COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT Flashcards
Who produced the influential theory of cognitive development
Jean Piaget (1926,1950)
What was Piaget’s contribution to child psychology
(What did he say about how children think)
Children do not simply know less than adults do. Children think in entirely different ways.
How did Piaget divide childhood
Into stages
What does each stage of piagets understanding of childhood represent
Development of new ways of thinking
What two aspects did Piaget look at in children’s learning
The role of motivation in development
The question of how knowledge develops.
What is cognitive development
A general term describing the development of all mental processes, in particular thinking, reasoning and our understanding of the world.
At what stage of life are psychologists particularly concerned with for cognitive development
How it develops through childhood
Is cognitive development only important in childhood
No
It continues throughout the life span of
What is schema
A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing.
How is schema developed
From experience
According to Piaget what is the schema of a newly born child like
Children are born with a small number of schema.
Enough to allow them to interact with the world and other people.
What is one of the new schema developed in infancy
Me-schema
What is stored in me-schema
All the child’s knowledge about themselves is recorded
Cognitive development involves the construction of progressively ___
more detailed schema.
Give examples of what schemas can be for
(3)
Name 2 that may develop later in life
People, objects, physical actions
Justice and morality
What does Piaget believe about schema and motivation to learn
We are pushed to learn when our existing schema do not allow us to make sense of something new.
What is the unpleasant sensation called when our existing scheme doesn’t allow us to understand something
Disequilibrium
How do we escape disequilibrium
We have to adapt to new situations by exploring and developing our understanding.
What is the preferred mental state
Equilibration
What is achieved when we adapt to a new situation by exploring and developing
Equilibration
When does Equilibration take place
When we have encountered new information and built it into our understanding of a topic, either by assimilating it into an existing schema or accommodating it by forming a new schema.
What is Equilibration
When everything is balanced
Name the two processes by which adaptation takes place
Assimilation
Accommodation
When does assimilation take place
A form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information or a more advanced understanding of an object, person or idea.
What is assimilation
New information does not radically change our understanding of the topic.
Equilibration occurs by adding new information to our existing schema’s.
When does accommodation take place
A form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information that changes our understanding of a topic.
A response to a dramatically new experience.
What is accommodation
Equilibrating by forming one or more new schema and/or radically changing schema in order to deal with the new understanding.
what are two strengths of piagets theory
The existence of evidence for the individual formation of mental representations.
Real-world application to teaching
Who did research that provided evidence for the individual formation of mental representations
Christine Howe et al. (1992)
What was Howes method when investigating the individual formation of mental representations
Children aged 9-12 were placed in groups of four to investigate and discuss movement of objects down a slope.
What was Howes findings when investigation the individual formation of mental representations
All the children were found to have increased their understanding.
Their understanding had not become more similar, each child had picked up different facts and reached slightly different conclusions.
How did piagets theory change classrooms
Rather than children sat silently in rows copying from the board an activity-orientated classroom in which children actively engaged in takes that allowed them to construct their own understandings of the curriculum came into play.
When did piagets theory influence classrooms
1960s
What is the counterpoint to piagets influence on modern practice in teaching and learning
There is no firm evidence showing that children learn better using discovery learning
Who did a recent review on piagets theory and researched what the best method of learning is
Ard Lazonder and Ruth Harmsen (2016)
What did Lazonder and Harmsen conclude in their research on best method of teaching
Discovery learning with considerable input from teachers was the most effective way to learn, input from others, not discovery per se, is the crucial element of this effectiveness
What is one limitation of piagets theory
He underestimated the role of others in learning.
What was piagets theory on other people within learning
They are potential sources of information and learning experiences
What was piagets overall opinion on learning when it comes to others involvements
He saw learning itself as an individual process
Why does piagets view on others roles in learning limit his theory
Who’s theory contradicts piaget’s when it comes to the role of other people
It has an incomplete explanation for learning as there is not enough emphasis on the role of other people
Vygotsky’s theory.
What is the flaw in piaget’s research when it comes to motivation
He studied his own children and then those in a university nursery.
Those that are more likely to be motivated to learn the most
How many stages of intellectual development did Piaget state
4
Name the 4 stages of Piagets stages of intellectual development
Sensorimotor stage
Pre-operational stage
Stage of concrete operations
Stage of formal operations
What is each stage in piagets stages of intellectual development characterised by
A different level of reasoning ability
Is the exact age at which children go through the stages the same?
What is the key point of the stages?
