Chapter 9 Flashcards
epistemology
the study of the origins of knowledge and how we know what we know
adaptation
piaget believed that adaptation is composed of two processes, assimilation and accommodation, which work together to drive development forward
equilibration
in piagetian theory, a state in which children’s schemes are in balance and are undisturbed by conflict
reflexive schemes
from birth to 1 month of age. in piaget’s theory the first substage of sensorimotor development, when infants use their innate reflexes (e.g., sucking, grasping) to explore their world
sensorimotor stage substages
- reflexive schemes (birth to 1 month)
- primary circular reactions (1 - 4)
- secondary circular reactions (4 - 10)
- coordination of secondary schemes (10 - 12)
- tertiary circular reactions (12 - 18)
- beginning of thought (18 - 24)
deferred imitation
the ability to copy or mimic the actions of others, some time after they have seen these actions, an important type of learning in humans, and facilitated by mirror neurons
substages of the pre operational stage
- symbolic function substage (2 - 4)
- intuitive substage (4 - 7)
symbolic function stage
the first substage in piaget’s pre operational stage of reasoning, in which children acquire the ability to mentally represent objects that are not physically present
intuitive substage
from approximately 4 to 7 years. the second part of piaget’s preoperational stage of thinking, when children begin to classify, order, and quantify in a more systematic manner
pretend play
‘make-believe play’ in which the child may pretend to be other people or act out real-life situations
egocentrism
tendency to perceive the world solely from one’s own point of view, and is a concept that has been extensively studied under the heading of theory of mind
three mountain task
a task used by piaget where the child is shown a model of three mountains and asked to choose the view that would be seen by someone in a different location from themselves, and the preoperational child typically chooses the view from their own location
rational imitation
where infants produce an action that they think the adult intended to do, rather than what the adult actually did
seriation task
putting items in a coherent or logical order
transitive inference
the relation between two (or more) premises (e.g., A > B, B > C) that leads to an inference that is logically necessary (A > C)
false positive
believing something to be true, when in fact it is false
class inclusion
the ability to coordinate and reason about parts and wholes simultaneously in recognising relations between classes and subclasses
categorisation
the grouping together of items that have some characteristic or characteristics in common
reversibility
the ability to imagine a series of steps in both forward and reverse directions. characteristic of thinking in Piaget’s concrete operations stage
horizontal décalage
refers to the non-synchronous development of children on piagetian tasks (e.g., cases in which children may succeed on conservation of number tasks but not on conservation of continuous quantity)
vertical décalage
within piagetian terminology this is where the child has a level of understanding at one level (perhaps at the level of action) that has to be reconstructed at a later age at a different stage or level of understanding (perhaps at the level of thought)
phenomenism
knowledge that is limited to appearances such that, in tasks that involve distinguishing reality from appearance, children report only appearance
realism
believing that things are as they appear and not what they might be, e.g., saying that a sponge that looks like a rock really is a rock
scaffolding
the process whereby adults structure and simplify a child’s environment in order to facilitate their learning
working memory
short-term memory store in which mental operations such as rehearsal and categorisation take place
overlapping waves
a central concept in Ziegler’s theory of development in which at any one time the child has a number of strategies that can be used to solve problems. over time less efficient strategies are replaced by more effective ones
private speech
as children master language they can use internal self-directed speech to guide their thinking and planning
guided participation
children’s ability to learn from interaction with others
