5.3: Cognition in Early Childhood

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Identify typical cognitive milestones of early childhood
• Describe the major cognitive-developmental theories and perspectives relevant to early childhood
• Compare the major cognitive-developmental theories and perspectives of early childhood

Renae enjoys their work as a preschool teacher. Even on the rough days with tantrums, spilled paint, and bathroom accidents, Renae knows their day-to-day work allows them to witness something extraordinary. During early childhood, the students’ brains will grow, facilitating an expansion of cognitive abilities. By the time these students transition to middle childhood and early elementary school, they’ll be solving increasingly complex cognitive tasks, including jigsaw puzzles, math calculations, and negotiations to acquire a family pet.

In this section, you’ll learn about the cognitive milestones expected in early childhood through the lens of various cognitive theories that have had a significant influence on how psychologists view this growth and development. Scientists, scholars, and practitioners use these theoretical lenses as a foundation to understand how children acquire natural skills like language, as well as those that are more culturally nuanced, like learning to be independent versus relying on the guidance of others.

Cognitive Influences and Milestones

The developmental patterns observed in young children can help us find new ways to improve cognition and choose early intervention strategies when we observe cognitive deficits. At three years of age, children exhibit a wide range of skill levels. Some speak little and their communication is relatively difficult to understand, whereas others articulate well enough to carry on long conversations with a stranger. Most children who are exposed to math concepts can do basic addition before they turn four, but others will not count to ten until well after entering kindergarten at age five or six.

In addition, environmental and epigenetic factors can have a profound affect on the way each person develops. For instance, malnutrition during early childhood can lead to impaired neurodevelopment and cognition, which are associated with deficits in academic achievement (Kirolos et al., 2022). Even an influence that appears unrelated, like emotional deprivation, is associated with changes in the structure of the brain that may lead to impaired cognitive abilities (Sheridan et al., 2022).

When considering positive impacts on development, we know that simply talking more to infants and toddlers has a potentially profound influence on their later language use and cognition. In a study that continues to provoke discussion, Hart and Risley (1995) monitored and recorded the number of words that high-, middle-, and low-income parents used when interacting with their children over a two-year period. They found that, on average, high-income parents used twice as many words per hour as their low- and middle-income counterparts, resulting in their children hearing approximately 30 million more words by the age of four. This increase in exposure to language positively correlated with a significantly larger vocabulary in the children who heard more words.

Other research has questioned the methodology of Hart and Risley’s original work and suggested that 30 million words might be an overestimate, finding instead that differences in language by SES may be less about a word gap and more about hearing child-directed speech (Dailey & Bergelson, 2021). Ultimately, parents’ income shouldn’t be considered the deciding factor. Rather, it seems that children with higher language skills have likely heard more words and been spoken to with child-directed speech more often. That is, language exposure, not income, is the strongest predictor of later language skills.

Research continues to show a positive association between home literacy and cognition across age, gender, and income (Hutton et al., 2020; Tompkins, 2022). These results reinforce that, though typical developmental milestones are a guide, they represent only one avenue of growth. And “typical” can have several meanings depending on the population considered. Just as a physical milestone like standing leads to walking, then running, then skipping, cognitive tasks show stepped gains in sophistication. Younger children begin counting, then perform addition, then understand more complex math operations. Caregivers and professionals use these types of milestones to ensure expected cognitive growth is occurring as expected (Table 5.2).

Table 5.2 Early Childhood Cognitive Milestones (source: Zubler et al., 2022)

Age in Years	Typical Cognitive Capabilities
4	Confidently knows their age, recites their first and last name, and describes who lives with them Uses full sentences of at least five words and can be understood most of the time Understands rudimentary number concepts and names colors and shapes Can organize objects by size and shape Copies letters and shapes Follows a story and predicts what happens next Demonstrates awareness of past and present
5	Recites their address and caregivers’ names and contact information Tells linear stories using complete sentences Counts to ten or more Understands basic concepts of time Recognizes and writes their own name Recognizes letters of the alphabet Describes events that happened to them in the past
6	Relates people to others, such as “Dad’s sister” Speaks using correct grammar most of the time Performs simple addition and subtraction Understands simple jokes and has a sense of humor Writes sentences, though spelling may be incorrect Reads simple stories Describes full episodes of entertainment programs