The exact ages very from child to child.
Key point is that all children develop through the same sequence of stages
At what ages does a child tend to be in the Sensorimotor stage
0 - 2 years
What does Piaget say about a baby’s early focus
It is on physical sensations and on developing some basic physical co-ordination
How do babies learn
Through trial and error
What understanding do babies develop in the first 2 years about people and language
Other people are separate objects and they acquire some basic language
At roughly what age are babies capable of understanding object permanence
8 months
What is object permanence
The ability to realise that an object still exists when it passes out of the visual field.
What do babies do with an out of sight object prior to 8 months
Babies immediately switched their attention away from the object once it was out of sight
What do babies do with an out of object sight when 8 months or older
Continue to look for it.
Roughly what ages is the pre-operational stage
2 - 7 years
What are three characteristic errors in reasoning displayed in the pre-operational stage
Conservation
Egocentrism
Class inclusion
What is conservation
The ability to realise that quantity remains the same even when the appearance of an object or group of object changed.
What was the method of piagets number conservation experiment
Placed two rows of eight identical counters side by side.
Got children to state if the two row of counters had the same number or not.
Pushed the counters in one row closer together.
Got the children to state again if the two rows of counters and the same number or not.
What was piagets findings in his number conservation experiment
Even young children correctly reasoned that each row of counters had the same number when spread out.
When one of the rows had the counters closer together, pre-operational children struggled to conserve and said there were fewer counters in that row.
What was the method to piagets liquid conservation experiment
Two identical containers with the contents at the same hight were placed side by side.
Asked the children if they had the same volume.
Poured one of the liquids into a taller glass so they weren’t at the same hight.
Asked the children if they had the same volume.
What was the findings to piagets liquid conservation procedure
Most children spotted the containers had the same volume of liquid when placed in identical containers side by side with the contents at the same height.
When one liquid was in a taller container with its contents higher than the other younger children believed there was more liquid in the taller vessel.
What is egocentrism
Is it physical or emotional
A child’s tendency to only be able to see the world from their own point of view.
Applies to both physical objects and arguments.
Who did Piaget work with on the three mountain task when looking into egocentrism
Barbel Inhelder (1956)
What was the method for the three mountain task
Children were shown three model mountains, each with a different feature (a cross, house or snow).
A doll was placed at the side of the model so that it faced the scene from a different angle.
The child was asked to choose what the doll would see from a range of pictures.
What was the results of the three mountain task
Pre-operational children tended to find it difficult and often chose the picture that matched the scene from their own point of view.
What is class inclusion
An advanced classification skill in which we recognise that classes of objects have subjects and are themselves subsets of larger classes.
Give an example of what most pre-operational children could classify
Pugs, bull terriers and retrievers as dogs
What was Paiget and Inhelders method for investigating class inclusion
Showed 7-8 year-old children pictures of 5 dogs and 2 cats and asked ‘are there more dogs or animals?’
What were the results of piaget and inhelders investigation into class inclusion
Explain
Children under 7 struggle with more advanced skill of class inclusion.
Children respond that there were more dogs than animals.
Younger children cannot simultaneously see a dog as a member of the dog class and the animal class.
At roughly what age is the stage of concrete operations experienced
7 - 11 years
What did Piaget call externally-verifiable reasoning abilities
Operations
What could children 7 -11 now do
Conserve and perform much better on tasks of egocentrism and class inclusion.
What do children in the concrete operations stage struggle with
Struggle to reason about abstract ideas and to imagine objects or situations they cannot see.
What are concrete operations
Operations that can only be applied to physical objects or situations they can see
Who can complete concrete operations
Children 7 or older
What age is the stage of formal operations reached
11 and above
What are children able to do from 11+
Become able to focus on the form of an argument and not be distracted by its content.
Who investigated arguments and their contents in children
Smith et al. (1998)
What was Smith’s method for investigating formal operations
Gave the statement ‘all yellow cats have two heads. I have a yellow cat called Charlie. How many heads does Charlie have?’
Then recorded children responses.
What did paiget find in his research on formal operations
That younger children became distracted by the content and answered that cats don’t really have two heads.
What type of test is Smiths question for formal operations
What is another method of testing
A syllogisms
The pendulum task
What did Piaget believe a child could do after being able to reason formally
They are capable of scientific reasoning and become able to appreciate abstract ideas.
