Cognition and Development Flashcards
piagets theory
what is schema?
a mental framework of the world created through life experiences
piagets theory
what is disequilibrum and equilibration?
D: experiencing something we cannnot make sense of
E: to adapt and develop schemas
piagets theory
what is accomocation?
creating a new schema when facing a new experience
piagets theory
what is assimilation?
adding new information to exisiting schemas
piagets theory
A03:
real world application:
- school lessons moved away from traditional style teaching and introduced more activities
social processes
- piaget only focused that learning is an indivdual process, vygotsky argued it was with the help of peers
piagets theory
what are the four stages created by piaget?
sensorimotor (0-2yrs):
- children are learning the world through their senses and develops object permanence
pre-operational (2-7yrs):
- children are egocentric demonstrated through 3 mountains task
- lack conservation skills
- begin to understand class inclusion
concrete (7-11yrs):
- begin to conserve and lose egocentrism
- developed more reasoning
formal (11+yrs):
- become capable of formal reasning without distarctions
- can solve problems on a systematic way (pendelum task)
piagets theory
what are the three mountains task?
method:
- A child is shown a display of three mountains
- tallest mountain is covered with snow.
- On top of another are some trees, and on top of the third is a church
- The child stands on one side of the display, and there is a doll on the other side of it.
findings:
- At age 7, thinking is no longer egocentric as the child can see more than their own POV
- 4 yrs: reports what can be seen from her perspective and not what can be seen from the doll’s perspective.
piagets theory
what is the conservation task?
the ability to understand that a certain property of an object remains the same, despite any transformation that has changed the appearance of the object.
piagets theory
what is object permanance?
knowing that an object still exists even if it is hidden.
piagets theory
what is class inclusion?
the ability to classify objects into two or more categories simultaneously.
piagets theory
stages A03:
vygotskys theory
what is cognitive development?
a social process and a child uses ‘experts’ to learn frm
vygotskys theory
what is the zone of proximal development?
the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a skilled partner.
vygotskys theory
what is the more knowledgable other?
a peer that knows more information than someone else and assists them
vygotskys theory
what is scaffolding?
- the help given by experts to children
- levels of help is intially high but then gets less as the child learns what to do
vygotskys theory
what are the scaffolding levels?
**level of help: nature prompt: **
5. demonstration
4. prepration foir child
3. indication of materials
2. specific verbal instructions 1. general prompts
vygotskys theory
A03:
application to education:
-principle of scaffolding has been introduced in classrooms
cultural differernces:
- students in china effectively learn in a lecture style classrom
- suggests that vygotsky overemphasised the importance of scaffolding in learning
baillargeon explanation of indant abilities
what is knowledge of the physical world?
finish
believed that babies lacked the motor skills to find the hidden object or got distarcted rather than not understanding
baillargeon explanation of indant abilities
what was the study?
procedure:
- 24 babies aged 5-6 months were shown a tall and short rabbit behind a screen with a window
- familarisation event: shown both rabbits disappearing behind a screeen (meets expectation)
- expected event: short rabbit passes window and isnt visible
- unexpected event: tall rabbit is not seen through window but passes
findings:
- demonstrates object permanence
baillargeon explanation of indant abilities
what is violation of expectation?
to see whether young infants actually have object permanence, based on the idea that infants will show surprise when witnessing an ‘impossible’ event
baillargeon explanation of indant abilities
what is the theory of infant reasoning?
babies are born with a basic understanding of the real world and we have the a ability to learn more from experience
baillargeon explanation of infant abilities
A03:
greater validity:
- piaget cant distinguish between the babys distraction and lack of object permnance, baillargeon overcomes this with her VOE she controls this confounding variable
interpretation:
- argued that babies could have been interested for a different reason which shows subjectivity
social cognition (selmans levels of perspective taking)
what is selmans perspective taking?
develops indepently from physical perspective taking unlike piaget
social cognition (selmans levels of perspective taking)
what was selmans study?
procedure:
- 30 boys and 30 girls
- asked how they would feel in different scenarios
- holly was told by father to n ot climb trees, her friends kitten got stuck in one
- they were asked how holly, her friend and father would feel if she climbed the tree
findings:
- found different stages in development
social cognition (selmans levels of perspective taking)
what are selmans stages?
stage 0 (3-6yrs):
- egocentric: does not understand others emotional state
stage 1(6-8yrs):
- social informational: can tell the difference between their pov and others but can only take on board one at a time
stage 2(8-10):
- self reflective: can take on another perspective and compare their own
stage 3(10-12yrs):
- mutual: can look at their pov and anothers at the same time
stage 4(12+yrs):
- social and conventional system: know that understanding someones pov will not always lead to an agreement so social conventions are needed
social cognition (selmans levels of perspective taking)
what were selmans later developments?
added by schultz:
interpersonal understsnading:
- if we take differetn roles then we can understand social situations
interpersonal negotation strategies:
- we develop sklills in responding to what others think
awarness of personal meaning of relationships:
- being able to adapt our behaviour in different relationship contexts
social cognition (selmans levels of perspective taking)
A03:
longitudinal study:
- followed children over a long period of time and found that tbheir perspecticve improved
social development:
- important for social development
cultural differences:
- children progressed through the stages according to biological maturity
social cognition (theory of mind)
what is theory of mind?
the ability to understand what another person is thinking or feeling
social cognition (theory of mind)
what is the sally-anne study?
procedure:
- a form of false belief task
- sally puts a marble in her basket then when she isnt looking anne moves it away. the child is asked where sally would look for her marble
- 20 autistic children completed the task
- control groups of 27 non-autistic children and 14 with down syndrome
findings:
- 85% control groups could identify that sally would look in her basket
- only 20% of atustic children could answer correctly
- suggests that autstic children have a TOM deficent
older children and adults:
- some studies show that older children/adults who dont have a learning disability can complete sally-anne task
- baron cohen suggested they are not successful in a more challenging task
social cognition (theory of mind)
A03:
perspective-taking:
- children could just be perspective taking in the
memory problems:
- false belief tasks rely on good visual memory could have a deficient in memeory rather than TOM
real world application:
- helps us understand why autistic people struggle with social interactions
social cognition (mirror neurons)
what is the mirror neuron system?
they are neurons that activate when observing another individual performing an action
what are the role of mirror neurons
- NEURONS THAT WIRE TOGETHER FIRE TOGETHER
- they are importnant for social-cognitive skills such as empathy perspective taking and theory of mind
social cognition (mirror neurons)
what is the theory of autism?
ramachandran & oberman proposed the ‘broken mirror’ thoery which suggests that autism is caused partly by a defiecnecy in the MRS
social cogntion (mirror neurons)
A03:
supporting research:
- lacoboni et al found that MRs are activated when trying to understand intention
fmri scans:
- dapretto found that autisitic children had no activity in the interior fronal gyrus
methodological issues:
- FMRIs and EEGs are used for MR studies but they measure brain activity there for it lacks generalisability
