Introduction
Cognitive development expands a human being’s ability to process information, which involves acquiring conceptual resources, perceptual skills, language improvement, and other aspects related to brain maturation. It is the development of an individual’s ability to think and understand. The term also refers to a field of study of neuroscience, psychology, and neuro pedagogy. In this work, the theories of cognitive and social development by Piaget, Bruner, Baddeley, and Brofenbrenner will be studied with experiments to depict the intelligence activity of the subjects. The skills of constructivism, cognitivism, and behaviorism acquired from applying these theories in the classroom will be evaluated (Richardson, 2019). Intelligence activity is an active and organized process of assimilating new information related to previous knowledge. Thus, according to internal and external factors, intelligence changes at all times.
Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget’s goal in studying psychology was to comprehend how a child’s intelligence grows. For a biologist, it evolves along with the development of the individual, beginning with practical intelligence that aids in environment adaptation before reaching intelligence itself. According to Jean Piaget, a child’s cognitive development occurs in four stages: the sensorimotor, preoperative, concrete operations, and formal operations stages (Choifer, 2021). These phases span the child’s development from birth until puberty when the capacity for reasoning is at its peak (Richardson, 2019). The youngster can already develop hypotheses at this stage, work through issues, and use logical thinking (Buzzoni, 2021). Thus, the mix of habits, intrinsic reflexes, and experiences from contact with the environment leads to cognitive development (Choifer, 2021). The subject’s action, which involves two movements that are always present and are referred to as invariant functions, is crucial for creating knowledge. They are so named because they do not adapt to the child’s growth.
Piagetian Experiments with Subject
Experiment One
In the first experiment, a toy car and a blanket were used to experiment with the child. Firstly, the child was asked to point at the toy car and successfully point in the direction of the toy car. The toy car was covered with a blanket while the kid was watching. Then, the child was asked where the toy car was and pointed in the right direction. Subsequently, the child was asked how he knew the toy car was there, yet it was not visible. The child responded that the blanket’s shape was similar to the toy car he had seen.
Experiment Two
In the second experiment, two clay balls of the same size but different colors were used. The child was first asked to point to the bigger clay ball. The child responded that they were equal. Then, the child was asked to explain the reasoning behind their answers and responded that the balls appeared the same size. Then, the clay balls were rolled into cylindrical ribbons of different thicknesses and lengths. The child was asked to point at the biggest ribbon. The child pointed at the thin and long clay ribbon.
Experiment Three
In the third experiment, a piece of paper and a pen were used. Letters ‘K’ and ‘L’ were written on the paper in different height sizes. The child was asked which letter was taller than the other. Successfully, the child pointed at the letter ‘L,’ which was taller than the letter ‘K.’ Then, the child was asked the reasoning for the answer and responded that the letter ‘L’ is more conspicuous than the letter ‘K.’
Experiment Four
In the last experiment, a mathematical problem was solved. In this case, the child was asked to state the answer to 5+5. The child responded that the answer was 10, which was correct. Then, the child was asked the reason for the answer, and he responded that he counted his total fingers, which are five on each hand and found 10. Subsequently, the child was asked what the value of 10-5= is. The child answered five because if you have ten fingers and eliminate five of them, the remainder is five.
Interpretations of Responses
The child of this study performed four experiments of dissimilar levels. In the first experiment, the child could depict the cognitive ability to conserve that the toy car was covered with the blanket and even justify it with the remembrance of the shape of the toy car. This shows Piaget’s principle of conservation of objects’ initial and present physicality. Secondly, the child could recognize that the clay balls were equal despite the difference in colors. However, on rolling the clay balls into cylindrical ribbons of different lengths and thicknesses, the child could not identify that the clay volume remained the same. Therefore, the child could not cognitively preserve the solid quantity in this stage. Thirdly, the child identified the difference in the height and sizes of the letters. Finally, the child solved the mathematical problems in both dimensions of summation and subtraction (Furnham, 2018). The child’s reasoning was superb because he could relate numbers with his fingers. This step depicted Piaget’s stage of reversibility, where the child understood the mathematics despite reversing the units of operation.
Social Development
Child development is sometimes surprising because of the speed at which it happens. Piaget has described various stages of social development of play according to the ages of the children. First, the pre-moral stage is at the age of 0-5 years. At this early stage, children have little or no understanding of social or behavioral rules and norms (Buzzoni, 2021). During this period, the child sees everything for the first time and still does not know how to differentiate right from wrong. Secondly, the moral realism stage comes at the age of 6-9. Here, rules are already established, and adults are authority figures. The child already understands right and wrong better, and the norms seem inflexible, based on a direct duality (Sanghvi, 2020). At this stage, children begin to judge their actions based on the direct consequences established and not so much on intentions (Furnham, 2018). Finally, the moral relativism or autonomous morality stage happens over ten years. From the age of 10, children can better understand all sides of a story. However, they do not have the same emotional maturity to deal with problems as an adult.