What’s are the three major flaws in piagets conclusions in his stages of intellectual development
Research for conservation was flawed
Findings on class inclusions are contradicted by newer reserach
Lack of support for piaget’s view of egocentrism
What was the flaw in piagets experiments for conservation
Children may have been influenced by seeing the experimenter change the appearance of the counters or liquids.
Why would the researcher change the appearance and then ask if it was the same?
Who did further research into conservation in young children
James McGarrigle and Margaret Donaldson (1974)
What was McGarrigle and Donaldson’s method when researching conservation in children.
They replicated the counter task with 4-6 yr old children.
They replicated the task again but this time a ‘naughty teddy’ appeared and knocked the counters closer together.
What was McGarrigle and Donaldsons findings when they repeated the counter task for investigating conservation
When they repeated piagets method exactly they found that most children answered incorrectly.
When the ‘naughty teddy’ knocked the counters closer together 72% now correctly said there were the same number of counters.
What does McGarrigle and Donaldson’s findings suggest about piagets theory and flaws in his method
Children could conserve if they were not put off by the way they were questioned.
Piaget was wrong about the age at which conservation appears
Who conducted newer research into class inclusion
Robert Siegler and Matija Svetina (2006)
What was Siegler and Svetina’s method when investigating class inclusion
They gave 100 5 yr olds from Slovenia ten class-inclusion tasks, recieveing an explanation of the task after each session.
One group was told that there must be more animals than dogs because there were 9 animas and 6 dogs.
Another group was told there must be more animals because dogs are a subset of animals.
What was Siegler and Svetina’s findings when investigating class inclusion
What does this prove
The group that had subsets explained to them improved across the sessions more than the other.
Children can acquire an understanding if class inclusion at ages 4-6 contradicting Piaget.
Who completed research on egocentrism after piaget
Martin Hughs (1975)
What was Hughes’s method when testing egocentrism
He tested the ability of children to see a situation from two people’s viewpoints using a model with two intersecting walls and three dolls. A boy and two police. The children were asked to place the boy doll where the two police dolls couldn’t see it.
What was Hughes’s findings from his research on egocentrism
Once familiar with the task children as young as 3 1/2 years were able to place the boy doll in the right position with one police doll 90% of the time.
4 year olds could do it 90% of the time with two police dolls present.
What did Hughes’s findings on egocentrism suggest
When tested with a scenario that makes more sense, children are able to decentre and imagine other perspectives much earlier than Piaget proposed.
What is wrong with the arguments against piagets work
His core stages remain unchallenged.
Only the methods he used meant the timing of his stages were wrong.
Which Russian psychologist was influenced by piagets work
Lev Vygotsky (1934)
What is the major difference between Vygotsky and piagets work
Vygotsky saw cognitive development as a social process of learning from more experienced others.
What did Vygotsky call the experienced others
‘Experts’
What did Vygotsky say knowledge is at first
Intermental between the more and less expert individual
What did Vygotsky say came after intermental
Intamental - within the mind of the less expert individual
What did Vygotsky see as much more important in cognitive development than Piaget
Language
What impact does culture have on cognitive abilities for the future
Children are picking up the mental ‘tools’ that will be most important for life within the physical, social and work environment of their culture.
What is the zone of proximal development (ZPD)
The gap between a child’s current level of development (defined by the cognitive tasks they can perform unaided) and what they can potentially do with the right help form a more expert other.
Expert assistance will allow a child to do what?
Cross the ZPD and understand as much of a subject or situation as they are capable.
What did Vygotsky believe about the impact of learning from others on understanding and reasoning
Children develop a more advanced understanding of a situation and hence the more advanced reasoning abilities needed to deal with it by learning from others.
What did Vygotsky believe about how higher mental functions could be aquired
Believed they could only be acquired through interaction with more advanced others
What does the term scaffolding mean
The process of helping a learner cross the zone of proximal development and advance as much as they can, given their stage of development.
What happens to the level of help in scaffolding as a learner crosses the ZPD
The level of help given in scaffolding declines.
Who suggested much of what we know about scaffolding
Jerome Bruner
What is the approach with scaffolding often called
The Vygotsky-Bruner model
Who noted the particular stratergies that experts use when scaffolding
David Wood, Jermaine Burner and Gail Ross (1976)
The level of scaffolding declines from what level to what level
5 to 1
Name the 5 levels of scaffolding in order with numbers
- Demonstration
- Preparation for child
- Indication of materials
- Specific verbal instructions
- General prompts
As a child grasps a task what happens to the levels and the expert
The level declines
The expert withdraws the level of help
What are the three strengths of Vygotsky’s theory
Research support for the ZPD
Research support for scaffolding
Real-world and practical application in education
Who conducted a study for support for ZPD
Antonio Roazzi and Peter Bryant (1998)
What was Roazzi and Bryant’s method when investigating ZPD
They gave children aged 4-5 years the task of estimating the number of sweets in a box.
