Cognition and development

Question 1

Define Schema

Answer 1

mental representation of a situation/event that could be developed by experience.

Question 2

Define assimilation

Answer 2

• A form of learning that involves acquiring new information - it can modify your existing schema by adding to it, or apply it to a new situation.

Question 3

Define accommodation

Answer 3

When an existing schema has to change due to new information conflicts with the existing schema

Question 4

Define Equilibration

Answer 4

• a balance between what is already known and incoming information

Question 5

Define Disequilibrium

Answer 5

when learning actually takes place - this has to be experienced in order for assimilation or accommodation to occur.
- when something that goes against your schema is incountered.

Question 6

Describe how schemas are thought of in terms of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

Answer 6

• Children are born with a small number of schemas enough to get by with, as the child develops they develop new schemas.

Question 7

Give the pros and cons of Piaget’s theory.

Answer 7

+:
- practical applications in educational institutions, and can perhaps teach when to use certain learning techniques at which stage. Shows that there is a use to this theory in real life.
- Beaker observation task: water being moved from a thinner and taller beaker to a shorter and stout one, 7 years old failed and said they were diff. Supports the pre-operational stage.
-:
- Piaget may have underestimated cognitive abilities of children - naughty teddy study, where children were more likely to conserve and say it was the same number of counters.
-: children, so may have used a lot inference due to poor communication skills, maybe a little bias because theory was come up with by Piaget observing his own children.

Question 8

Describe ideas behind Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development.

Answer 8

• idea that development is dependant on social interaction and culture
• children internalising the understandings of other people that they might see as role models
  (child as apprentice)

Question 9

Describe the importance of language in Vygotsky’s theory (semiotics)

Answer 9

• external speech —> egocentric speech —> inner speech (thought)
• This allows for high mental function

Question 10

Describe what is meant by the Zone of Proximal development (ZPD)

Answer 10

• the difference between what the child can already do independently, and what the child can do with help from others (their potential)

Question 11

Define scafolding

Answer 11

• when an expert (such as parent or teacher etc) provide support to a child, but then slowly withdraw that until the child can perform the task independently

Question 12

Give the pros and cons of Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development.

Answer 12

+:
- practical applications suggesting the importance of one-on-one tuitions or tutors, allows for child to have more of an active role.
- takes into account culture and social interaction, so is not culturally biased.
-:
- theory might be thought of as reductionist, as it only focuses on cognitions, and ignores biological limitations children face when trying to pick up new tasks.

Question 13

name the ages and names of the stages of development by Piaget

Answer 13

• Sensori motor stage 0-2 years
• Pre-operational stage 2-7 years
• Concrete operational stage 7-11 years
• formal operational stage 11+ years.

Question 14

Describe the characteristics of the sensori-motor stage.

Answer 14

• gain knowledge through senses and movement, can develop object permanence

Question 15

Describe the characteristics of the pre-operational stage

Answer 15

• unable to use logic
• egocentrism
• lacks conservation
• difficulty with class inclusion

Question 16

Describe the characteristics of the concrete-operational stage

Answer 16

• beginning to think logically
• able to conserve
• less egocentric
• tend to make mistake or be overwhelmed when asked to reason about abstract or hypothetical problems.

Question 17

Describe the characteristics of the formal operational stage.

Answer 17

• ability to thought and reason logically.

Question 18

Describe what is meant by a physical reasoning system as defined as Baillargeon

Answer 18

• an innate knowledge of the physical world.
• ## basic understanding of things such as object permanence, gravity, causality.

Question 19

What did Baillargeon use to test the physical reasoning system?

Answer 19

• by using the violations of expectations research.

Question 20

Briefly describe what is meant by the violations of expectations research.

Answer 20

• a method to measure infant knowledge of the world
• involves doing something unexpected, as children are more likely to look at it for longer (eg go against gravity or sm)
• so this is interpreted as confusion
• so this now suggests that infants have formed an understanding of the world based on innate understanding.

Question 21

How does Baillargeon’s theory challenge Piaget’s?

Answer 21

• she suggested that children have an innate understanding of objects and how they work.
• whereas Piaget suggested that children don’t have innate understanding - they grow in stages and object permanence emerges later (at around 9 months), and conservation emerges later (around 7 years old and above)
• so Piaget underestimates the abilities of children

Question 22

Define Habituation

Answer 22

• being shown an object to the point where the child is comfortable with the object (eg being familiar with objects) and is said to occur when the infant looks away.

Question 23

Give one finding from the 3 mountains task

Answer 23

• 4 year old pps consistently failed to choose the correct picture for the doll’s perspective.
• showing evidence for the pre-operational stage, where they lack conservation+ are more egocentric.

