Cognition and Development Flashcards
Define cognitive development
a general term describing the development of all mental processes
How long do we go through cognitive development
throughout our lifespan
When was Piaget writing from
1930’s to 1970’s
What was Piagets great contribution to CD
he realised children do not know less tha adults but have a totally different way of thinking
What two aspects of childrens learning was Piaget most interested in
the role of motivation
how knowledge develops
What unit does Piaget suggest knowledge comes in
schemas
What schemas are children born with according to Piaget
a small amount of simple schemas that allow for simple interactions between people and the environment
What schema do children learn in infancy
the ‘me’ schema
eg i have brown hair
What is assimiliation learning
a form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information or a more advanced undertanding of an object
How is this linked to the regular assimilatiuon definition
as when the new information is concurrent when previous knowledge we can add it to our previous schemas
What is accomadation
a form of learning that takes place when we acquire information that challenges previous understanding, so we must create a new schema or radically change an old one
Define equilibration
takes place when we have encountered new information and deal with it through assimilation or acommodation
Define constructed knowledge
the idea that the infant is constructing their own understanding of the world through their own experience
When does Piaget suggest we are motivated to learn
when our existing schemas no longer equipt us to make sense of something new
What is this unpleasant feeling called
disequilibrium
How do we avoid disequilibrium
we need to adapt and learn what we need to know
What is the desired state
equilibration
Name a study that supports Piaget’s theory that children learn by forming their own mental representations
Hoew et al (1992) children aged 9-12 objects down a slope understanding assessed before and after children had not come to the same conclusions
What has Piagets theory aided
education
How has Piaget’s theory helped the classroon
replaced 60’s quiet classrooms with activity-orientated classrooms where the children actively engage so it lets them construct their own understanding
What role did Piaget underplay in learning
the role of other people
he believed parents and peers were important in learning as they can set up learning activities but believed most the development happened in the mind of the child
Who opposed Piaget in the role of other people
Vgotsky proposed that learning is a social process and children can learn much more advanced things if supported by peers or an expert adult
What did Piaget overplay
the importance of equilibration as children naturally vary in intellectual curiosity he had a biased sample from a uni nursery with clever middle-class children
What did Piaget also underplay
the importance of language
he sees language development of cognition
What are some features of Piagets stage of development
cross-culturally universal
sequential
usually passed at the same ages
What does Piagets stages suggest
biological basis for cognitive development
Name piagets 4 stages
sensorimotor 0-2 years
pre-operational 2-7
concrete operations 7-11
formal operations 11+
Explain the sensorimotor stage
learn to coordinate sensory input with motor actions through circular reactions to test relationships
high egocentric and lack of object permanence
Explain the pre operational stage
now developed object permanence
but unable to conserve (not understanding quantity stays the same when object changes shape)
What is egocentrism
seeing the world only from your point of view
What do children begin to understand in the pre operational stage
class inclusion classification - that objects fall into classes
What do children under 7 struggle with
subsets of classification
cannot see something being in two classes at once
Explain the concrete stage
children perform better in conservation, egocentrism and class inclusion better reasoning abilities
What are reasoning abilities also called
operations
What do children in the concrete stage still struggle with
imagining, reasoning or dealing with abstract concepts
Explain the formal operational stage
capable of formal reason
do not need physical object/can imagine abstracts
can do hypothetico-deduction
focus on form of argument not just content
What is hypothetico-deduction
creating and testing hypothesises in a scientific way
What is an issue with conservation in Piagets studies
he changed their appearance so the children thought they were meant to think the quantity had changed
McGarrigle and Donaldon (1974) repeated this study where a counter was moved by accident
‘Piaget’ group got it wrong
‘Naughty teddy’ group 64% correct
What is a study that opposes Piagets class inclusion theory
Siegler & Svetina (2006)
100 5 year olds
post test feedback given to one group
once told dogs are part of animals, they learn and get it right next time so can understand it
What is a study that opposes Piagets egocentrism theory
Hughes (1975)
3 mountains 3 dolls and walls
once familiarised, children as young as 3.5 could place the doll where it wouldnt be seen by the police dolls
shows that piaget underestimated a childs ability to decentre
Who did Piaget over and under estimate
under - children, as they arent egocentric and can understand class inclusion and conservation with the right adult help over - adolescents
What study shows Piaget overestimated adolescents
Bradmetz (1999)
undertaking formal thinking task
only 1 child aged 15 could reliably complete the task