Social Development Experiment
Simple Game with Rule One: Explained to the Student
Before playing the ‘go fish’ game, the student had to be informed about the rules. Firstly, a seven cards deal was done between the subject and the experimenter. And the rest of the cards were placed on the deck while facing down. The first simple rule of the game was the experimenter would ask the child if he has any specific card, for example, if he has any five (Amir & McAuliffe, 2020). If the child has five or several fives, he gives them to the experimenter (Amir & McAuliffe, 2020). Otherwise, if the child lacks fives, he says ‘Go fish,’ followed by picking any cards to spread face down on the deck. In the first rule, if the subject happens to have three similar cards asked by the other player, then the asking player wins the game.
Simple Game with Rule Two: Changed without Telling the Student
In the second rule, if the subject has the cards being requested, drops them, and a subsequent chance is given to the first player to ask for another card. If the player is lucky again, he is allowed to drop an equal number of cards as the opponents. The player who runs out of cards first wins the game in the second set of rules. In the second set of rules, the subject seemed mentally disturbed to understand, but he was anxious to learn the outcome (Cangelosi & Schlesinger, 2018). On playing the second round, the subject acquired more interest and was now becoming tactful with the game’s rules, which made him win the second round under the second rule (Cangelosi & Schlesinger, 2018). The subject seemed entertained by the game and ought to play it several times repeatedly. When the student was asked whether the rules could be changed, they hesitantly agreed, showing signs of anxiety which resulted due to the student’s fear of failing the game after the new rules were established.
Social Development of Subject
The subject was in the stage of moral relativism or autonomous morality. The subject could better understand all game rules despite twisting them. Similarly, the subject depicted emotional maturity to deal with problems created in the game. In this window of time, the subject understands that the game’s rules can vary (Sanghvi, 2020). Thus, the norms change according to the actions’ circumstances and intentions. In general, this stage presents morality as something relative and adaptable. Not only that, but the perception of the collective also gains strength in moral development (Winstanley, 2022). According to Piaget, children learn to be critical and to evaluate rules based on the cooperation of others and mutual respect (Winstanley, 2022). In practice, this means that children already accept or do not have certain norms based on the whole.
Cognitive Development (Memory)
The working memory model, often known as working memory, was proposed by Baddeley. Short-term memory was replaced by these multiple memory systems, which evolved from merely a temporary storage to a processor capable of handling a constrained set of information for a brief time. Working memory is a type of memory system in charge of temporarily storing and simultaneously processing data from both long-term memory and the environment (Sepp et al., 2019). Complex cognitive processes like language comprehension, thinking, and problem-solving are strongly tied to how it functions (Sepp et al., 2019). Each element grows gradually, attaining complete maturity only in adolescence. The study of working memory can aid in developing new tools that can assess each element of this memory.
Cognitive Development (Memory Experiments)
Memory Game One
In the first memory game, the subject was taught how to play crosswords and spell words such as living room furniture. Table, chair, sofa set, coffee table, and cupboard. The crossword was disrupted, and the experimenter taught the subject again similarly. The subject was asked to repeat the game independently in the third round. The subject managed all the words except the sofa set and cupboard.
Memory Game Two
The experimenter taught the subject a doll puzzle in the second memory game. The game was repeated thrice with the experimenter explaining the key jigsaw patterns to start with for easier completion of the game. The subject was later able to complete the puzzle with fewer difficulties. Additionally, the time taken for the student to insert the patterns reduced as he progressed with the game.
Memory Game Three
The experimenter taught the subject the matching game in the last memory game. The experimenter provided pictures and names of stationery such as books, pens, rulers, rubber, and markers arranged randomly. The experimenter taught the subject how to match them and later asked him to match them independently. The matching occurred such that the pen was matched with the letter P, the rubber and ruler with ‘R’ while books with ‘B’, The subject enjoyed the game since it was easy and cheap to capture.
Cognitive Development (Memory)
Researching the growth of working memory is still difficult. Despite the development of tools and tasks for studying working memory, no distinct measurements can still assess each of its components. It is challenging to research any of these cognitive activities in further detail since the borders between cognitive abilities like selective attention, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory are flimsy (Angelopoulou & Drigas, 2021). The endeavor is made considerably more challenging by the difficulty in comprehending how these capabilities develop in a constantly growing youngster (Angelopoulou & Drigas, 2021). Despite all of these challenges, it is still possible to summarize how working memory develops (Eriksson et al., 2018). Problem-solving skills are intimately correlated with our capacity to actively process, store, and alter information in our consciousness.
