Cognition and development

Question 1

What are the two factors in which cognition development is effected ?

Answer 1

• Maturation: the effects of biological process of ageing and how some processes become more available to us as we grow
• Environment: interaction with the environment leads us to understand the world more complexly

Question 2

What does the term accommodation mean ?

Answer 2

it requires a change in the existing schema. We alter an existing schema due to new information which is conflicting of previous information learnt.

Question 3

What does the term assimilation mean ?

Answer 3

refers to an individuals ability to apply new information to an existing schema. We take new information and process it using existing schemas . There are no changes necessary to the existing schema you are just adding it by fitting new experiences into it.

Question 4

What does the term equilibrium mean ?

Answer 4

we are motivated to learn when existing schemas do not allow us to understand something new. This leads to an unpleasant feeling of disequilibrium. To escape the feeling we adapt to the new situation, therefore achieving equilibrium.

Question 5

Give me an evaluation based on Piaget’s Theory of Development.

Answer 5

Strength: children form individual mental representations by discovery.
Children who have had similar learning experiences will form quite different representations. This could be proven with Howe’s (1992) movement of object study. After discussion with other children gained an increased in knowledge but did not come to the same conclusions. This supports Piaget’s idea that children learn by forming their own personal mental representations.

Weakness: Piaget put too much importance on equilibrium
Piaget saw learning as a motivational process but that motivation can differ from person to person

Strength: Application in education
Piaget’s idea that children learn by actively exploring their environment, revolutionised classroom teaching. This led to the development of flip learning and independent learning so evaluation skills can be used later.

Weakness: did not enough importance on the role of other people
Piaget saw other people as important sources of information however was not the main focus in his theory. He believed that cognition development happens in the mind of an individual. However Vygotsky’s theory would undermine Piaget’s theory as he proposed learning as more of a social process.

Question 6

What were the 4 stages of Piaget’s intellectual development ?

Answer 6

• Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)
• Pre-operational stage (2-7 years)
• Concrete Operational stage ( 7-11)
• Formal Operational stage (11+)

Question 7

What was the sensorimotor stage in Piaget’s intellectual development ?

Answer 7

physical sensations/coordination was the main focus in this stage. Key feature in this development was object permanence, this is understanding that objects and people do still exist, even when they cannot be seen.

Question 8

What is the pre-operational stage in Piaget’s intellectual development ?

Answer 8

children in this stage cannot perform logical reasoning and rely heavily on what they see. Children begin to understand classification, the idea the objects fall into category.

Question 9

What is the concrete operational stage in Piaget’s intellectual development ?

Answer 9

children have developed the ability to use logic at this stage, however they lack abstract reasoning. Children have better reasoning abilities, known as operations, only applied to physical objects in the child’s presence.

Question 10

What is the formal operational stage in Piaget’s intellectual development ?

Answer 10

starting to develop abstract thinking and formal reasoning. Also links to idealistic thinking. Meaning people can use their imagination to think of how things might be if changes were made.

Question 11

What was the conversation task ?

Answer 11

the ability to realise that quantity remains the same even when the appearance of an object or a group of objects changes.

Question 12

What was the 3 mountains task ?

Answer 12

Piaget and Inhalder (1956) conducted this study . The procedure of the study was that children saw cross, house or snow and asked to explain what they saw and what the adult also saw from their perspective. The findings of the study showed that children only saw things from their point of view and chose images that reflected on what they saw. This study links to egocentrism.

Question 13

Give me an evaluation of Piaget’s intellectual developmental stages.

Answer 13

Weakness: demand characteristics
children may have been influenced by experimenter changing the appearance of the counters and liquid. The children believed that they were meant to think that the volume had changed.

Strength: children can conduct class conclusion
Sieglar and Svetina (2006) tested 100 5 year old Slovenian children who undertook class inclusion tests, receiving an explanation of the task after each session. Found that when children were explained about dogs being subset of animals, their scores improved, suggesting they had acquired an understanding of class inclusion.

Weakness: Piaget underestimated children in terms of egocentrism.
Hughes (1975) challenged Piaget’s views. Tested children to see a situaiton from 2 viewpoints using a model with two intersecting walls and 3 dolls, a boy and a policeman. The findings of the study showed that

Question 14

What was Vygotsky’s theory of cognition development ?

Answer 14

he argued that it is influences within our culture that are the driving force for cognitional development and the cognitional ability is a result of social contexts.

Question 15

How do the role of experts have an effect on our cognitional development according to Vygotsky’s theory ?

