Cognitive Development
Introduced| English |
|---|
| Piaget/ˈpaɪəɡɪt/ |
| accommodation/əˌkɒməˈdeɪʃn/ |
| conservation/ˌkɒnsəˈveɪʃn/ |
| Vygotsky/vaɪˈɡɒtski/ |
| Scaffolding/ˈskæfəʊldɪŋ/ |
| Crystallised intelligence/ˈkrɪstəlaɪzd ɪnˈtelɪdʒəns/ |
| Fluid intelligence/ˈfluːɪd ɪnˈtelɪdʒəns/ |
A child insists the taller glass holds more
- Pour the same water into a tall thin glass and a child says there is now more.
- The child is not guessing — the answer follows from how they reason.
- Cognitive development is about how that reasoning changes.
Piaget: building and rebuilding schemas
- According to Piaget 皮亚杰, children build schemas and change them through assimilation and accommodation 顺应.
- Development moves through stages, each with its own characteristic reasoning.
- The tall-glass error is a failure of conservation 守恒 — the understanding that quantity survives a change in shape.
A child who says a tall thin glass holds more than a short wide one has not yet grasped...
Conservation is the understanding that quantity survives a change in shape.
Select all the Piagetian processes the CED names.
Scaffolding is Vygotsky's term, not Piaget's.
Vygotsky: learning is social
- According to Vygotsky 维果茨基, children are social learners who develop by interacting with others.
- Scaffolding 支架 is the support a more capable person gives, then gradually removes.
- Where Piaget watches a child discover, Vygotsky watches a child be helped.
Climb Piaget's four stages
Each stage is defined by what the child can now do that they could not before — and by what they still cannot.
The support a more capable person gives and gradually removes is called ____.
Scaffolding is Vygotsky's account of how social interaction produces development.
Do not answer "does intelligence decline with age?" with a single word. Crystallised intelligence is generally maintained while fluid intelligence generally declines — an answer that names only one has answered half the question.
Match each theorist to what their account explains best.
The two child theories describe different conditions, not competing truths.
Using the two theories against each other
- Piaget explains what a child can reach alone; Vygotsky explains what they can reach with help.
- The two are not rivals so much as descriptions of different conditions.
- A strong answer says which condition the question describes.
Crystallised and fluid intelligence both decline steadily across adulthood.
Crystallised is generally maintained or grows; only fluid generally declines.
Cognition across adulthood
- Crystallised intelligence 晶体智力 — accumulated knowledge and skills — is generally maintained or grows.
- Fluid intelligence 流体智力 — reasoning with novel problems — generally declines.
- Because they move in opposite directions, "does intelligence decline with age?" has no single answer.
A child who cannot solve a puzzle alone solves it with a few hints, then solves the next one unaided. Piaget would look at what she could do at the start; Vygotsky looks at the gap the scaffolding closed.
Piaget explains development through schemas changed by assimilation and accommodation, with conservation as a marker. Vygotsky explains it socially, through scaffolding. In adulthood, crystallised intelligence holds while fluid intelligence declines.