background info

Question 1

who is piaget?

Answer 1

he was a psychologist that focused on child development, and created the theory of cognitive development

Question 2

what is cognitive development?

Answer 2

the continuous, lifelong development of the ability to think, comprehend and organise information from the internal and external environment.

Question 3

what is schemata

Answer 3

‘units of knowledge’ that each represent some aspect of the world, and becomes more sophisticated as we develop and mature. we have schemata for things such as school, people, experiences, events etc.

Question 4

what is assimilation

Answer 4

assimilation is the process of obtaining new information and fitting it into an existing schema (calling a truck a car, as they have only developed a schema for cars)

Question 5

what is accommodation

Answer 5

changing an existing mental idea or creating a new schema to fit new information (a child develops a new mental idea to categorise trucks separate to cars)

Question 6

describe piaget’s theory

Answer 6

he believed infants and children were capable thinkers and that cognitive development cannot be directly observed, but rather can be inferred through overt behaviour