbol-based while English language is letter-based (Slok, Perfetti, Jin & Tan, 2004). This finding has one highly important implication for treatment: a strategy proved highly effective in one cultural environment will not necessarily prove similarly effective in a different cultural setting because different areas of the brain should be stimulated to successfully treat dyslexic children in different environments. Besides, cultural determination of the root cause for dyslexia challenges the established notion of the exclusively biological basis for this disorder. Such highly controversial findings related to the aetiology of dyslexia suggest that both Piaget and Vygotsky had strong reasons to advocate their points of view. Furthermore, the dissimilarities in their perception of cognitive processes may be even more useful than the similarities. Diverse perspectives on various cognitive processes are likely to improve the quality of our knowledge. The variety of data generated by representatives of different approaches may be very helpful in designing highly effective strategies which can be addressed as perhaps the most promising trend in treatment of various cognitive disorders. Therefore, finding the appropriate balance between several points of view should be perceived as the key problem facing those whom attempt to finally resolve the nature vs. nurture debate in developmental psychology. References Pulaski, S., & Ann, M. (1980). An Introduction to Children's Cognitive Development. New York: Harper and Row, 1980 Bradley, L. & Bryant, P. E. (1983). 'Categorizing sounds and learning to read: A causal connection'. Nature, 301, 419-421. Critchley, M. (1970). The dyslexic child. 2nd ed. London: Heinemann Medical Elbert, J.C., Seale, T. W. & McMahon, E. (2000). Genetic influences on behaviour and development. In C. E. Walker & M. C. Roberts (Eds.), Handbook of Clinical Child Psychology, 3rd ed., pp. 207-244. New York: John Wiley and Son. Ellis, A. W. (1987). Reading, Writing and dyslexia: A cognitive analysis. Buckingham: Open University Press. Gillani, B., & Relan, A. (1997). Incorporating Interactivity and Multimedia into Web-Based Instruction, Educational Technology Publications. New Jersey, pp.231-237 Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (2003). 'Piaget's theory of cognitive development'. Educational Psychology Interactive [available online at http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/piaget.html] Hausfather, S. (1966). 'Vygotsky and Schooling: Creating a Social Contest for Learning'. Action in Teacher Education, 18, pp.1-10. Ormrod, J. (1995). Educational Psychology: Principles and applications. Prentice-Hall Ramus, F., Rosen, S., Dakin, S. C., Day, B. L., Castellote, J. M., White, S., & Frith, U. (2003). 'Theories of developmental dyslexia: Insights from a multiple case study of dyslexic adults'. Brain, 126, 841-865. Shaywitz, S. E. (1998). 'Dyslexia'. New England Journal of Medicine, 338, 307-12. Slok W. T, Perfetti C. A., Jin Z. & Tan L. H. (2004). 'Biological abnormality of impaired reading is constrained by culture'. Nature, 431, 71 - 76. Vygotsky, L. (1997). Educational Psychology. Boca Raton, Florida: St. Lucie Press Read More