The Winding Path

This perspective allows us to see how the thinking aspects of our mind develop, as opposed to feelings, or personality. The latter aspects are there of course, and are important, but we won’t be focusing on them.

What is Intelligence?

One of the first topics that comes up when discussing cognition is intelligence. What exactly is it? Well, I’m not going to explain; those more knowledgeable than I are still arguing about it and have been for a long time. But we must have some idea of what it is if we want to learn how it develops, and if we want to learn how it develops we need to evaluate it. It has often been said that “intelligence is what intelligence tests measure,” which hints at just how varied the definitions of intelligence can be. Design a test that measures skill in maths and logic, or a different test which measures general knowledge, or yet another which measures the ability to use language. All of those could be called intelligence tests, and if you’ve ever taken an IQ test you’ll have answered questions of those types.

Yet even Alfred Binet who, along with Theodore Simon, developed tests on which modern IQ tests are based, said that the tests were not designed to measure intelligence. They devised those tests to identify school children who would need special assistance. The tests were modified by others later and there are now standardised IQ tests which are used all over the world. But if they don’t truly measure intelligence, at least not while taking into account all reasonable definitions of intelligence, are they of any use? Well, yes. They have been shown to be able to predict how well people will perform in environments which require use of the skills IQ tests measure. That includes school and university performance, or jobs which require typically academic skill sets. For example there’s really not much point giving a plumber an IQ test to see how he’d perform on the job. But if that plumber decides he wants to become a theoretical physicist, an IQ test would help him decide how hard he’d have to work to make that happen.

For more you can check out this BBC article about intelligence.

Jean Piaget

So what other methods can we use to measure intelligence? Enter Jean Piaget, whom I mentioned a couple of months ago when I talked about embracing uncertainty. He developed a theory of cognitive development based upon observations that during different periods of a child’s life, different elements of adaptation dominated (see my previous post on that topic for more info). Like many theorists who came before him, his theory divided development into stages, which I’ll describe before talking about how they can be used to evaluate intelligence. The theory suggests that children are very actively involved in their own development, and that each stage is a pre-requisite for the following ones.

Stages of Cognitive Development

1. The Sensorimotor Stage
   Senses and movement. That’s how we explore the world at this stage, from birth to about two years old. We start by doing something simple and reflexive, like sucking, then because we like it we do it again. And again. Gradually that circular interaction extends to things which do something in response to our actions. Like a squishy toy that squeaks. Finally we vary our interactions with those things instead of repeating one action all the time. Such as throwing blocks all around the room.

   All of this leads to the formation of mental representations of things in the environment. Through most of this stage those representations are not permanent, meaning that if something is hidden from your view, you no longer think about it. This leads to some exciting games of peek-a-boo. Oh don’t deny it, you enjoy it too, though probably not as much as the baby does.

2. The Preoperational Stage
   Mental representations let us use symbols, including language. Things, or just words, can be used to represent something else. We also learn about past and future. However our perspective is very much centred on ourselves. We expect everyone to see things from our point of view, not ideologically, but literally! If you crouch behind the couch to play with your cat, if the couch blocks your parent’s view you still expect them to be able to see what you’re doing.

   You’ll also only be able to focus on one aspect of something at a time. The most common example of this is when liquid from a short, fat glass is poured into a tall, skinny glass. At this stage you will say that there is more liquid in the tall, skinny glass because the most obvious change is the height, and the liquid in the tall glass is higher, so there’s obviously more. Duh!

   This stage lasts from about two to seven years of age.

3. The Concrete Operations Stage
   From about seven to eleven we enter the concrete operations stage. The key to this stage is the idea of conservation. This is the ability to recognise that changes in the appearance of an object don’t actually change its quantity. This means knowing the liquid in the previous stage is still the same volume. Other examples include recognising that one large pile of coins, when split into two or more piles, still contains the same total number of coins.

   So we can see that operations means the ability to manipulate symbols logically. One stack represents a whole, and that whole is still present even when the stack is split into mini-stacks.

4. The Formal Operations Stage
   Finally, from around 12, we might develop the ability to manipulate abstract symbols. In other words, thinking hypothetically. This is also the stage at which deductive reasoning becomes possible. You can encounter a problem, come up with many possible solutions, then using logic and observation, determine which are invalid until you reach a satisfactory conclusion.

   Not everyone reaches this stage, and most of those who do reach it don’t use this type of thinking very often.

Evaluation Cognitive Development

Hopefully you can now see how these stages can be used to find out how developed a person’s thinking abilities are. Rather than measuring intelligence and assigning a score, we can present someone with various problems and observe how he handles them. Through questioning a tester could find out the types of thinking he does and doesn’t use, allowing her to evaluate his cognitive development.