In one condition children worked alone in another they worked with the help of an older child through prompts.
What were the findings of Roazzi and Bryant when investigating ZPD
Most children working alone failed to give a good estimate.
In the expert help group the 4-5 year olds receiving the help successfully mastered the task.
Who’s research showed that the expert’s level of help declines during the process of learning
David Conner and David Cross (2003)
How did Conner and Cross investigate the decline in help during scaffolding
Used a longitudinal procedure to follow up 45 children, observing them engaged in problem-solving tasks with the help of their mothers at 16, 26, 44 and 54 months.
Distinctive changes in help were observed overtime.
What did Conner and Cross observe in their investigation on scaffolding
Mothers used less and less direct intervention and more hints and prompts as children gained experience.
Mothers also increasingly offered help when it was needed rather than constantly.
When was Vygotsky’s idea highly influential in education
21st century
Who investigated the impact of scaffolding from older peers
Hilde Van Keer and Jean Pierre Verhaeghe (2005)
What did Van Keer and Verhaeghe find out about scaffolding form older peers
7 year olds tutored by 10 year olds, in addition to their whole-class teaching progressed further in reading than controls.
Who investigated the effect of teaching assistants
Alborz et al. (2009)
What did Alborz conclude about teaching assistants
They are very effective at improving the rate of learning in children.
What is the counterpoint to Vygotsky’s theory
The application of the role of social interaction may not be universal
Who pointed out that ZPD and scaffolding may not be universal
Charlotte Liu and Robert Matthew’s (2005)
What did Liu and Matthew’s state about Vygotsky’s ideas being universal
They pointed out that in China classes of up to 50 children learn very effectively in lecture-style classrooms with very few individual interactions with peers and tutors.
This should not be possible if Vygotsky’s theory is entirely correct.
Who suggested that young babies had a better understanding of the physical world than Piaget had suggested
Renee Baillargeon
What are some example reasons Baillargeon suggested was the case instead to object permanence
Young babies could lack the motor skills necessary to pursue a hidden object or they might lose interest as they are easily distracted.
Name one of the techniques that Baillargeon developed
The Violation of expectation (VOE) method
What is a violation of expectation research
A method used to investigate infant knowledge of the world.
The idea is that if children understand how the physical world operates then they will expect certain things to happen in particular situations.
If these things do not occur and children show surprise, this suggests that they have an intact knowledge of that aspect of the world.
How does Balliargeon explain VEO
‘In a typical experiment babies see two test events - an expected event, which is consistent with the expectation examined in the experiment, and an unexpected event, which violates the expectation.’
Who did Balliargeon work with to investigate object permanence
Marcia Graber (1987)
What was the procedure Balliargeon and graber used to investigate object permanency with VOE
24 babies aged 5-6 months.
Shown a short and tall rabbit passing behind a screen with a window.
What is the familiarisation event in Balliargeon and graber’s method whilst investigating object permanence using VOE
A baby is shown a short rabbit disappearing behind a screen and then a tall rabbit disappearing separately.
What are the two conditions in Balliargeon and graber’s experiment on object permanence and VOE
Expected and unexpected
What is the expected event in Balliargeon and graber’s experiment on object permanence and VOE
Where a short rabbit passes behind a screen with a window and isnt seen through due to height until it reaches the other end.
Or a tall rabbit does the same but is seen through the screen.
What is the unexpected event in Balliargeon and graber’s experiment on object permanence and VOE
The tall rabbit passing behind the window is not seen through it as it moves from one side of the screen to the other.
What would a baby who has object permanence show in Balliargeon and graber’s experiment
Would show surprise when shown the unexpected event
What was Balliargeon and graber’s findings when experimenting VOE
Babies looked for an average 33.07 seconds at the unexpected event compared to 25.11 seconds at the expected event.
What did Balliargeon and graber’s findings suggest about object permanence in 5-6 month olds
Surprise shows that they must have known the tall rabbit should have appeared at the window.
Demonstrates a good understanding of object permanence
What is Balliargeon and graber’s rabbit study an example of
Occlusion study - in which one object occludes another.