What did Piaget believe about domain general development
that all intellectual development is a single process and that everything develops together
What research suggests domain general is incorrect
research on autism
eg aspergers have normal language and reasoning yet are very egocentric
What is the difference between Vgotsky and Piaget
Piaget saw children as scientists whereas Vgotsky saw children as apprentices who learnt from more experienced others
What were the two major influences on a childs development of understanding according to Vgotsky
social interaction (learning from others) language (the vehicle that drives learning)
What is a similiarity bewteen Piaget and Vgotsky
both saw children as curious, problem solving beings who play an active part in their own development
What two stages does knowledge go through according to Vgotsky
first intermental - between the more and less expert individuals
then intramnetal - in the mind of the less expert
What does Vgotsky say aboout cultural differences
we learn from the adults around us therefore there will be cultural differences in development
they will acquire the tools that best suit their environment
Explain the zone of proximal development
are between the childs actual development and potential development
experts allows children to cross the ZPD
What is the assistance from adults also called
scaffolding
What is scaffolding
support and prompting from experts to help cross ZPD
support gradually withdrawn
What are the 5 aspects of scaffolding according to Bruner, Wood and Ross (1976)
recruitment - engage childs interests
reduction of degrees of freedom - focus child on task
direction maintenence - encourage child to stay motivated and complete task
marking - highlight most critical parts
demonstration - shwo them how to do it
What did Vgotsky believes is vital to cognitive development
informal teaching as Piagets discovery learning is not enough
Name a study that supports the ZPD
Roazzi and Bryant (1998)
children asked to guess number of sweets in box
those with expert help from older kids were better at the task
Name a study that supports scaffolding
Connor and Cross (2003)
found that mothers agev children hints and tips when needed and distinctive changes occured
What are the positive applications to education with Vygotsky
found that teaching assisstants are effective at improving the rate of learning in children found that tutoring alongside whole class teaching improves progression
What is an issue with Vygotsky’s research
like piaget, believed learning was the same across all children
does not take into account individual differences such as some liking social interaction and some liking independant work
What did Piaget believe about the sensorimotor stage
babies dont understand the physical world eg dont undertsnad that an object still exixts even when its out of view
What were the criticisms of this
that maybe they do undertsnad it but dont have the motor skills or atention span to pursue it
What did Baillargeon develop
the violation of expectation method to investigate infants understanding of the physical world
How does Baillargeon describe the VOE study
infants see two events, an expected event that is consistant with their expectations and an unexpected event that violates this expectation
What does VOE test
object permanency
EXplain an early procedure of the VOE study
24 infants, 5-6 months possible condition (tall and short rabbit and tall passes window) impossible condition (neither pass through window)
What are the findings from this early study of VOE
looked at impossible condition for 33.07s
looked at possible condition for only 25.11s
shows they were suprised as looked at impossible for longer, therefore must know the rabbit should be appearing
What type of study is this
an occlusion study, where an object blocks another
What are the alternatives to occlusion studies
containment - when an object enters a container it should be there when opened
support - object should fall when unsupported but not whe its on a horizontal surface
Who found that infants pay more attention to all of these conditions in VOE experiments
Hespos and Baillargeon (2008)
What did Baillargeon et al (2012) propose
that humans are born with a physical reasoning system
What does this physical reasoning system allow
for us to initially have some primative awareness of the physical properties of the world but this becomes more sophisticated as we learn from experience
What does Baillargeon believe we have from birth
object persistence, the idea that an object remains in existence and does not spontaneously alter in structure
What do infants begin to identify in their first few weeks of life
event categories
What is an event categories
something that corresponds to the way objects interact eg occlusion
Why does the impossible event capture the childs attention the most
because of the nature of their PRS, it means they are predisposed to attend to new events that might allow them to develop their understanding of the world
Why is Baillargeon a better test of infant understanding
better than piaget
high levels of validity
eliminates confoudning variables
Why is it hard to know what the infant is thinking
VOE shows how babies behave as we might expect them to if they understood the physical world
We are guessing how a baby behaves in response to a VOE event
There may be other reasons why they look for longer - finding one scenario more interesting rather than a true appreciation of the physical world
How does PRS expalin why physical understanding is universal
Hespos & Van Marle (2012) – we are all born with an innate physical reasoning system
