Developmental stages:
Childhood
David Moreau
d.moreau@auckland.ac.nz
Plasticity decreases throughout
the lifespan
Stability-plasticity dilemma
(Rakic, 1985):
• A neuronal network that is very plastic will
learn very well, but what has been learned
will not last. Any new information will
overwrite the previously learned items
• A stable network can remember for a long
time and is resistant to this damage due to
new information, but it cannot learn new
things.
Period of great brain plasticity
• Brain is malleable throughout the lifespan
• In childhood and teenage years, plasticity
is at its best
• Pruning: the elimination of neurons and
synapses that are not used, or not
functional
• Consequence: system works better &
faster
Interactive mapping of the
developing brain
Introducing the work of Jean Piaget
• Swiss psychologist
• 1896-1980
• Theory of cognitive
development
• Still influential today
Theory of Cognitive Development
• Thought of children as “little scientists”
• Trying to construct more advanced
understandings of the surrounding world
• Understandings are what he called
schemas
Schemas
• Frameworks to organize knowledge
• Develop progressively, through stages
• Assimilation: process of acquiring new
information or experiences and
incorporating them into a preexisting
schema
• Accommodation: process of modifying
existing schemas of creating new ones to
integrate new information
Experimental approach
Piaget asked children to solve various
problems
• Asked questions about their reasoning
• Found out that children think differently
depending on their age
• Thought of development in terms of stages
differing in the way the world is
apprehended and understood
Sensorimotor stage (birth-2 yrs old)
• Knowledge is acquired
through senses and motor
actions
• Perception, manipulation of
objects but no reasoning per
se
• Motor learning is specific
• ...