VOE experiements have also been used to test infants understandings of what other two tings
Containment and support
What is the idea of containment
When an object is seen to enter a container it should still be there when the container is open
What is the idea of support
An object should fall when unsupported but not when it is on a horizontal surface.
What type of events do infants pay attention to more
Unexpected
Who proposed the idea that humans are born with a physical reasoning system (PRS)
Balliargeon et al. (2012)
What two things does being born with a physical reasoning system mean
We are all born hardwired with both basic understanding of the physical world and also the ability to learn more details easily.
What is the development process in Balliargeon’s theory of infant physical reasoning
In the first few weeks of life babies begin to identify event categories.
Each event category corresponds to one way is which objects interact.
A baby is born with a basic understanding of object permanence and quickly learns that one object can block the view of another.
Why does an unexpected event capture a babies attention in terms of PRS
Because the nature of their PRS means they are predisposed to attend to new events that might allow them to develop their understanding of the physical world.
What are two strengths of Balliargeon’s research
The validity of the VOE method
The ability of her explanation to explain universal understanding of the physical world
How does VOE overcome the issue in piagets research of becoming distracted by other visual stimuli
‘Distraction’ would not affect outcome.
The only thing being measured is how long the baby looks at the visual scene - looking away is not recorded
Why does the VOE method have greater validity than piaget’s
A confounding veritable is controlled
Who stated a counterpoint to Balliargeon’s VOE method
Bremner (2013)
What did Bremner state to contradict Balliargeon’s VOE method
Piaget pointed out that acting in accordance with a principle is not the same as understanding it.
What does understanding something mean?
What does this mean in terms of babies and object permanence
Understanding something means it can be thought about consciously and applied to reasoning about different aspects of the world.
Even though babies doe appear to respond this may not represent change in their cognitive abilities.
Who made a statement that supports Balliargeon’s theory in its ability to explain universal understanding of the physical world
Susan Hespos and Kristy van Marle (2012)
What did Hespos and Marle point out about Balliargeon’s theory and its ability to explain universal understanding of the physical world
We all have a very good understanding of the basic characteristics of the physical world regardless of culture and personal experience.
This universal understanding suggests that a basic understanding of the physical world is ___
Innate
What would we expect if the basic understanding of the physical world was not innate
Significant cultural and individual differences and there is no evidence for these.
What does innate basic understanding of the physical world suggest about Balliargeon’s PRS
It is correct.
What is one limitation of Balliargeon’s research
The assumption that response to VOE is linked to unexpectedness and hence object permanence.
It can be argued that all VOE shows is that babies find ___
Certain events more interesting
What is inferred when VOE is used
There is a link between this response and object permanence.
It may simply be that one event is more interesting and not unexpected
Who investigated how children develop their perspective-taking
Robert Selman (1971, 1976)
What was selman more specifically interested in
Social perspective-taking
What does social perspective-taking concern
What else is this called
What someone else is feeling or thinking
Social cognition
What is social cognition
What are both cognitive processes
Described the mental processes we make use of when engaged in social interactions.
Both the understanding and the decision-making are cognitive processes
What do we base our decisions on within social cognition
On how to behave based on our understanding of a social situation
What did Selman propose about social perspective-taking that differed for Piaget
What are these different approaches called.
Piaget believed in domain-general cognitive development. Physical and social perspective-taking occur hand-in-hand.
Selman believes that development of social perspective-taking is a separate process. A domain-specific approach.
What was Selman method for researching perspective-taking
30 boys and 30 girls.
20 4 year-olds, 20 5 year-olds and 20 6 year-olds.
They were asked how a person felt in various scenarios.
What was Selman findings when investigating perspective-taking
Selman found that the level of perspective-taking correlated with age, suggesting a clear development of sequences.
How many stages are in Selman stages of development
5
Name in order Selman stages of development
Stage 0 - Egocentric
Stage 1 - Social-informational
Stage 2 - self-reflective
Stage 3 - Mutual
Stage 4 - Social and conventional system
What ages are included in stage 0
3 - 6 years
What is a child like in the Egocentric stage
Cannot reliably distinguish between their own emotions and those of others.
Can generally identify emotional states in others but do not understand what social behaviour might have caused them
How old is a child in stage 1
6 - 8 years
What is a child like in the social-informational stage
Can now tell the difference between their own point of view and that of others.