Stage Theory of Cognitive Development

While it is important to identify typical cognitive milestones, if we want to help children develop, we also need to understand how they grow and achieve these milestones. As noted in 3.4 Cognition and Memory in Infants and Toddlers, Jean Piaget suggested that the maturation of thought and cognition is the result of an interaction between the developing brain and experiences in the world. Recall that children actively construct their understanding of the world throughout the childhood years via the processes of assimilation and accommodation. When information fits into existing schemas, it is assimilated; when a new way of thinking is necessary, the information is accommodated. These processes take on different forms as cognition matures.

The Sensorimotor Stage

During the earlier sensorimotor stage in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, infants shift focus from their own bodies to the world around them. Initially they lack internal representations of people, objects, or events, but by the end of this stage they have gained a range of skills in internal representation and the ability to act on those representations. These cognitive advancements mark the transition to Piaget's second stage of cognitive development, the preoperational stage, thought to occur from around age two to around age seven. It is called “pre” operational because it is characterized by lack of the logical and reversible mental actions known as operations. When we perform mental arithmetic, for example, we are performing an operation because we are using mental representations such as remembering, comparing, or evaluating. A post-operational child older than seven can mentally imagine “three doubled” or how many players remain on a seven-person team if one leaves, and compare these to understand that both equal six.

Preoperational children show remarkable progress in mental representation, demonstrated by their ability to engage in imaginative play (Figure 5.13). They start to represent their thoughts and ideas using symbols, such as words and images. This is called symbolic representation and enables children to better understand the world around them. They playact, try different roles, and experiment with social interactions. They may use a crayon to represent a rocket blasting off or imagine a row of stuffed animals to be “students” in a pretend classroom. Thanks to rapid growth of language skills, they can represent images and actions that exist only in the imagination, like directing an ocean full of whales while sitting on a cardboard hovercraft. Through language and symbolic representation, children learn to think in more sophisticated ways. Piaget used specific terminology to mark these changes, including egocentrism and centration.

Figure 5.13 During the pre-operational stage, children use their mental representation skills in imaginative play. (credit: modification of work “Child with drill toy” by Letta Page/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

Egocentrism

According to Piaget, preoperational children have limited logical reasoning abilities because they tend to perceive things from only their current and individual perspective and experience. Thus, they find it challenging to differentiate their own thoughts and ideas from those of others, a phenomenon he called egocentrism. Children may assume others share their perspectives and thoughts, and they can find it amusing to crash toys or bang kitchen utensils, for example, because they may not be aware the noise can disturb others.

When out at night, a preoperational child might observe that “the moon is following me” when it seems to move with them. This sense of animism, the belief that objects are alive and possess consciousness, is another egocentric feature. Children may treat inanimate objects as if they have emotions and thoughts, just like themselves. For example, a child may talk to a teddy bear as if it were a living being with feelings (Figure 5.14). A car that needs repair might "not feel well." A child who is hurt while riding a tricycle or playing with blocks may want to punish the objects because they believe the objects acted intentionally to cause harm.

Figure 5.14 Animism, a feature of egocentric thought, is the belief that some objects are alive and possess consciousness. (credit: modification of work “My teddy bear will keep me safe” by Beatrice Murch/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

Following Piaget, several theorists in cognitive psychology and overlapping psychology fields have expanded the understanding of egocentrism and perspective-taking. Two important contributions providing further insight into egocentrism are theory of mind and the false-belief task. The theory of mind is our awareness that our own beliefs and perspectives are different from those of others. This develops in humans and some animals, such as chimpanzees, at various rates (Premack & Woodruff, 1978; Baron-Cohen et al., 1985). A false belief occurs when children too young to possess a theory of mind assume that other people have the same knowledge they possess (Airenti, 2015). In the classic false-belief task experiment, a child observes an individual hiding a toy in one location and then leaving the room (Wimmer & Perner, 1983). After watching a different individual move the toy to another location, the child is asked where the first person would look for the toy. Children who have developed a theory of mind understand that the first person will look in the original location. Younger children, often still in the preoperational stage, typically say the person will look for the toy in the location to which it was moved: they assume the first person’s beliefs are the same as their own (Figure 5.15).

