cognition and development

Question 1

what did Piaget suggest about learning?

Answer 1

there are two types of learning: accommodation and assimilation

Question 2

what is accommodation?

Answer 2

when we are exposed to information that radically changes our existing knowledge. this changes our schema.

Question 3

what is assimilation?

Answer 3

when we are exposed to information that does not radically change our existing knowledge.

Question 4

what is a schema?

Answer 4

a mental frame work of knowledge and beliefs about a specific place, object, person or time. Schemas become more sophisticated with time, allowing us to understand more aspects of and increasingly complex situations.

Question 5

what does Piaget say about the motivation to learn?

Answer 5

The motivation to learn originates from the unpleasant emotions associated with disequilibrium.
when we encounter an unfamiliar situation and assimilation is not enough to understand it, we are in a state of disequilibrium. This means that we explore our environment to improve our understanding of the scene and develop our schemas, in a process called equilibration.

Question 6

give 3 AO3 points of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.

Answer 6

Vygotsky: learning is a social process where children learn through the support of MKO’s. where as Piaget places a lot less importance on the social aspects of learning.

sample: his sample of children was taken from a nursery attached to a university, meaning that the ample was predominantly white, middle class children and therefore lacking population validity.

real life application: emphasis that children learn through exploring the environment changed the classroom(sandpits ect). and a children got older learning environments were adapted.

Question 7

what were the 4 stages of Piaget’s stages of intellectual development?

Answer 7

sensory motor stage (0-2)
pre operational stage (2-7)
concrete operation stage (7-11)
formal operations (11+)

Question 8

what is the sensory motor stage in Piaget’s theory?

Answer 8

where the child focuses on physical sensations. object permanence develops around the age of 8 months.

Question 9

what is object permanence?

Answer 9

the understanding that an object still exists even when you can no longer see it.

Question 10

what is the pre-operational stage of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 10

children begin to develop skills like class inclusion, egocentrism and conservation.
this was supported by the three mountains task. 3 mountains where placed in front of the child. then a doll was placed at different angles. the child was then asked to identify what the doll would see from a range of pictures. children in this age range identified their own point of view rather than the dolls, showing levels of egocentrism.

Question 11

what is the concrete operational stage of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 11

children develop their skills of egocentrism and conservation, however they can only reason with objects that are physically in front of them.

Question 12

what is the formal operational stage of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 12

children become more capable of scientific thinking because they reason about abstract ideas.

Question 13

give 3 AO3 points of Piaget’s stages of intellectual development.

Answer 13

flawed experimental methods: studies show that with different instruction 60% of 6 year old’s could conserve compared to 16% that Piaget found. he did not adhere to standardistion during interviews meaning differences where more likely to be due to this rather than age

ecological validity: children where examined in lab environments and therefore may have acted differently than they would in a social setting.

Mundane realism: the tasks given to the children where not everyday tasks and therefore may have caused the children to act differently.

it is a reductionist approach: he tries to explain the complex of growth through 4 stages that are the same for everyone and develop at the same time. this just is not true.

Question 14

what is Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development?

Answer 14

he suggests that learning is a social process. we learn through the support of a more knowledgeable other (MKO). This is through scaffolding.
the learning is first ‘intermental’ then ‘intramental’ as we cross the zone of proximal development.

Question 15

what is the zone of proximal development in Vygotsky’s theory?

Answer 15

the distance between supported problem solving and independent problem solving.

Question 16

give 3 AO3 points of Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development.

Answer 16

individual differences: he fails to take into account how children develop and learn in different ways than social interactions.

evidence of ZPD: found that 4-5 year old’s who received help from an older/more experienced peer, created a more accurate estimate of the number of sweets in a box, compared to those who worked alone. Social interaction between less and more advanced 2 children enhances the less advanced children’s ability to make logical inferences, and we argue that this is probably due to the effects of discussion and of agreement, rather than to social conflict.

support of scaffolding: observed 45 pairs of mothers and children, completing a problem-solving task, at 4 points across 3 years. mothers showed systematic decreases in the amount of support offered 3
and systematic increases in their use of contingent interaction, whereas children became more successful in their behaviors during the parent-child interactions.

Question 17

what was Baillargeon’s explanation of infant abilities?

Answer 17

she created the violation of expectation. The VOE suggests that
if a child has an intact understanding of part of then physical world, then they will have expectations about how objects behave.
When these expectations are violated, the child looks at the scene for a longer time because they are surprised, and their physical reasoning system (PRS) means that they pay attention to scenes which may
improve their understanding of the physical world.

Question 18

what research did Baillargeon carry out to support her study?

Answer 18

tested the idea of object permanence in 24 infants, aged 5-6 months old.
in one condition the short rabbit cannot be seen passing the window but the tall one can.
in the second condition, neither rabbit can be seen passing the window.
The latter condition was ‘impossible’ because it is not consistent with
the idea of object permanence.
All children looked at the impossible scenario for longer.

Question 19

what did Baillargeon’s study suggest about object permanence?

Answer 19

the study suggested that object permanence is present at 5 months as they are capable of understanding that the tall rabbit should be seen in the window. this challenges Piaget as he states it occurs at 8 months old.

Question 20

what is the physical reasoning system suggested by Baillargeon?

Answer 20

This is the innate predisposition to pay attention to ‘surprising’ events which are not in line with our expectations, in an effort to improve and advance our understanding of the physical world, and event categories.

Question 21

give 3 Ao3 points of Baillargeon’ explanation of abilities?

Answer 21

challenges Piaget’s object permanence: Piaget’s method of assessing infantile understanding of object permamence is that the children may lack the motor abilities, attention resources and interest in the object which has ‘disappeared’, and so are either unwilling or unable to continue searching for the object.