PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION PDF

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Categorization is the process by which we group several elements due to their similarity in certain aspects. There is a category whenever 2 or more distinguishable objects or events are considered equivalent. We can say that all objects in the world are unique, but categorization always facilitates ...

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PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION

Continuation Development The child advances considerably in the first two years of its existence. He knows about the permanence of objects, he goes to look for them where he left them, and his abilities in the social world make him come to have emotional ties. But what is meant by representation ? The baby already has at the end of two years a certain anticipation of situations that depends on direct stimuli and, therefore, is limited. (if you hear water intuye they are going to bathe him) However, by representation we understand two different meanings (according to Mandler ,): The use of symbols: Intelligence ceases to be only active and becomes contemplative. It allows to overcome the immediate action. It allows the symbolic manipulation of entities that are representable by means of tangible images. It allows the creation of imaginary worlds. It can be socialized through a system of coded symbols that every culture can share. Knowledge (how is knowledge organized?) Representation is equal to knowledge; "Information stored" All learning requires the storage of information. The idea comes from the field of cognitive science and the analogy with computers. Symbolic and semiotic function Representation: something that happens instead of something else. Represent: re-present, evoke something that is absent. That is like saying: Meaningful: what replaces something else. Meaning: the object in question.

Therefore, the ability to represent is to use signifiers to refer to meanings. Piaget talked about the semiotic function. We can speak of three classes of signifiers: Signals or indices: they are like precursors or consequences of something that is evoked with the appearance of these signals. Symbols: they have a certain similarity with the signifier; Eg: a box that acts as a car. Signs: invented by the culture, arbitrary, for example: the letters of the alphabet. There are many types of representations: The deferred imitation that has temporary distance between signifier or meaning. The symbolic game. Mental images Pictorial representations. Language. Development of symbolic gestures. Three types of game in turn: The exercise game, in which motor-type activities that had previously had adaptive value are reproduced, but are now performed for the pure pleasure of functional exercise. Symbolic game, characterized by using an abundant symbolism that is formed through imitation. It appears from 2-3 years to 7 years. According to Flavell, it is more likely to appear between 18 and 24 months. Game of rules. Something more complex than the others, with rules to respect and of a social nature. Appears at 6 years old. In deferred imitation a minimal mental representation is needed because the model is not present. Definition of game. Elements. The game is free, it does not depend on reinforcements or external events: it is not given in exchange for something else. The game produces pleasure for itself, independently of external goals or objectives, intrinsically rewarding. Elements of both types of behavior may vary.

Disconnection with another goal or goal different from the action itself. Serious behaviors Game, difference in the proportion of the assimilating activity. The game is an activity that can only be defined from the body immersed in it. Symbolic game traits (Alan Leslie, 1987): The child makes an object represent a different one. When necessary, create an imaginary object without any support. Attribution of simulated properties. According to Harris (1989), the creation and attribution of mental states instead of purely physical objects and properties. 18 months, use as representations of human beings as passive recipients. 2-2 years and a half, capacity to act and experiment, attribution of desires, sensations and emotions. 3 years and a half-4, attribution of thought processes and more explicit plans. DEVELOPMENT SYMBOLIC GAME Flexibility in the use of objects. Use of real objects, of another object, and of one's own body. When you do not need real support for the game is around 8 years. Flexibility in the use of oneself and others. The baby realizes that the agents and recipients of the simulated actions can be independent of themselves. At first, the symbolic game is egocentric for lack of cooperation. Gradual socialization 1) Actions and objects become conventional, 2) Sociodramatic play - 2 and a half. The children in the game use scripts. At 4 years, progress in the complexity of the game. Children indicate if they are playing, and when they finish the performance. (Garvey, 1977) Children use two types of characters in games: (Garvey, 1977): stereotyped and fictional. FUNCTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES OF SYMBOLIZATION IN THE GAME. . Become familiar with the possibilities of social roles. . Resolution and understanding of problems that can generate anxiety or activities that the child wants to do. . Contribution to cognitive and social activities.

BRUNER: Through the game, the child makes an exploration of both physical and social reality. The game serves to practice without risk. POSSESS MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS AND UNDERSTAND THE REPRESENTATIONAL PROCESS. A critical characteristic of the game is that it is not intended that one thing be two different things at the same time. The intentionality of the child leads him to act as if an entity were different from himself. Does the child understand that you can not pretend without having mental representations? A child possesses mental representations, but also understands the representational process? MENTAL IMAGES The images are something internal that we can evoke and what we have left when we do not have the situation in front of us. They can be visual, tactile, auditory ... SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS / DRAWING The drawing is more than a simple copy of reality, it is the use of an internal image. Luquet, important in the subject of drawing. For example, the child not only drew the egg, but the chick that will be born from it, that is, drawing everything that reminds him of that situation or object. . You can also draw several perspectives at once. The children understand that the drawing is not an exact copy of reality, but an attempt at approximation. LANGUAGE Language is the most original and extensive form of representation that men use. VIDEO "Nature vs. Culture" Watson appears as a behavioral scholar. Fantz also investigates the child's behavior, for example, the parts of the face they look at. The most important, as we already know, is Jean Piaget. A detail that shows us is that often, the mental capacity of children develops before the physical capacity is given. 1960, they check and study the behaviors before the Effect of unevenness.

