Cognition and development Flashcards
What is cognitive development?
a general term describing the development of all mental processes, in particular thinking, reasoning and our understanding of the world
according to Piaget, what were the two processes in which cognitive development occurs
- Maturation (the effects of ageing)
- interactions with the environment
what are the 5 key assumptions in Piaget’s approach
- Constructivism: the child plays an active role in its own development
- the way children think is qualitatively different from the way adults think
- structuralism: a schema is the basic unit of cognitive structure
- Biological basis: development is biological, through maturation, beginning with simple reflexes represented as schemas in the brain
- intelligence is adaptive: mental processes develop through a process of adaptation
what is a schema?
- a mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influences cognitive processing, and is developed form experience
- infants are born with a few schema but construct new ones rights from the start
- cognitive development involves the construction of increasingly detailed schema for people, objects physical actions and also for more abstract ideas like justice and morality
what is disequilibrium?
when a child cannot make sense of their world because their existing schema is insufficient
what is equilibrium and equilibration?
- equilibrium is a pleasant state of balance and occurs when experiences in the world match the state of our current schema
- the process of achieving equilibrium is called equilibration
What is assimilation?
takes place when the new experience does not radically change our understanding of the schema so we can incorporate the new experience into our existing schema
what is accommodation?
- takes place when an experience is very different from our current schema which cannot be assimilated
- accommodation involves the creation of a whole new schema or major changes to existing ones
Evaluation of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
- research support (Howe et al discussion of slope experiment)
- His ideas revolutionised teaching
- underestimated the role of other people (Vygotsky’s explanation may be better)
What were Piaget’s four stages of intellectual development
- sensorimotor stage (0-2)
- Pre-operational stage (2-7)
- Concrete Operations stage (7-11)
- Formal operations stage (11+)
how was conservation tested?
pouring water from a wider glass into a tall, thin glass and asking children if the two glasses held the same amount of liquid
how was egocentrism tested?
Piaget and Inhelder (1956) three mountains task:
- each mountain had a different feature: a cross, a house or snow
- pre-operational children could not select the picture which showed the interviewer’s POV but instead selected their own POV again
how was class inclusion tested?
- Piaget and Inhelder (1964) asked the question ‘are there more dogs or animals?’ when showing children a picture of 5 dogs and 2 cats
- pre-operational children tend to respond that there are more dogs
- they cannot simultaneously see a dog as a member of the dog class and animal class
evaluation of Piaget’s stages of intellectual development
- (lim) Piaget’s conservation research was flawed
- (lim) class inclusion ability is questioned
- (lim) the assertions about egocentrism are not supported
Counter: the core principles remain unchallenged but the methods he used meant the timing of his stages were wrong
are there cultural differences in cognitive abilities according to Vygotsky?
- yes because reasoning abilities are acquired via contact with those around us and as a result there will be cultural differences in cognitive development because we all grow up and learn about the world surrounded by cultural values and beliefs
- children pick up the mental ‘tools’ that are most important for life from the world they live in
what is the zone of proximal development (ZPD)?
the gap between what a child knows or can do alone, and what the child is capable of, following interaction with someone more expert
what is scaffolding?
- the process of helping a learner across the ZPD and advance as much as they can, given their stage of development
- typically the level of help given in scaffolding declines as the learner crosses the ZPD
what are the five strategies of scaffolding?
- Demonstration
- Preparation for child
- indication of materials
- specific verbal instructions
- general prompts
Evaluation of Vygotsky’s theory
- (str) support for the ZPD
- (str) support for scaffolding
- (str) RWA
- (lim) - overestimated the importance of scaffolding
What did Baillargeon say about object permanence?
- babies have a better understanding of the world than piaget suggested
- behaviour better explained by poor motor skills or being easily distracted
what was the violation of expectation research used for?
to compare babies’ reactions to an unexpected event and thus was able to make inferences about the infant’s cognitive abilities
what did Baillargeon propose?
- proposed that we are born with a physical reasoning system to enable us to learn details of the physical world more easily
- referred to object persistence - we know that objects do not disappear
evaluation of Baillargeon’s explanation
- (str) validity of the VOE technique
- (lim) the assumption that response to VOE = unexpectedness
- (str) PRS can explain why physical understanding is universal
what is social cognition?
- involves the mental processes that underlie human social interaction
- both the understanding of the situation and the decision making are cognitive processes
what is perspective-taking?
- our ability to appreciate a social situation from the perspective of other people
- this cognitive ability underlies much of our normal social interaction
what are Selman’s levels of perspective taking
- level 0: socially egocentric
- Level 1: social information role-taking
- Level 2: self-reflective role taking
- Level 3: mutual role-taking
- Level 4: social and conventional system role-taking
what are the three aspects to social development that Selman later discovered?
- interpersonal understanding: this is what Selman measured in his earlier role-taking research - if we can take different roles, then this shows we can understand social situations
- Interpersonal negotiation strategies: as well as understanding what others think in social situations, we also have to develop skills in how to respond to them - we therefore develop skills in how to respond to them - we therefore develop social skills such as asserting our position, and managing conflict
- awareness of personal meaning of relationships: as well as understanding social situations and how to manage them, social development also requires the ability to reflect on social behaviour in the context of life history and the full range of relationships
Selman evaluation
- (str) research support for stages
- (str) research support for perspective-taking and healthy social development?
- (str) RWA in understanding atypical development
- (lim) is Selman’s approach too narrow
