Cognition is the word psychologists use to describe the varied mental activities of your brain. Cognitive development, therefore, is the development of the processes of memory, intelligence, and attention. Additionally, language is usually described and measured as a cognitive process although it is connected to physical, social, and emotional development in important ways. Here, you will learn a bit about each one, and each chapter will provide more in-depth information.

Memory

In the next chapter on brain development, you will learn more about the physical mechanisms that create memories, but for now, it is enough to know that within your brain are millions of neurons, and many of them are designed especially to store memories.

Memory is essential for navigating the world around us because it allows us to store vital information from past experiences, and things that other people have taught us. We know facts (semantic memory); we have experiences (episodic memory); we know how to do things (procedural memory); and we even remember things that haven’t happened yet (prospective memory) such as what you need to buy at the grocery store tomorrow.

You have two kinds of memory: short-term memory and long-term memory. Working memory is an aspect of short –term memory. It is everything you are actively thinking about; long-term memory is everything you know but aren’t necessarily thinking about right away. Working memory has a very limited amount of space; as children develop the amount increases but even in adulthood, most people can only remember about seven distinct pieces of information. Our long-term memory, on the other hand, is extensive and we are able to store and recall a seemingly endless amount of information.

So, if our working memory is so amazing, why can’t we remember being a baby! After all, that is when we were learning new things all the time, and our brain wasn’t cluttered with a lifetime of memories yet! There are a couple of possible answers to that question, but most evidence suggests that those early memories simply get buried as life continues to happen (Sneed, 2014) https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/why-not-remember-babies.htm

Intelligence

What does it mean to you when you hear the word intelligence? Perhaps you thought of “school smarts” – being good at particular academic subjects, for example. Or maybe you thought first of “street smarts” – having good common sense, and being able to get along in the “real world.” Some people think of Emotional Intelligence, which is the ability to understand your own and other people’s feelings.

All of these things are right! Intelligence is both a cognitive and a social construct. This means that while there are very real mental processes that are related to intelligence, what gets valued or measured might differ among cultural groups.

Intelligence is typically measured on a number of scales, that when added together provide a numerical representation of general cognitive ability: the IQ score. Typically, IQ is assessed once children reach school age, Cognitive Development

and so you will read more about IQ testing and alternative ways to understand intelligence in later chapters. For now, let’s quickly review the scales that are used for measuring intelligence:

• Working memory: how much information can be retained and recalled;
• Processing speed: how quickly information is used to generate an action or decision
• Visual-spatial processing: how accurately a person can create a 3D representation of a 2D image (typically done with building blocks)
• Language use, both productive and receptive
• Mathematical reasoning

These are the underlying cognitive processes that are assumed to give rise to intelligence, but they are all just approximations of the kind of mental tasks that people do every day as they interact with the world around them (Bee & Boys, 2009; Berk, 2017).  Intelligence is more than these processes; it is the behaviors and choices that come from having these processes working efficiently behind the scenes.

In real life, intelligence tends to look more like problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity. You are probably familiar with the concept of critical thinking because it is a major focus in school in recent years. How often do you hear about creative thinking, though? Creativity is a significant factor in the cognitive ability of young children, and it is only once formal schooling starts that creativity tends to take a backseat to critical thinking.

Creativity allows children to manipulate objects or ideas in ways that are not necessarily their intended use. Sometimes we talk about “thinking outside the box”, and perhaps you have done a lateral thinking task. These are other ways to talk about creativity. But most of the time, we see evidence of creativity in the ways that children play: f`or example, using a hairbrush as a microphone, or turning a few household items into a fort.

It is important to note that creativity is more than just calling something by another name. Creativity’s products are useful and fill a need or gap. In pretend play, that means standing in for an object that is not available which allows the game to continue. In later life, it means being able to see potential solutions to problems that no one else has seen yet.

Previously in this book, you learned about intelligence, as well as different ways that intelligence has been defined to be more inclusive than just what is taught in school. Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences is one example that is used frequently in schools. As you read, think about the ways in which you are intelligent, and what that tells you about how your brain works. Do you learn quickly or prefer lots of repetition? Are things easier for you when you do them yourself or do you like to watch videos of others trying things, so you know how it is done? Are there certain school subjects you are more drawn to or do you think you put more cognitive effort into the things you learn on your own time? There is no one way to be intelligent! One of the best parts of working with young children is that no one has ever told them how to be smart, so they engage with the world in ways that make sense to them, which gives adults such as caregivers and teachers a unique view into their true cognitive processes.