Figure 5.15 In the false-belief task, researchers are able to observe the current perspective-taking skills of a child based on how they answer the question of where the person will look for the hidden item. (CC BY 4.0; Rice University & OpenStax)

Link to Learning

Watch this demonstration of the false-belief task to learn more.

At the end of the preoperational stage, children develop the ability to better perceive the perspectives of others, including understanding that others can have different beliefs from their own. Recent research demonstrates that thinking and the ability to understand different beliefs become more sophisticated in early childhood than Piaget originally believed, and that children indeed understand that other people have thoughts of their own (Zhao et al., 2021).

To further study how children understand others, Piaget and Inhelder (1969) devised an experiment called the three-mountains task to determine when children begin to decenter (pay attention to multiple points of view). In this setting, the researchers show children a group of plaster mountains and place a doll on a side of the platform opposite to where the child is seated. The child is then shown a series of pictures and asked to choose the one that represents the doll's perspective. At the age of four, children consistently chose the pictures that represented their own viewpoint rather than the doll's. By age seven, however, children were able to correctly identify the doll's view, indicating a decrease in egocentric thinking. The three-mountains task demonstrates a transition from a stage of limited perspective to one that includes the ability to consider another person's point of view. When children begin to think logically in this way, they are engaging in the concrete operations that represent the third stage of Piaget's theory.

Link to Learning

Watch this demonstration of the three-mountain task to learn more about children’s ability to see others’ perspectives.

Centration

Another hallmark of Piaget's preoperational stage is the process of centration, in which a child focuses attention on only one characteristic of an object or situation at a time. Piaget demonstrated this tendency in children through tasks that tested conservation, their understanding that changing the appearance of a substance does not alter mass, number, or volume. For instance, in a liquid conservation task, a child is shown two identical beakers and asked to confirm that they hold the same amount of liquid. Next, the child is instructed to pour the contents of one beaker into a taller, narrower container. When asked which beaker contains more liquid, preoperational children tend to select the taller container because their attention is centered on the height of the liquid. Children may also demonstrate a lack of conservation of mass, length, number, and area. A preschooler may be upset if they have only one cookie instead of two halves like their playmate. But breaking the cookie in half so both children appear to have the same amount is likely to bring satisfaction.

Link to Learning

Watch children demonstrating conservation tasks demonstration of conservation involving mass, quantity, and volume. Children in the preoperational stage demonstrate their inability to solve these conservation tasks but children in the concrete operational stage can do so and to explain their thought processes while solving the problems.

Information Processing Theory

The information processing theory views cognitive development as a continuous loop of information processing and storage, as you learned in 3.4 Cognition and Memory in Infants and Toddlers. Individuals initially attend to incoming information, which is then processed and organized so that it can be efficiently stored. Memories are continually compared and evaluated against each another, allowing for systematic retrieval of information. More advanced cognitive skills develop when we store new information, compare it with existing memories, and generate appropriate responses.

Information processing includes the interrelated processes of executive function, attention, and memory. These cognitive processes play important roles in helping children learn, problem-solve, and adapt to their environment. Recall that executive function includes skills like planning, organizing, decision-making, and impulse control. These also necessitate the use of attention, which is the ability to focus on specific stimuli while ignoring distractions. That is, individuals need to attend to multiple bits of information when they plan, organize, and make decisions.

People also need to diminish distractions, a process called inhibitory control, which allows regulation of impulses and focus. These components of information processing begin developing in early childhood when infants have limited attention spans. With time, children become better at sustaining attention as well as shifting efficiently between tasks. In addition, executive function includes actions related to memory.

