Chapter 6 Flashcards
What is cognition?
Cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.
Describe Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
Piaget’s theory suggests that intelligent behavior results from children trying to adapt to their environment. It involves schemas (psychological structures organizing interrelated experiences), which change through assimilation and accommodation.
What is assimilation and accommodation in Piaget’s theory?
Assimilation is the cognitive process of incorporating new experiences into existing schemas. Accommodation is the cognitive modification of existing schemas due to new experiences.
How do children act as “scientists” according to Piaget?
Children are naturally curious and form imperfect theories based on experience to understand the world. They test and revise these theories through observation and experimentation.
Describe habituation in infant cognition.
Habituation is the decline in response after repeated exposure to a stimulus, indicating that the infant has become accustomed to it.
What are the stages of Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory?
Piaget’s stages include:
Sensorimotor (0-2 years): Intelligence through perception and exploration.
Preoperational (2-7 years): Symbolic representation, egocentrism, and centration.
Concrete operational (7-12 years): Reversibility and logical reasoning.
Formal operational (12+ years): Abstract thinking and problem-solving.
What is the information processing approach?
The information processing approach involves understanding cognitive processes as a series of stages: input, process, and response. Memory plays a significant role in these stages, with long-term memory relying on short-term memory for retrieval.
Describe early memory and its development in infants.
Early memory improves significantly in the first two years, with context and meaningfulness affecting memory. Infants encode detailed memories in certain situations and begin to develop autobiographical memory around 3 years old.
What is infantile amnesia, and what are its possible causes?
Infantile amnesia is the inability to remember anything prior to age 3. Possible causes include lack of explicit memory, an unclear sense of self, limited language development, and neurogenesis/overwriting of early memory.
What are the stages of language development in infants?
Language development includes:
Biological sounds (newborn): Crying when hungry or in pain, cooing when satisfied.
Onset babbling (4-6 months): Experimenting with sounds.
Canonical babbling (>9 months): Vowel and consonant combinations.
Communicative intent: Comprehension and production of speech sounds.
Describe language acquisition in infants.
Language acquisition includes:
Holophrases: One word that interprets a whole sentence.
Telegraphic speech: 2-3 words conveying meaning.
Overextension: Using broad categories in language.
Language learning involves fast mapping, biases, and constraints like whole object assumption and contrast assumption.
What are the different models of language learning?
Nativist model: Chomsky’s Language Acquisition Device (LAD) proposes the brain is dedicated to learning language.
Social Pragmatic Word Learning: Socio-constructivism emphasizes interaction with others.
Emergent Coalition Model of Word Learning: Preprogrammed to learn language with biases and constraints.