However this is quite different to measuring intelligence on a scale. It’s a more qualitative method which can determine general capability, and can predict how well you might cope with other tasks, but like IQ tests it only evaluates intelligence in a restricted sense.

Finally there have been a few criticisms of Piaget’s theory. It underestimates the ability of infants to keep out-of-sight objects in mind. Experiments involving infants watching something unexpected happen seem to show that they are still paying attention. For example, an infant watches a train running along some tracks. Then a block is placed across the tracks, which should stop the train. A board is placed in front of the block so that the infant can’t see the block, but can still see the tracks before and after. The block is removed, but without the infant being able to see, so if we were in the infant’s place, we would think the block was still there. Then the train runs along the tracks again and the infant’s reaction is observed when it sees that the train doesn’t hit the block. Reactions of surprise, even in young infants, seems to show that the infant still thinks the block is there, even though he can’t see it.

Another criticism applies to the concept of conservation. The criticism is that children may be capable of operational thinking even at the preoperational stage, but lack of understanding of certain words may confuse them. For example a child might think there’s “more” liquid in a tall glass because they think you’re asking about height, rather than volume.

Beyond Piaget

Given the criticisms, and not to mention the constant progress towards greater understanding, other theories have been proposed which account for more than Piaget did. Though that is understandable since he was mainly dealing with children when he came up with his theories.

Michael Commons and his colleagues have developed a model of hierarchical complexity (page 1). It’s a little easier to digest via wikipedia. Noteworthy are the stages beyond formal thinking.

Pascual-Leone suggested an information-processing approach, in which problem solving depends on mental power/capacity, and that mental power increases with age as a result of neurological development. Ability to solve problems is also related to the number and type of mental representations a person has of ways of interacting with concrete and abstract concepts.

Onwards

As with most abstract concepts, the argument over the definition of intelligence will probably continue long after we’re all gone. But what we learn by studying it will stick around, and what our understanding allows us to do is useful even right now.

Next up is the socio-cultural perspective. While the social-emotional perspective touched on the influence of society on our development, it did so by considering immediate social interaction such as with parents. The socio-cultural perspective takes a wider view of the influence of the community and beyond.

Related entries:

• Introduction to Human Development: Psychoanalytic/Psychosocial Perspective
• Introduction to Human Development: Biological Perspective
• Introduction to Human Development: Social-Emotional Perspective - Part 1
• Introduction to Human Development: Social-Emotional Perspective - Part 2
• If you want to learn, embrace uncertainty
• Introduction to Human Development: Socio-cultural Perspective

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Last time we talked about temperament and attachment, how they emerge or form during early childhood, and how they may influence later development. Today we’ll look at behavioural development alone and in a social context, and the part emotion plays.

B.F. Skinner

When you do something you enjoy, such as watching a good TV show, that enjoyment encourages you to do the same thing again until it becomes a habit. But when one of your shows starts to become boring you might be ok with missing an episode once in a while, then eventually don’t bother to watch it at all. Your friend then tells you to check out a new show that he thinks is great. You have a look and immediately get hooked, however there’s a lot of female nudity in the show and your girlfriend doesn’t approve (loudly and frequently). So you soon stop watching it (but for some reason end up visiting your friend a lot more…)

Later you may notice that you’re watching too much TV instead of being productive, and your girlfriend might notice that too. She suggests you do some gardening and eventually the suggestions turn to nagging. But you don’t like gardening so you end up in front of the TV whenever you can get away with it. To make matters worse some political problems within the TV networks leads to some nasty price hikes and you’re no longer comfortable paying so much just to sit and watch. You decide to take up an old hobby, perhaps playing the piano, and find that you enjoy it so much that you don’t care that you’re missing out on your favourite shows. And your girlfriend’s beautiful singing voice makes it all the more enjoyable.

All of those changes in behaviour have been explained by B.F. Skinner in his theory of behavioural conditioning. If we’re rewarded we’re more likely to repeat the behaviour which came before the reward. Watching TV (behaviour) feels good (reward) so you do it again, and again, and again:

Behaviour + positive reinforcement = greater chance of repeating the behaviour

When a behaviour is no longer rewarded, the chance you’ll repeat it drops. So watching a TV show (behaviour) which is boring (absence of positive reinforcement) leads to no longer watching it:

Behaviour - positive reinforcement = lesser chance of repeating the behaviour

If a behaviour is followed by punishment you’re less likely to keep doing that in the future. Watching a TV show (behaviour) upsets your girlfriend so much that she makes you sleep on the couch (punishment) and suddenly you’re not too keen on watching it again:

Behaviour + punishment = lesser chance of repeating the behaviour

Finally, if a punishment (or just something that makes you feel bad) which follows a behaviour is removed, there’s a greater chance you’ll repeat that behaviour. When your girlfriend stops nagging (removal of punishment) you feel more inclined to do the gardening next time (behaviour):

Behaviour + negative reinforcement = greater chance of repeating the behaviour

But either form of negative conditioning is not all that effective. You still want to watch TV, so while you do what you have to to avoid punishment, you still go ahead and watch TV anyway.

