Development of Cognitive Abilities - Essay Example

The Developing Brain Name Institutional Affiliation Development of the Human Brain The development of human brain is a protracted process; it starts in the third week of gestation with differentiation of the neural progenitor cells and spreads at least via late adolescence and possibly through the lifespan as Lebel & Beaulieu (2011) observes. The processes that contribute to development of human brain range, there are different kinds and levels of processes that interact to support the ongoing series of events that define brain development. The processes range from environmental input to molecular events of gene expressions. The environmental inputs and gene expressions are very essential for normal brain development. The disruption of any of them can lead to fundamental alteration of the neural outcomes. Kang et al., (2011) adds that the development of the human brain is characterised as a complex series of adaptive and complex processes, they operate throughout the course of development to promote differentiation and emergence of new neutral functions and structures. Importantly, these processes work within extremely genetically organised and constrained, but continually changing settings that, over time, support the emergence of the dynamic and complex structure of the human brain. This essay will analyse the development of human brain outlining the stages in a developing child and explaining the cognitive processes. Cognitive development moves through various processes, between four months of age and early adulthood (Biswal et al., 2010). The levels from childhood to adulthood are the most significant and relevant for education. The most compelling and simplest evidence for the processes are the drops and spurts in performance, they happen for optimum performance at given ages. Previous research done on arithmetic, reflective judgement, self-concepts, classification, conversation, moral reasoning and many others indicates that these drops and spurts marking the beginning of capacities to build skills at each of the processes. According to a study of concepts for arithmetic operations by Fischer, Kenny & Pipp (1990), adolescents illustrated spurts under optimal conditions. Moreover, students indicated dramatic jumps in performance under optimum conditions at given ages. Their spurts were especially abrupt as well. Stages in a Developing Child and Cognitive Processes There are four primary cognitive processes in child development (Bornstein et al., 2012). The four stages of development are marked by shifts of how a child understands the world. These stages are sensorimotor stage; this stage takes place from birth to age two. At this stage, toddlers and infants acquire knowledge via manipulating objects and sensory experiences. The development of object constancy or object permanence is very important in understanding that objects remain to exist even when they cannot be seen; this was a significance element in this stage of development. When children learn that objects are distinct and separate entities and that they exist on their own outside of individual perception help them to able to begin attach words and names to objects as Kieling et al., (2011) reports. Toddlers and infants are active learners. They purposefully see, do and touch and consequently develop additional skills. Language also starts developing during the first two years. The physical development of children highly determines the timing of their language development. As their brains develop, preschoolers acquire capacity and ability for representational thinking, this lays foundation for language. In this way, cognitive development also determines the timing of language development. Toddlers and infants understand language before they actually speak. They are very receptive in understanding written and spoken word even before acquiring the ability to use the written and spoken word or the productive language (Piaget 2013). The second stage of development is the preoperational stage. This stage takes place from age two to age seven. A child learns through made-up play but struggles with reasoning and is very keen on taking the point of opinion of other people. Notably, they also struggle with understanding the model of permanence. The third stage is concrete operational stage. It takes place from age seven to age eleven. A child’s mind starts to develop logically and hence starts to think logically. However, their thinking is limited and very rigid. In addition, they tend to struggle with hypothetical and abstract concepts. At this stage, a child becomes less egocentric and begins to think about how other people might feel and think. Children at this stage begins to understand that their thoughts and unique to them and that not every person necessarily shares what they think, feel and their share their opinion (Piaget 2013). The last stage in a developing child is the formal operational stage. This stage starts begins in adolescence and spills in to adulthood. This stage is characterised by an increase in logic. Their ability to use deductive reasoning increases tremendously. Moreover, their understanding of abstract ideas increases as well. At this stage, people become capable of seeing several potential solutions to problems. They also think more scientifically about the world around them. These stages were developed by Jean Piaget through a series of observations in developing the theory of intellectual development (Piaget 2013). The Difference between Sensation and Perception Sensation and perception are interconnected processes that are established throughout the lifespan. They have discrete qualities that clearly differentiate each other, although they have close relationship. Sensation is how a sensory receptor is stimulated, producing nerve impulses that travel to the brain (Goldstein 2013). This then interprets the impulses as visual image a sound, pain, odor, touch or taste. Notably, the physical stimulus available in the environment emits energy; this energy is them absorbed by a sensory organ called transduction thereby causing sensation. Sensation and its physical elements are registered by sensory organs. The sensory organs then decode the information and transform it in to neutral signals or impulse. On the other hand, perception is the occurrence that takes place when the brain performs information organisation obtained from the neural impulses. The brain them begins the process of interpretation and translation. Perception is a crucial process that helps human beings to rationalise information or make sense of information connected to physical stimulus. Perception takes place when the brain processes information in order to give it meaning, this happens by means of memories and emotions (Goldstein 2013). Both sensation and perception word together, they vital elements that complement and balance each other. They work together to help a person to be able to identify and create meaning from information related to stimulus. It is very difficult to have perception without sensation except for persons who believe in extrasensory perception. Equally, without perception, sensations would probably remain to be ‘unknown’ to human beings because there is no mental processing of what people sense (Cohen & Salapatek 2013). Essentially, the difference between sensation and perception is that perception follows sensation. Why Is Learning So Important The world is fast developing and moving from the industrial age to information age and to the knowledge age. The ability to obtain information, assimilate and apply the right knowledge effectively will become a vital skill in the next century. This calls for the need to learn and learn in order to acquire information and consequently to know how to apply the right information for the right purpose. There will be a time when people will no longer be solely judged by qualifications gained in the past but will as well be evaluated by their capacity to adapt and learn in the future. Learning is not confined to