Chapter 2 - Cognitive Development Flashcards

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1
Q

Development

A

orderly, adaptive changes that humans or animals go through

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2
Q

maturation

A

changes that occur naturally and spontaneously, eg physical development

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3
Q

social development

A

brought about through learning

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4
Q

What development of thinking, personality influenced by

A

motivation and interaction with the environment

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5
Q

Three questions across development theories

A
  • Source of development - Nature vs Nurture
  • Shape of development - Continuity vs Discontinuity
  • Timing Critical periods & sensitive periods
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6
Q

Continuity

A

improvement in an ability

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7
Q

Discontinuity

A

development of a new ability

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8
Q

sensitive periods

A

when person especially ready for or responsive to certain experiences

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9
Q

General principles of development

A
  • people develop and different rates
  • development is relatively orderly (but orderly does not mean linear)
  • development takes place gradually
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10
Q

cerebellum

A
  • balance and skilled movements

- higher cognitive functions

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11
Q

hippocampus

A

recalling new information

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12
Q

amygdala

A

directs emotions

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13
Q

thalamus

A
  • learn new information, especially if verbal
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14
Q

neurons

A

specialized nerve cells that accumulate and transmit info

- greyish - “grey matter”

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15
Q

axons and dendrites

A

connect other neuron cells

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16
Q

synapse

A

tiny space between neurons

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17
Q

synaptic plasticity

A

strength of synaptic connections - dynamic

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18
Q

glial cells

A

“white matter” - between neurons

  • fight infections
  • control blood flow and communication
  • provide myelin coating
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19
Q

cerebral cortex

A
  • complex problem-solving, languages
  • largest area of brain
  • last part of brain to develop
  • more susceptible to environmental influences
  • region of cortex that controls physical motor movement matures first, then areas that control vision, hearing, then frontal lobe - high order thinking
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20
Q

temporal lobes of cortex

A

emotions, judgement, language - only developed at high school years

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21
Q

left-side of brain

A

language processing

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22
Q

right side

A

spacial - visual information & emotions (non-verbal)

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23
Q

adolescent development and brain

A
  • increased ability to control behaviour
  • increased organization
  • inhibit impulsive behaviour - but not fully developmed
  • high horse power, poor steering
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24
Q

limbic system

A

emotions, reward-seeking, sensation-seeking, risk-taking, novelty

25
Q

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development - 4 factors influence change in thinking

A
  • biological maturation
  • activity (e.g. seesaw)
  • social experiences
  • equilibration
26
Q

Piaget’s theory - tendencies in thinking

A
  • organization - mental systems or categories
  • adaptation - adjusting to environment
    • assimilation - fit new info into existing schemes
    • accomodation - change existing scheme for new
      information
  • equilibration- search for mental balance between cognitive schemes and information from invironment
27
Q

Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development

A

sensorimotor (0-2 years) - senses
peroperational (7 years old) - develop language
concrete operational (grade 1 to 11 years old) - logical thinking
formal operational (adolescent to adulthood) - think hypothetically

28
Q

semiotic function

A

adility to use symbols - language, picture, signs, gestures to represent real objects

29
Q

centering attention

A

focus on one object

30
Q

compensation

A

change in one dimension offset by change in another

31
Q

seriation

A

arrange objects in sequential order

32
Q

formal operations

A

abstract thinking, coordinate variables

33
Q

hypothetico-deductive reasoning

A

formal operations of problem-solving strategy - identify factors that might affect a problem, deduces and systematically specifies solution

34
Q

adolescent egocentrism

A

assumption that everyone else is intewrested in one’s thoughts, feelings and concerns

35
Q

executive functioning

A

process used to organize, coordinate and perform goal-directed, intentional actions, including focusing attention, inhibiting impulsive responses, making and changing plans, use memory to manipulate information

36
Q

neo-Piagetian theories

A

more recent theories that integrate findings about attention, memory and strategy use with piaget’s insights about children’s thinking and construction of knowledge

37
Q

limitations of Piaget’s theory

A
  • 4 seperate stages questioned
  • lack of consistency in children’s thinking
  • underestimates children’s abilities
  • overlooks children’s social groups and culture
38
Q

Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspective

A

theory emphasizs role in development of cooperative dialogue between children and more knowledgeable members of society

  • children learn culture of community (way of thinking and behaving)
  • human activities take place in cultural settings, and cannot be understoof apart from these settings,
39
Q

Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspective - assumption

A

every function in a child’s cultural development appears twice - on social and individual levels

40
Q

Cultural tools

A

physical tools (PC, scales), & symbol systems (numbers, language) that allow people in a society to communicate, think, solve, create knowledge

41
Q

Psychological tools

A

language

42
Q

collective monologue

A

form of speech in which children in group talk but do not interact

43
Q

Private Speach

A

self-talk, guides thinking and actions, verbalizations internalizerd as silent inner speech - not immaturity

44
Q

Zone of proximal development

A

“magic middle” - area between what sutdent knows and what student is not ready to learn
- phase at which child can master a task if given appropriate help & support

45
Q

Piaget’s position on cognitive development

A

cognitive development precedes learning - not supported by research

46
Q

Vygotsky’s position on learning

A

learning does not have to wait for readiness

47
Q

Limitations of Vygotsky’s theory

A

consists of general ideas

- he dies young, Soviet Union restricted research

48
Q

Implications of Vygotsky’s theory

A

avoid “inch deep, mile wide” curriculum

  • develop higher mental functions
  • imitative learning
  • instructed learning
  • collaborative learning
  • teach directly, intentionallly use modelling to teach
49
Q

Implications of Piaget’s theory

A

help children learn to learn - “form, not finish”

  • understand child’s thinking
  • observe students, listen to their strategies
  • learning is a constructive process
  • value of play
  • to know is to act on
  • scaffolding
50
Q

assisted learning

A
- more than arranging environments
guided participation
- learn from students what is needed
give information, prompts, reminders, encouragement
- adapt materials
- walk through steps
51
Q

What part of the brain is associated with higher mental functions?

A
  • cortex - crumpled sheet of neurons
  • functions - receive signals from sense organs, control vonultary movement, form associations
  • part that controls physical movement develops first
52
Q

What is lateralization and why is it important?

A
  • specialization of two hemispheres of brain
    left = language, right = spacial and visual processing
  • systems work together to perform complex activities like reading and understanding
53
Q

What are the main influences on cognitive development?

A
  • Piaget’s theory - assumes people try to make sense of the world through experiences with objects, people and ideas
  • thinking processes and knowledge development impacted by maturation, social activity, need for equilibrium
  • thoughts organized - assimulation (new info into existing schemes) vs accodation (changing existing schemes)
54
Q

What is a scheme?

A

basic building block of thinking - organized systems of actions or thoughts - allow us to think about objects and events in our world.

55
Q

As children move from sensorimotor to formal-operational thinking, what are the major changes?

A
  • 4 stages of development (according to Piaget) - sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational
  • sensorimotor stage - use senses to explore world - master object permanance, goal-oriented activities
    preoperational stage - symbolic thinking and logical operations begin
  • concrete operations - think logically about tangible situations, demonstrate conservation, reversibility, classification, serialization
  • hypothetico-deductive reasoning, coordinate a set of variables, imagine other worlds
56
Q

How do neo-Piagetian and information processing views explain changes in children’s thinking over time?

A
  • information processing theories focus on attention, memory capacity, learning strategies & processing skills
    Neo-piagetian - also consider attention, memory, strategies
    Research shows as children move through actions to representations to abstractions - move from completing one action to several at once for a whole system of understanding
57
Q

According to Vygotsky, what are the three main influences on cognitive development?

A
  • understand human activites in cultural setting
  • mental structures and processes adn be traced to interactions with others
  • tools of culture (esp. language) = key factor in development
  • zone of proximal development is area where learning and development are possible
58
Q

Explain how interpsychological development becomes intra-psychological development.

A
  • as children engage with adults, peers - exchange ideas, ways of thinking
  • children internalize co-created ideas
  • chilcren appropriate by more capable members of group