They notice differences in temperament, and that these differences have nothing to do with culture. The term symbol has been referred to: Mental representation of events and objects. External references of objects and events. There are several areas of research related to the use of external symbols: Interpretation of drawings and models. The appearance-reality distinction. The distinction between real and imaginary events. In the experiment of the big and small Snoopys , 75% of the 3-year-olds and 15% (practically nothing) of the two of them found out where the big one was, after seeing where the little one was hiding. The variables that can influence are: They may not understand verbal instruction. Then it is verified that no, they understand perfectly. It can also be the level of perceptual similarity between model and room. The size of the model is of great interest here, and it is easier to use it as a symbol as the model gets older. We have several experimental variables, one in which the model and room walls are of high similarity and in which the furniture is also: high-high similarity; and, from there, play with the similarity: high-low, lowhigh, low-low. By the established order goes from highest to lowest number of successes or encounters with the Snoopy. Children discover the Snoopy if the object next to or behind which it has been hidden is the same as the object of the model, regardless of the spatial distribution of the room. If the researcher refers to the same position in the space of the object, it is impossible for the child to discover it. Representative insight : realize that something is a symbol of a thing. With two and a half years, if you use a photo as a means of representing the room, you are able to take the Snoopy. For this reason, researchers are struck by the fact that with the model they can not, if it is more tangible. Then we can talk about the dual representation : that is to think about a thing in two ways, as a thing and as a symbol. If we want to enhance it as an object, we can enhance that image of the child by making him play with it. If what we want is to enhance the image of the symbol, then we will restrict the vision of the object (for example, looking at it from a window). The problem of the children of two and a half years with the photos, and the ease of these as a model, is because It is easier for them to see it as a symbol than as an object. For them it is still impossible to observe in an object two properties, one

of object as such and another of symbol. Hence, the so-called model of researchers can be seen more as an object in itself, which limits that vision of the symbol that they pretend. DeLoeche is an important researcher in this topic of representations. Representative specificity : realizing that a symbol can represent a specific entity. To use a symbol, the child must: Discover the relationship between a symbol and the referent. Relate their elements with their corresponding ones. Use knowledge to make an inference about the other.

DISTINCTION EXPERIENCE AND REALITY We have to talk about invariant which is something that remains the same while the rest of the situation changes or undergoes various transformations. It is characteristic for man, to have information about everything that surrounds us. The formation of invariants in the sensory-motor period has: The constancy of the size of the object. The permanence of the object. Eg Tasks with Piaget liquids. Conservations can be called quantitative invariants that are not achieved until 7 years. Qualitative identity. Children know that objects do not change, that they remain the same despite changes in their appearance, which results in a cognitive differentiation by the child of a permanent quality of an object. That is, an object remains the same object despite changes in its appearance, in its qualities. (Alterable characteristics). (Eg When the parents of a child paint the car in a different color, they still know that it is the same car as their parents). Identity are new examples of the formation of invariants. Like the sensory-motor concept of object, identities are qualitative, unlike conservations, which are quantitative. Conservation. It is the knowledge that there are no quantitative changes despite the perceptual transformations. The task of conserving Piaget's liquid. First he presents two equal cups and the children know that there is the same liquid. When they were presented with two different glasses, the 5-year-old

children would not recognize the amount of liquid, but they would say that the glasses remain the same even if they were hidden and that the liquid also changed the glass. Therefore, from this we deduce that: Qualitative consistency, Yes Quantitative consistency, No Piaget would say that the child possesses a kind of qualitative invariant called identity, but that he has not yet acquired a quantitative invariant called conservation of quantity. After two and a half years, the object remains permanently. STUDIES OF VRIES (1969) CAT MAYNARD Gender identity. (Age 3-6 years) I let them pet a cat and expected me to tell them what animal it was. When they told him, they made them look somewhere else and put the cat in a dog mask. The children of 3 and 4 years old said that now it was a dog, that it had changed. The children of 5 years old said that it was still a cat, that it could not be the change. The generic identity is associated with this response in children aged 5 years. (Some of 4 also solved the task perfectly) Another experiment consisted of people changing their identity with a mask. Another of the many was a child dress girl clothes and OTR ask whether now was child. When children wear a mask they really believe the character they play and they do not even recognize their parents when they wear it and it scares them a lot. The opposite of adults, we can have the perception or the idea of appearance and reality, that is, have two representations of the same thing. Flavell and his colleagues (1984, 1986) Studies with children on the distinction of appearance and reality. Experiment. They experimented with a red glass where they drank milk and looked like red milk and also with a sponge that looked like a rock. Then they asked two questions from which they drew a conclusion: Errors of intellectual realism: relating to the appearance and identity of the object: the false rock is not a rock, but a sponge and also looks like a sponge. Then Flavell made a simpler study: The children played with a person they did not know and then that person put a mask on in front of the child and they asked him: who is that person really? Although they explain that there is a distinction between reality and