economic success but it is a vital element in achieving full potential. It is very important to learn because learning has the power to transform someone and hence become more rounded and successful (Eysenck 2013). Learning helps people to meet their specific and challenging goals. It helps them to redirect, evaluate and direct their energy in to the right purpose. Also, it helps to process feedback from various sources such as experiences, parents, teachers and peers to help them reduce the information gap between their current and future performance. Importantly, learning is very important especially where sources of information are no longer available or are no longer the main source of knowledge and information. Every person needs to learn in order to increase and continuously build knowledge and skills throughout the lifespan. Bearing in mind that the world is changing rapidly and quickly, learning is becoming a necessity. Shell et al., (2010) asserts that to be able to communicate effectively and move around the world with unprecedented ease as well as use the advanced means of communication, there is need to learn. This makes learning very important. Why Is Remembering Important The mind is always trying to learn new ways of coping with reprocessing the past experiences. In this way, the mind looks at what happened from a relatively safe perspective of the present time. After a flashback a person experiences a change of what was plaguing him or her, a person becomes able to make decision about how to act or react and be in the his or her contemporary world (Johnston, Ivey & Faulkner 2011). As time passes, the truth of what happened often becomes less significant, but initially it seemed vital and with good reason. The past experiences are very important; they help people to make better decisions. When a person is faced with a challenge similar to another challenge he or she faced in the past, that person draws experience on how he or she solved the challenge. This helps to avoid making the same mistakes and making better decisions as well as acting in the best way possible. Therefore, it is very important to remember, it helps to draw on the knowledge and skills bank stored in mind (Johnston, Ivey & Faulkner 2011). Why Can Forgetting Be Necessary In Some Circumstances, Yet Not In Others? Forgetting is part of human memory; it indicates a normal functioning memory. Memories connect people to their family, friends, other people, times and places. Forgetting is devastating and annoying to some people. Forgetting in some circumstances is necessary while to others is detrimental. The failure to regain memory from the brain is not ‘forgetting’ as per se but a reflection that the memory was not properly stored (Hardt, Nader & Nadel 2013). Forgetting may be temporary failure to retrieve information from the brain. Forgetting is almost as crucial as remembering. In actual sense, without forgetting people would have more trouble than they do with memory. It is necessary to forget in some circumstances. For example, people involved in traumatic events need to forget. Their failure to forget such traumatic events is responsible for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. If such people are not able to let such memories fade naturally, they are not able to move on with their lives as Bjork & Benjamin (2011) notes. This is one of the reasons why forgetting is necessary in some cases. On the other hand, forgetting is detrimental in some circumstances. Forgetting disconnects people from some of their important events and persons in their life. Forgetting makes people to make mistakes and even make wrong decisions. Additionally, there are times when people need to revisit or go back and read about a life changing experience (Spear 2014). As such, it is not necessary to forget in some circumstances. Why Are Judgement and Decision Making Important So many things in life rely on good judgement. People do find themselves in circumstances where they have to make a judgement or make a decision. The final decision comes down to a matter of judgement. Every person has the will and potential to exercise good judgement. Many people do demonstrate obvious things like possession of high level of judgement matter knowledge and reasoning ability. These people do demonstrate a clear set of balanced individual and collective values in addition to possessing sufficient professional will. This ability should not be underestimated; this depicts individuals with factors that will go all the way towards helping them predict how they will likely perform when in situations to make judgement and to make decision (Glöckner & Witteman 2010). Possessing the ability to execute basic skills as well as the ability to conclude a matter based on facts for purposes of making further steps is very important. There cannot be progress unless judgement is made. Moreover, having the ability to integrate various aspects of information about a person, object or situation to arrive at a complete assessment is very important. It marks the end of something and progressing to another level. Judgement feed in to decision making, appraising a situation or individual styles can be a foundation of selection between options (Messick & Bazerman 2013). Essentially, judgement and decision making are important as they are used in implementing functions, clearing pervasiveness, evaluation, planning, selecting alternatives and running a business successfully. References Biswal, B. B., Mennes, M., Zuo, X. N., Gohel, S., Kelly, C., Smith, S. M, & Windischberger, C, 2010, toward discovery science of human brain function: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(10), 4734-4739. Bjork, R. A., & Benjamin, A, S, 2011, on the symbiosis of remembering, forgetting, and learning; successful remembering and successful forgetting: A festschrift in honor of Robert A. Bjork, 1-22. Bornstein, M. H., Britto, P. R., Nonoyama‐Tarumi, Y., Ota, Y, Petrovic, O, & Putnick, D, L, 2012, child development in developing countries: Introduction and methods. Child development, 83(1), 16-31. Cohen, L. B., & Salapatek, P. (Eds.), 2013, infant perception: From sensation to cognition: Basic visual processes (Vol. 1), Academic Press. Eysenck, H, J, 2013, experiments in behaviour therapy: Readings in modern methods of treatment of mental disorders derived from learning theory, Elsevier. Glöckner, A, & Witteman, C, 2010, beyond dual-process models: A categorisation of processes underlying intuitive judgement and decision making; thinking & reasoning, 16(1), 1-25. Goldstein, E, 2013, sensation and perception: Cengage Learning. Hardt, O., Nader, K., & Nadel, L, 2013, decay happens: the role of active forgetting in memory, trends in cognitive sciences, 17(3), 111-120. Johnston, P. H., Ivey, G., & Faulkner, A, 2011, talking in class: Remembering what is important about classroom talk; the reading teacher, 65(4), 232-237. Kang, H. J., Kawasawa, Y. I., Cheng, F., Zhu, Y., Xu, X, Li, M, & Šestan, N, 2011, Spatio-temporal transcriptome of the human brain: Nature, 478(7370), 483-489. Kieling, C., Baker-Henningham, H., Belfer, M., Conti, G., Ertem, I., Omigbodun, O, & Rahman, A. 2011, child and adolescent mental health worldwide: evidence for action, the Lancet, 378(9801), 1515-1525. Lebel, C., & Beaulieu, C, 2011, longitudinal development of human brain wiring continues from childhood into adulthood: The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(30), 10937-10947. Messick, D. M., & Bazerman, M, H, 2013, Ethical leadership and the psychology of decision making: sloan Management Review, 37(2). Piaget, J, 2013, success and understanding: Routledge. Piaget, J, 2013, the construction of reality in the child (Vol. 82): Routledge. Piaget, J, 2013, the mechanisms of perception: Routledge. Shell, D. F., Brooks, D. W., Trainin, G., Wilson, K. M., Kauffman, D. F., & Herr, L, M, 2010, the unified learning model (pp 1-4): Springer Netherlands. Spear, N, E, 2014, the Processing of Memories (PLE: Memory): Forgetting and Retention (Vol. 23), Psychology Press. Read More