They can usually focus on only one of these perspectives
How old is a child in stage 2
8 - 10 years old
What is a child like in the self-reflective stage
Can put themselves in the position of another person and fully appreciate the others perspective.
Can only take on board one point of view at a time.
How old is a child in stage 3
10 - 12 years old
What is a child like in the mutual stage
Now able to look at a situation from their own and anothers’ point of view at the same time
How old is a child in stage 4
12 years +
What is a child like in the social and conventional system stage
Able to see that sometimes understanding others’ viewpoints is not enough to allow people to reach agreement.
This is hwy social conventions are needed to keep order.
What did selman believe that development through the stages are based on
Maturity and experience
What did Selma recognise about his description of cognitive reasoning
It does not fully explain social development
Who came up with the three aspects to social development
Schultz et al. (2003)
What are the three aspects of social development
Interpersonal understanding
Interpersonal negotiation stratergies
Awareness of personal meanings of relationships
What is interpersonal understanding
If we can take different roles then we can understand social situations
What is interpersonal negotiation strategies
We also have to develop skills in how to respond to what others think in social situations.
We therefore develop social skills such as asserting our position and managing conflict
What is awareness of personal meaning of relationships
Social development also requires the ability to reflect on social behaviour in the context of different relationships.
What are two strengths of Selmans stages
Evidence that perspective-taking becomes more advance with age
Support for the importance of perspective-taking in healthy social development
In Selmans own research what correlation was found between age and the ability to take different perspectives
A significant positive correlation
What type of research was Selmans. What new type of research backs up his
Cross-sectional
Longitudinal
Who conducted a longitudinal study on Selmans stages
Gurucharri and Selman 1982
What is a longitudinal study
Does it have good or bad validity
One that follows the same child throughout age
Good validity as they control for individual differences.
Who completed a study in support for the importance of perspective-taking in healthy social development
Moniek Buijzen and Patti Valkenburg (2008)
What was Buijzen and Valkenburg’s method when investigating the importance of perspective-taking in healthy social development
Observational study of child-parent interaction in toy shops and supermarkets.
Observed interactions including those where parents refused to buy things their child wanted.
Any coercive behaviour in the children, which is unhealthy social behaviour was noted
What was Buijzen and Valkenburg’s findings when investigating the importance of perspective-taking in healthy social development.
Found a negative correlation between coercive behaviour and both age and perspective-taking abilities.
Who’s research does not support the links between perspective-taking and social development
Luciano Gasser and Monika Keller (2009)
What did Gasser and Keller assess in their research on the links between perspective-taking and social development
Assessed perspective-taking in bullies, victims and non-participants
What was Gasser and Keller’s findings when investigating the link between perspective-taking and social development
Bullies displayed no difficulties in perspective-taking
What is one limitation of Selman’s stages
The focus on cognitive factors alone
What does Selmans approach fail to take into account
The full range of other factors that impact on a child’s social development.
What are other internal factors that impact a child’s social development
The development of empathy and emotional self-regulation
What are the important external factors selman didn’t include in his research
Parenting style, family climate and opportunities to learn from peer interactions.
What is perspective-taking
Our ability to appreciate a social situation from the perspective of other people.
Underlies much of our normal social interactions.
What type of ability is perspective-taking
A cognitive ability
What is theory of mind (ToM)
Our personal understanding of what other people are thinking and feeling.
What is used to study ToM at different points in development
Different methods
How can ToM be assessed in toddlers
False belief tasks
How can ToM be assessed in older kids and adults
Eye tasks
Who completed a study on internal reasoning in toddlers
Andrew Meltzoff (1988)
What was the method for Meltzoff research on intentional reasoning in toddlers
Children of 18 months observed adults place beads into a jar.
In the experimental conditions the adults appeared to struggle with this and sone beads fell outside the jar.
In the control conditions the adults paced the beads successfully in the jar.
What was Meltzoff’s findings on intestinal reasonings in toddlers
In both conditions the toddlers successfully placed the beads in the jar.
Suggests they were imitating what the adults intended to do rather than what the adults actually did.
What did Meltzoff prove on intentional reasoning in toddlers
Provided convincing evidence that toddlers have an understanding of adult intentions and young children have a simple ToM.
Why were false belief tasks developed
In order to test whether children can understand that people can believe something that is not true.
Who first developed false tasks
Heinz Wimmer and Josef Perner (1983)
What was the method for Wimmer and Perner’s false belief task
They told 3-4 year olds a story in which Maxi left his chocolate in a blue cupboard in the kitchen. Later his mum used some of the chocolate in her cooking and placed the remainder in the green cupboard.