It is universal that if we drop some keys they will fall to the floor. This knowledge requires a a PRS which must be innate otherwise we would see cultural differences
How is PRS consistent with other infant abilities
Pei et al. (2007) found that children can use crude patterns to judge distance from an early age but becomes more sophisticated with age suggesting that distance perception is also innate
Why is behavioural response not the same as understanding
Bremner (2013) reminds us that even if the infants attention is maintained for longer in the impossible scene – this does NOT mean they have a clear conscious understanding of the physical world
What did Selman (1971) propose
that social perspective-taking develops seperately to phsyical perspective-taking (domain specific)
Explain Selman’s procedure
30 boys 30 girls ages 4,5,6 (evenly split)
each given task asking them how somone feels in different situations
one scenario - holly rescue kitten
What were the findings in Selmans procedure
a number of distinct role taking levels were identified
found that level correlated to age showing a clear developmental sequence
Explain stage 0
socially egocentric
ages 3 - 6
Understand others have different thoughts and feeling but often confuse them with their own
Can identify others visible feelings
Often cannot identify the social action that might be the cause of others feelings
Explain stage 1
social information role taking
6-8
Aware others have access to different information so will have different perspectives
Usually can only focus on 1 perspective at a time
Explain stage 2
self reflective role taking
8-10
Can step into another’s shoes and fully appreciate their point of view
Understand that other people can perceive other’s perspectives and intentions
Still focused on only 1 perspective at a time
Explain stage 3
mutual role taking
10-12
Able to take own and others perspective simultaneously
Also able to step outside a two person situation and see how an objective 3rd person would view it
Explain stage 4
Social and conventional system role-taking
12+
Understanding that 3rd person perspective taking is influenced by shared societal/cultural values as well as mutual role taking
What were the later developments to Selman’s research
Schultz, Selman and La Russo (2003) added:
interpersonal understanding - take on different roles
interpersonal negotiation strategies - respond and manage others
awareness of personal meaning of relationships - reflect on behaviour that has happened in past life events
What is a positive evaluation of Selman’s research
he provided solid cross sectional evidence with string positive correlations between age and taking different perspectives
also supported by longitudinal studies so takes away participant variables
therefore backed up by a range of studies
What research suggests that Selman is wrong in believing perspective taking is important for social development
Gasser and Keller (2009)
found age and perspective taking abilities does not result in prosocial behaviour
bullies can perspective take
doesn’t result in socially desirable behaviour
what is a correlation issue with the research
conclusions are based on correlations between data sets
higher perspective skills do not necessarily cause higher levels of social competence
could be other way around
correlation does not mean causation
How does Selmans research help understand atypical behaviour
Marton et al (2009) compared 50 8-12 ADHD& ASD children with a control group. They were much worse than the control group on understanding scenarios, identifying feelings & evaluating consequences.
What does Selmans work ignore
the interaction of other important factors such as empathy, emotional self-regulation, the environment in which the child is raised
based purely on cognition (reductionist)
What study based on Selamn’s research shows development includes cultural differences
Wu & Keysar (2007) found young Chinese participants did significantly better in perspective taking than matched American’s
What is the theory of mind
Refers to the ability that each of us has to have a personal theory of not only our own mental state but also what other people believe or what their intentions are
not a psychological theory
Explain the study that looked at intentional reasoning in toddlers
Meltzoff (1988) 18 month olds watched adults place beads into a jar.
Experimental condition = adult struggles and drops beads.
Control condition = adult successfully drops beads in.
In both conditions the toddlers placed beads in the jar equally well. They were imitating what the adult intended to do.
What did Meltzoff find in this study
aged aprox. 18 months have an ability to understand adult intentions. Have a simple ToM
What do false belief tasks intend to test
if children understand that people can believe in something that they themselves know not to be true
Explain a false belief task study
Wimmer & Perner (1983) told 3-4 year olds that Max had left his chocolate in the blue cupboard before going outside to play. His mother used some of the chocolate and put it back in the green cupboard. Asked: where would Max look for his chocolate?
What did Wimmer and Perner find
3 years – he would look in the green cupboard
4 years – he would look in the blue cupboard
Between 3-4 years ToM becomes more advanced
Who was tested in Baron-Cohen (1985) sally-anne experiment
children with autism
Explain the Sally-Anne procedure
Used 20 children with ASD, & control group consisted of - 14 with Down’s and 27 without any diagnosis.
Children were told Sally places a marble in her basket and when not looking, Anne moves it to her box.