The development of object constancy or object permanence is very important in understanding that objects remain to exist even when they cannot be seen; this was a significance element in this stage of development. When children learn that objects are distinct and separate entities and that they exist on their own outside of individual perception help them to able to begin attach words and names to objects as Kieling et al., (2011) reports. Toddlers and infants are active learners. They purposefully see, do and touch and consequently develop additional skills.

Language also starts developing during the first two years. The physical development of children highly determines the timing of their language development. As their brains develop, preschoolers acquire capacity and ability for representational thinking, this lays foundation for language. In this way, cognitive development also determines the timing of language development. Toddlers and infants understand language before they actually speak. They are very receptive in understanding written and spoken word even before acquiring the ability to use the written and spoken word or the productive language (Piaget 2013).

The second stage of development is the preoperational stage. This stage takes place from age two to age seven. A child learns through made-up play but struggles with reasoning and is very keen on taking the point of opinion of other people. Notably, they also struggle with understanding the model of permanence. The third stage is concrete operational stage. It takes place from age seven to age eleven. A child’s mind starts to develop logically and hence starts to think logically. However, their thinking is limited and very rigid.

In addition, they tend to struggle with hypothetical and abstract concepts. At this stage, a child becomes less egocentric and begins to think about how other people might feel and think. Children at this stage begins to understand that their thoughts and unique to them and that not every person necessarily shares what they think, feel and their share their opinion (Piaget 2013). The last stage in a developing child is the formal operational stage. This stage starts begins in adolescence and spills in to adulthood.

This stage is characterised by an increase in logic. Their ability to use deductive reasoning increases tremendously. Moreover, their understanding of abstract ideas increases as well. At this stage, people become capable of seeing several potential solutions to problems. They also think more scientifically about the world around them. These stages were developed by Jean Piaget through a series of observations in developing the theory of intellectual development (Piaget 2013). The Difference between Sensation and Perception Sensation and perception are interconnected processes that are established throughout the lifespan.

They have discrete qualities that clearly differentiate each other, although they have close relationship. Sensation is how a sensory receptor is stimulated, producing nerve impulses that travel to the brain (Goldstein 2013). This then interprets the impulses as visual image a sound, pain, odor, touch or taste. Notably, the physical stimulus available in the environment emits energy; this energy is them absorbed by a sensory organ called transduction thereby causing sensation. Sensation and its physical elements are registered by sensory organs.

The sensory organs then decode the information and transform it in to neutral signals or impulse. On the other hand, perception is the occurrence that takes place when the brain performs information organisation obtained from the neural impulses. The brain them begins the process of interpretation and translation. Perception is a crucial process that helps human beings to rationalise information or make sense of information connected to physical stimulus. Perception takes place when the brain processes information in order to give it meaning, this happens by means of memories and emotions (Goldstein 2013).

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