The children were asked where maxi would look for his chocolate when he came back.
What was the results in Wimmer and Perners false belief task
Most 3 year olds incorrectly said it he would look in the green cupboard
Most 4 year olds correctly said the blue cupboard
What does Wimmer and Perner’s false belief task results tell us about age and ToM
ToM undergoes a shift and becomes more advance at around 4 years old
What is the sally-Anne study
Uses the sally-Anne task to assess theory of mind.
To understand the story participants have to identify that sally will look for a marble in teh wrong place because she doesn’t know Anne moved it.
What type of task is the sally-Anne task
A false belief task
Who used and named the sally-Anne task
Simon Baron-Cohen et al. (1985)
Baron-Cohen has explored the links between ToM and what disability
Autism
What is autism
A board term for a spectrum of features. Autistic people face challenges with social interactions / communication and repetitive / restrictive behaviours.
What does autism being a spectrum condition tell us
Autism affects people in different ways.
What does autism co-occur with
Learning disabilities
What was the procedure Baron-Cohen used to investigate ToM and autism
The sally-Anne task was given individually to 20 autistic children, 27 non-autistic children and 14 children with Down syndrome (control groups)
What was Baron-Cohen’s findings when investigating ToM and Autism
85% of children in the control groups correctly identified where sally would look.
Only four of the autistic children (20%) were able to answer.
What did Baron-Cohen argue his findings proved about autism
Showed autism involves a ToM deficit and that this may in fact be a complete explanation for autism.
What did studies of older autistic children and autistic adults without a learning disability show?
What did this disprove?
That people with autism can succeed on false belief tasks.
The idea that autism can be explained by ToM deficits
What did Baron-Cohen and colleagues develop to assess ToM in adolescents and adults
The Eye Task
What is the eye task
Reading complex emotions in pictures just showing a small area around the eyes of a face.
What was Baron-Cohen findings on ToM and autism in adults through using the eye task
What did this prove
Found that many autistic adults without a learning disability struggled with the eyes task.
Reconfirmed the idea that ToM deficits might be a cause of autism
What year did Baren-Cohen conduct his eye task on adults with autism
1997
What are two limitations of ToM research
ToM research has been the reliant on false belief tasks to test theories
Research techniques fail to distinguish ToM from perspective-taking
Who researched the validity of false belief tasks
Bloom and German (2000)
What did Bloom and German say about the reliability of false belief tasks
They may have some serious problems with validity
What is one reason for false belief tasks having problems of validity
They require other cognitive abilities such as visual memory.
This means failure on a false belief task may be due to deficit in memory rather than ToM.
What can some children successfully take part in which requires some ToM ability but find false belief tasks difficult
What does this mean about false belief tasks and ToM research
Pretend play
False belief tasks may not really measure ToM ad therefore ToM lacks key research.
What is the relationship between perspective-taking and ToM
They are related but are two different cognitive abilities
What does the relationship between perspective-taking and ToM mean about experiments
Have to be careful that the chose one is being measured and not the other
What is one strength of ToM research
Its application to understanding autism
What does the results of autistic people and ToM research reflect in the characteristics of autism
Some autistic people may find social interaction difficult.
It is hard to interact with someone if you dont get a sense of what they are thinking.
What is a counterpoint to the link between ToM and autism
ToM doesn’t provide a complete explanation for autism as not every autistic person experiences ToM problems.
What does Josef Perner et al (2002) suggest about ToM development
Who’s beliefs do these align with more
It is an innate ability which develops alongside other cognitive abilities, largely as a result of maturing
Piagets
What does Janet Wilde Astington suggest about the development of ToM
Who’s beliefs do they align with more
Tom develops as a consequence of our interactions with others, and gradually the concept of ToM is internalised.
Vygotsky’s
What is the mirror neuron system
Consists of special brain cells-called mirror neurons distributed in several areas of the brain.
Mirror neurons are unique because they fire both in response to personal action and in response to action on the part of others.
What may the mirror neurons be involved in
What May they allow us to do
Social cognition
Allow us to interpret intention and emotion in others
Who discovered mirror neurones by accident
Giacomo Rizzolatti et al. (2002)
How did Rizzolatti discover mirror neurons
We’re studying electrical activity in a monkey’s motor cortex.
A researcher reached for his lunch in front of the monkey.