Memory Development

To process information, our memory systems encode, store, and eventually retrieve the information. In this way, information processing theory explains how memory systems help us retain knowledge, recall past experiences, and build a foundation for cognitive advancement and learning.

Another major milestone of memory development in early childhood is the ability to hold an autobiographical memory. Autobiographical memories are long-term memories of individual life experiences and events. Our earliest memories often begin to develop in early childhood and continue to improve through adolescence (Harley & Reese, 1999; Bauer & Larkina, 2017). Development of this type of memory can help children recall past experiences, develop self-knowledge, and shape their growing sense of identity over time (Ross et al., 2020; Habermas &. Reese, 2015).

Autobiographical memory can be improved and scaffolded by caregivers. When caregivers engage in past-talk conversations, such as helping a child remember a recent family gathering or event, children show improved autobiographical memory, socioemotional skills, and self-regulation (Levya et al., 2019; Wu & Jobson, 2019). For example, a parent may help a four-year-old better recall a grandparent who lives far away by asking, “Do you remember when Grandpa visited and we all went to the pumpkin patch? The pumpkins were so bright and we rode in a truck with hay bales!” Prompts like this can help children improve their autobiographical memory and better remember grandpa before his next visit.

The Continuous Nature of Cognitive Development

The information processing theory builds on foundational theories, including Piaget's cognitive stage theory. It provides a model that acknowledges the maturational changes outlined by Piaget, while also incorporating the modern, expanded view that environmental circumstances and executive functions matter. For example, both theories agree that a five-year-old child would not be expected to understand advanced algebra. However, they have different views regarding a child's potential to later learn the complexities of math.

Piaget theorized that development consisted of step-like, qualitative changes. In information processing theory, the quantity of information is a significant factor in cognitive growth. Although substantial evidence confirms Piaget’s theory that the order of stages is fixed, children’s progression through them may either be accelerated or delayed (Winstanley, 2023). The social environment, which includes schools and caregivers, also plays an important role.

The continuous nature of development, including both qualitative and quantitative changes, is exemplified in nearly everything we learn. For example, our understanding of math is a progression from simply counting to performing elementary arithmetic, to tackling more advanced concepts. However, like upgrading a device to a more powerful processor, maturation allows us to think differently about math as we develop, demonstrating the complementary nature of Piaget’s stages and information processing. Psychologists can theorize that thinking matures in a similar way during the development of our understanding of oral language, music, biology, and other subject matters.

We also update our processing skills by continually observing and imitating the behavior of others. The complementary nature of information processing and learning theories is evident in the way we acquire reading skills. To decode words, we rely on our accumulated knowledge of sounds and meanings. In addition, we are constantly being exposed to new vocabulary, assorted word meanings, and varied sentence structures. Thus, we experience a continual interplay between storage and processing of words, which facilitates our retrieval of previously acquired semantic memories. This cognitive feedback loop allows us to refine and expand our vocabulary, leading to improved reading and comprehension skills. We also grow increasingly proficient at expressing desires and understanding the world, a process that becomes naturally self-reinforcing.

Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development

You’ve learned that information processing and learning theories complement the individual experiences described by Piaget. In addition, a more modern view of Piaget acknowledges the role of contextual factors in cognitive development (DeVries, 1997).

Social and Cultural Influences on Cognition

Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory was the first major cognitive theory to outline the importance of cultural context (Vygotsky, 1978). Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky emphasized the role of social and cultural factors on individual cognitive development (Figure 5.16). For instance, at a very basic level, the importance of social structure is demonstrated by the finding that children who are consistently cared for by the same available, committed adults perform better cognitively than those who are placed in orphanages (Badakar et al., 2017). And in a classroom setting, children who have collaborative learning opportunities will generally advance more efficiently than those who work only independently (Kraatz et al., 2019).

