area 4 child psychology Flashcards
what is cognitive development?
Refers to the way children (and adults) become more skillful thinkers and learners. Many people thought that children thought in the same way as adults but just knew less however modern research has disproven this.
what does piagets theory believe?
believes that a child invents his/her own understanding of the world around them
his stages were invariant and universal.
what are the stages of piagets theory?
sensori motor- obj permanaence
pre-operational- egocentric, aministic
concrete-operational- conservation
formal- operational- hypothetical thinking
what are schemas?
organised mental structures each containing knowledge of some aspect of the world. Babies are born with simple schemas which become more complex through two main processes.
how do we store information in schemas?
assimilation- add new experiences to existing schemas
accomadation- Creating new schemas to hold new information that is combined.
how do children progress into the next stage?
when happy in their stage they are in equilibrium
they experience disequilibrium when they come across something new, By adapting to new situations through a cycle of assimilation and accommodation, we restore that balance – equilibrium.
how did Piaget study his stages?
quasi experiment measuring ability to conserve number
used a small sample of Swiss children including his children
what did vygotsky believe?
should be an emphasis on culture and social interaction
More Knowledgeable others (MKO’s) help the intellectual development of younger people by interacting with them, passing on not only knowledge and skills but also values f their culture. So children discover not just what to learn but how to learn within the context of what matters in society.
what else did vygotsky believe was important in cognitive development?
Language is a cultural tool in this learning process. From about the age of 2 years language is necessary for thought and therefore at least partly drives cog development.
what did vygotsky say about cognitive development?
any child currently functioning at a particular developmental level is capable of progressing further after social interaction with adults. . This gap is called the ZPD Learning in the child’s ZPD causes existing cognitive structures to be reorganised intramentally at a higher developmental level, so he or she acquires more advanced reasoning skills.
what did brunner believe about cogntitve development?
believed learning was about understanding concepts or problem solving and the ability to be creative and autonomous and ‘invent’ new thoughts. key tool to enable a child to develop in a stimulating environment. Bruner also formed a stage theory:
what are the stages of brunners stage theory?
enactive- objects need to be touched and played with, the child may have no internalised schema of the object.
iconic- objects are represented by pictures or icons – pictures of books of objects
symbolic- words or formulaue can represent the object. – read words or look at words that represent the objects
what did Perry believe about cognitive development?
college students pass through a predictable sequence of stages students move from position one to position nine but at any point may encounter new areas where they will start again at position one. Data gathered from interviewing Harvard students.
dualist – right wrong approach
relativist – understanding multiple points.
what are perrys stages?
Dualism 1 & 2- My tutor knows what is right and wrong, Learn the right solutions by
Repeating/Summarisng
Multiplicity 3 & 4- Everyone has their right to their own opinions, Learn how to find the right solutions by examining/ Investigating
Relativism 5 & 6- There are no right or wrong answers it depends on the situation,
Learn to evaluate solutions by Interpreting/ Predicting
Commitment 7,8 9- What is important is what I think, realises commitment is an ongoing unfolding evolving activity by judging, Criticising
what is the background to wood?
skill acquisition is hierarchical. Scaffolding allows people to solve a problem that would be beyond their capabilities without any help. The tutor can control aspects of a task
We have to recognize what a solution would look like before being able to produce steps to solving a problem
Clinchy- in a 20 q’s game, people could recognize the difference between a good and a bad strategy and between good and bad questions but couldn’t produce good strategies or good questions without help
aim of wood?
Investigate a natural tutorial session to gain knowledge about interactive and instructional relationship between developing child and elders
This WASN’T a formal test it was just a description of how children would respond to help when problem solving
method of wood?
Natural observation
Controlled observation- in a lab setting
sample of wood?
30 children who were 3+, 4+ and 5 years old
All from middle to lower class families from Massachusetts USA
The parents gave consent on behalf of the child as they volunteered and accompanied the child to the sessions which lasted 20-60 minutes
what criteria did the task have to meet?
set task to meet several criteria:
fun- so child isn’t bored
Easy for child to do within capabilities but complex enough to extend them
what happened in the task?
Task was to construct a pyramid form a set of blocks
Tutor was Gail ross, one of the researchers.
The main goal was to allow the child to do as much as they could themselves.
Each child was tutored individually and sat at a small table with 21 blocks spread out on it
5 minutes of free play. After this tutor took 2 block and demonstrated how they fit together as a pair.
what happened after the demonstration by the tutor?
Tutor then tailored their behaviour to the 3 possible responses the child could give
1- If child ignored the tutor and continued to play. The tutor would demonstrate again
2- If child selected blocks themselves and tried to assemble using same method but missed out part tutor said it was incomplete and compared with the final model
3- The child took blocks presented by tutor to construct for themselves. The tutor verbally corrected any mistakes they made
what were the constructions categorized into?
Assisted- assemble after tutor presented
Unassisted- assemble after selecting
Assisted- manipulated assemble after presenting
unassisted- manipulated blocks after selecting themselves
what was tutor intervention was categorized into?
direct assistance- presented indicated block to assemble
verbal error prompt- presented or indicated block to assemble
verbal attempt to get child to make more constructions- ‘can you do anymore like this?’
results about construction acts?
Construction acts- no difference in activity between age groups in putting blocks together/ disassembling them
3 y/o needed more help as they couldn’t put 4 blocks together however all 4+5 y/o did
