chapter 9: cognitive development Flashcards
epistemology
the study of the origins of knowledge and how we know what we know
scheme
a cognitive structure that forms the basis of organising actions and mental representations so that we can understand and act upon the environment
operations
schemes based on internal mental representations not just on physical activity
two processes of modifying schemes
Organisation – predisposition to group particular observations into coherent knowledge, occurs both within and across stages of development and adaptation (assimilation, accommodation)
equilibration
a state in which children’s schemes are in balance and are undisturbed by conflict
thinking stages
qualitative shifts in a child’s way of thinking
Piaget’s assumptions about stages
develop through the same sequence, concurrence assumption (in the same stage for everything), abruptness assumption (sudden, discontinuous)
when is the sensorimotor stage
birth - 2 years
characteristics of the sensorimotor stage
- All that infants know is derived from information that comes in through the senses and the motoric actions they can perform
- Children are preverbal for most of the stage – no symbol use
- Young children must live in the present dependent upon sensorimotor input and actions they can perform
substages of the sensorimotor stage and when
reflexive schemes (0-1 month), primary circular reactions substage (1-4m), secondary circular reactions (4-10), coordination of secondary schemes (10-12), tertiary circular reactions (12-18), beginning of thought substage (18-24)
the reflexive schemes substage
Infants use their innate reflexes to explore their world – designed to keep the infant alive and explore the world
primary circular reactions substage
o Shift in the infant’s voluntary control of behaviour – infants start to show a degree of coordination between the senses and their motor behaviour through the primary circular reactions
o Ex: infants discover a new experience as a result of their own motor activity (sucking their thumb) and then repeat the event over and over again
o “primary” – repetitive behaviours are focused around the infant’s body and not the external world, circular – behaviours are repetitive
o There are also some anticipation events even though they’re limited – a hungry infant might stop when the mother approaches – knows it will get fed
secondary circular reactions
o Shift in the infant’s voluntary control of behaviours – more aware of the external world
o Direct their behaviour to reaching and grasping objects (behaviours become secondary) – actions still circular but are related to the environment (banging a cup over and over again)
coordination of secondary schemes substage
o Infants begin to deliberately combine schemes to achieve specific goals
o Engage in goal-directed behaviours – infants in this stage solve object permanence tasks (coordinating two schemes)
tertiary circular reactions
o When the child begins to search for novelty and uses trial and error to explore the characteristics and properties of objects and develops new ways of solving problems
o Consolidate understanding of causal relations between events – systematically experiment with varying the means to test the end results (what will happen if they push a bowl in another direction or push something off a table)
beginning of thought substage
o When the children become able to form enduring mental representations
o Deferred imitation – the ability to copy or mimic the actions of others, some time after they have seen these actions – important for learning, facilitated by mirror neurons
o Children no longer have to go through the trial error method – mentally experiment by performing the actions in their minds
o Ability to engage in simple pretend play
one of the criticisms of Piaget’s stages
object permanence and deferred imitation occur much earlier
substages of the pre operational stage (2-7)
symbolic function substage (2-7), intuitive thought substage (4-7)
symbolic function substage
children acquire the ability to mentally represent objects that aren’t physically present
- Ability to engage in symbolic through – expands the child’s mental world, no longer tied to the here and now, no longer require sensory input to think
pretend play
the child may pretend to be other people or act out real-life situations
o Children younger than 2 will pretend to drink from a cup but won’t pretend that the cup is a hat
o Over time children can use external props that are dissimilar to the referent
o Eventually can just imagine the referent and event
egocentrism
tendency to perceive the world just from one’s own point of view, and is a concept that has been extensively studied under theory of mind
three-mountains task
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, a preoperational child typically chooses the view from their own location
o Children couldn’t correctly identify the doll’s view until 9-10 years of age
o The same inability to take into account that another person can view the world differently – assumption that if they know something, other people will too
criticism of the three mountains task
using familiar objects and by asking children to rotate a small model of the display, rather than select from a set of pictures, children as young as 3 or 4 years of age – able to answer
rational imitation
where infants produce an action that they think that the adult intended to do, rather than what the adult actually did
Ex: when infants observed an adult turning on a light with their head even when their hands were free – infants copied the behaviour after a week’s delay - even at 14 months
o If their hands tied – infants used their hands
when can infants sympathize with a hurt stranger
18 months
animism
the belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of independent action
criticism of animism + solved