Cognitive Development (Bruner)
According to Bruner, a child’s intellectual growth depends on how their mind processes the information given to them. The infant learns three different ways to describe his surroundings as he develops, ranging from the most basic to the most complex: “enactive,” “iconic,” and “symbolic.” the initial level of representation, “enactive” representation, which is connected to manipulation and action. Children reflect the world through their sensorimotor behaviors—acting, mimicking, and object manipulation—. Bruner concludes that teachers can encourage students to employ active representation in their learning at the educational level. Thought in iconic representation is based on imagined objects and events that are not present. The interiorization of gestures and perceptions into stable schemes is how iconic representation happens. Teachers can use films and other audiovisual resources to further the education of their students, according to Bruner.
Cognitive Development Experiment (Bruner)
In this cognitive development experiment, the subject was asked to join dots to complete the letter A in the initial stage. This will mark the enactive stage where the subject will learn about the letter A by shaping it. Secondly, the instructor printed letters of different sizes and showed the subject videos on how to shape the letter A on YouTube (Grazzani & Brockmeier, 2019). This will captivate the iconic kill of the subject. In this stage, the student is very excited to learn about the letter ‘A’ from various dimensions. Moreover, the instructor showed the subject how to cut shapes of the letter ‘A’ to involve the subject cognitively in the learning process (Grazzani & Brockmeier, 2019). Finally, the subject was involved in an outdoor physical activity where he was instructed to use his fingers, legs, or hands to make the letter A symbol. The subject was happy and kept repeating the activities without the instructor’s interference.
Cognitive Development Results (Bruner)
The letter ‘A’ was treated in many ways in the three phases, moving from a simpler to a more complicated approach. Brunner suggests a spiral curriculum, in which a subject can be introduced to children as young as three. According to Bruner, children have a fundamental desire to learn. It is concerned with the approaches’ suitability for the child’s stage of cognitive development (Koller et al., 2020). These methods reinforced the learning of the subject. Effective learning requires reinforcement to improve the likelihood of repetition (Koller et al., 2020). Bruner placed a lot of emphasis on discovery learning because he believed that if a student is actively engaged in the inquiry and research of a particular topic, he will learn more effectively and be able to enhance his intellectual skills, particularly his intuitive thinking.
Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory
Bronfenbrenner developed his theory of human development, which was later published. This theory exposed key premises to the scientific community for the creation and organization of research in natural contexts (Eriksson, Ghazinour, & Hammarström, 2018). In his articles, he mounted a severe attack on the conventional approach to studying human development, pointing out, among other things, how much development research has been conducted “out of context.” For him, these studies ignored the many influences of the environments in which the subjects lived and concentrated primarily on the developing person in a constrained and unchanging environment (Eriksson et al., 2018). Studies conducted with children and adults in real-life scenarios are already prevalent in the human development research literature.
Ecological Systems of Subject
Process
It relates to the connections between the various levels and comprises the developing person’s regular roles and activities. A human being must actively participate in increasingly complicated, reciprocal interactions with the people, things, and symbols in their local surroundings to develop intellectually, emotionally, socially, and morally. This is true for both children and adults. The encounter must take place frequently over long periods to be effective (Fioretti & Smorti, 2019). Proximal processes are those long-lasting modes of interaction in the immediate environment (Fioretti & Smorti, 2019). For instance, parent-child interactions and child-child cooperative or solo play activities, such as reading, learning new abilities, problem-solving, completing complex tasks, and gaining new knowledge and experiences, are long-lasting patterns of these processes.
Time
Time can be viewed as historical development or, put another way, how events change over time due to pressures on the developing person. According to Bronfenbrenner, historical events can change the trajectory of human development in any way, not just for specific people but also for sizable portions of the population (Stapleton & Stefaniak, 2019). History’s passage of time has had a significant impact on all communities. Small family life events, like a child starting school, the birth of a sibling, or a parent changing jobs, can greatly impact how each family member develops at a particular point in their lives (Stapleton & Stefaniak, 2019). For example, parents’ different approaches to parenting their children illustrate how time affects a person’s development.
Conclusion
These theories can be used in the classroom setup to develop students’ cognitive ability and social development. These theories instill constructivism, cognitivism, and behaviorism, which can be used in the classroom to encourage cooperation and teamwork. This can be done by encouraging dialogue, discussions, or debate. Form study groups for collaborative learning. Assign a small amount of the grade to peer review and instruct students on the standards and process. Display to pupils examples of effective essay writing and project work.
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