Cognitive Development in Infancy and Childhood

✍ Scribed by Mary Gauvain

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 88
• Series: Elements in Child Development
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This Element describes the main theories that guide contemporary research in cognitive development along with research discoveries in several important cognitive abilities: attention, language, social cognition, memory, metacognition and executive function, and problem solving and reasoning. Biological and social contributions are considered side-by-side, and cultural contributions are highlighted. As children participate in social interactions and learn to use cultural symbols and tools to organize and support their thinking, the behaviors and understandings of the social community and the culture more broadly become an integral part of children's thoughts and actions. Culture, the natural ecological setting or habitat of human beings, plays a significant role by providing support and direction for cognitive development. Without the capacity to learn socially, human cognition would be markedly different from what it is today.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Title page
Copyright page
Cognitive Development in Infancy and Childhood
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Cognitive Development: Coming to Understand and Act in the World
2.1 Internal and External Contributions to Cognitive Development
2.2 Cognitive Change over Time
2.3 Theories of Cognitive Development
2.3.1 Piagetian Theory
2.3.2 Learning Views
2.3.3 Sociocultural Perspectives
2.3.4 Dynamic Systems
3 Processes and Mechanisms of Cognitive Development
3.1 The Nature and Nurture of the Human Mind
3.2 Biological and Neural Functioning
3.3 Social and Cultural Contributions to Cognitive Development
3.4 Changes in How Information Is Acquired and Processed
4 Acquiring Knowledge and Connecting with the Social World
4.1 Attention
4.1.1 Development of Attention
4.1.2 Learning by Paying Attention to Other People
4.2 Language
4.2.1 How Do Children Acquire Language?
4.2.2 Phonology: The Sounds of Language
4.2.3 Semantics: The Meaning of Words and Sentences
4.2.4 Grammar: The Structure of Language
4.2.5 Pragmatics: Communicative Language Use
4.2.6 Bilingualism
4.3 Social Cognition
4.3.1 The Social Brain
4.3.2 The Development of Social Cognition
5 Developing and Using the Cognitive System
5.1 Memory
5.1.1 The Memory System
5.1.2 Basic Memory Capacities
5.1.3 Strategic Memory
5.1.4 Autobiographical Memory
5.2 Metacognition and Executive Function
5.2.1 Metacognition
5.2.2 Executive Function
5.3 Problem-Solving and Reasoning
5.3.1 The Contextual Nature of Problem-Solving
5.3.2 Developing Skill at Solving Different Types of Problems
6 Conclusion
References