cognition and development Flashcards
what is the definition of cognition development?
a general term in describing the development of all mental processes in particular thinking and understanding of the world. it continues throughout a person’s life but psychologists have particular focus on childhood and adolescence
what is a schema?
- a mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. they are developed from experience
what does piaget believe about schemas?
- as children get a better understanding of the world, they get more complex schemas
- children are born with a small number of schemas, just enough to interact with people and the world
- children develop a “me - schema “ which contains all the information about themselves
what is accomodation?
- takes place when we aquire new information that changes our understanding of an already existing schema to the extent where we need to create a new schema or drastically change existing ones
what is assimilation?
- when we get new understandings about already existing schemas that we can add to the schema. it does not radically change the understanding just changes it slightly
how does equilibrium and disequilibrium happen?
- we are pushed to learn when our existing schemas do not allow us to make sense of something new - this unpleasant feeling is called disequilibrium
- to escape disequilibrium we have to adapt to the new situation by developing our understanding to reach equilibrium
what is Equilibration?
Equilibrium occurs when a child’s schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation. However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when new information cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilation).
what is functional invariants?
- structures that stay the same throughout the developmental process, which assist in the discovery and understanding of knowledge
- includes the process of adaption (assimilation and accommodation) and equilibrium
what is varient structures?
structures that change and develop as knowledge is discovered;
- includes schemas and operations
what are Operations?
Operations are more sophisticated mental structures which allow us to combine schemas in a logical (reasonable) way.
what happens in the sensori motor stage of development? 0-2
- infants learn about the world through their senses
they learn many different processes, these include: object permanence;
self-recognition (the child realises that other people are separate from them); deferred imitation; and representational play - At about 8 months, the infant will understand the permanence of objects and that they will still exist even if they can’t see them and the infant will search for them when they disappear.
- The main achievement during this stage is object permanence – knowing that an object still exists, even if it is hidden. It requires the ability to form a mental representation (i.e., a schema) of the object.
what happens in the preoperational stage? 2-7
- the preoperational stage. It takes place between 2 and 7 years. At the beginning of this stage, the child does not use operations, so the thinking is influenced by the way things appear rather than logical reasoning.
- A child cannot conserve which means that the child does not understand that quantity remains the same even if the appearance changes.
- The child is egocentric; he assumes that other people see the world as he does. This has been shown in the three mountains study.
- As the preoperational stage develops, egocentrism declines, and children begin to enjoy the participation of another child in their games, and let’s pretend play becomes more important.
infants at this stage also demonstrate animism. This is the tendency for the child to think that non-living objects (such as toys) have life and feelings like a person’s
what happens in the concrete operational stage? 7-11
By the beginning of the concrete operational stage, the child can use operations (a set of logical rules) so she can conserve quantities, she realizes that people see the world in a different way than he does (decentring) and he has improved in inclusion tasks. Children still have difficulties with abstract thinking.
- During this stage, children begin to think logically about concrete events.
- Children begin to understand the concept of conservation; understanding that, although things may change in appearance, certain properties remain the same.
- During this stage, children can mentally reverse things (e.g. picture a ball of plasticine returning to its original shape).
- During this stage, children also become less egocentric and begin to think about how other people might think and feel.
- Piaget considered the concrete stage a major turning point in the child’s cognitive development because it marks the beginning of logical or operational thought. This means the child can work things out internally in their head (rather than physically try things out in the real world).
- Children can conserve number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9). Conservation is the understanding that something stays the same in quantity even though its appearance changes.
- But operational thought is only effective here if the child is asked to reason about materials that are physically present. Children at this stage will tend to make mistakes or be overwhelmed when asked to reason about abstract or hypothetical problems.
what happens in the formal operational stage? 11+
- The formal operational period begins at about age 11. As adolescents enter this stage, they gain the ability to think in an abstract manner, the ability to combine and classify items in a more sophisticated way, and the capacity for higher-order reasoning.
- Adolescents can think systematically and reason about what might be as well as what is (not everyone achieves this stage). This allows them to understand politics, ethics, and science fiction, as well as to engage in scientific reasoning.
- Adolescents can deal with abstract ideas: e.g. they can understand division and fractions without having to actually divide things up, and solve hypothetical (imaginary) problems.
- Concrete operations are carried out on things whereas formal operations are carried out on ideas. Formal operational thought is entirely freed from physical and perceptual constraints.
- During this stage, adolescents can deal with abstract ideas
They can follow the form of an argument without having to think in terms of specific examples. - Adolescents can deal with hypothetical problems with many possible solutions.
