About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about the stages of cognitive development, focusing in particular on: (i) Jean Piaget’s proposition of stages of development in children; (ii) some of Piaget’s key experimental foci, including conservation and theory of mind; (iii) Piaget’s three mountains task, which tested children’s ability to recognise the perspective of others; (iv) the application of theory of mind research to studies involving individuals on the autistic spectrum; (v) Vygotsky’s proposal that a child’s social environment has a great impact on their cognitive development; (vi) Piaget’s zone of proximal development, which suggests that any individual at a given time has a maximum range of complexity within which they can learn, between what they already know and the most they can take on; (vii) Piaget’s scaffolding concept, which suggests that learning should be structured through teaching in stages and building foundations; (viii) the application of these concepts in teaching.

About the lecturer

Dr Ashok Jansari is a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London. Dr Jansari’s research interests include memory disorders, prosopagnosia, executive functions, and synaesthesia. Dr Jansari is most famous for his research into prosopagnosia, having made numerous TV appearances, including on BBC1’s The One Show, as well as hosting his own ‘Neuro Talk’ YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/DrAshokJansariNeuroTalk/featured

Some of Dr Jansari's recent publications include 'Acquired synaesthesia following 2C-B use' (2019), 'Using virtual reality to investigate multitasking ability in individuals with frontal lobe lesions' (2019), and 'Identification from CCTV: Assessing police super-recogniser ability to spot faces in a crown and susceptibility to change blindness' (2018).