Answer 15

this suggests that as children we are constantly learning from other people in our environment, if their knowledge is greater than our own.

Question 16

What is scaffolding ?

Answer 16

refers to the help adults and more advanced peers give to a younger child to help them cross the ZPD.

Question 17

What is the Zone of Proximal development ?

Answer 17

the region between a child’s current ability and tasks they cannot perform. The child can do all the tasks in the first ring of the zone. The middle ring is where a child can learn with the use of scaffolding. The third ring is out of the child’s ability and cant do even with scaffolding.

Question 18

Give me an evaluation of Vgotsky’s theory of cognition development

Answer 18

Strength: supporting research for zone of proximal development.
Roazzi and Bryant (1998) gave 4-5 year olds the task of estimating how many sweets are in a box. Condition one was that children worked alone and the second condition was they worked with the help of an older child. The findings of the study showed that most children who worked alone failed to give a good estimate, but other group with older children helping them managed to complete the task.

Strength: supporting research for scaffolding
Conner and Cross (2003) used a longitudinal procedure with 45 children. The 45 children were observed engaging in a problem solving task with the help of their mothers. The children had various ages with 16,26,44 and 54 months old. Mothers gave the child less direct help and more hints as the child grew older and gained more experience. In addition as they grew older help was given less rather than constantly. This shows how scaffolding is used over time.

Strength: application in education
raised expectations of children in education. With appropriate scaffolding such as group work and tutoring, children can achieve more. Keer and Verhaeghe (2005) found that 7 year olds tutored by 10 year olds in addition with whole class teaching, progressed further in reading than controls.

Question 19

What does the term violation of expectation mean ?

Answer 19

an approach to investigating how infants understand the world. If a child understands how the physical world operates they will have expectations about a situation. If these expectations are not met children will react accordingly.

Question 20

What as Baillargeon’s research into infant abilities ?

Answer 20

Aim:
to test to see if violation expectation occurs in earlier months than that of Piaget’s suggested 8-9 months for object permanence.

Method:
24 infants aged 5-6 months shown ‘ impossible’ and ‘possible’ events. A tall bunny and a short bunny passing behind a screen with a window.

Results:
33.07 seconds looking at an impossible event compared to 25.11 seconds in the possible condition. Interpreted as a surprise if they look for longer

Conclusion: demonstrates an understanding of object permanence at an earlier age (5-6 months)

Question 21

What does Baillargeon suggest that we are born with ?

Answer 21

with an innate ‘physical reasoning system’

Question 22

What is the innate physical reasoning system ?

Answer 22

this is a understanding of the physical properties of the world.

Question 23

Give me an evaluation of Baillargeons research ?

Answer 23

Strength: Violation of Expectation has better validity than Piaget’s infant research
Piaget suggested that when children shift attention away from an object that is out of sight, they no longer think it exists. However it could actually be that the baby has simply lost interest. This therefore shows that VEO is a better method because it eliminates the confounding variables, as simply losing interest would not explain findings that children look for longer at impossible events.

Strength: Physical Reasoning system explains why physical understanding is universal
Hespos and Marle (2012) pointed out that without learning or prior experiences everyone has a good understanding of the physical properties of physical objects. For example with dangling keys everyone knows its gonna drop if let go. The fact that this is universal suggests that it is innate, otherwise there would be cultural differences.

Strength: Physical Reasoning system is consistent with other research
Pei (2007) found infants can judge distances from a young age, but it is experience that is required to make use of more subtle textual differences. Distance perception is more of a innate system.

Weakness: Hard to judge what infants understand
the research shows the infants looking at the impossible events. However we are guessing if they understand or what they can understand. In addition when infants look longer at impossible events it could be because they are looking at it cause something has has made them interested and it doesn’t necessarily have to be the impossible event.

Question 24

What does the term ego centrism mean ?

Answer 24

the child’s tendency to only be able to see the world from their own point of view. This is both physically and during arguments.

Question 25

What was the aim of Selmans research ?

Answer 25

to investigate how children s ability to take on perspective of social roles change with age.

Question 26

What was the procedure of Selmans research ?

Answer 26

30 boys and 30 girls took part in the study, 20 4 years olds, 20 5 year olds and 20 6 year olds. The task was asking each person felt in each scenario. One scemario featured a girl who promised her father that she will not climb trees anymore. However one of her friends had her kitten stuck up a tree. The task was to explain how each person would feel if Holly did or did not climb up the tree.

Question 27

What were the findings of Selmans research ?

Answer 27

Selman found that the level of perspective taking correlated with age, suggesting a clear developmental sequence.