Cognition Flashcards
Piaget’s Theory of Development
• Piaget argued children weren’t miniature adults. Believed they actively construct their understanding of world as they grow. As their bodies grow, their minds grow as well.
o Stage 1: 0-2 years old – Sensorimotor Stage
o Stage 1: 0-2 years old – Sensorimotor Stage (sensory = senses – children gather information about the world via sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch etc. + motor = active, as you develop how to use senses you learn to move your body around).
- Main task/awareness develops is OBJECT PERMAMANENCE: objects exist even if they can’t see them.
Sensorimotor stage involves issues such as object permanence and STRANGER ANXIETY.
o Stage 2: 2-6/7 years old (approx.) – Preoperational
o Stage 2: 2-6/7 years old (approx.) – Preoperational stage (operational = mental operations like imagining things”) - When children are going to develop/engage in pretend play. Start to use symbols to represent things. Words symbolize objects and children start understanding symbols. Also, very EGOCENTRIC – only concerned about themselves, NO EMPATHY (they don’t understand that other people have a different point of view than they do)
The preoperational stage is associated with an inability to understand the perspective of others.
o Stage 3: 7-11 years old– Concrete operational
o Stage 3: 7-11 years old– Concrete operational “(operational = mental operations”. Learn idea of CONSERVATION, IRREVERSIBILITY, LOGICAL REASONING & ACCOMODATION, CONVERSION, EMPATHY
BUT NOT HYPOTHETICAL REASONING
Can do test to find out if they’re in this stage – take 2 identical glasses with same amount of water, and kids will tell you they have the same amount. Then, pour one into short fat glass and other into tall skinny glass in front of the child and ask child which one has more. Before this stage will say tall glass, because the water is higher, but once they reach concrete operational stage and understand amount of water doesn’t change just because the glass size changes then they will tell you that they have the same amount of water even though they look different. Also begin to learn empathy; begin reasoning of math skills.
The concrete operational stage describes children who are able to grasp concrete (real) events logically, conversion, and reversibility(refers to the ability to recognize that numbers or objects can be changed and returned to their original condition.
No hypothetical reasoning (mastered in next stage)
o Stage 4: 12+ years old - Formal operational stage
o Stage 4: 12+ years old - Formal operational stage – reason abstract consequences, and reason consequences; moral reasoning. (ABSTRACT REASONING & MORAL REASONING)
At this point children are reasoning more like adults and they continue to develop that overtime.
In the formal operational stage, a child will be able to think logically about abstract ideas, hypothetical situations, and use abstract thinking to solve novel problems.
• Schemas – mental models
• Schemas – mental models – Frameworks for us organize and interpret new information. Piaget belief of cognitive development was in the development of schemas. To develop these, you need to be able to grow/change them – which happens through assimilation and accommodations.
o Assimilation
o Assimilation – how we describe new information/experiences in terms of our current understanding/schemas
Acronym: assimilation has “ss” – same schema
o Accommodation
o Accommodation – how we later adjust our schemas to incorporate new experiences –to remember. Acronym: accommodation has “cc” for change or create
Development moves along in a state of equilibrium as we assimilate and/or accommodate new info we come across.
• Development moves along in a state of equilibrium as we assimilate and/or accommodate new info we come across. Most information we encounter, we can assimilate and be back at a state of equilibrium. Information assimilation equilibrium. But, sometimes assimilation can’t cause us to come into equilibrium and we engage in accommodation when the information we receive cannot be assimilated (information accommodation equilibrium) to reach equilibrium again. You gain a new schema.
• Problem Solving:
- Problem Solving: moving from a current state to a goal state. This is called solving a problem.
- Problems can be broken down into two categories: Well defined and Ill defined.
o Well-defined Problems:
o Well-defined Problems: clear starting and ending point. A well-defined problem has clear criteria that describe whether or not the goal has been achieved.– ex. how to turn light that is currently dark
• Ill-defined -
• Ill-defined - More ambiguous starting and/or ending point. An ill-defined problem does not have an obviously stated goal or lacks relevant information to solve the problem.– ex. how to live a happy life. Can still solve ill-defined problems solve but don’t know outcome.
• Methods of Problem Solving: Trial & error
Trial + error – take random guesses till something finally work. Not efficient
• Methods of Problem Solving: Algorithm
Algorithm – methodical approach. A logical step-by-step procedure of trying solutions till you hit the right one. Not efficient, but are guaranteed to find the correct solution eventually. Ex. Methodically approach all possible solutions of 8 Character PW.
• Methods of Problem Solving: Heuristics
Heuristics – mental shortcut that allows us to find solution quicker than other 2, Reduces the # of solutions we need to try by taking an approach as to what possibilities could exist and eliminates trying unlikely possibilities. Don’t guarantee a correct solution, but they do simply complex problems and reduce total # of solutions we will try in order to get to a more manageable #. Ex. Focusing on one category of solutions OR guessing a PW that contains your birthday.
