Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

information processing
The way in 
which people take in, use, and store 
information.
metacognition
An awareness and 
understanding of one’s own cognitive 
processes.
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Module 37 
Infancy and Childhood 
409
their own errors. It is only later, when metacognitive abilities become more sophisti-
cated, that children are able to know when they don’t understand. Such increasing 
sophistication refl ects a change in children’s theory of mind , their knowledge and 
beliefs about the way the mind operates (Bernstein, Loftus, & Meltzoff, 2005; Matthews 
& Funke, 2006; Lockl & Schneider, 2007).
Vygotsky’s View of Cognitive Development: Considering Culture.
According to 
Russian developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky, the culture in which we are raised 
signifi cantly affects our cognitive development. In an increasingly infl uential view, 
Vygotsky suggests that the focus on individual performance of both Piagetian and 
information-processing approaches is misplaced. Instead, he holds that we cannot 
understand cognitive development without taking into account the social aspects of 
learning (Vygotsky, 1926/1997; Maynard & Martini, 2005; Rieber & Robinson, 2006). 
Vygotsky argues that cognitive development occurs as a consequence of social 
interactions in which children work with others to jointly solve problems. Through 
such interactions, children’s cognitive skills increase, and they gain the ability to 
function intellectually on their own. More specifi cally, he suggests that children’s 
cognitive abilities increase when they encounter information that falls within their 
zone of proximal development. The  zone of proximal development (ZPD)  is the 
level at which a child can almost, but not fully, comprehend or perform a task on 
his or her own. When children receive information that falls within the ZPD, they 
can increase their understanding or master a new task. In contrast, if the information 
lies outside children’s ZPD, they will not be able to master it (see Figure 12).