In the end the most effective method of modifying behaviour is a combination of removing the old behaviour’s reward, and replacing it with an alternative behaviour and an associated reward. A big enough price hike makes TV watching not so enjoyable, and having fun playing the piano and listening to your girlfriend sing along ensures you don’t fall back into old habits.

That form of behaviour modification became a therapy technique based on Skinner’s work, and is also the basis for quite a lot of advice on how to change habits (though those giving that advice may not know it).

Find out more about Skinner here

Albert Bandura

Bandura expanded on previous theories of behaviour by incorporating more of what goes on inside our minds than other theorists had done. He came up with a social learning theory based on observational learning or modeling:

1. Attention
   Learning or modeling requires that you pay attention to something. You can’t learn something effectively if you’re not aware of it.
2. Retention
   After you’ve attended to something, you then have to remember it so you can do something with it later.
3. Reproduction
   It’s now later and you can reproduce what you saw if you were paying attention and if you remembered it.
4. Motivation
   But you’ll only reproduce that behaviour if you feel motivated to do so. The motivations are similar to Skinner’s; positive reinforcement to encourage repeat behaviour, or negative reinforcement or punishment to discourage. However one type of motivation which Skinner didn’t mention is called vicarious reinforcement or punishment, which means seeing and recalling the behaviour, and seeing it either rewarded or punished.

That last point is what really made Bandura’s theory stand out from previous ones. It includes all of Skinner’s theory and makes an important addition which lead to a much more complete picture of behaviour. Professor Boeree once again goes into more detail about Bandura and his theories, and he also mentions a fun study which Bandura conducted involving kids beating up an inflatable clown doll.

Emotion

The development of emotions is of great importance to the formation of attachment, as well as to the development of behaviour, particularly were other people are involved. Emotions help infants engage with things around them, but their expression also helps attract the attention of a caregiver. From early years throughout the rest of our lives, emotions also motivate helpful behaviour and social interaction.

A lot of interesting studies have been done on the development of emotion and of our ability to recognise it in others. One such study was done my Donna Mumme and Anne Fernald of Tufts and Standford Universities respectively. The study investigated how 10- and 12-month old infants reacted to the emotion an actress displayed towards novel objects, when the actress was viewed on a TV screen. The researchers found that 12-month olds avoided the object the actress reacted negatively to, but the 10-month olds didn’t. Neither 10- nor 12-month olds changed their behaviour much when the actress reacted positively towards an object. So the study showed that somewhere between 10 and 12 months old, infants start to display the ability to use the emotions other people display to affect their behaviour towards novel objects.

Another study, this one performed by Jackie Gnepp and Debra Hess of Northern Illinois University, investigated how children at various levels of school from first to tenth grade understood how and when displays of emotion should be controlled. The researchers found that there was a steady, strong increase in understanding from first to fifth grade, then not much change between fifth and tenth. There was also a consistent difference in the types of emotional control the children understood. They best understood the appropriate use of speech aimed at socially beneficial ends, such as not embarrassing others, followed by speech aimed at self-protective ends, such as not appearing foolish to others. Next came regulation of facial expression for social benefit, and finally regulation of facial expression for self-protection. So over time we can see how children learn to regulate their own display of emotions, and interpret others’, to allow them to better interact with other people.

Onwards

Many influences shape our behaviour and our emotional state, but the more we learn about how and what and why, the more capable we become of expressing beneficial behaviour and positive emotions. And not only for ourselves, but we can also improve the ways in which we help others develop.

Next up we take a look at intelligence, how it is measured, and how intelligence and thinking develop.

Related entries:

• Introduction to Human Development
• Introduction to Human Development: Psychoanalytic/Psychosocial Perspective
• Introduction to Human Development: Biological Perspective
• Introduction to Human Development: Social-Emotional Perspective - Part 1
• Introduction to Human Development: Cognitive Perspective
• Introduction to Human Development: Socio-cultural Perspective

Through this perspective we look at the how social influences and emotions shape our development, with a focus on the way we behave. From very soon after we’re born it becomes clear that we have an identifiable temperament. Most first-time parents probably think their constantly crying baby is going to grow up to be a disagreeable little… Well, thankfully they’re usually wrong.

