4 Cognitive development Flashcards
What is the nativist view on cognitive development?
- infants are born with an innate knowledge about the world
- have learning modules which allow them to take in and process information quickly and efficiently
What are the things infants need to learn about objects?
- They have substance
- Don’t disappear when can’t be seen
- Maintain their identity when they change location
When did Piaget believe infants develop object permanence
-8 months but since then loads of information has been put forward that thinks its earlier
What were some faults in the A not B error test
these factors made it more or less likely for the child to succeed:
- age
- number of times object hidden in A
- number of hiding locations
- length of delay
Apart from piagets experiment, what measure did others use to measure object permanency?
Violation of expectancy - should increase looking time and heart rate
What are the problems with Violation of expectancy?
-Memory limitations
check the rest :/
What age does knowledge of gravity begin?
5-7 months
What are the different types of constructions we build to test gravity knowledge?
- contact/no contact
- type of contact
- amount of contact
- shape of object
What age can infants use shape of object to determine if an object should stay standing?
12.5 months
What age can infants use amount of contact to determine if an object should stay standing?
6.5 months
What age can infants use type of contact to determine if an object should stay standing?
5 months
What age can infants use contact/no contact to determine if an object should stay standing?
3 months
What do infants need to learn about behaviour?
That it is goal directed and purposeful
- by 6 months more surprised if the hand reached for the new obj in the old location than the old obj in a new location
- only in humans, not mechanical arms
What can infants of 12-15 months do
Attribute goals to an inanimate object that acts like a human
How old are infants that are able to attribute disposable states?
12 months
circle trying to get up the hill
triangle helps and square pushes him down
What is a concept?
nativist vs empirical
- general understanding or ideas that can be used to group together objects into categories and allow us to make sense of the world
- nativists believe innate
- empiricists believe come from learning and experience
What are concepts for?
Dividing things into hierarchal categories and figuring out what to do with them
Which hierarchal category do children learn first?
Basic level
What is a child basic category?
A category formed themselves between superordinate and basic level
(things that roll, instead of balls, like a yoyo)
Category formation in the first year:
Infants start forming categories around 3-4 months
Usually start with perceptual categories where things are grouped dependent on shape/size/appearance
-7-9 month olds play with bird and plane toys the same way because they are perceptually similar
-9-11 month olds play with them differently because they realise they are conceptually different
Categorisation in the 2nd year:
Children start to categorise things by function and overall shape
What are two of the most important things in categorisation?
-increasing understanding of categorical hierarchies
-increasing understanding of causal categorization
infants ge 4-5 were better at identifying which animal was which when they said (wugs have horns for fighting and gillys have wings for fleeing)
Childrens knowledge of living things:
- by 4-5 show impressive knowledge of living things but still demonstrate some immature beliefs like plants are not living or that animals have a specific purpose (e.g. we have monkeys so that there is someone to climb trees)
- Both 9 and 12 months old showed surprise when a mechanical arm carried out an action showing they believe self made movement is characteristic of living things
How old are children that believe plants are living things
7-9
How old are children when they begin to understand the concept of heredity
Preschool (but this can be over extended to e.g. toy choice girls because of genes entirely)
What is essentialism
Believing all living things have an essence inside them that makes them what they are e.g. boys have boyness
What do children learn about growth, illness and repair?
- 3-4 yr olds understand they come from internal processes
- understand that only living things can heal
- understand that growth only occurs in one direction (smaller to larger)
- appreciate that illness and ageing can lead to death which is final
What do nativists believe about children learning about living things?
-They have biology module
Support this with:
-during our early days it would have been an evolutionary advantage to learn quickly about plants and animals
-children are fascinated by both
-children all across the world learn about it in very similar ways
What do empiricists believe about children learning about living things?
-children’s knowledge comes through experience and parent teaching which is reflected by the slightly differing beliefs across culture e.g. buddha’s believe inanimate objects can feel pain
