Ch. 6: Theories of Cognitive Development

Question 1

What is perhaps the most basic principle of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 1

Child as scientist: naturally curious, theorizes about world around them.

Question 2

Define assimilation and accommodation.

Answer 2

Assimilation: new experiences readily incorporated into existing theories.

Accommodation: existing theories are modified based on experience.

Question 3

Assimilation and accommodation are usually in balance, or _____. When balance is upset, children reorganize their theories to restore this, a process Piaget called _____.

Answer 3

Equilibrium; equilibration.

Question 4

The process of equilibration results in what?

Answer 4

Qualitatively different and more advanced schemas

- mental structures or concepts in the child’s mind.

Question 5

In Piaget’s theory, _____ reorganizations of theories lead to _____ stages of cognitive development

Answer 5

3; 4.

Question 6

Describe how and when the sensorimotor stage begins and ends. What do children develop during this stage?

Answer 6

Spans from birth to 2 years of age.

Begins with reflexive responding, ends with using symbols.

Object permanence: understanding that objects exist independently.

Question 7

During the sensorimotor stage, what occurs at 8-10 months of age. 12 months?

Answer 7

8-10 months: intentional action towards world.

12 months: active experimenters.

Question 8

Describe how and when the preoperational stage begins and ends. What are the three errors of thinking in this stage?

Answer 8

Spans ages 2 to 7 years.

Children use symbols to represent objects but there are many errors in thinking.

Egocentrism: difficulty seeing the world from another’s viewpoint.

Animism: give inanimate objects animate properties.

Centration: concentrate on one aspect of something, but completely ignore other equally relevant aspects.

Question 9

Describe how and when the concrete operational stage begins and ends

Answer 9

Spans ages 7 to 11 years.

Thinking based on mental operations (strategies and rules that make thinking more systematic and powerful). Operations can be reversed. Focus on the real and concrete, not the abstract.

Question 10

What are three tasks assessing shift from Preoperational to Concrete Thought and what do each focus on?

Answer 10

Perspective Taking Tasks (Egocentrism).

Conservation Tasks (Centration).

Class Inclusion Tasks (Mental Operations).

Question 11

What is a critical component of class inclusion?

Answer 11

Understanding that a subclass cannot be greater than its superordinate class.

Question 12

Describe the formal operational stage. When does it begin? What does it entail?

Answer 12

Spans from roughly age 11 to adulthood.

Increasingly able to think abstractly. Adolescents can think hypothetically and use deductive reasoning to draw appropriate conclusions from facts.

Question 13

List three of Piaget’s contributions to child development.

Answer 13

The study of cognitive development itself.

A new, constructivist view of children.

Fascinating, often counterintuitive, discoveries.

Question 14

What is constructivism?

Answer 14

Children are active participants in own development who systematically construct more sophisticated understandings of their worlds.

Question 15

What are four weaknesses of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 15

Underestimates cognitive competence in infants; overestimates in adolescence.

Some components too vague to test.

Stage model doesn’t account for variability.

Undervalues influence of sociocultural forces.

Question 16

What is the sociocultural perspective?

Answer 16

Cognitive development is inseparable from social and cultural contexts.

Question 17

What is the zone of proximal development? What is scaffolding?

Answer 17

Zone of proximal development: difference between what one can do alone or with assistance.

Scaffolding: teaching style that matches assistance to learner’s need.

Question 18

What are cultural differences for scaffolding between Turkey, India, Guatemala, and the United States?

Answer 18

Turkey and U.S. have higher verbal instruction.

Guatemala most for gestures.

India/Guatemala: about 40% use gaze/touches, virtually nonexistent in U.S. and Turkey.

Question 19

What is private speech? What did Vygotsky think of “thought”?

Answer 19

Private speech: comments intended to regulate own behaviour.

Vygotsky thinks of “thought” as inner speech.

Question 20

What learning opportunities does scaffold learning emphasize?

Answer 20

Learning opportunities that are social and cooperative, encouraging children to teach and learn from each other.

Question 21

Information processing theory uses the computer as an analogy to explain human cognition. What are the four pieces of “mental hardware” and what are their computer counterparts?

Answer 21

Sensory memory (input devices): large capacity, very brief.

Working memory (RAM): limited capacity, rehearsal important.

Long-term memory (storage): unlimited capacity, permanent; access and retrieval important.

Central executive (CPU): directs and monitors all activity.

Question 22

Define intersubjectivity and guided participation.

Answer 22

Intersubjectivity: refers to mutual, shared understanding among participants in an activity.

Guided participation: cognitive growth results from children’s involvement in structured activities with others who are more skilled.

Question 23

What are inhibitory processes? What do they, along with planning and cognitive flexibility, define?

Answer 23

Prevent task-irrelevant information from entering working memory.

Executive functioning.

Question 24

Cognitive activities that require virtually no effort are known as _____.

Answer 24

Automatic processes.

Question 25

Describe core-knowledge theories. What beliefs do they hold about knowledge and how it is acquired?

Answer 25

Much knowledge is general and we also have distinctive domains of knowledge, some of which are acquired early in life.

Some forms of knowledge so important for survival that learning of these is simplified. Children rapidly acquire language and knowledge of objects, people, and living things.

Question 26

Babies understand objects earlier than _____ proposed.

Answer 26

Piaget.

Question 27

By 18 months, infants are combining what?

Answer 27

Categories and creating subcategories of objects, based on increased knowledge and on information from parents.

Question 28

Infants form categories to organize objects by _____ and _____.

Answer 28

Properties; function.

Question 29

Infants and toddlers use _____ to identify animate objects.

Answer 29

Motion.

Question 30

What are teleological explanations?

Answer 30

Children come to understand that there is a purpose for living things and their part.

Question 31

Young children exhibit a belief in essentialism. What does this mean? Provide an example.

Answer 31

All living things have an essence.

E.g., birds have “birdness.”

Question 32

Between ages two and five, children develop a _____, a naïve understanding of the relations between mind and behaviour.

Answer 32

Theory of mind.

Question 33

Theory of mind allows understanding of four mental states. What are they? As well, what is crucial to note regarding mental states?

Answer 33

Desires, intentions, emotions, beliefs.

People act on their mental states, not reality per se.

Question 34

What does theory of mind permit?

Answer 34

Accurate prediction of others’ thoughts and behaviours.

Question 35

What are the two versions of false belief tasks?

Answer 35

Unexpected Location Task.

Unexpected Content Task.

Question 36

Representational change tasks aim to measure how a child understands that one’s OWN representations can change and update own false beliefs with new information. What are the findings with these tasks?

Answer 36

3 year olds fail, 5 year olds pass.

Question 37

Describe theory of mind in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). What are three potential reasons for issues?

Answer 37

Grasp false beliefs very slowly.

“Mindblindness.”

Executive functioning deficits: worse predicts worse false belief.

Focused processing style.