Cognition and Development

Question 1

Howe et al (1992)

Answer 1

Children aged 9-12 were put in groups to discuss the movement of objects down a slope, found that their knowledge imporved but but did not come to the same sonlsuions or remeber the exact same things. This supports the idea that children form their own mental representations of the world. Contrasts interaction being important in learning.

Question 2

Piaget (1963)

Answer 2

Studied object permanence by observing children’s behaviour when an object was moved from sight. After 8 months they continured to look for it even when it was out of their right, which supports object permanence developing during the sensorimotor stage.

Question 3

Piaget (1952)

Answer 3

Showed pre-operational children two equal rows of counters, when the counters were pushed closer together the children saw them as different lengths. Suggests poor conservation, though could be due to demand characteristics.

Question 4

Piaget and Inhelder (1956)

Answer 4

The three-mountains task. Children were shown three mountain models and a doll and pictures of various perspectives of the mountains. They were tasked with finding the perspective of the doll. Most pre-operational children selected their own persepctive not the dolls, providing for egocentrism in this stage.

Question 5

Piaget and Inhelder (1964)

Answer 5

Showed children a picture of 5 dogs and 2 cats, and were asked if there were more dogs or animals. Most said dogs, which suggests poor class inclusion during the pre-operational stage.

Question 6

Smith et al (1998)

Answer 6

When children were told that all yellow cats have two heads, and aksed how many cats a yellow cat will have those in formal operational said 2 (correct) whereas younger children did not. Demonstrates understandng of abstract concepts and hypotheticals in the formal operational stage.

Question 7

McGarrigle and Donaldson (1974)

Answer 7

When Piaget (1952) was replicated with the counters not changed by the experimenter children understood that the counters were the same. Children only said they were different because the experimenter changed them and therefore they must have thought there was a difference. Suggests demand characteristics in conservation studies, children do understand conservation.

Question 8

Siegler and Svetina (2006)

Answer 8

100 5 year olds were given class inclusion tasks with feedback. When the feedback properly represented class inclusion the children had improved scores. Suggests that when helped pre-operational children can still understand class inclusion.

Question 9

Hughes (1975)

Answer 9

When given a perspective task where children were asked to position a doll where two police officer dolls couldn’t see them. 3.5 year olds were able to position the doll so that only one police officer could not see 90% of the time, and 5 year olds hid the doll from both 90%, suggests egocentrism improves with age, but that pre-operational children are not necessarily egocentric.

Question 10

Roazzi and Bryant (1998)

Answer 10

4/5 year old children were asked to guess the number of sweets in a jar either on their own or with the help of an older child. When they had help most were able to produce a close guess, but very few of those working alone gave a close to correct answer. Supports the ZPD.

Question 11

Conner and Cross (2003)

Answer 11

Mothers gave children less help as their children started to grasp concepts better. Supports scaffolding.

Question 12

Keer and Verhaeghe (2005)

Answer 12

When 7 yr olds had tutoring from a 10 yr old student as well as class they progressed further in reading than 7 yr olds with only class time.

Question 13

Baillargeon and Graber (1987)

Answer 13

The original VOE experiment with short and tall rabbits. Showed infants aged 5-6 months a tall and a short rabbit passing a window in a screen. In the possible condition, the tall one can be seen, the short one cannot. In the impossible condition, neither can be seen. The infants looked for 33,07 seconds at the impossible condition, and 25.11 at the possible one. Supports innate physical reasoning system.

Question 14

Selman (1971)

Answer 14

Gave perspective taking scenarios to 60, 4/5/6 year olds. Scenario: Holly has promised her dad to no longer climb trees, but there is a kitten stuck in the tree. What would each character think if she did or did not climb the tree. Used to develop Selman’s levels of perspective taking.

Question 15

Gasser and Keller (2009)

Answer 15

Bullies show no difficulty in perspective taking, which suggests it may not be important in proper social cognition (socially desirable behaviour) and empathy.

Question 16

Marton et al (2009)

Answer 16

Compared 8-12 year olds with or without ADHD in persepctive taking tasks. The ADHD condition did worse identifying feelings and consequences. Supports the application of Selman’s theory to explaining atypical development.

Question 17

Meltzoff (1988)

Answer 17

Toddlers observed adults trying to put beads in a jar, and whether the adult struggled or not, the toddlers still struggled. Suggests toddlers understand intention of action even if they do not have the same motor skills to replicate it. Suggests ToM in young children.

Question 18

Baron-Cohen et al (1985)

Answer 18

The Sally-Anne study. Bally places her marble in her basket, then when Sally was not looking, Anne moved it to the box. Children are asked where Sally will look for her marble, to check if children are capable of knowing that other people can believe this they know to be false, testing ToM. Used 20 children with ASD and 27 with no diagnosis and 14 with Down’s syndrome for controls. Only 20% of those with ASD correctly answered the false belief tasks, compared to 85% of controls. Suggests children with ASD lack a ToM.

Question 19

Baron-Cohen et al (1997)

Answer 19

People with ASD struggle with understanding and identifing emotions from pictures of eyes. Suggests ASD is further linked with a lack of ToM.

Question 20

Rizzolatti et al (2002)

Answer 20

Found that a monkey’s motor cortex activiates in the way theirs would during an action when watching others perform that action.

Question 21

Haker et al (2012)

Answer 21

Found an area rich in mirror neurons to be involved in contagious yawning using fMRIs. Suggests mirror neurons are related to empathy.

Question 22

Hadjikhani (2007)

Answer 22

Rich mirror neuron areas are thinner in those with ASD, and therefore ASD may be linked with fewer mirror neurons. However has not be reliably replicated.

Question 23

Hickok (2009)

Answer 23

We cannot identify specific cells in mirror neurons, and cannot identify differences to normal neurons. We cannot be certain mirror neurons are special or if they even exist.

Question 24

Wimmer and Perner (1983)

Answer 24

Children aged 3-4 told a story. Maxi put his chocolate in the blue cupboard. His mother used it later and left it in the green cupboard. They were asked where Maxi would look for it when he got back. Most 3-year-olds said the green cupboard, since they didn’t realise Maxi wouldn’t know it was there. The 4-year-olds mostly said the blue.