Chapter 7 - Cognitive Development Flashcards
What is a concept?
general ideas or understandings used to group together obejects, events, qualities, or abstractions that are similar in some way
What are the 3 general categories of things in nature?
people, other animals, and inanimate objects
What are the three main levels in the category hierarchy? Which one is learned first?
1) Basic level- one in-between
2) superordinate level - general
3) subordinate level - very specific
- the basic level is learned first
By what age are children able to categorize animals in similar environments?
5 months
Describe the Wugs and Gilly Case Study
Two groups of children were read two stores about “Wigs and Gillys” which are monsters with weird features
- one group was told why the wugs and gillys had their features while the other was not
- the group who was told why they had their features were able to better distinguish the Wug from the Gillys
- shows children are able to better categorize new items when told why objects are the way they are
What are naive psychology concepts?
- invisible mental states
- linked to each other in cause-effect relations
What are the 3 naive psychology concept cause-effect relations?
Desires create beliefs which drive actions
(desires, beliefs, actions)
When is the understanding of naive psychology concepts fully developed?
at 4-5 years old
What is theory of mind? When is it done developing?
the ability to have different feelings about the same concepts
- dev’t by 4-5 years old
What is the development of theory of mind important for?
peer relationships and storybook comprehension
What are some cognitive development factors?
- SES: lack of language development, lower SES = later dev’t (dev’t timeline similar to deaf kids)
- Older siblings: (quicker dev’t) must think ahead and predict sibling behavior
- Maternal input and conversations: use of mental state verbs from mother (think, want, know)
What is the false belief task?
what is it used to measure?
what does it force kids to do?
when can kids pass this task by?
- task where children are asked what they think is in a box od candy, revealed that their is an goldfish in box, then asked what someone else may think is in the box
- used to measure theory of mind
- forces kids to hold conflicting ideas at once (self belief and false belief)
- pass after 4-5 years old
How do theory of mind abilities differ in different children (deaf vs hearing)?
- hearing kids and deaf kids with deaf parents have similar high scoring TOM
- deaf kids with hearing parents, and oral deaf children have similar and lower TOM
What is the difference of environment of kids who perform well vs poor on Theory of Mind tasks?
kids who perform well are in linguistically rich environments, and children who perform poorly are in linguistically deprived environments
In what order (earliest to latest) do children understand the theory of mind mental states?
diverse desires (earliest)
diverse beliefs
social pretend
knowledge access
false beliefs (latest)
describe the diverse desires theory of mind mental state. Give an example of a task that tests it.
- people can want different things
- the cookie vs carrot task
describe the diverse beliefs theory of mind mental state. Give an example of a task that tests it.
- people can have different beliefs
- cat in bush vs tree task
describe the social pretend theory of mind mental state. Give an example of a task that tests it.
- understanding pretense in a socially shared situation
- pretending paint cup task
describe the knowledge access theory of mind mental state.
- if you see it, then you know it
describe the false belief theory of mind mental state. Give an example of a task that tests it.
- people act depending on their beliefs
- m&m and goldfish task
Describe the development of children’s play behavior
- Play (12 m/o): helps kids learn what works and what doesn’t work
- Pretend play (18 m/o): still mostly isolated play
- sociodramatic play (30 m/o): start engaging in play with others, helps kids gain knowledge on other people
What category of things do kids prefer after humans?
animals
Describe the living vs non-living things task used in Poulins-Dubois (1999) case study.
- the reaction of kids when observing a human vs robot engaging in the same action
- a women would show prefernce to one object over another, then a lego robot would do the same
- kids understand that humans and inanimate objects are supposed to behave different from humans
- What category of things do kids have trouble categorizing as living or nonliving? - Why?
- When do they finally understand their category?
- plants
- it’s hard to categorize as living because of how slow they move, grow
- usually understand plants are living by 5-7 y/o
How/ does culture shape understanding?
- One’s experiences determine what they have been exposed to and learn
- with the knowledge that comes with different experiences and cultures, comes different lessons learned
What do preschools and older preschoolers understand about biological processes?
- preschoolers: know that physical characteristics tend to be passed down from parents to children
- older preschoolers - recognize that certain aspects of development are controlled by heredity rather than environment (essentialism)
When does the understanding of why, where, when, and how occur?
starts within the first year of life and continues on into adolescence
When do children start mirroring actions to cause desired effects
at 9 to 11 months
