4 Cognitive development

Question 1

What is the nativist view on cognitive development?

Answer 1

• 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

Question 2

What are the things infants need to learn about objects?

Answer 2

• They have substance
• Don’t disappear when can’t be seen
• Maintain their identity when they change location

Question 3

When did Piaget believe infants develop object permanence

Answer 3

-8 months but since then loads of information has been put forward that thinks its earlier

Question 4

What were some faults in the A not B error test

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Apart from piagets experiment, what measure did others use to measure object permanency?

Answer 5

Violation of expectancy - should increase looking time and heart rate

Question 6

What are the problems with Violation of expectancy?

Answer 6

-Memory limitations

check the rest :/

Question 7

What age does knowledge of gravity begin?

Answer 7

5-7 months

Question 8

What are the different types of constructions we build to test gravity knowledge?

Answer 8

• contact/no contact
• type of contact
• amount of contact
• shape of object

Question 9

What age can infants use shape of object to determine if an object should stay standing?

Answer 9

12.5 months

Question 10

What age can infants use amount of contact to determine if an object should stay standing?

Answer 10

6.5 months

Question 11

What age can infants use type of contact to determine if an object should stay standing?

Answer 11

5 months

Question 12

What age can infants use contact/no contact to determine if an object should stay standing?

Answer 12

3 months

Question 13

What do infants need to learn about behaviour?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

What can infants of 12-15 months do

Answer 14

Attribute goals to an inanimate object that acts like a human

Question 15

How old are infants that are able to attribute disposable states?

Answer 15

12 months
circle trying to get up the hill
triangle helps and square pushes him down

Question 16

What is a concept?

nativist vs empirical

Answer 16

• 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

Question 17

What are concepts for?

Answer 17

Dividing things into hierarchal categories and figuring out what to do with them

Question 18

Which hierarchal category do children learn first?

Answer 18

Basic level

Question 19

What is a child basic category?

Answer 19

A category formed themselves between superordinate and basic level
(things that roll, instead of balls, like a yoyo)

Question 20

Category formation in the first year:

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Categorisation in the 2nd year:

Answer 21

Children start to categorise things by function and overall shape

Question 22

What are two of the most important things in categorisation?

Answer 22

-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)

Question 23

Childrens knowledge of living things:

Answer 23

• 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

Question 24

How old are children that believe plants are living things

Answer 24

7-9

Question 25

How old are children when they begin to understand the concept of heredity

Answer 25

Preschool (but this can be over extended to e.g. toy choice girls because of genes entirely)

Question 26

What is essentialism

Answer 26

Believing all living things have an essence inside them that makes them what they are e.g. boys have boyness

Question 27

What do children learn about growth, illness and repair?

Answer 27

• 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

Question 28

What do nativists believe about children learning about living things?

Answer 28

-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

Question 29

What do empiricists believe about children learning about living things?

Answer 29

-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