Piaget used objects with which the children had little direct experience (sun, clouds) and relied on verbal justifications + the wording which may confuse children
- Ex: for familiar objects, 6-12 month-olds can sort pictures of objects into categories and can distinguish between animate and inanimate objects
o By the age of 2.5 children attribute wishes and likes to people and animals, but hardly ever objects
intuitive substage
children begin to classify, order, and quantify in a more systematic manner
seriation task
putting items in a coherent or logical order
o Ex: when a preoperational child asked to arrange 10 sticks in order of length, some sort the short sticks into a pile and the longer ones into a pile, while others arrange one or two sticks according to length but are unable to do so for all 10
o Piaget – children’s successful solutions to seriation tasks are based on underlying changes to mental operations that develop during the concrete operations stage
o Criticism: might be due memory capacity, children can grasp transitive inference
transitive inference
the relation between two or more premises that leads to an inference that is logically necessary (A > B and B > C, leads to A > C)
transitive inference experiment
o 4 to 6-year-olds were trained to remember the lengths of variously coloured rods presented in a descending order of size
o The rods were placed in a block which was designed so that each rod seemed like it was the same size while in the block
o Children presented with four different pairs made up from 5 different rods (A>B, B>C, C>D, D>E) – logical sequence: A>B>C>D>E
o Children tested on their knowledge about the relative lengths of adjacent pairs – which is longer, A or C and C or E – gave correct answers
o Also asked – Which rod is longer, B or D – all children able to make this transitive inference
o Children’s failure during the preoperational stage – failure to remember all the relevant information rather than not possessing the necessary logic
o Alternative hypothesis: children correctly answered the inferential test question by simply remembering the presentation order of the coloured rods
class inclusion
the ability to coordinate and reason about parts and wholes simultaneously in recognising relations between classes and subclasses
- Ex: a preoperational child is presented with 7 roses and 2 tulips – can say that there are more roses
o But when asked if there are more roses than flowers – typically say that there are more roses
o Piaget – children have difficulty in focusing on a part of the set and simultaneously on the whole set
categorization
the grouping together of items that have some characteristic or characteristics in common
when can children cauterize an object according to superordinate higher level category
2-3 years
according to Piaget, why can’t children pass liquid conservation tasks
centration, reversibility (the relation between two or more premises that leads to an inference that is logically necessary), focusing on the end state rather than on the means
in Western societies, when can children obtain which conservation
number around 6, liquid + length + mass around 6-7, not able to conserve weight until 9 and not able to conserve volume until 11
horizontal decalage
non-synchronous development of children on Piagentian tasks (cases in which children may succeed on conversation of number tasks but not conservation of continuous quality)
o Different types of conservation tasks require different degrees of abstraction
naughty teddy experiment
children more likely to provide a correct answer
the magic mice paradigm
o Three-year-olds were shown 2 plates: one with 3 toy mice and one with 2 toy mice
o After covering both plates, children were asked to choose which plate was the winner and which was the loser – when identified the one with three mice get a prize
o After a number of trials, surreptitiously altered the winning plate by decreasing the number of mice to two or changing the distance between the 3 mice to match the spacing in the plate with 2 mice
o According to Piaget – children would then choose the winning plate based on row length or density, but when the “three mice” plate had been pushed together to match the spacing of the “two mice” plate, children still can identify the winning plate
rods in infants conservation
o If the rods are switched up so that their weights are changed, then the infant’s arm will rise or fall if the rod is lighter or heavier than expected
o When 18-month-olds saw a transformation to a longer rod by folding it in two – expected it to weigh the same as when it was longer
vertical decalage
where the child has a level of understanding at one level that has to be reconstructed at a later age at a different stage or level of understanding
appearance-reality task
appearance and reality diverge
cat appearance experiment
o The experimenter then covered the front half of the cat with a screen and strapped a realistic mask of a dog on top of its head
o Children then asked “What kind of animal is this?” and “Can it bark?”
o Children at 3 – focus on appearance by saying it’s a dog now, 4- and 5-year-olds didn’t believe that the cat could transform into a dog but didn’t always answer to the test questions correctly, only at 6 years children answered all of the test questions correctly
phenomenism vs realism
phenomenism (knowledge that is limited to appearances such that, in tasks that involve distinguishing reality from appearance, children report only appearance) and realism (believing that things are as they appear and not what they might be)
when can children represent an object in more than one way at a time
3 years
trick on experimenters
children were invited to play a “trick” on one of two experimenters – the child asked as a co-conspirator in the sponge/rock task
o Then children are asked test questions: “What is the object really? What does it look like and what does the experimenter think it is?”
