1.1 cognitive development

Question 1

can cognitive develop be observed?

Answer 1

no not directly but it is inferred from observable behaviour

Question 2

Piaget’s definition of cognitive development?

Answer 2

a process of adaptation to the changing world around us

Question 3

what is adaptation?

Answer 3

taking in, processing, organising and using new info in ways which enable us to adjust to changes in our environment through assimilation and accomodation

Question 4

what is assimilation?

Answer 4

the process of taking in new info and fitting it into and making it part of a pre-existing mental idea about objects or experiences

Question 5

example of assimilation?

Answer 5

a young child may see a truck and call it a car, simply because a car is the only type of vehicle for which the child has a pre-existing mental idea

Question 6

what is accomodation?

Answer 6

when we can’t assimilate new info into a pre-existing mental idea so we change a pre-existing mental idea in order to fit new info

more advanced than assimilation

Question 7

what is a schema?

Answer 7

a mental idea of what something is and how to act on it

Question 8

what are Piaget’s basic building blocks of intelligent behaviour that allows us to understand and respond to situations?

Answer 8

assimilation, accomodation, schema

Question 9

What are Piaget’s stages of cognitive development?

Answer 9

a predictable sequence of 4 diff stages in developing our thinking and associated mental abilities

Question 10

Names of the stages of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development?

Answer 10

Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

Question 11

Age range of the sensorimotor stage?

Answer 11

birth - 2yrs (infancy)

Question 12

Age range of preoperational stage?

Answer 12

2-6 yrs

Question 13

Age range of concrete operational?

Answer 13

7-11 yrs

Question 14

Age range of formal operational?

Answer 14

12- adulthood

Question 15

Sensorimotor developmental phenomena?

Answer 15

object permanence, goal directed behaviour

Question 16

what is object permanence?

Answer 16

when an infant understands that objects still exist even if they cannot be seen, heard or touched

Question 17

what is goal directed behaviour?

Answer 17

when infants behave in a way that enables them to meet a goal that they have purposefully planned

Eg they can reach for a toy

Question 18

what is developmental phenomena?

Answer 18

key accomplishments during a particular stage

Question 19

developmental phenomena of the preoperational stage?

Answer 19

egocentrism, animism, centration, reversibility

Question 20

what is egocentrism?

Answer 20

the tendency to see the world only from one’s own point of view and being unable to understand the perspectives of other people

towards the end of the preoperational stage, children slowly become decentred and begin to appreciate other peoples’ perspectives

Question 21

what is animism?

Answer 21

the belief that inanimate objects have consciousness (have feelings or personalities)

Question 22

what is centration?

Answer 22

focussing on one feature of an object at a time, leading to the exclusion of other features.

Question 23

what is reversibility?

Answer 23

the ability to understand that objects can change and then return to their original form.

e.g. understanding how ice works

Question 24

concrete operational key accomplishments?

Answer 24

conservation, mathematical transformations, classification

Question 25

what is conservation?

Answer 25

the ability to understand that certain properties of an object can remain the same even when the object’s appearance has been changed.

This can be applied to any form of measurement, including volume, mass, number and length.

Question 26

what is classification?

Answer 26

the ability to organise objects or events into groups or categories based on common features that set them apart from other groups or categories.

For example, a child can separate wooden, plastic and metal pegs from each other by differentiating them according to the material from which they are made.

Question 27

developmental phenomena of formal operational stage?

Answer 27

abstract thinking, use of reason or logic and idealistic thinking

Question 28

what is abstract thinking?

Answer 28

the ability to think and process information without seeing or physically manipulating objects; for example, when children use metaphors or use the scientific method to solve problems

understanding concepts such as justice, honesty, respect

Question 29

what is logical thinking?

Answer 29

using reason or logic to consider alternatives to solve a problem and come to a reasonable conclusion

Question 30

what’s idealistic thinking?

Answer 30

thinking and planning for futures and setting goals

also thinking about global issues and other social issues

Question 31

what’s idealistic thinking?

Answer 31

thinking and planning for futures and setting goals

also thinking about global issues and other social issues

Question 32

criticisms of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 32

probably described children as having morel limited cognitive abilities than they actually do- they can think and reason in more sophisticated ways

some key accomplishments have been found to occur much earlier in development than Piaget suggested

may have potentially overestimated young children’s language ability, leading Piaget to assume that wrong answers came from faulty thinking

child may have potentially misunderstood the task or did not explain their answer clearly

had a small number of participants