The monkey’s motor cortex became activated in the same way as it did when it was reaching for the food itself.
Why are they named mirror neurons
Because they mirror motor activity in another individual.
Who suggested a link between intentions and mirror neurons
Victoria Gallese and Alvin Goldman (1998)
What did Gallese and Alvin suggest about mirror neurons and interactions
Mirror neurons respond not just to observed actions but to intentions behind behaviour.
We stimulate others actions in our motor system and experience their intentions using mirror neurons.
What is the suggested link between mirror neurons and ToM or perspective -taking
If mirror neurons fire in response to others actions and intentions this may give us a neural mechanism for experiencing, and understanding other peoples perspectives and emotional states.
Who suggested a link between mirror neurons and human evolution
Vilayanur Ramachandran (2011)
What did Ramachandran suggest about mirror neurons and human evolution
Mirror neurons have effectively shaped human evolution.
They are key to understanding why we have developed as a social species
What is the link between cognitive social abilities show and the way we live / our culture - mirror neurons and evolution
Without the cognitive social abilities we could not live in large groups with the complex social roles and rules that characterise human culture.
Why did research into the link between mirror neurons and autism
Ramachandran and Lindsay Oberman (2006)
What theory did Ramachandran and Oberman propose
The ‘broken mirror’ theory of autism
What is the ‘broken mirror’ theory of autism
The idea that neurological deficits including dysfunction of the mirror neurons system prevent a developing child from imitating and understanding social behaviours in others. Which are symptoms of autism.
What are two strengths for mirrors neurons
The existence of supporting evidence
Support for explaining autism
Who provided evidence supporting a role for mirror neurons in a range of human behaviours - yawning
Helene Haker et al (2012)
What was the method used by Haker to research mirror neurons and their use in human behaviours
Scanned the brains of people as they watched a film of people yawning.
What was Haker’s findings when investigating the link between mirror neurons and human behaviours
(What part of the brain)
Levels of activity in Brodmann’s Area 9 - believed to be rich with mirror neurons - increased when participants yawned in response.
What is contagious yawning believed to be the result of?
What does this mean via Harkers results - yawning
A result of empathy
The study links mirror neuron activity to empathy
Who researched the link between mirror neurons and intentions - cup
Marco Lacoboni et al (2005)
What was Lacobonis research method when trying to study mirror neurons and intentions
Looked at brain activity whilst a participant tried to understand a hand-grasping gesture
E.g. picking up a cup of
What was Lacobonis findings when investigating the link between mirror neurons and intentions
Activity in the inferior frontal gyrus (rich with mirror neurons) increased significantly when the participants tried to understand the intentions behind the hand-grasping gesture
What did Lacoboni’s results suggest about the link between mirror neurons and an action taking place infront of you
Mirror neurons encoded why an object was being grasped (intentions)
Who conducted research into the link between autism and mirror neurons (broken mirror theory)
Hadjikhani (2007)
What did Hadjikani find in brain scans?
What was the link made with autism?
Smaller average thickness of the pars operccularis in autistic people
This is an area thought to be rich with mirror neurons and thought to be involved in perspective-taking
What has research focused on scanning methods shown about the ‘broken mirror’ theory and autism
Lower activity level sin regions of the brain believed to be associated with high concentrations of mirror neurons in autistic people.
Who’s research is a counterpoint to the strength of mirror neurons explaining autism h
Antonia Hamilton (2013)
What was involved in Hamilton’s research for a counterpoint against the link between mirror neurons and autism
Conducted a systematic review of 25 studies
What was Hamilton’s opposing conclusion on the link between mirror neurons and autism
Evidence was highly inconsistent and results hard to interpret.
May not be a link at all.
What is a limitation to the research method for mirror neurons?
Is this ethical on humans?
Are animal studies reliable?
To measure neuron activity electrodes have to be implanted in the brain.
Ethically impossible to do this in humans and animal studies tell little about human cognition.
What is an alternative method to measure neuron activity rather than implanting electrodes
Scanning techniques
What is the limitations of using scanning techniques over implanting electrodes
Only measure activity in brain areas not individual cells.
Who said there is no ‘gold standard’ for measuring mirror neurons activity in humans.
Bekkali et al (2019)
What did Bekkali state about measuring neuron activity and evidence for mirror neuron activity in humans
There is no ‘gold standard’ for measuring mirror neuron activity in humans
No direct evidence for mirror neuron activity in humans.
Mirror neurons are believed to be what type of cell
Motor neurons
