As we grow and learn more about our surroundings, we find familiarity in situations, faces, and experiences. It is a vital part of our understanding of how the world works. The laws of physics are, in most cases, understood at a fundamental level. For example, we know we cannot fit inside a shoe box. When we are young, we figure this out for ourselves and it becomes part of our cognitive process.
Cognitive organization- the process of arranging objects, events, people, language or even ideas, into a structure that we can understand- begins at a very early age. Preschoolers, for example, will automatically group objects of play together: plastic fork and spoon, or toy tractor and toy truck. They will generally have a very organized behavioral routine around everyday routines (meal times, bed times, etc.).
As many of our executive functions and automatic responses are housed in the prefrontal lobes, prefrontal injury or impairment can negatively influence the control that we have over our cognitive processes. In other words, an imperfect prefrontal cortex impairs the way we "think." It can mean that the ability to “think our way around problems” becomes difficult. We cannot focus on the correct organizational scheme to complete a task.
Our cognitive processes increase in complexity as we mature. We start to associate more concrete physical objects with more conceptual ones. A very young child might put "Grandma" and "cake" together because he or she understands that Grandma bakes cakes. As the child gets older, he or she may associate the word "cake" with "chocolate," a move that symbolizes the transfer between physical and conceptual ideas.
The image of self is usually still underdeveloped by the age of 2. The image of self comes from understanding the world around us and the relationships we have with the people in it. A good example of this is that a 2-year old will often narrate single events that happened to him by referring to himself as an object, usually in the form of "me," such as: "Me fall."
As we grow older, and the cognitive responses start to draw on more experiences and memories; we learn to adapt ourselves to our surroundings in a more self-aware way. By the ages of 3 to 4, we can narrate more events and will begin to address ourselves as “I.”
By the age of 5 we can generally line up events that have happened to us in the correct sequence, as our neural pathways adapt to the sequence of time. By 7 years of age we are generally able to narrate a basic story, with a distinct beginning, middle and end. Our topographic memory has begun to develop; this is the ability to orient ourselves in the space that we occupy, and to follow and recognize a distinct itinerary.
This development is then carried into adolescence, at which point we have enough information about the world around us for our cognitive processes and memory to be in sync. We can then apply our experiences and understanding of “the way things work” to our role in life. If, however, there is impairment somewhere in the development of the prefrontal cortex, this natural progression is hindered.
Posted on
Wed, August 10, 2011
by Dr. Karina Poirier
filed under