Figure 5.16 Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories of learning take different approaches but have some shared concepts about learning. (CC BY 4.0; Rice University & OpenStax)

However, cultural and societal factors go beyond supervision and peer relationships. They extend to the availability of resources such as books, tutors, mentors, and extra learning opportunities. Think about the ways that children learn to process information differently in varied sociocultural situations, such as living in a nation undergoing a war versus a metropolitan suburb in a country at peace. Young children needing food or supplies in a warring country may have to think of creative ways to cross bridges or navigate open spaces without being seen. Having a constant visual map of their surroundings is necessary for daily survival. In contrast, children in an affluent suburb are likely to develop visual-spatial skills using toy building blocks or completing school projects.

Groups and environments influence the development of other skills—such as using speech and written language, and following social behavior norms—where experiences and access to resources facilitate learning and growth. One pioneering example is known as the “hole-in-the-wall” experiment that began in 1999 with educational researcher Sugata Mitra’s installation of an Internet-connected computer learning station in a wall facing a slum in Kalkaji, Delhi, India (Mitra, 2003). This station provided access to a technology learning tool not readily available to children in this disadvantaged community and allowed researchers to observe how children learn in the absence of supervision or direct instruction. Multiple studies that followed have revealed that groups of children can learn by themselves when given access to similar resources. Over the years of implementing and assessing the impact of these learning stations, children using the stations have independently acquired computer and academic skills as well as improved skills in communication and self-regulation (Mitra, 2003; Mitra & Dangwal, 2017; 2022).

The Zone of Proximal Development

A cornerstone of the sociocultural model of learning is that children who initially show less proficiency in a particular activity may not necessarily lack ability (Vygotsky, 1978). Vygotsky emphasized the need to look at a child’s learning potential, rather than just focusing on tasks that have already been mastered (as standardized tests do). Vygotsky referred to the gap between a child's current knowledge and skills and their further potential for learning as the zone of proximal development (ZPD) (Figure 5.17). The ZPD encompasses the activities a child cannot complete alone but can accomplish with the aid of a more skilled adult or peer, often referred to as the “more knowledgeable other” (Huang, 2021).

Figure 5.17 Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, or ZPD, includes unmastered skills and abilities that can be learned through guidance. (CC BY 4.0; Rice University & OpenStax)

In school especially, children learn complex tasks with the assistance of a more knowledgeable person, namely their teacher or peers (Figure 5.18). Then, as they become more proficient and develop advanced cognitive abilities, the amount of assistance received from these knowledgeable others gradually decreases. This process of temporary learning support is called scaffolding. Although Vygotsky did not use that term, it has become a fundamental part of social constructivism theory and illustrates the way we transition from collaborative learning to independent learning.

Figure 5.18 Kindergarten children learn both independently and, in their zone of proximal development, with various levels of scaffolding or support from teachers and peers. (credit: “kindergarten, in session” by “woodleywonderworks”/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

Observational Learning and Pitching In

Another perspective on sociocultural learning was conceptualized by Barbara Rogoff, whose research has shown that children’s cognition develops in part when they observe and contribute to ongoing community and home activities. This way of collaborative learning is particularly common in Indigenous communities of the Americas (Coppens et al., 2014; Coppens & Rogoff, 2022). Rather than isolating children from adult work, these communities emphasize collaboration among members of all ages. Children work alongside others by observing, listening, and taking part, such as contributing to tasks such as household work. Immersed in activities, children can experience the freedom to autonomously construct knowledge and support cultural practices.

One of Rogoff's important concepts is "pitching in," the practice in which children actively participate in household and community activities from a young age (Figure 5.19). Children explore the world, practice, play, and are guided by community expectations. Others guide them by example, correct their efforts, tell stories, advise, and explain in context. Rogoff calls this multifaceted approach Learning by Observing and Pitching In (LOPI). She contrasts it with “assembly-line instruction,” which she describes as more controlling and isolating, and characteristic of most Westernized schools (Rogoff et al., 2011). The learning of languages is one area in which researchers can observe these differences.

Figure 5.19 When children learn by pitching in, they develop necessary skills and gain a sense of responsibility and belongingness. (credit: “Folding laundry” by Sarah Evans/Flickr, CC BY 4.0)

Link to Learning

Learn more about Barbara Rogoff’s work on the benefits of letting children collaborate.

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