Chapter 9: Cognitive development Flashcards
Why is there so much attention for Piaget?
Pioneer for constructivism, revolutionary for his time
What is epistemology?
Study of the origin of knowledge
What were two findings of Piaget concerning epistemology? What was the consequence?
- Children of the same age mad the same errors on IQ test
- Errors differed from those of older and younger children
Consequence = constructivism
What is a scheme? Name the 3 basic schemes of an infant
Coherent, fixed series of actions that can be applied to objects and situations
Basic schemes: sucking, grasping, looking
What are operations according to Piaget?
Schemes based on mental representations
Name two ways in which children can adapt to the environment
- Assimilation: incorporating into existing schemes
- Accommodation: adapting by modifying schemes
What is equilibration? What is the link with reduction of cognitive conflict?
Assumption that we are motivated by nature to be able to fully assimilate and accommodat to objects/situations in the environment
We are driven to reach a cognitive equilibrium and reduce cognitive conflict
According to Piaget, what are stages?
Levels of understanding converge in a big reorganization in structure of our thinking
Each stage is qualitatively differen
What are the 4 stages of Piaget?
- Sensorimotor (0-2)
- Preoperational (2-7)
- Concrete operational (7-12)
- Formal operational (>12)
What is an important feature of the sensorimotor stage and which task applies?
Object permanence
Hiding objects task
What is an important feature of the preoperational stage and which task applies?
Egocentrism
Perspective taking task, Three mountains task
What is an important feature of the concrete operational stage and which task applies?
Conservation
Conservation tasks (ball of clay), seriation task
What is an important feature of the formal operational stage and which task applies?
Abstract reasoning
Deductive reasoning task
What happens in the sensory motor stage in general? What are the 6 substages of the sensorimotor stage?
- Explore environment
- All knowledge from senses
- Learning by doing
6 stages:
1. Reflexive scheme: use innate reflexes to explore (0-1m)
- Primary circular reactions (1-4m):
- Voluntary control of behavior
- Primary = repetitive behaviors focused on own body
- Anticipation of events arises - Secondary circular reactions (4-10m):
- Awareness external world
- Secondary = repetitive behavior on outside world - Coordination secondary schemes (10-12m):
- Goal-directed behavior
- Object permanence tasks - Tertiary circular reactions (12-18m)
- Trial and error behavior to explore objects - Beginning of thought (18-24m)
- Deferred imitation
- Formation of enduring mental representations
What is deferred imitation?
Infant between 18-24m will mimic other people’s actions according to Piaget
What are 2 criticisms on the sensorimotor stage?
Object permanence and deferred imitation occur earlier
What happens in the preoperational stage in general? What are the 2 substages of the preoperational stage?
There is an increase in mental representations: thinking about things
- Symbolic function substage (2-4y)
- No sensory input require to think of things
- Thought not limited to here and now
- Pretend play
- Egocentricity
- Animism
- Symbolic thought (banana phone)
- Rational imitation - Intuitive thought substage (4-7y)
- Start of classifying, order and quantifying systematically
- Intuitive, not concerned with underlying principles
- Class inclusion and categorization
What is the seriation task and how do children in preoperational stage respond to it?
What is criticism on this?
Putting items in a coherent/logical order
Children in preoperational stage can’t do this, because their thinking is mainly based on perception and intuition, not rational thinking
Criticism: Suggestion is that children can’t remember the task.
When this is dealt with, children do understand transitive inference. Piaget’s research: false positives
What is transitive inference?
Ability to seriate mentally between entities and think logically. E.g. in seriation task with length of sticks
What is class inclusion? How does this apply to preoperational children?
Ability to coordinate and reason about parts and wholes simultaneously in recognizing relations between classes and subclasses
Preoperational children can’t do this: 7 rose, 2 tulip –> there are more roses than flowers
What is categorization and when is it present in childhood?
Grouping together of items that have common characteristic(s)
From age 2 in basic + superordinate level categories
What is the conservation task and why are preoperational children unable to conserve?
E.g. ball of clay volume task
Caused by:
1. Centration: too much focus on 1 aspect and excluding others
2. Reversibility
3. Focusing on the end state and too little on the action/means
What is the difference between horizontal décalage and vertical décalage?
Horizontal = a specific principle is applied to different tasks at different times
Vertical = understanding of task increases over time
What is rational imitation?
