4. Cognitive Skills & Development - Piaget Flashcards
Genetic Epistemology
Piaget’s experimental study of the development of knowledge
Genetic meaning developmental
Intelligence
A basic life function enabling an organism to adapt to its environment
Goal of intellectual activity: to achieve cognitive equilibrium
Cognitive Equilibrium
A balanced/harmonious relationship between our thought processes and the environment
Accommodation over assimilation
Cognitive Disequilibria
- Children are continuously challenged by new stimuli and events
- This leads them to make mental adjustments, enabling them to restore equilibrium by coping with these new, confusing experiences
Assimilation over accommodation
Constructivists
A person who gains knowledge through action towards objects/events, allowing them to discover more about them
Constructing knowledge yourself
Children are constructivists (Piaget)
Schemas/Schemes
Patterns of thought or action seen as base knowledge which we use to interpret the world
- Mental systems underlying intelligence
- Representations of reality
Two Types:
Behavioural - physical activities
Mental - cognitive activities
Enable you to get used to new situations quicker (e.g. new teacher but knowing classroom etiquette remains the same)
Construction & Modification of Schemas
- Organisation
- Adaption
2.a. Assimilation
2.b. Accommodation
Organisation
- Combining existing schemas to form new and more complex schemas
- e.g. gazing, reaching & grasping reflexes are combined to form visually directed reaching (a more complex structure)
Isolated behaviours grouped into a higher order
Goal: to promote adaptation
Adaption
- The process of adjusting based on what the environment demands
- Adaptation occurs through two activities (complimentary)
Assimilation
- Children use their existing schemas to interpret new experiences
- e.g. connecting a horse & a dog because they both have 4 legs, thinking they are the same animal
Accommodation
- We modify existing schemas based on new experiences
- e.g. recognizing that there are key differences between a horse and a dog and asking what the horse is
Cognitive dissonance
Used when assimilation doesn’t help us understand
Piaget’s Stages of Development
- Sensorimotor (0-2)
- Pre-operational stage (2-7)
- Concrete operational stage (7-11)
- Formal operational stage (11+)
Sensorimotor Stage Breakdown
- Reflex activity/simple reflexes
- First habits & primary circular reactions
- Secondary circular reactions
- Coordination of secondary circular reactions
- Tertiary circular reactions
- Symbolic problem solving/internalization of schemes
Sensorimotor - 1. Reflex activity/simple reflexes
Birth to 1 month
Developing of basic reflexes
Object permanence
Knowing something still exists despite not being able to see it
Simple problem solving
Sensorimotor - 2. first habits & primary circular reactions
1-4 months
Creation of first habits e.g. continue sucking despite no longer breastfeeding
Circular reactions
Circular reactions
reproduction of event which was initially occurred by chance, becomes a habit
e.g. crying, receiving a reward, crying more
Sensorimotor - 3. Secondary circular reactions
4-8 months
Similar to primary but with less important events?
Infants become more object oriented
Focus: physical world
Child wants to repeat satisfying experience
e.g. squeezing a rubber duck, discovering it makes a sound, repeating
Sensorimotor - 4. Coordination of secondary circular reactions
8-12 months
Intentional actions increase while random actions decrease
- Slowly gets more control of their behaviours
Coordination of vision and touch
- Hand-eye coordination
A not B error
A not B error
Mistake of selecting a familiar place to find an object even when it’s been moved
Lack of object permanence
Sensorimotor - 5. Tertiary circular reactions
12-18 months
Reproducing actions in different ways
Leads to children becoming better problem solvers
Improves object permanence & A to B search
Example: rubber duck, try throwing or stomping on it to create a new satisfying reaction
Sensorimotor - 6. Symbolic problem solving/internalization of schemes
18-24 months
Completion of object permanence
Beginning of mental representations i.e. schemes
Gaining control of your schemas
Mental representations are possible due to the completion of object permanence
Sensorimotor Criticism
Too much focus on nature rather than nurture
- First stage was completely innate
- Environment is ignored
Divided into stages
- Process of development is continuous
First stage was based on his own children
- Tiny sample, bias
No supporting evidence for A to B error
Underestimation of babies’ cognitive strength
Pre-operational stage
2-7 years old
Begin thinking symbolically
Imitation begins
Focused on children’s limitations
Deferred imitation
Inferred imitation
Make-believe play
2 substages:
1. Symbolic function stage
2. Intuitive thought stage
Deferred imitation
e.g. having a tantrum as a result of seeing another child having a tantrum
But also without their presence once it has been witnessed
Result of object permanence
Inferred imitation
Imitation of behaviour directly in front of you
Pre-operational - symbolic function stage
2-4 years
Can mentally represent an object without its presence
Limitations:
Egocentrism
Animism
Artificialism
Egocentrism
Can only see the world from their own point of view, cannot imagine the perspective of other people
3 mountains task - can’t imagine that someone else would see anything different to you
Animism
Giving lifelike qualities to inanimate objects/concepts
e.g. believing dolls are alive
Artificialism
Believing you have control over something you do not
e.g. the rain
Pre-operational - intuitive thought stage
4-7 years old
‘Why’ stage
Belief that caregivers know everything
Limitations:
(lack of) Reversibility
Centration
Conservation
Reversibility
Mentally reversing an action or imagining alternate scenarios to what has actually happened
Lack of - cannot do this
Centration
Infant only focuses on one aspect/characteristic of an object, ignoring other important aspects
Conservation
Knowing an object keeps it’s qualities despite superficial changes e.g. to appearance
Water example
Pre-operational Criticism
3 mountains task - too difficult for children
Underestimated developmental speed
- Concrete operational stage
7-11 years
Conservation
Logical reasoning replaces intuition
Horizontal decalage
Classification
Transitivity
Cognitive map
Spacial reasoning
Seriation
Horizontal decalage
Understand certain concepts before others e.g.conservation - mass before volume
Similar abilities do not appear at the same time
Classification
Ability to classify things & see the relationships between them e.g. division into sets/subsets
Transitivity
Ability to reason about and logically combine relationships
A is bigger than B, B is bigger than C, therefore A is bigger than C
Cognitive map
Being able to create mental representations of known areas
Related to spatial reasoning
Seriation
The ability to put something into a sequence
Putting something in order
E.g. able to say the alphabet in order but not backwards or from the middle
- Formal operational stage
11+
Not everyone reaches this stage (criticism of this stage), ⅓ manage to reach this stage
Decision making (differs between adults & adolescents)
*Hypothetical deductive reasoning
Inductive reasoning
Propositional thought
Internal reflection
Consequences of self-reflect
Whole Theory Criticism
Nature over nurture
Small, biased sample
Continuous development, not stages
Role of language is ignored
Not a universal theory - not everyone goes to the last stage
Timing - incorrect
Education
Teacher observes child and asks relevant questions
PBL style
Constructivist approach/Cognitive constructivism - Discussion over imitation
