(1)Cogni&ve & Motor Development
Chapter 2
Concept 2.1 Rela&onship between
cogni&ve and motor development
Cogni&ve
Primary Focus
• The most famous cogni&ve developmentalist
was Jean Piaget.
– His primarily was interested is the cogni&ve
developing of “knowing”
– He studied children solving problems in different
situa&on from birth to age of 11.
– He manipulated the situa&ons, observed what
would happen and then collected data by
ques&ons‐and‐answer sessions (Clinical Method)
Theory of Cogni&ve Development
(Piaget)
• Stage theory of motor development
– Sensorimotor (Infancy)
– Preopera&onal (Childhood)
– Concrete opera&onal (Late Childhood)
– Formal opera&onal (Early to middle adolescence)
• Movement is cri&cal to thought processes and
vice versa.
• One’s development is based on the process of
adapta&on
– Assimila&on
– Accommoda&on
Major Cri&cisms of Piaget’s Theory
• Piaget’s theory has withstand allot of cri&cism
and it s&ll is the most significant guide in
understanding human development.
• Major cri&cism is that cogni&ve behavior does
not development beyond the formal opera&onal
stage.
– We now know this not true due to research with
adults.
– Cogni&ve behavior con&nues to develop un&l one is in
there late 20’s.
Infancy
• In the first month of life the child engages in
repe&&ve reflexes that provides the child with
a founda&on upon which the child can
understand it’s environment (exercise of
reflexes).
• At the end of the first month, the child
engages in an increased level of voluntary
movement that occurs in close in proximity of
themselves (primary circular reac&ons)
Infancy
•
During 4 ‐ 8 months, the infant engages in movement
that integrate vision, hearing, and grasping. The child
will imitates movement in repe&&ve manner
(secondary circular reac&ons).
•
At 8 – 12 months (Secondary schemata), the infant
movement capabili&es increases which helps her or
him to interact with the environment through
movement (crawling and creeping).
– They are able to match past movement and apply them in
new situa&ons.
– Able to predict a few ac&ons and situa&ons, which is
considered to be the onset of intellectual reasoning.
Infancy
• At around 1 to 1.5 years, infant engages in
ac&ve experimenta&on where they realize the
quali&es of object and visualize the object’s
use (Ter&ary circular rela&ons).
– They rely upon the immediate family or primary
caregiver (e.g. day care) member to help them
solve problems which is a sign of social and
emo&onal development.
– They recognize that they are different from others.
Infancy
• During 1.5 to 2 years, the child can:
– recognize objects, others, and begin to
understand object proper&es, such as color,
shape, use, etc. (Mental combina&on).
– reflect upon their movement
– begin to think with their mind and not their body.
Summary: Infant‐Sensorimotor Stage
• Increase awareness of the difference between self and others.
• Knowing and thinking emerge as a result of ac&ons that occur via
bodily movement.
• The infants experience of being able to grasp and hold with some
degree of certainty influences the development of cogni&on.
• They recogni&on that the objects, people, or parents, con&nue to
exist even though they are no longer in view**.
• Be able to reflect and visualize past, present, and future
movements.
Childhood or Pre‐opera&onal Stage
• In this stage, ages 2‐7, several important
developmental milestones appears:
– Verbal communica&on emerges
– Language development (*most important)
– Cogni&ve development is heavily linked to motor
abili&es (e.g. being able to do independent
upright,walking)
– Engage in logical thinking
Childhood
• During ages 2‐4 or preconceptual substage,
the child:
– uses symbols to represent something or
themselves,
– engages in solitary, role playing,
– displays egocentrism (considered to hinder
cogni&ve development),
– Engages in irra&onal thinking (flawed and
transduc&ve)
Childhood
• During the ages 4‐7 the child (intui&ve substage):
– Egocentrism has declined significantly
– Con&nues to use symbols but cannot realize that
objects appearances can be rearranged. They see
thing as unchanging or has only one set order
(conserva&on).
– Signs of conserva&on are:
• Difficulty in agending to more that one thing at a &me
• Has difficulty in recognizing mul&ple solu&ons to a problem.
Here again, they only solve problems using one solu&on.
Later Childhood & Adolescence
• Concrete opera&onal stage (ages 7 to 11)
– The child should have gained the ability to conserve.
– Child can know agend to more than one variable in a
problem solving situa&on (decentered)
– Children has gained the ability to arrange a set of
variables by a certain characteris&c (seria&on)
• These changes in the child are possible by doing
or by ac&ons. Motor development and cogni&ve
development mutually benefit each other at this
stage.
Later Childhood and Adolscence
• Formal Opera&onal Stage (ages 11 to 12)
– Children at this stage are not fooled by the
nonexistent events or objects.
• Interpropos&onal thought ‐ they know the role of a second
basemen in baseball when the ball is hit to them (connect
the upcoming movement to the situa&on).
•
Hypothethical‐deduc&ve reasoning – they realize that they
may not be the best ball player on the team because of how
they play.
– Many developmentalist believe this is where playing
organized compe&&ve sport should be introduced.
Concept 2.2 Intellectual development
in adulthood
• Cogni&on con&nues to development but is
depended upon:
– Experiences
– Demands to think at home, work, and through our
community (Sigelman, 2006)
• Adult intellectual abili&es are measured by our
abili&es to process large quan&&es of
informa&on (posiormal opera&ons).
Concept 2.3 Older adults and
intellectual decline
Eight currently accepted intelligences:
Spa&al – ability to visualize with the mind’s eye
Linguis&c – words (spoken and wrigen)
Logical –mathema&cal – Logic, abstract, numbers
Kinesthe&c – bodily mo&ons & ability to handle
objects
Musical – sensi&vity to sound, rhythms, tones
and music.
Intrapersonal – introspec&ve and self‐reflec&ve
Naturalis&c – nurturing and rela&ng informa&on
Tradi&onal No&on
• There is gradual consistent, and pervasive
decline that occurs in overall intellectual
ability throughout the adult years.
• Intelligence studies have proved this no&on to
not to true.
– A specific type of intelligence may decline (par&al
intellectual decline).
– Overall intellectual ability is not age related.
Why is there a par&al intellectual
decline in adulthood?
• Learning and memory is depended upon:
– Culture
– Non cogni&ve situa&ons
– Personal goals
– Mo&va&on
– Variety in daily rou&nes
– Changes in emo&ons
– Personality (op&mis&c)
– Brain size (loss of neurons)
– Ac&ve life style
Implicit and Explicit Memory
• Implicit is uninten&onal, automa&c, and without
awareness recall.
– Implicit improves from infancy but does not decline
with age
– Red light appears at stop signal while driving, the
driver then see the red light and stops.
• Explicit is deliberate and efforiul memoriza&on
and recall.
– Explicit improves from infancy to adulthood but then
slowly declines.
– Scores on a wrigen drivers test
Concept 2.4 Athle&c performance and
Cogni&on
• Expert players have a deeper understanding of
the what to (declara&ve knowledge) and how
to (procedural knowledge) the skills of their
sport.
• It is sport specific.
• Direct correla&on between sport specific
knowledge (declara&ve and procedural) and
athle&c success.
