A2: Intellectual development (across the life stages) Flashcards
Define cognitive development?
What are the 3 stages of cognitive development + brief summary?
A child’s ability to learn + solve problems.
STAGES:
1) Abstract logical thinking - the ability to solve problems using the imagination.
2) Egocentric thinking - not being able to see a situation from another’s POV.
3) concrete logical thinking - the ability solve (physical) problems.
What are Piaget’s cognitive stages of development? (sexy penguins cant fly)
describe the 3 mountains study?
1) - Sensorimotor (0-2)
- Preoperational (2-6)
- Concrete operational (7-12)
- Formal operational (12+)
2) - Child see’s a goat / adult see’s a tree
- Swap seats
- Child sees a tree / Adult sees goat
- When asked what the adult can see, they say what they can see (tree) - egocentrism.
Describe sensorimotor? (0-2)
What’s object permanance?
Define preoperational? (2-6)
1) The infant explores the world through direct sensory and motor contact. Object permanance and seperation anxiety develop at this stage.
2) Object permanance = objects still exist even if they cannot be seen.
3) Child uses symbols (word/images) to represent objects but does not reason logically. The child has formed the ability to pretend. The child is egocentric, still influenced by sight.
Describe concrete operational stage?
Describe formal operational stage?
1) the child can think logically about concrete objects and can add + subtract. The child can also understand conversation.
2) the adolescent can reason abstractly and think in hypothetic terms
What can children do in the sensorimotor stage? (2)
What can’t they do? (3)
1) - learn through senses
- egocentric
2) - No abstract throught
- No object permanance
- cant conserve
What can children do in the pre-operational stage? (2)
What can’t they do? (2)
1) - Create schema’s
- egocentric
2) - carry out logical operations
- cant conserve
What can children do in the concrete operational stage? (2)
What can’t they do? (2)
1) - use logical thinking
- less egocentric
2) - abstract thought
- hypothetical concepts
What can children do in the formal operational stage? (3)
1) - have abstract thought
- solve hypothetical problems
- consider consequences
Strengths of Piaget’s cognitive development?
Weaknesses of Piaget’s cognitive development?
STRENGTHS:
1) provides a guideline to compare the cognitive development of children. can be used to identify any learning disabilities.
2) Piaget outlined that the ages were an average and children move through the stages at different rates.
WEAKNESSES:
1) small sample size - can’t be generalised.
2) Some children don’t progress to the last stage due to learning disabilities.
What is a schema?
What is the schema process? (4)
1) A category of knowledge as well as a process of acquiring new skills.
2)
- Assimilation
- Equilibrium
- Disequilibrium
- Accomodation
Define assimilation?
Define equilibrium?
Define disequilibrium?
Define accommodation?
1) Pre-existing knowledge / taking in new info into our already existing schema.
2) Your experience matches pre-existing knowledge (schema).
3) New info doesn’t fit into pre-existing knowledge (schema).
4) Changing /altering our existing knowledge (schema) for new info.
Give examples for each schema stage?
Assimilation: Knowing grapes are round, small, and green.
Equilibrium: seeing something that is also small, green, and round, then thinking its a grape.
Disequilibrium: tasting the ‘grape’ and realising it’s bitter and not sweet.
Accommodation: knowing it was an olive which is very different from a grape.
What did Chomsky - Language acquisition device state?
What did Chomsky propose?
1) LAD enables children to recognise and develop the languages they experience.
2) All children are ‘programmed’ to acquire language.
He suggested that the same pattern of development occurs regardless of the language (we all go through the same stages) but not at the same pace.
Strengths of LAD?
Weaknesses of LAD?
STRENGTHS:
1) Chomsky applied his research to all languages.
2) It’s hard to conduct research into this area as it’s unethical to isolate a child from language.
WEAKNESSES:
1) Chomsky didn’t look at children with delayed language development - is the research generalisable to everyone?
2) LAD lacks scientific studies to support it - is it valid?
How is intellectual development affected during early-middle adulthood? (2)
- Thoughts are logical/realistic.
- Job roles allow them to work through problems + make decisions.
What are the effects on the function of memory during later adulthood?
Memory loss is associated with ageing process.
- It may take longer to recall information.