Question 24

give one disadvantage Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development

Answer 24

• could have bias, as Vygotsky was a very different culture to Piaget, as he was a product of communism, maybe why his theory was so focused on community, but Piaget’s focused on individualist ideas

Question 25

Describe the development of social cognition by Selmen

Answer 25

Stage 0: egocentric
Stage 1: Social informational role-taking
Stage 2: Self reflective role taking
Stage 3: Mutual role taking
Stage 4: Social and conventional role taking

Question 26

Describe the Sally-Anne task and its findings.

Answer 26

• child shown 2 dolls Sally and Anne
• says Anne puts her marble in one box, walks away
• Sally moves her marble into another box
• which box will Anne look for her marble in?
• only 20% of autistic children answered correctly

Question 27

Describe characteristics of stage 0 by Selman

Answer 27

• egocentric, know that others have their own thoughts, but will confuse them with their own.

Question 28

Describe characteristics of stage 1 by Selman

Answer 28

• social informational role taking
• can reliably consider someone else’s perspective, but only one person’s at a time.

Question 29

Describe characteristics of stage 2 by Selman

Answer 29

• self reflective role taking
• can fully appreciate other people’s perspective, and can step into their shoes.

Question 30

Describe characteristics of stage 3 by Selman

Answer 30

• mutual role taking
• can simultaneously consider many peoples’ perspectives

Question 31

Describe characteristics of stage 4 by Selman

Answer 31

• social and conventional role taking
• understand that perspectives can be impacted by culture and social context.

Question 32

Evaluate Selman’s stages of cognition.

Answer 32

+: RWA in understanding child’s behaviour, eg in family therapy to help parents understand how their child’s social cognition is developing.
+: Study by Gurucharri and Selman found 40/41 children developed exactly in the way that Selman theorised.
-: doesn’t take empathy into account - so not understanding one’s emotions - only takes understanding of perspective into account.

Question 33

Evaluate Baillargeon’s theory of cognition.

Answer 33

+ high level of control in VoE research, so higher internal validity.
+: links with natural selection argument, that an innate understanding of the physical world could help us survive.
-: problem with methodology - child may have simply stared longer due to other reasons, and because inference was used, we cannot guarantee that the violation of expectation was the reason that their time was higher.

Question 34

Define Theory of mind

Answer 34

an individual’s understanding that other people have separate mental states and see the world differently than themselves.

Question 35

Describe the theory of mind as an explanation of ASD.

Answer 35

• suggests people with ASD suffer from mind blindness, and lack a theory of mind mechanism
• this means that they struggle to understand the perspectives of others.

Question 36

Describe the components, methods and findings of the Sally-Anne study.

Answer 36

• sample of 20 autistic children, 17 children with downs syndrome and 27 children with typical functioning.
• Children shown 2 dolls - Sally and Anne
• Sally places marble in basket, moves away
• Anne moves marble to box
• where is the marble really?
• Where was the marble in the beginning?
• where will Sally look for the marble?
• 20% autistc children answered belief q correctly.
• 85% of DS children answered correctly
• shows its due to lack of TOMM, not intellectual delay.

Question 37

Evaluate the theory of mind

Answer 37

+ can explain deficits in ASD, helping develop coping mechanisms for them and their families.
- cannot explain savant syndrome in people with asd.
- children who still enjoyed the role play task, which required the ToMM, so suggests that the complexity of the task caused the poor performance, not the lack of a ToMM.

Question 38

describe the mirror neuron system.

Answer 38

• encodes the activity of another person/animals as if the observer were acting out the same activity.

Question 39

Describe the findings and procedure of Rozzolatti’s study on mirror neurons

Answer 39

Procedure:
- Macaque monkeys were placed in laboratory conditions and had electrodes attached.
- they were then shown a grasping task, and also performed the grasping task.
- the activity in their motor cortex was then measured.
Findings:
- the same brain cells were fired when the monkey watched someone perform the grasping action, and performed it themselves.
- Suggested that mirror neurons were responsible - and that when we see another individual performing an action, we simulate it in our minds as if we are performing that action.

Question 40

what did later research bring to light about mirror neurons?

Answer 40

• that intention behind the action ie understanding it, not just imitating the motor activity.

Question 41

Evaluate the mirror neuron mechanism.

Answer 41

+: can explain autism due to a potential irregularity in mirror neurons, people with ASD have trouble understanding social situations and emotions, provides objective biological explanation.
+: Can explain gender differences, eg the fact that women are more sensitive to emotions (Cheung et al) as women were more sensitive to hand movement than the dot movement.
-: Rizzolatti’s study can’t be generalised to humans as we have much more complex social behaviour.
-: Rizzolatti’s study cannot be sure that the monkeys showed action understanding (Kohler et al)