Synonyms
Intellectual development; Mental development; Development of thinking
Definition
Cognitive development refers to changes with age in human ontogeny in mental processes and abilities, that is, the development of higher mental processes such as problem solving, reasoning, conceptualizing, classifying, and planning, as well as more basic processes such as perception and language. Although modern developmental psychology studies psychological change over the entire lifespan, the field of childhood cognitive development is distinct from cognitive development in adulthood, in terms of theoretical issues and research paradigms. Only childhood cognitive development will be covered in this article.
Characteristics
Accounts of cognitive development in childhood address three major issues: (i) The initial (newborn) state, (ii) The description of “what” develops in children’s thinking, and (iii) Accounts of how developmental change occurs. The field of childhood cognitive development was...
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References
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Sodian, B. (2009). Cognitive Development. In: Binder, M.D., Hirokawa, N., Windhorst, U. (eds) Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_1108
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_1108
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