Cognition and Development - Advanced Information Flashcards
Discuss Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Refer to the process of equilibration in your answer [16 marks].
AO1
AO1- 6 marks
Adults don’t just know more but think differently.
Two influences:
Maturation – effect of biological processes of ageing, as children get older certain mental processes become possible.
Environment – through interactions with environment, children’s understanding of world becomes more complex.
Schema - mental structure all information we have about world.
o Develop via experiences. Stored as knowledge in mind.
o Believed children born with small no. of schemas – enough for interaction with others. E.g., grasping reflex/ mental representation of face.
o During infancy construct new schema. “me-schema” - all knowledge about self-stored. Then develop more due to interactions with environment.
o Can be behavioural e.g., grasping object or cognitive e.g., classifying objects.
o Schema can become more complex – assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation - try to understand any new info terms of existing knowledge about world.
o Existing schema used on new object. E.g., child with dogs can adapt to existence of different dog breeds by assimilating them into dog schema.
Accommodation- response to dramatically new experiences. Adjust by radically changing current schema/forming new ones.
o Child with dog may first think of cats as dogs – four legs, fur, and tail – then accommodate to existence of separate species called cat. Will involve, altering animal/pet schemas to include cats and forming a new ‘cat-schema’.
Equilibration - driving force for changes/ ‘adaptation’ principle.
o Motivated to learn when existing schemas don’t allow us to make sense of something new. Human mind strives to maintain sense of balance.
o If experience can’t be assimilated into existing schemas, then state of imbalance experienced as unpleasant state (disequilibrium) so seek to restore balance via equilibration.
Lifespan Learning - Assimilation, Accommodation, and equilibration take place throughout life as experiences present us with knowledge.
o Some limitations on what can be learned at different stages. Young child can’t always accommodate new experiences into new schemas because mind is simply not mature enough – links to stages of cognitive development.
Discuss Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Refer to the process of equilibration in your answer [16 marks].
AO3
AO3 – DW, DW, HB, HB - Underplayed role of other people in learning. Although didn’t believe children learn best on own, other people aren’t focus of theory as saw learning in terms of what happens in mind of individual. However, other theories of learning and CD, and range of research findings suggest that others crucial to process of learning. Reduces validity of Piaget’s work - Piaget saw learning very much motivated process - children learn to equilibrate as disequilibrium such an unpleasant experience. But children vary greatly in intellectual curiosity. May be Piaget over-estimated just how motivated children are to learning because he studied children mainly from the nursery attached to his university and this was a biased sample of children who belonged to predominantly white, middle-class, well-educated families. Children who come from poorer backgrounds and so may have had fewer educational opportunities, may display more/less intellectual curiosity than middle-class/upper-class children. Therefore, Piaget’s theory can’t explain CD in all children. - Development of language is important aspect of CD. To Piaget, language just a cognitive ability that developed in line with other abilities. However, other theorists placed lot more importance on language development, suggesting Piaget may have underplayed its importance. \+ Piaget’s theory has been successfully applied to education. Prior, classrooms had children sat silently in rows, copying from board. Has been replaced by activity-orientated classrooms in which children actively engage in tasks that allow them to construct own understandings. Change in educational practices support theory children learn by actively exploring environment and forming own mental representations of world.
Discuss Piaget’s stages of intellectual development. Refer to research evidence as part of your answer. [16 marks]
AO1
AO1- 6 marks
- Identified four stages of intellectual development. Each stage characterised by different level of reasoning ability. Although exact ages vary between children, all children develop through same sequence of stages
- Sensorimotor Stage (0-2yrs)
o Physical sensations and basic co-ordination between what see and body movement.
o Understand other people separate objects and acquire some basic language.
o Object permanence around 8 months - Belief object still exists when out of view.
- Pre-operational (2-7 yrs.)
o Can’t converse – ability to realise quantity remain same even when appearance of object/group of objects changes.
o Egocentric – tendency only see world from own POV. Applies to physical objects and arguments in which child only appreciate own perspective.
o Class inclusion difficult – classifications have subsets
- Concrete Operations (7-11yrs.)
o Can conserve and perform much better on egocentrism and class inclusion tasks.
o Have reasoning problems – only able to reason/operate on physical operations in their presence
o Struggle to reason about abstract ideas and to imagine objects/situations they can’t see.