An infant produces an action that they think the adult intended to do, rather than what the adult actually did.
(example turning off light with head with either hands tied or hands free)
What are appearance-reality tasks and what did Piaget think what preoperational children would do?
Appearance and reality diverge. Preoperational children are mainly focused on perceptual features according to Piaget and can’t pass the test.
What are two common errors for preoperational children in appearance-reality tasks?
- Phenomenism: reporting appearance when asked to report reality
- Realism: reporting reality when asked to report appearance
What are main aspects of the concrete operational stage?
- Decentration: focus on more aspects
- Improved transitive inference (logic in seriation task)
- Passing of conservation task, seriation task
- Able to do class inclusion (roses/flowers)
- Reasoning about concrete situations
What are the main aspects of the formal operations stage?
thinking about thinking
- Abstract thinking
- Manipulating ideas in your head
- Maths
- creative thinking
Name 7 points of critique on Piaget’s theory
- Hard to falsify
- Is it really stage-like?
- Adults can do less, children more
- Inconsistent findings (water level tilted bottle task, décalages)
- Small sample sizes
- Clinical interviews from Piaget were biased if child was shy –> language use issue
- Strict criteria
What is scaffolding?
Process whereby adults structure and simplify a child’s environment to facilitate learning
How is Piaget included in current education? Name 3 ways
- Learning by exploring
- Discovery learning (experiments, interactive)
- Readiness: is the child ready for the next step in development?
Name 2 similarities and 2 differences between Piaget’s theory and Robbie Case’s theory
Similar: stagewise, new conceptual structures
Different:
1. focus on development executive functions
- Each changes between a stage is paired with increased central processing speed and working memory capacity
2. Focus on social and individual experience
What are according to Case the 3 reasons why working memory capacity increases in children?
- Brain development
- Automatization
- Formation of central conceptual structures and semantic networks
How was horizontal décalage accounted for by Piaget?
Better account of horizontal décalage.
Conservation tasks vary in processing demands and some of them need more working memory processing speed
What is Siegler’s overlapping waves theory and what method was used? What are two similarities and two differences with the theory of Piaget?
Overlapping waves = children are most likely to use multiple strategies to solve tasks when they are still learning
Microgenetic method = examining change as it occurs and explaining underlying mechanisms
Similar: acquisition of better strategies over time, use of balance scale task
Different: measurement is nonverbal, child uses multiple strategies at ones
What two things does Siegler’s study cover that Piaget’s theory didn’t?
- Variation in child thinking
- Continuous change in child thinking
Still unclear what the mechanisms are
What is the theory of Karmiloff-Smith? What are two similarities and two differences between Karmiloff-Smith’s theory and Piaget’s?
At birth there are hardly connections in cortex. Connections arise with active exploration –> child constructs brain
Similar: neuroconstructivism + child constructs result
Different: developmental neuroscientist + understanding development of disorders
What is Vygotsky’s version of egocentric speech (Piaget)?
Language isn’t only used for communicating with others, but also for guiding own thinking
Private speech: self-directed language that children can use to guide their thinking and planning
Private speech will become inner speech over time
What is a difference and similarity between Vygotsky and Piaget?
Similar: child is active seeker of knowledge
Different: children’s thinking is influenced by social and cultural contexts
What is Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development? What are the three levels?
Space between what a child can do without assistance and what a child can do with guidance of peers/adult (guided participation)
- Actual level of development
- Proximal development
- Potential level of development
What is some criticism on Vygotsky’s theory?
- Too much emphasis on role of social interaction
- it is possibly somewhere between vygotsky and piaget
What is the theory of core knowledge (Spelke) and which 5 systems of core knowledge are there?
There is domain-specific knowledge already present at birth
5 systems of knowledge:
1. Objects and their motions
2. Persons/agents and goal-directed actions
3. Number and arithmetics
4. Places in navigable layout
5. Geometric forms and their length/angular relations
What are 3 principles about core knowledge of objects and their motions?
- Cohesion: boundaries and connectedness
- Continuity: moving object has 1 connected path over space and time
- Contact: objects move together only if they touch
What is the main difference between Spelke’s view and Piaget’s?
Spelke: core knowledge at birth
Piaget: minimal knowledge at birth, construct own knowledge
Describe the balance between nativism and constructivism
Both are needed to explain child development
- Sensorimotor intelligence for construction own knowledge
- Core knowledge for survival
