Home > Sample essays > 5 Truths of Cognitive Development: Influence of Structure and Function, Social Context, Stability and Plasticity, Information Representation, Core Knowledge System

Essay: 5 Truths of Cognitive Development: Influence of Structure and Function, Social Context, Stability and Plasticity, Information Representation, Core Knowledge System

Essay details and download:

  • Subject area(s): Sample essays
  • Reading time: 5 minutes
  • Price: Free download
  • Published: 1 April 2019*
  • File format: Text
  • Words: 1,349 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 6 (approx)

Text preview of this essay:

This page of the essay has 1,349 words. Download the full version above.



Cognitive development is complex. Various factors and aspects of a person’s life influence and affect his/her cognitive development. Five truths have been proposed about cognitive development.

The first truth of cognitive development proposes that cognitive development is influenced by a bidirectional relationship between elements and reciprocal influences. This bidirectional relationship explains development by discussing that when structure and function, which are also known as biological and experiential factors, interact, they experience change over time. Reciprocal transaction exists between structure and function, with the two elements having an ongoing interaction. There are multiple instances in my life in which the interaction of structure and function enhanced my cognitive development.

When I was a baby, I had primary caretakers that responded to me and attended to my needs. By being able to rely on people to care for me allowed me to form trust. I am a slow learner and have some barriers that make learning slightly more difficult. My parents; however, acknowledge these barriers that exist and have sought and provided me with resources to help. They have sought extra help, tutoring services, and testing accommodations for me. By being provided with these resources, I have been able to work through my barriers. In addition to being provided with learning resources, my parents have shown me unconditional love and support throughout my life. They serve as a strong support system, thereby encouraging and enabling me to work hard and succeed in school.

A dynamic system theory further explains the bidirectional relationship. It explains that an uninterrupted, dynamic, interconnected, and bilateral interaction exists among all levels of a person’s organization. The levels of organization are the child, the parent, the culture, the society, the community, the school network, the social network, the marriage network, and the work network. Through self-organization, each of these levels interacts with each other in a person-context interaction, which results in the emergence of new levels of cognition. An example of how the dynamics systems applies to my life is that when my mom gave birth to my little sister, the current relationship with my marriage network was interrupted. This resulted in the reorganization of my behavior to ensure that the levels could coexist again.

The second truth of cognitive development proposes that one’s social context influences his/her cognitive development. The second truth is supported by Lev Vygotsky’s general genetic law of cultural development, which states that higher mental functions develop as a result of social interactions; these mental functions are first developed through social learning and then children internalize and further develop these psychological processes. My self-awareness and self-esteem are examples of mental functions developed this way. Cognitive development is fostered through social interaction when two individuals work in the zone of proximal development. The zone of proximal development is the difference between a child’s potential development due to collaborative problem solving/scaffolding and the actual developmental level of independent problem solving.

An example of skills that I learned in the zone of proximal development are playing the violin and cooking. I had guidance and instruction while practicing/learning the two skills, but I also used problem solving to help me learn the skills.  Scaffolding took place in the zone of proximal development when I was learning to cook. My mother guided and assisted me by first having me watch her cook and perform the easiest steps of a recipe. The scaffolding was then reduced by having me perform more steps and more complicated steps. Scaffolding was then reduced entirely by having me make a recipe on my own.  

Cognitive development is also fostered through social interactions by guided participation, which refers to the interactions and communication of individuals in everyday life and daily activities. I engaged in guided participation as a child when I did my chores and homework and watched television and played on the computer.

The third truth of cognitive development proposes that both stability and plasticity over time influence one’s cognitive development. Stability allows a person to maintain their ranking in an aspect of cognition. In elementary school my math abilities were among the highest in my class, and I have maintained that ranking throughout my schooling.  

Plasticity has to do with the degree to which experience shapes children. It is greatest when children are infants, and then decreases throughout their lives to allow neurons to designate control over basic functions.  The slow growth of the brain can help to explain plasticity. The brain doesn’t stop growing until early adulthood, which allows plasticity to continue and gives humans sufficient time to adjust their behaviors. Plasticity helped me to learn a second language. Experience with learning Spanish created new synaptic connections and gave me the plasticity to learn the language. Since I began learning Spanish when I was younger, I had more synapses, and greater plasticity to learn the language.

The fourth truth of cognitive development proposes that cognitive development involves changes in the way information is represented. Children and even infants use abstract and symbolic representation, and their ability to mentally represent people, objects, and events improves throughout childhood. Schemas, which are long-term sensory representations, are formed at around two months of age.

Infants possess a core knowledge system for representing objects. Infants understand object constancy, meaning they understand that an object remains the same despite changes in how it is viewed. Infants also understand object continuity and cohesion, meaning they understand that individual objects are seen as cohesive wholes with distinct boundaries. Infants also possess an understanding of object permanence, meaning they understand that an object still exists even if you can’t see it.

Infant and young children also possess a core knowledge system for understanding quantities and numbers. This knowledge is fostered through simple math related abilities. The first ability is numerosity, in which an infant/child does not have to count in order to figure out the number of items a set contains.  The second ability is ordinality, in which an infant/child understands the concepts of “more than” and less than.”

Another way in which information is represented is through the forming of categories. Infants form categories through habituation and dishabituation. When an infant habituates he/she experiences repeated presentation of a stimulus, which results in an infant showing less of a response. An example of habituation is the watching of a movie. The first time I watched Matilda as a child I was very scared by certain scenes. However, after watching Matilda numerous times, I was no longer frightened by the scenes because I knew what was going to happen.

Dishabituation, on the other hand, occurs when the response increases as a result of a new stimulus being presented. An example of dishabituation is going to a party. When I’m at my own house, I’m comfortable and confident because I’m used to my surroundings and am very familiar with the people around me. However, when I go to someone else’s house for a party I feel more timid and shy because I’m not as familiar with my surroundings or the other people.

The fifth truth of cognitive development is that increasing control over one’s own behavior and cognition is gained in children. Children use strategies to problem-solve. Some basic problem-solving strategies that I use are making flashcards to help me study, using a planner to help me organize, and using a chair or stool to help me reach high shelves.

In order to be able to problem-solve, one must be able to regulate his/her thoughts and behaviors; in order to do so, one must have executive function. Executive functioning has to do with the processes that help to control attention and determine what should be done with information obtained from long-term memory.

An important ability that makes up executive function is working memory. Working memory allows people to briefly store new information, and use relevant information to perform a task. I use my working memory when I’m cooking. My working memory helps me remember each step of a recipe.

...(download the rest of the essay above)

About this essay:

If you use part of this page in your own work, you need to provide a citation, as follows:

Essay Sauce, 5 Truths of Cognitive Development: Influence of Structure and Function, Social Context, Stability and Plasticity, Information Representation, Core Knowledge System. Available from:<https://www.essaysauce.com/sample-essays/2018-3-19-1521499850/> [Accessed 29-03-24].

These Sample essays have been submitted to us by students in order to help you with your studies.

* This essay may have been previously published on Essay.uk.com at an earlier date.