- Formal Operations (11 yrs.+)
o Abstract reasoning develops – can think beyond here and now in scientific way.
o Focus an argument and not be distracted by its content.
o Formal reasoning can be tested using syllogisms.
Discuss Piaget’s stages of intellectual development. Refer to research evidence as part of your answer. [16 marks]
AO3
AO3 – CW, CW, HB
+/- Support. Piaget - object permanence develops around 8mnths. Hid object under cloth and observed whether children would continue to reach for object. Before 8 months immediately switched attention away but after 8 months continued to reach for suggesting they understood still existed. However, may occur earlier. Bower and Wishart (72) found 1-4months continued to reach for object for up 90 second after lights turned out. So, baby may have been distracted by cloth so didn’t continue searching therefore reduces validity of Piaget’s work.
+/- Support. Piaget and Inhelder (52) showed children model of 3 mountains placing doll at different angles. The asked children to identify doll’s view. Pre-operational children couldn’t do this. However, Hughes (75) showed model of 4 wall in cross layout. Two dolls – policeman and boy, Police placed at different locations and children asked if police could see boy. Found 90% of 3½ - 5yrs could understand two POVs. Therefore, contradicts Piaget’s claim that children couldn’t understand another person’s POV at this age.
- Piaget over-estimated abilities of adolescents. Bradmetz (1999) showed out of 62 children tested age 15, only one could reliably show formal reasoning whereas Piaget said developed at age 11. Clear now children at 11-year-old can’t think in an adult way.
Describe and evaluate Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development. [16 marks]
AO1
AO1- 6 marks
- Social and Individual Level
o Learning from more experienced others – ‘experts’.
o Knowledge 1st intermental, (between more and less expert individual) – social level – then intramental, (within mind of less expert individual – individual level).
- Role of Others
o Learns via problem-solving experiences shared, usually parent/teacher, + more competent peers.
o Greater knowledge - experts. Initially, person interacting assumes most of responsibility for guiding problem-solving activity, but gradually responsibility transfers to child.
- The Role of Language - enable intellectual development
o Culture transmitted by experts using semiotics – signs + symbols developed within particular culture.
o Language of foremost importance, mathematical symbols valuable too. – way culture transmitted
o 1st language takes form of shared dialogues (pre-intellectual speech), as child develops mental representation, begin to communicate with themselves.
- Cultural Differences in Cognitive Abilities
o Reasoning abilities acquired from more experienced individuals’ child will acquire them
o May be cultural difference in cognitive development, with children picking up mental ‘tools’ most important for life within THEIR physical, social, and work environments.
- The Zone of Proximal Development – where CD takes place.
o Believed learning precedes development.
o Learning/ cognitive development doesn’t take place in area of current development (i.e., child already is), nor in place too far ahead of what child can already do independently.
o 1st instance nothing new learned and in 2nd instance, new challenges too far from child’s current knowledge to be useful.
- Scaffolding - process of assisting learner through ZPD.
o Expert creates ‘scaffold’ i.e., a temporary support, gradually withdrawn when child more able to work independently.
o Wood, Bruner, and Ross identified 5 aspects to scaffolding - general ways an adult can help child to better understand and perform a task:
Recruitment – engaging child’s interest in task
Reduction of degrees of freedom – focusing child on task and where to start solving it
Direction maintenance – encouraging child to help them to stay motivated and continue trying to complete task
Marking critical features – highlighting most important parts of task
Demonstration – showing child how to do aspects of task.
- Wood et al also noted strategies that experts used when scaffolding. Generally, as learner crosses ZPD level of help given in scaffolding declines from level 5 to level 1.
- More likely use high level of help strategies when first helping, then gradually withdrawing level of help as child grasps task.
Describe and evaluate Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development. [16 marks]
AO3
AO3 – DW, DW, DW
+ Support. Roazzi & Bryant (98) - 4-5-year-olds performed better on ‘number of sweets’ challenge working with peers than alone. Demonstrated children could develop more advanced reasoning skills when working with more expert people. Suggests ZPD is valid concept.
+ Support for scaffolding. Conner and Cross (2003) observed 45 children at interval ages 16-54 months, finding mothers used less direct intervention as children developed. Shows how level of help given by expert partner decline over time. This study particularly important as explains what happens during support, it doesn’t just show scaffolding occurs in learning. – long term too.