appearance, young children say that you can not be the same person with and without a mask. These studies were done in other cultures and I also did not learn the difference between reality and appearance. Children only learned this task when they cheated on another person. For ex. They picked up the sponge that looked like a rock and told him to cheat on a girl. Dual coding: the difficulty of representing an object in more than one way at the same time. Children can only look at one aspect: appearance or reality, but never both at once. If you notice, for example, that the rock is a rock, you do not know what a sponge is and if you notice that it is a sponge, it can not be one rock at a time. This also happens with the milk experiment. This could affect, then to: Jokes, metaphors and sarcasms. Displaced aggression. Learn second name, for an object or person. Phrases or hypothetical explanations that refer to how things could have been in another time. The results of Flavell et al are similar to those of Deloache with respect to dual representation in the models. These indicate that there is not a single capacity of dual representation that appears at the same time and that influences the thinking of several fields. It develops gradually from 2 to 5 years. . Drawings with symbols-2 and a half years . Models as symbols-3 years . Distinction appearance-reality-4,5 years DISTINCTION BETWEEN REAL AND IMAGINARY EVENTS How do children know that thinking and dreaming is different from doing and perceiving? SOUND Piaget (1929) First stage : 5-6 years. The children are realistic. They thought that the dreams were outside and that they were always in the bedroom and that the rest of the people could see them. Emotional stage where you think that dreams can take revenge of one. Dreams take place in the eyes, not in the head.

Second stage : 7-8 years. The dream takes place inside the head, but it comes or is outside. If you dream about school, the dream is at school (you are asked what you have dreamed about and if you have been at school, you think you have been there). They dream that the devil is coming to meet him, so he thinks he is out of bed, in the room. If asked if it is true what happened, he says yes it has happened in reality. Third stage : 9-10 years. Dreams inside the head, in thoughts or in the eyes that look inwards. The child says that they turn their eyes, to see what is inside, but they know that they are not real. Review Woodley and Wellman (1992) even children of 3 or 4 years old seem to know how to distinguish between dreams and reality. It is a criticism to Piaget, since they said that with their clinical method controlled the response of children. They think that, for example, the kids think they have the same dream as their mother.

IMAGINE What happens when children have to make a distinction between thinking or imagining an object, or between an imagined and lived event? Harris, Brown, Marrion , Whitall and Harwer (1991) The experimenter was placed on one side of the table and children from 4 years to the other, the adult put a pencil and asked them to close their eyes and imagine it. When imagining the object, they know that the other can not see it, that the imagined object is "own" and "non-transferable". This, with age has been evolving, that is: Children of 3 years believe that the imagined events are real. Children of 4 still do not distinguish many times. Children of 5 years old already know the distinction between real and imagined events. The awareness of the origin of memories, knowledge and beliefs. Study of Foley and Ratwer , 1998, Foley, Santiveri and Spaskis , 1989 They perform a certain action. They were asked to imagine the same action later. (Ex. Touch the nose). Then they were asked if they touched their nose or if they did not really do it. Until 6 or 7 years have some difficulties to distinguish whether he has done or not.The reason is that, sometimes, for them, the imagination can be "remembered as reality". Of course, they know very well what they say or do, what others say or do.

FANTASY AND REALITY Children tend to believe in characters and fantastic situations (eg Superheroes, Magi, etc.). Regarding diseases, children with 5 or 6 years give magical response to them. THEORY OF MIND A set of beliefs about the functioning of one's own mind and that of others, including mental states that are not observable (such as beliefs and desires) in order to explain and predict behavior. Wellman (1990) believes that the theory of the mind of adults is based on reasoning of belief and desire. Investigation Camp. The ability of children to read the minds of others. To what extent do children understand that the perceptions, knowledge and thoughts of others differ from those of oneself? The knowledge of children about what it means to think and perform other forms of cognition. The false belief Winner and Pernerl (1983). Children may have problems with contradictory tests. They can not handle two representations of the same object. At least, this would happen in relation to children of 3 and many of those of 4 years of age. There comes into play, the dual representation of Deloache and the dual coding of Flavell et al. False belief is important because if children realize that people have false beliefs, it would mean that they also have beliefs. DEVELOPMENT OF REPRESENTATION. CONCEPTS AND THEORIES Representation, 2 different meanings ( Mandler , 1983) Use of symbols Knowledge and how knowledge is organized. CATEGORIAL DEVELOPMENT Categorization is the process by which we group together different elements due to their similarity in certain aspects. A category exists whenever 2 or more distinguishable objects or events are considered equivalent. We can say that all objects in the world are unique, but categorization always facilitates similarities and generalities. Categorization is an example par excellence of how cognitive processes have a representational organization. Although each object is unique, it is identified and named as an example of object classes. There must be a more abstract representation than all objects, also called concepts. Concept , Products of categorization, an abstract representation of a category.

There are two important types of conceptual relationship: the relationships between entities that form a conceptual category. (What does one type of table have to do with another? The relationships that determine a hierarchical organization of objects. FUNCTIONS OF THE CONCEPTS What are the concepts for and what is their function? Bruner, Goodnow and Austin (1956) say that concepts serve to: reduce the complexity of the environment. identify objects, events in the world reduce the need for constant learning. or...