cognition and development Flashcards
what did Piaget produce?
Piaget produced an influential theory of cognitive development, Piaget realised that children think in entirely different ways from adults.
what stages did Piaget divide childhood into?
sensorimotor stage, pre-operational stage, stage of concrete operations and stage of formal operations.
what 2 aspects of children’s learning did Piaget look at?
Piaget also looked at children’s learning, including
- the motivation to learn
- how learning takes place
what is the motivation to learn aspect of Piagets theory?
disequilibrium and equilibrium
Piaget said that we are motivated to learn when our existing schemas do not allow us to make sense of something new. which then leads to the unpleasant sensation of disequilibrium.
to escape disequilibrium we have to adapt to the new situ by exploring and learning what we need to know.
- by doing this we achieve equilibrium which is the preferred mental state.
what is equilibrium?
this takes place when we have encountered new information and built it into our understanding of a topic. either by assimilating it into an existing schema or accommodating it by forming a new one.
what is disequilibrium?
this is an unpleasant experience of a lack of balance.
what is the ‘how learning takes place’ aspect in Piagets theory?
(assimilation and accommodation)
Piaget saw the process of learning as adapting to the new situation so that we understand it.
he identified 2 processes by which this adaptation takes place…
- assimilation
- a form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information of a person, object or an idea.
- accommodation
- a form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information that changes our understanding of a topic; to the extent that we need to form one or more new schemas.
strength of Piagets theory?
strength. ..
- the influence of his ideas in developmental psychology have been massive, he has changed how people view the child’s world and their methods of studying children + his ideas have generated a lot of research which has increased people’s understanding.
weakness of Piagets theory?
are the stages real? vygotsky would rather not talk about stages at all, as he prefers to see development as a continuous process.
others have also questioned the age ranges of the stages.
describe the sensorimotor stage?
approx. 0-2yrs.
here the infant learns about the world through their sense and actions.
here a range of cognitive abilities develop such as object permanence and self recognition.
at about 8mths the infant will understand the permanence of objects.
describe the pre operational stage?
2-7 years
- here they acquire the ability to internally represent the world through language
- during this stage they can think about things symbolically
- not capable of logical problem solving yet
describe the concrete operational stage?
7-11 years
- here they begin to think logically about concrete events
- begin to understand the concept or conservation
- can mentally reserve things
- become less egocentric and begin to think about how other people might feel.
describe the formal operational stage?
age 12 and over
- adults here can deal with abstract ideas
- they can follow the form of an argument
- can deal with hypothetical problems with many solutions
concrete operations are careered out on things whereas formal are carried out on ideas.
intro for vygotskys theory?
vygotsky was influenced by Piaget’s work, they agreed on many of the ideas of cognitive development. they most importantly agreed that children’s reasoning abilities develop in a particular sequence; at different ages. vygotsky saw cognitive development as a social process of learning.
vygotsky said that knowledge moves from interment (social) to intramental (individual)
differences between vygotsky and Piaget?
Piaget had strong emphasis on stages of development whereas vygotsky didn’t, also the role of language was minimal with Piaget but major with vygotksy ass was thought that language was a powerful role on shaping thought.
what is the zone of proximal development?
the gap between a child’s current ability and what they can potentially understand after interaction from an adult.
what is scaffolding?
it is any form of support given to the child to help them cross the zone of proximal development. this support tends to decrease as the learner crosses the ZPD and becomes more confident.
evaluation of vygotskys theory?
strength: cultural differences
- supported by the idea that different skills are learned by children in different cultures.
weakness: overestimated the importance of social interaction
- not all learning happens in this way, for example in China.
what is theory of mind?
theory of mind is our personal understanding of what other people are thinking and feeling.
why is having a theory of mind important?
because it can provide the ability to predict and interpret the behaviour of others.
key points for theory of mind….
during infancy and early childhood, children learn the skills that they will need to develop their theory of mind later on,
such as paying attention to people.
what is the traditional test for theory of mind?
a false belief task, which is used to test whether an individual can understand that people can believe something that is not true.
what is the sally-anne study?
the sally Anne task is used to asses theory of mind.
- sally puts her marble in the basket
- while sally is away Anne moves the marble to her box
- when sally returns where will she look for her marble?
how does autism relate to theory of mind?
- Theory that suggests people with autism have problems taking the point of view of others – like egocentrism
- Possibly due to a failure of an innate theory of mind mechanism
- Cannot understand other people’s intentions/emotions