Language

Language is generally considered a part of the cognitive domain of development, as it is closely tied to the ways in which children process information about the world around them and how they share their thoughts with others. Throughout this textbook, you will read more about how language develops at specific life stages, but here let’s briefly look at the importance of having spoken and written language in the first place.

Language is one of the first cognitive tasks that an infant’s brain tries to tackle, even before the physical structures of the mouth, teeth, and tongue are coordinated enough for babies to talk. Starting shortly after birth, infants show more interest in language sounds than in other ambient noises, such as barking dogs and the vacuum cleaner. Babies babble endlessly, practicing the language sounds they hear around them. As children grow, their language use becomes increasingly mature until they are able to pronounce words, make long sentences, and use language to get their way!

Language is special in that it is more than a cognitive process. Of course, there are certain areas of the temporal lobe that are specially designed to process and create language, but those areas – like all areas of the brain – need input to fully develop. That means that in order to learn language, we need other people to talk to! Our social and emotional interactions are mediated through language, and we actively teach children to “use your words” to help navigate conflicts and express their feelings.

Language is also an important way for parents, caregivers, and teachers to understand the internal states of children. In infancy, it can be frustrating for parents as they try to decipher the meaning behind an infant’s crying; is the baby hungry or tired or wet? As children develop language, this frustration is eased because the children can tell their parents exactly what is wrong and that allows the parent to ease the child’s discomfort that much more quickly. For a long time, parents had to wait well into their baby’s second year of life to gain access to these inner thoughts, but in recent years there has been a push to teach infants sign language. As it turns out, infants often can understand language long before they can speak it, meaning they can respond to direct requests from parents and caregivers, such as “Do you need a bottle?” Infants can also produce thoughts that express their desires long before they can give them voice; infants can use sign language to answer “Yes, bottle!” enthusiastically, or “No, no more” if they are done. This helps strengthen the parent-child bond because it removes the guessing game and frustration of not being able to communicate.

Of course, as children learn to talk and share their inner thoughts, they also learn how to influence the inner thoughts of others through language.

An Interesting Example of Cognitive Development: Lying

It may seem counterintuitive, but telling a lie is a major developmental step in the domain of cognition! Let’s take a quick look at what mental processes are necessary for lying, and why that ability is an indicator of successful development.

To tell a lie requires that the liar is able to hold multiple stories in working memory, as well as consider the knowledge available to each person who will hear the lie. Additionally, the liar has to be able to consider the range of possible outcomes and consequences of the behavior. Let’s try to pick this apart with an example.

Sammy has been told to go brush his teeth, but when he gets upstairs he gets distracted by a toy and starts to play with that instead. When his father comes up a few minutes later, he asks Sammy, “Did you brush your teeth?” Before Sammy says “yes!” there are several things that happen in his mind.

First, Sammy has to consider what is actually true (he did not brush his teeth), and whether or not his father has access to that information (no, because he was downstairs and could not see what Sammy was doing the whole time). This means Sammy is actively processing his experience and his father’s experience, and drawing a conclusion about what is different.

Second, Sammy has to consider past experiences with this exact situation. Is this the first time he has forgotten to brush his teeth, or the 20th? If it is the first, Dad is not expecting him to have forgotten, but if Sammy always forgets, then he has to consider that Dad is expecting him to have forgotten. So now Sammy is adding relevant episodic memory to his working memory stores.

Third, Sammy has to consider the possibility of either a truthful or a dishonest answer. If he tells the truth, will he get in trouble? If he lies, will Dad know? So now Sammy is working with knowledge of the present from two perspectives, knowledge of the past, and knowledge of the future all at the same time. It requires a ton of cognitive flexibility (Santrock, 2013).

It is worth it to mention here that this cognitive flexibility is by far the hardest and most risky part of learning how to tell a good lie, and the place where most young children (and teens!) go wrong. As our brains develop, one of the executive functions that has to slowly develop is the ability to anticipate all the potential consequences of an action, how likely each is to occur, and what the cost of each might be. Typically, we are not masters of this until our midtwenties, so it’s reasonable to expect that Sammy might not be right in his assessment of this situation!

Admittedly, at first, children are not always great at this, which is why parents and caregivers often know when young children are lying. Also, there are very real social and emotional aspects of lying that need to be addressed with young children. But, from a purely cognitive perspective, when children begin to tell lies, it is a significant cognitive milestone.

Social and emotional development are often combined into a single domain, social-emotional development. For this textbook, we will consider the two domains separately, although they are very closely related. However, picking them apart will allow us to have a deeper discussion about each, so that we can look at a few key concepts that have become important in the study of Child Development and Early Childhood Education recently.