+ Vygotsky highly influential in education. Van Keer and Verhaeghe (2005) found 7-year-olds tutored by 19-year-olds, in addition to whole class teaching, progressed further than control group (only class teaching). Suggests children can learn more and faster with appropriate scaffolding. Raised expectations of what children should be able to achieve.
Discuss Selman’s levels of perspective taking. [16 marks]
AO1
AO1- 6 marks
- Development of social perspective-taking is domain-specific approach to explain CD.
- Selman’s Perspective Taking Dilemmas
o Conducted research - series of dilemmas exploring child’s reasoning with conflicting feelings. Required child to take someone else’s/ several people’s, perspectives.
- Selman’s Research (1971)
o Procedure: 30 boys, 30 girls took part – 20 = 4, 20 = 5, 20 = 6. Individually given task designed to measure role-taking ability. Involved asking how each person felt in various scenarios (see example above).
o Findings: Number of distinct levels of role taking identified. Selman found level of role-taking correlated age, suggesting clear developmental sequence.
- Selman’s Stages of Development
o Stage 0 - Socially Egocentric, 3-6 years, can’t reliably distinguish between own emotions and others. Can identify emotional states in others but don’t understand what social behaviour might have caused them.
o Stage 1 – Social Information Role Taking, 6-8 years, can tell difference between own POV and another, but can usually focus on only one.
o Stage 2 – Self Reflective Role Taking, 8-10 years, child can put themselves position of another person and fully appreciate their perspective. However, only take on board on POV at a time.
o Stage 3 – Mutual Role Taking, 10-12 years, now able to look at situation from own and another’s POV at same time
o Stage 4 – Social and Conventional System Role Taking, 12 years +, young people able to see sometimes understanding others’ viewpoints not enough to allow people to reach agreement. Therefore, social conventions needed to keep order.
Discuss Selman’s levels of perspective taking. [16 marks]
AO3
AO3 – CW, DW, HB (TURN TO DW)
• Mixed evidence for importance of perspective taking. Buijzen and Valkenburg (2008) found negative correlation between age, perspective taking and coercive behaviour i.e., trying to force parents to buy them things. Suggests perspective-taking is important in developing prosocial (nice behaviour). However, Gasser and Keller (2009) found bullies displayed no difficulties in perspective taking. Problem for Selman’s approach as suggests perspective-taking may not be important factor in development of socially desirable behaviour.
• Research suggests children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and those on autistic spectrum have problems with perspective taking. Marton et al. (2009) compared 50 8-12-year-olds with diagnosis of ADHD with control group on performance on perspective-taking tasks. Those with ADHD did worse on understanding scenarios, identifying feelings of each person involved and evaluating consequences of different actions. Strength of Selman’s work as research has useful applications to understanding atypical development in social cognition.
• Explanation of perspective taking could be seen as ‘overly cognitive’. Selman’s approach doesn’t consider other factors such as development of empathy, emotional self-regulation, family climate and opportunities to learn from peer interaction. There’s more to children’s social development than their developing cognitive abilities and this isn’t considered.
Describe and evaluate research on the theory of mind. [16 marks]
AO1
AO1- 6 marks
- ToM refers to ability to ‘mind-read’/ have personal theory of what other people know/ feeling/ thinking.
- Different methods used to study ToM at different points in development.
- Intentional reasoning research – assesses the emergence of a simple ToM in toddlers.
o Meltzoff (1988 )18-month toddlers understand adult intentions when carrying out simple actions.
o Procedure: children observed adults place beads into a jar. Experimental condition: adults appeared to struggle dropped beads. Control condition: adults placed beads successfully in jar.
o Findings: both - toddlers placed beads in jar; dropped no more beads in experimental condition. Suggests were imitating what adult INTENDED.
o Conclusions: shows very young children have simple ToM.
- False belief tasks – assess a more sophisticated level of ToM.
o Developed to test whether children can understand people can believe something not true. Developed by: Wimmer and Perner (1983).
o Procedure: told 3–4-year-olds a story. Maxi left chocolate in blue cupboard and then went to the playground. Later, Maxi’s mother used some of the chocolate in her cooking and placed the remainder in green cupboard. Children asked where Maxi would look when he comes back.
o Findings: Most 3-year-olds incorrectly said green cupboard. They know it’s the green cupboard, but don’t realise that Maxi doesn’t know his mother moved it. However, most 4-year-olds correctly identified the blue cupboard.
o Conclusions: suggests ToM undergoes shift and becomes more advanced at around 4 years.