Q: Where will Sally look for her marble?
To answer this the children need to understand Sally’s false belief about where the marble is.
What did Baron Cohen find
85% in control correctly id where Sally will look. Only 20% in ASD group get the answer correct.
ASD involves an ToM deficit
What did Baron Cohen suggest
that deficits in ToM may be a full explanation for ASD
How did Baron Cohen test Tom in older children and adults
The eye task – individuals were shown pictures of peoples eyes and asked to select one of two emotions that might be represented
What were the findings from the eye test
autistic spectrum disorder scored a mean score of 16.3
normal participants with a mean score of 20.3 out of a max of 25
supports idea that ToM may be ASD explanation
Why did Baron Cohen develop the eye test
as other studies showed adults with ASD could do false belief tasks but he believed those tasks were too simple
Who found the validity of ToM is poor
Bloom & German(2000) Success in the task requires other cognitive abilities, such as memory,. The Sally-Anne and Max stories require a 3 year old to remember quite a bit of info
Children with ToM can still struggle with false belief tasks. Children who perform badly in the tasks can still enjoy pretend play which requires ToM
Why is there more doubt about the tasks
The methods used to measure ToM could be simply measuring perspective taking. So responses to Sally-Anne task could simply be an ability to take Sally’s perspective
What has ToM studies helped us understand
ASD, widely accepted that those with ASD have more problems with age appropriate ToM tests
Who questions the assumption that ToM causes ASD
Tager-Flusberg (2007) – questions this assumption. Not all people with ToM deficit have ASD and not all those on the spectrum will have ToM deficits
ASD may also have cognitive strengths such as superior visual attention and high systematic reasoning which ToM cannot easily explain
Name the two beliefs that make our understanding of how ToM develops confusing
Perner et al. (2002) believes it develops in line with other cognitive abilities in the same way Piaget did Wilde Astington (1998) believes we learn ToM through early interactions with adults = a more Vgotsky viewpoint
Why does the eye task also lack validity
The task of looking at a picture of a static pair of eyes is completely removed from real life and lacks any kind of mundane reality
Who discovered mirror neurons
First discovered by accident, then investigated by Rizzolatti (2002)
Studying activity in the motor cortex of monkeys
What did Gallese & Goldman (1998) suggest about mirror neurons
suggest mirror neurons respond to not just observed actions but also intentions behind behaviour. Central to social cognition
They suggest humans simulate other’s actions in our motor system and experience their intentions using our mirror neurons
Where else are MN suggested to be important
in ToM and persepective taking
allows observers to experience an action as if it were their own
therefore permits individuals to share in the feelings and thoughts of others by empathising with and imitating others
What did Ramachandran (2000) suggest about MN
proposed that mirror neurons are especially developed in humans, more than other animals, and this explain the uniqueness of humans as a species
enabled us to excel in social relationships
Without these cognitive abilities we could not live in the large groups with the social roles and rules that characterise human culture
What did Ramachandran & Oberman (2006) suggest about ASD
suggested the ‘broken mirror’ system = dysfunctional MN system prevents the child from developing imitating skills and understanding the social behaviour in others
What type of theory is MN
social cognition
When are MN fired
when we see or hear an action
What % of neurons in the frontal cortex are mirror neurons
10% (Gallese et al 1996)
Who showed that we can direct experimental understanding of each other through MN
Wicker et al (2003) smelling a bad smell and watching someone else smell a bad smell resulted in the same neural response
may show we can emphathise
Who found positive fMRI evidence for MN
Haker et al. (2012) fMRI assessed brain activity in participants watching videos of others yawning. When P’s yawned they had considerable activity in Broddman’s area in the right frontal lobe believed to be rich in mirror neurons
What are some practical issues with using fMRI for MN
it shows a region and not specific neurons
Research only draws inferences
lack of DIRECT evidence for MN activity
Explain the mixed evidence for MN and ASD
Hadjikhani (2007) reviewed evidence
brain scans have shown a smaller average thickness for the pars opercularis and lower activity in areas associated with MNs
however findings are not consistently replicated so evidence linking ASD to MR is mixed
There is a lack of credible evidence
Who questioned whether MN exist at all
Hickok (2009)
All we know about MN is what they do, but if we can’t identify an individual cell how do we know it isn’t other neurons carrying out those functions
What does Hickok (2009) also suggest
while MN may exist, they may be used to plan behavior rather than understanding others
