Chapter 7 Flashcards
What does cognitive psychology look at?
Higher mental functions (memory, language, problem solving etc)
Why was cognitive psychology created
To explain complex behaviours that can’t be explained by a behaviourist approach
Are cognitive theories based more on animal or human behaviour?
Human
What model are cognitive theories often based on?
An information processing model
Are cognitive theories more or less ambitious than behaviouristic theories
Less
What is the main metaphor of cognitive psychology?
A computer-based information processing metaphor
Main beliefs of cognitive theories
- Current learning builds on previous Learning
- Learning involves information processing
- Meaning depends on relationships among concepts
What is bruner’s learning theory?
Going beyond the information given: we make connections and go above and beyond
According to Bruner what are language and mind the products of?
Cultural evolution
Mind refers to…
Primarily human consciousness, the awareness we have of being, thinking, feeling
What 3 waves are the minds evolution evident through?
- Enactive representation: Machines amplifying human motor capacities (cars and busses)
- Iconic interaction: Machines amplifying human sensory capacities (eye glasses)
- Symbolic interaction: Machines amplifying human intellectual capacities (smart phones)
Enactive representation in children
A baby represents their world through actions
Children represent objects through their own actions
Ex. A baby continues to shake their arm even when you take the rattle away : they think their arm was making the noise
Iconic representation in children
Knowledge represented through visual or auditory icons
Ex. A Childs thinking is dominated by images
Symbolic representation in children
Language starts to influence thoughts
Ex.info can be categorized and summarized to be more readily manipulated
Representation and cognitive theory
A symbolic representational system (mostly language)
Who accounts for the theory of categorization?
Bruner
What is a category
A rule for classifying things as being equal
What does categorizing imply?
the possibility of going beyond the information given (make predictions of things based on their category membership)
Coding systems:
Hierarchical arrangements of related categories
Categorization = generalization
Two models of abstraction
Prototype (general model)
Exemplar (specific model)
Meaning and the narrative construction Of reality
How humans make meaning
How humans use personal narratives to make sense of their lives
Educational implications of bruner’s theory
Theory strongly advocates for discovery-oriented, constructivist teaching methods
Spiral curriculum: increases in difficulty
Who had a developmental-cognitive position
Jean Piaget
Development:
Processes by which children achieve a progressively advanced understanding of the environment and themselves
Epistemology (Piagets intrest)
Concerned with the acquisition of knowledge
What did cognitive development for Piaget involve?
Intellectual schemas
Method-cinique
A semi-structured interview technique where the Childs answers to question determine what the next question will be
What is human development a process of?
Adaptation
What is the highest form of human adaptation?
Cognition
The interplay of what leads to adaptation?
Assimilation and accommodation
There should be an equilibrium between the two
Piagets proposed 2 intellectual processes
Assimilation: interpreting new information in light of an old schema ex. All 4-legged animals are viewed as a dog
Accommodation: where Old schemas are modified to fit new schemas ex. A horse is not a dog
Piagets stages of play
Stage 1: No understanding of rules, do not play according to rules
Stage 2: believe rules come from a higher authority like God and cannot be changed, break and change rules constantly
Stage 3: understand that rules are social and can be changed, do not change rules;adhere to them rigidly
Stage 4: complete understanding of rules, change rules by mutual consent
What is imitation in children primarily?
Accommodation
What does Piaget describe intelligence as?
Mobile - something that changes
What interaction leads to the development of cognitive structures?
Between assimilation and accommodation
What are Piagets stages of development?
Sensorimotor (birth to 2)
Pre-operational (2-7): preconceptual (2 to 4) and intuitive (4 to 7)
Concrete operations (7-12)
Formal operations l(12-15)
Sensorimotor development
Beginning of stage infant has a lack of object concept and an absence of language
Through interaction with the world infants develop language and the ability to coordinate activities
Preoperantional development
Preconceptual: Errol of logic, transductive reasoning
Intuitive: egocentrism (focused on self), absence of conservation
Absence of conservation
Children cannot recognize that although shapes of cups might change liquid density will stay the same
Operation can be defined AS…
A thought that is subject to certain rules of logic
The ability to conserve:
Reversibility
Identity
Compensation
Reversibility
When a child realizes that an action can be reversed and conseques will follow from doing so
Ex. (3+5=8 and 8-3=5)
Identity
Idea that for every operation there is another operation that leaves It unchanged
Ex. (5)+ (-5) =0
Compensation
Combining more than one operation
Concrete operations
Idea of Conservation is achieved
Children can deal with classes, series and numbers
Thinking is tied to what is concrete
Formal operations
Appearance of hypothetical thinking
Abstract relations
What forces shape learning?
Maturation
Active experience
Equilibration
Social interaction
What did piaget’s theory significantly impact?
School curriculum
Vygotsky zone of proximal development
The range of tasks A child can preform with the help of others
What is vygotskys theory an example of?
Constructivism ( construction/help)
Piaget’s vs vygotsky theory
Piagets theory focuses on forces within the child
Vegotsy focuses on forces outside of the child ( cultural and social)
The tools of mind curriculum
Zone Of proximal growth (what challenges the students)
Scaffolding ( techniques used to help learners ) ex. Graphic organizers and visuals
