Cognition and development Flashcards
How does Piaget say we develop?
A child’s cognitive development is not just about acquiring knowledge, they have to develop a mental model of the world. Occurs through the interaction of environment and children pass through a series of stages.
What did Piaget say about the stages?
Children move though 4 stages of intellectual development. Each child goes through these stages in the same order and child’s development is determined by maturation and interaction with the environment.
What are schemas?
Mental framework for information we have learnt. The category of knowledge and the process of acquiring that knowledge. We are born with certain schema such as sucking and grasping.
What is Equilibrium?
The world around us makes sense
What is disequilibrium?
Something in our environment does not make sense. It does not match an existing schema. We need to accommodate a schema to restore balance.
What is accommodation?
The process of modifying an existing schema to fit a new experience because the new information does not fit with existing understanding.
What is assimilation?
The process whereby a new experience is understood in terms of an existing schema. The information fits in to our current understanding.
What did Piaget propose about the 4 stages? What are Piaget’s four stages?
None of these stages can be missed out, but there are individual differences in the rate which children progress through stages, and some individuals may never attain later stages. Piaget therefore argues this is innate.
The four stages are: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational.
What is the sensorimotor stages (0-2)?
In this stage:
- they have no object permanence, they are egocentric.
Later on in this stage it can be said that they acquire object permanence (search for an object when it is hidden as know it still exists -around 1, fully formed 2).General symbolic function (GSF) forms near the end- able to think about something they have experienced.
Evidence for sensorimotor stage:
Piaget found that when children up to 8 months where shown a toy of interest and then it was hidden they did not show interest, assuming it not longer existed. However, from 8 months, they would search for the toy.
Evidence against sensorimotor stage:
Bower and Wishart showed objects to children between the ages 1-4 months. Lights were switched off and children were observed through infrared cameras searching for the items.
What is the pre-operational stage? (2-7)
Preconceptual (2-4), intuitive (4-7). GSF still developing, children are still egocentric and they are unable to conserve. Centration- focus on one aspect (amount not shape). animistic thinking (thinking innate object are alive). Lock logical understanding.
Evidence for pre-operational stage:
Egocentric: Piaget’s three mountain task
Conservation: Piaget’s water task
Evidence against pre-operational stage:
Egocentric: Hughes Policeman Doll Study +
Samuel and Bryant argued that children got it wrong not because they could not conserve but asked the same question twice which confuses a child as they think the adult is looking for a different answer.
What is the concrete operational stage (7-11):
Able to conserve, can perform more complex task if object are physical. Less egocentric. Class inclusion happens in this stage where children understand something can be in more than one category (poodle is a dog and an animal).