-From about 12 years of age children can follow the form of a logical argument without reference to its content. During this time, people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts, and logically test hypotheses. - This stage sees the emergence of scientific thinking, formulating abstract theories and hypotheses when faced with a problem.
limitation of piaget’s theory - conservation research
- critics argue that the children may have been distracted by the fact that the appearance may have changed
- McGarrigle and Donaldson (1974) set up a study in which one condition was a replicate of Piaget and the other way was in a way that they were asked differently - 72% guessed correclty
- thsi shows that 4-6 year olds may be able to conserve, ti jsut depends on the way that they are asked
limitation of piagets theory and research - small sample
- the sample used in the object permanace study was small and were all from families who were well-educated and of high socioeconomic status. Because of this unrepresentative sample, it is difficult to generalize his findings to a larger population.
limitation fo piaget - Developmental Variations Exist
The theory suggests that all people should at least reach the formal operational stage if not further, yet it is not clear if all people actually fully achieve the developmental tasks that are the hallmark of formal operations. Even as adults, people may struggle to think abstractly about situations, falling back on more concrete operational ways of thinking.
what is Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
- this is the gap between a child’s current level of development and what they can potentially do with the right help from a more expert other
- he believed that children develop a more advanced understanding of a situation and hence the more advanced reasoning skills
- believed that higher mental functions such as formal reasoning, could only be acquired through interactions with more advanced others
what did Vygotsky’s believe about development?
- saw development as a social process of learning from others from more experienced others (MKO)
- Knowledge is first intermental, between the more and less experienced individual, then intramental within the mind of the less expert individual
- saw language as a much more important part of development than piaget did
what is scaffolding?
- the process of helping a learner cross the zone of proximal development and advance as much as they can, given their stages of development. Typically the level of help given in their stage of development. typically the level of help given in scaffolding declines as a learner crosses the zone of proximal development
an MKO (more knowledgeable other) uses scaffolding to assist the child to progress - As the child learns to master the problem, scaffolding is gradually withdrawn. Learning happens in a social relationship where the MKO and child do things together, then gradually the child does more on its own, This helps relieve the stress and tensions of failure at a difficult task and maintains the child’s self concept and enjoyment of learning
what is internalisation?
The ability to think and reason by oneself is called inner speech. For Vygotsky, cognitive development involves the process of internalising the problem solving taking place, during the interaction of the child with its parent, siblings or teacher. Sees the child as an apprentice, gaining skills and knowledge through collaborating with other people
what is concept formation?
- vygotsky gave children puzzle blocks with nonsense syllables on them and they had to work out what the symbols meant
- the children showed four stages of concept development depending on their age and maturity
what were the 4 stages in concept formation?
- vague syncretic - child uses trial and error to try to solve the problem
- complex - child uses some strategies to try and solve the problem but they are not successful
- potential concept - now they are more systematic and look at one aspect of the problem at a time
- mature concept - systematic and successful
what are semiotics?
- menas using signs and symbols to create meaning
- for vysgotsky, this is the primary function of language development
what are the 3 stages of semiotics?
- social speech (0-3) - pre - intellectual language, where language and thinking are not interdependent
- egocentric speech (3-7 years) - self talk and thinking out loud
- inner speech (7+) - self talk becomes silent and internal and language is used for communication only
how does culture affect development?
- he beleived that basic mental functions such as attention, perception and memory developed into more sophisticated and effective mental processes through interaction with socio-cultural
- suggested that thinking, even when carried out alone is affected by the beliefs, vlaues and tools of the culture that the person grows up in
evaluation of Vygotsky - support for ZPD
- there is clear evidence to show that there is a gap between levels of reasonign that children can acheive on their own compared to with the help of a MKO
- Roazzi and Bryant (1998) gave children aged 4-5 years old the task of estimating sweets in box
- in one condition they worked alone, in the other they had the help of an older child
- they gave the children prompts and the children who had the help, mastered the task
evaluation of vygotsky - support for scaffolding
- it has been observed in many tasks - even Roazzi and Bryant how helpful support can be and how it decreases over time
- Conner and cross (2003) did a longitundunal study in which they looked at the support for chidlren by their mothers from 16 - 54 months
- help decreased and was only used when needed rather than constantly
strength of vygotsky - real world application
- his ideas have become highly influential in higher education
- socail learning e.g peer tutoring has proven the benefits of scaffolding
- keer and verhaeghe (2005) found that 7 year olds tutorted by 10 year olds along side whole class teaching progressed further
counterpoint to real world application - not universal
- Lui and Matthews (2005) point out that classrooms in china that have up to 50 students learn just as effectively than students who have MKOs
- this means he may have overestimated the importance of scaffolding