o Only 29% of the 3-year-olds passed the standard task, 79% passed this trick task
ages for the concrete operational stage
7-11
formal operations problem
third eye
weaknesses of Piaget
basic processes are vague and tend to describe, not explain how change occurs
o Often misjudged the ages at which children show evidence for understanding a particular concept – failed to distinguish between competence and performance
o Didn’t pay enough attention to the role of culture and social interaction in shaping cognitive development
scaffolding
the process whereby adults structure and simplify a child’s environment in order to facilitate their learning
Case’s theory stages
Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years), interrelational stage (2-8 years), the dimensional stage (5-11 years), vectorial stage (11-19)
what did Case attribute development to
brain development, automatization and the formation of central conceptual structures
when can children do conservation tasks according to Case
Once all of the schemes have become sufficiently automatic – integrated into a central conceptual structure
why is Case better than Piaget
far more satisfactory account of horizontal decalage
o Conservation tasks very in their processing demands, with those which require more working memory capacity – acquired later
overlapping waves theory
at any time a child has a number of strategies that can be used to solve problems, over time less efficient strategies are replaced
same as Piaget - waves
acquisition of better strategies over time, use of the balance scale task
different as Piaget - waves
measurement of strategies is nonverbal, continuous changes to new strategies
strategies experiment
o Each child asked to complete a number of addition problems over 6 sessions – used four main strategies: counting outloud using fingers, counting on fingers, counting out loud without using fingers, retrieving answers from memory
o Only 20% of children consistently used one strategy for all problems, even when given the same problem 30% used different strategy
what did vygotsky say about pretend play
o Imaginary situations are created from internal ideas rather than outside stimuli eliciting responses from the individual
o Rule based! Children adhere to social and cultural norms that govern behaviour
stages of proximal development
o Acutal level – what the learner can do unassisted
o Proximal development – what the child can do when assisted
o Potential level – what the learner can’t do yet
theory of core knowledge
proposes that humans are endowed with a. small number of domain-specific systems of core knowledge at birth and that this core knowledge becomes elaborated with experience
systems of object representation according to Spelke
spatio-temporal principles of cohesion (objects move as connected and bounded wholes) continuity (object move on connected, unobtrusive paths) and contact (objects don’t interact at a distance)
5 systems of core knowledge
objects, persons, numbers, spaces, geometric forms
moral dilemmas
situations in which people must choose and justify a course of action or reasoning with respect to moral issue
teacups moral dilemma
o One child broke 15 teacups by accident and the other breaks a single cup while sneaking into the cupboard to obtain forbidden sweets
o Younger children – judged the first child’s more harshly, older children the opposite
Piaget’s moral stages
o Premoral – young children have no clear sense of morality (preoperational)
o Heteronomous morality – rules set by authority figures are sacred and unalterable (concrete operational)
o Autonomous morality – rules are agreements that can be discussed and changed (formal operational)
alternatives of Heinz dilemma
what if the person with cancer was a stranger, what if he didn’t love his wife, what if it was a pet, should people do anything in order to save a life, is stealing drugs morally wrong because they’re against the law? Should people always avoid breaking the law
pre conventional morality
o Stage 1 (heteronomous morality – punishment orientation) – children believe that right and wrong are determined by powerful adult figures, to act morally is to follow the rules they laid down + little consideration is given to intentions or desires
Heinz was wrong because the police arrest people who steal
o Stage 2 (instrumental morality) – children become aware that other people have intentions and desires, there’re two sides to every argument + rules are obeyed for personal gain
“Heinz should steal the drugs only when his wife is loving and kind”
conventional morality
o Stage 3 (interpersonal normative morality – “good boy” orientation) – seek to be viewed as good and feel guilt when it’s likely that others will condemn their behaviour + rules are obeyed for approval (interpersonal normative morality: be good, otherwise feel guilty)
“Heinz should steal the drugs, otherwise his wife won’t love him anymore”
o Stage 4 (social system morality – maintenance of social order) – recognise that all members of society have intentions and pursue goals, but they understand that rules and laws are necessary in order for society to function and to prevent anarchy + rules are obeyed to maintain the social order
“Heinz shouldn’t steal the drugs, if everyone does, the society will collapse”
post conventional morality
o Stage 5 (human rights and social welfare morality) – make use of ethical principles to guide moral judgements + rules are obeyed when they’re impartial (would this happen in this
“Heinz should steal the drugs, because life is more important than money”
o Stage 6 (morality of conscience – added later) – the individual establishes their own rules in accordance with self-selected universal ethical principles
Heinz dilemma doesn’t apply, refers to societal issues such as using violence in order to change the political system
when do which stages appear
- Stage 1 and 2 are most characteristic of children, stage 3 in adolescence, stage 4 increases in salience during adolescence, stage 5 appears in adulthood but is rare
- Individuals move up a single stage at a time + regression over time is rare
criticism for Kohlberg
- Criticism: thoughts aren’t associated with actions – impossible to predict accurately a person’s behaviour in a specific situation from their moral stage
o Determined by many factors (emotions, perception, memories, judgements, context) – multiply determined
attribution
belief one holds as to why people carry out a particular action or behaviour
are Kohlberg’s stages universal
stages 2, 3 and 4 – found in cultures radically different from the US – less evidence of 5
