Biopsychology Flashcards
Intro to his theory + definitions
Piagets theory of cognitive development
- According to Piaget, children do not only know less than adults, they think very differently, h studied the way children learnt, he focused on the motivation (why do children learn) and how children learn
- A schema is a cognitive framework or concept that helps individuals organize and interpret information, growing in number and complexity as children develop, enabling deeper world understanding
- Assimilation: Integration of new information into existing schemas.
- Accommodation: Modifying existing schemas or creating new ones to fit new information.
- Equilibration: When our existing schemas can explain what we perceive around us
When we meet a new situation that we cannot explain it creates a disequilibrium, this is an unpleasant sensation which we try to escape, this gives the motivation for learning (leads to assimilation and accomodation)
The stages of cognitive development
Some People Can Fly
Piagets theory of cognitive development
Sensorimotor stage (0-2 yrs):
- Infants learn about the world through their senses and actions, develop object permanence; realising that objects continue to exist even when out of sight
- Piaget observed the behaviour of infants who were looking at an attractive object when it was removed from their sight. Until about eight months, children would immediately switch their attention away from the object once it was out of sight, however after eight months they would actively look for the object
Preoperational stage (2-7 years):
- Children begin to use language and think symbolically, yet their thinking is still intuitive and egocentric (only see things from their own point of view, eg is the Three Mountains Study).
- They struggle with understanding other perspectives and exhibit centration, focusing on one aspect of a situation.
- The child has difficulties with class inclusion; he can classify objects but cannot include objects in sub-sets, which involves classifying objects as belonging to two or more categories simultaneously.
Concrete operational stage (7-11 yrs):
- Logical thinking develops, most children gain a better understanding of the concept of conservation; the idea that quantity remains the same despite changes the shape or appearance. They can classify objects and comprehend mathematical concepts
- Children have better reasoning abilities, but can only be applied to physical objects in the childs presence
- Children perform better on egocentrism tasks and class inclusion
Formal operational stage (11+ yrs):
- Children can now solve abstract problems, solving problems using the hypo deductive reasoning; developing hypothesis and testing them
- Develop idealistic thinking; develop the ability to manipulate things in their heads without the need for the objects to be present.
- Theyre able to form arguments and conclusions about problems in their abstract forms
AO3 of Piagets theory of cognitive development
- One weakness is piaget may’ve underestimated the abilities of younger children. In the three mountains task, Hughes (1975) showed that young children could cope with the task if it was more realistic, for example using a naughty boy doll who was hiding from a toy policeman. This means that children can take another’s perspective under more ‘real’ conditions. In other words, Piaget’s method was not actually testing egocentricity. Consequently, Piaget may have underestimated the ability of children at the pre-operational stage and egocentrism as a concept in Piaget’s theory might be flawed.
- One strength of Piagets theory is it has very important applications. Piaget’s stage theory implies that children are not biologically ‘ready’ to be taught certain concepts until they have reached a certain age. E.g. it would be difficult to teach a preoperational child to perform abstract maths calculations. Therefore, for real learning to take place, activities should be at the appropriate level for a child’s age. The Plowden Report (1967) drew extensively on Piaget’s theory, incorporated many of Piaget’s ideas into its final report. This led to major changes in primary school education in the UK.
- One weakness of his theory is it may suffer from cultural bias. Piaget placed considerable value on the role of logical operations in the development of thinking. For example, Dasen (1994) cites studies he conducted in remote parts of the central Australian desert with 8 to 14-year-old Indigenous Australians. He gave them conservation of liquid tasks and spatial awareness tasks. He found that the ability to conserve came later in the Aboriginal children, between the ages of 10 and 13 (as opposed to between 7-11, with Piaget’s Swiss sample). This may be because Piaget came from a middle-class European background and his studies involved children from European academic families who valued academic abilities. In other cultures and social classes, greater value may be placed on, for example, a more basic level of concrete operations (i.e. making things rather than thinking about abstract ideas) Therefore, his theory may not be universally applicable.
AO1 of Vygotsky’s ZPD
- It refers to the range of tasks that a learner can perform with guidance and assistance but cannot yet accomplish independently. Challenging tasks promote maximum cognitive growth. The ZPD (zone of promixal development) highlights the potential for learning and development when a learner is supported by a more knowledgeable other (MKO), such as a teacher, peer, or mentor.
- Scaffolding describes the conditions that support the child’s learning, to move from what they already know to new knowledge and abilities. Just as physical scaffolding supports a new building, mental scaffolding supports the child in a new task. Both can be removed at a later stage when the building/child can stand alone.Scaffolding is an instructional strategy that involves providing temporary support to learners as they acquire new skills or knowledge. This support is gradually removed as the learner becomes more competent and capable of performing the task independently.
Vygotsky also believed that the ability to reason/think is the outcome of a fundamentally social process, where cognitive skills develop as the child interacts with other people. Interaction enables children to see adults and older children using problem-solving skills and cognitive tools, and to internalise these mental skills to use themselves.
AO3 of Vygotsky’s ZPD
- A key strength of Vygotsky’s ZPD theory is its emphasis on the role of social interaction in cognitive development. Vygotsky proposed that children can perform tasks they cannot do independently when supported by more knowledgeable others (MKOs), such as teachers, peers, or parents. This aligns with his view that learning is a social process and that collaboration accelerates cognitive growth.
Research by Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976) supports this idea, demonstrating that children are able to perform more complex tasks when provided with appropriate guidance. Their study found that scaffolding, or support provided within the ZPD, leads to improved problem-solving abilities in children.
This concept of learning through social interaction has strong practical applications in modern classrooms and educational practices, such as collaborative learning and peer tutoring, and highlights the importance of the social context in cognitive development.
AO1 of Baillargeon et al
- Baillargeon critised Piagets theory, specifically his ideas around object permanence, she developed the violation of expectation method; a technique in which an expectancy of a physical event is created then an unexpected event happens.
The study consisted of 2 stages:
- Stage 1: infants are shown a particular event (for example, a train
on a circular track going into a tunnel and emerging) several times.
The first stage of the research allows the infants to become familiar
with the stimulus and stop responding to it.
- Stage 2: the infants are divided into two groups.
- Half of the sample are shown an expected event that is compatible with what they have seen before (the train goes into a tunnel and emerges)
- The other half are shown an unexpected event (the train fails to emerge from the tunnel or a different object emerges from the tunnel).
Baillergeon et al. compared the amount of time the infants spent
looking at both events and found that this was significantly longer
in the unexpected, experimental condition. They concluded that
infants’ attention was grabbed by the apparently impossible event of
a solid object - the drawbridge - moving through the hidden block
of wood. Thus Baillergeon et al. concluded that infants remembered
that the hidden block existed - demonstrating object permanence -
and were surprised when it did not stop the drawbridge in its path.