Temperament has many definitions, though it can be summarised as stable, individual differences in the quality and intensity of emotional reactions. Your temperament forms the base of your personality and is one set of traits which is much more influenced by your genes than by the environment.

Temperament

Temperament is described by (and often measured according to) terms such as sociability, adaptability, persistence, activity level, and reactivity. Many studies have been done on temperament but I have to mention one particular Australian study, funnily enough called the Australian Temperament Project. It’s a long term and on-going study which began in 1982, and is continuing to follow around 2000 people born around that time, aiming to investigate “the influence of an individual’s temperament on his/her emotional and behavioural adjustment.”

That and other studies have produced some significant findings, not the least of which is to highlight just how important it is that parents interact with children in a way which is appropriate to the various aspects of the child’s temperament. There is no “one size fits all” method of raising children. For example, a highly reactive (very sensitive to all kinds of stimulation) and easily distracted child would require a different approach to a highly reactive but persistent child. This seems like common sense, but shows like Super Nanny show us that if it is common sense, some parents don’t have any.

The ATP study showed that highly reactive adolescents who had a low level of supervision had the highest number of incidents of fighting, stealing, disobedience, and other similar unwanted behaviours. And yet adolescents who weren’t reactive who also had little supervision showed very few of those unwanted behaviours.

Ironically it is the ideal balance of interaction between parent (or other carer) and child which allows the child to develop self-regulation, letting them then manage their own responses, stopping them from heading down a path towards poor psychological development and all associated problems such as getting into fights, caving in to peer pressure, or thinking Paris Hilton is a good role model. (Is Paris Hilton a good role model? A clue: no).

Attachment

Attachment, important to parenting and development, can be defined as a close emotional relationship between two people, in which each displays affection towards the other as well as a desire to maintain closeness.

John Bowlby developed a theory of attachment based on observations of children’s reactions to separation from their primary carer (usually a parent, most often their mother). The theory was also inspired by studies of imprinting in baby geese. While not quite the same as imprinting, Bowlby did propose that both adults and babies have complimentary innate behaviours which keep them close to each other, and which help create a stronger, long-lasting attachment. Just like super-glue and fingers.

That attachment lets the child see the parent as a safe haven to return to when something in the world seems threatening. You see this fairly often when a child runs to cling to his mother’s legs. But the parent also acts as secure base, somewhere from which the child can safely explore the world, confident that, if necessary, they can return to their safe haven. So according to Bowlby’s theory, security and comfort are at the core of attachment. Not so much so for super-glue and fingers.

One challenge to Bowlby’s theory was that feeding was the main reason that children formed attachments, and that security and comfort were not as important. This challenge was dismissed by some experiments Harry Harlow performed with rhesus monkeys. He started by building a pair of surrogate mothers for the monkeys; one feeder which was just a wire frame with a milk bottle poking out of it, and one comforter which was a wire frame wrapped in terry cloth. The monkeys all showed a clear preference for the comforter, spending most of their time with it, and always returning to it whenever they felt threatened, or once they had finished exploring or playing.

Mary Ainsworth and her colleagues applied the study of attachment to humans by developing what is called The Strange Situation. It involves a series of observations of a child reactions to the absence or presence of their primary parent, or a stranger. By watching how different children reacted to the same series of situations (carer in the room, carer leaving, carer returning, stranger arriving, etc), Ainsworth came up with three ways of grouping behaviour which highlighted the different degrees of security a child feels, and how that affects their behaviour.

Unfortunately a lack of long term studies doesn’t allow us to come to any strong conclusions of just how childhood attachment influences later life, though studies of orphans have shown that a lack of security during early years leads to psychological problems in later years of childhood, but that when placed in a caring environment, over time those problems mostly disappear.

Onwards

Temperament forms the basis of our reactions to the world during childhood, which influences the styles of attachment we form. Our temperament also demands that others adjust their interaction with us in a way that best teaches us to react in ways which are beneficial. With the right kind of interaction and teaching we’ll be able to develop in a way that sets the stage for positive development in later years, and a psychological make up that will allow us to enjoy our lives.

If you’re interested in finding out more about attachment theory, have a look at this review paper. But bear in mind it is an academic paper.

As you’ve noticed this is just part one of the social-emotional perspective, and I’ve barely touched on behaviour and emotion. Stay tuned.

Related entries:

• Introduction to Human Development
• Introduction to Human Development: Psychoanalytic/Psychosocial Perspective
• Introduction to Human Development: Biological Perspective
• Introduction to Human Development: Social-Emotional Perspective - Part 2
• Introduction to Human Development: Cognitive Perspective
• Introduction to Human Development: Socio-cultural Perspective