- Eyes Task – assesses advanced ToM in older children and adults; participants judge complex emotions with minimal information about facial expressions.
Discuss theory of mind as an explanation for autism. [16 marks]
AO1
AO1- 6 marks
- ToM refers to ability to ‘mind-read’/ have personal theory of what others know/ feel/ think.
- Different methods used to study ToM.
- Intentional reasoning research – assesses emergence of simple ToM in toddlers.
- False belief tasks – more sophisticated level of ToM.
o Baron-Cohen (85) - Sally-Anne Task. Children told story. Sally places marble in basket, but when Sally not looking Anne moves marble to her box. Task = work out where Sally will look for marble. Understanding Sally doesn’t know Anne has moved the marble requires an understanding of Sally’s false believes about where it is.
Baron-Cohen explored link between ToM deficits and ASD using false belief tasks.
Procedure: 20 high functioning children diagnosed with ASD and control 14 children with Down’s syndrome and 27 without diagnosis individually administered Sally-Anne study.
Findings: 85% of children in control groups correctly identified where Sally would look. 20% of children in ASD group correctly answered.
Conclusions: difference demonstrated ASD involves ToM deficit. Baron-Cohen suggested deficits in ToM might be a complete explanation for ASD.
- Eyes Task – assesses advanced ToM in older children and adults; participants judge complex emotions with minimal information about facial expressions. - Testing Older Children and Adults
o Asperger Syndrome (AS) - type of ASD problems with empathy, social communication, and imagination but normal language development.
o Studies those with AS - succeeded easily on false belief tasks. Contradicted idea ASD explained by ToM deficits.
o However, Baron-Cohen developed more challenging task to assess ToM. Eyes Task - reading complex emotions in pictures of faces just showing a small area around eyes.
o Baron-Cohen et al (1997) found adults with AS and those with diagnosis of high-functioning ASD struggled.
o Adults on autistic spectrum had mean score of 16.3 compared to ‘typical’ participants with a mean score of 20.3 out of a maximum of 25. Supports ideas ToM deficits might be cause of ASD.
- Biological Basis
o ToM appears to develop at particular age and likely absent in many with autism suggests biological basis.
o Baron-Cohen (1995) proposed module (ToMM) - specific mechanism matures in brain around 4yrs and explains ability to understand mental states of others.
o Development of ToM comes ability to manipulate & deceive others by hiding emotions and intentions. 3yrs.
Describe and evaluate research on the theory of mind. [16 marks]
Discuss theory of mind as an explanation for autism. [16 marks]
AO3
AO3 – CW, DW, DW
+/- Research useful in helping understand differing experiences of those on the autistic spectrum and those “neurotypical”. Widely agreed people on the autistic spectrum have more difficulty than others on age-appropriate ToM tests. However, suggestion by Baron-Cohen that APD is direct result of ToM has been questioned. Tager-Flusberg (2007) suggests more recent research has questioned assumption that Theory of Mind problems are specific to ASD and that all those on autism spectrum suffer ToM problems.
+ Many methods used to study ToM could simply measure perspective-taking. E.g., responses to Sally-Anne task could be explained in terms of children’s ability to take Sally’s perspective. ToM therefore hard to distinguish from perspective taking. Challenges validity of ToM research if just measuring ability to view social situations from another person’s POV.
- Eyes Task lacks validity. Experience of looking at static pair of eyes in isolation very different from real life where usually have access to more additional information. Questions ToM research as suggests theory not standing on acceptable level of empirically based ideas. May be that concept difficult to test but, until they are, can’t be regarded as valid.
Discuss the role of the mirror neuron system in social cognition. [16 marks]
AO1
AO1- 6 marks
- Rizzolatti (02) studied electrical activity in monkey’s motor cortex.
- One of researchers reached for their lunch in monkey’s view.
- Monkey’s motor cortex activated exactly same way when itself reached for food; same brain cells fired when monkey reached/watched someone else reach.
- Mirror neurons as they mirror motor activity in another individual.
- Gallese and Goldman (98) suggested mirror neurons respond to observed actions and intentions behind behaviour.
- Don’t just interpret people’s actions with reference to memory but stimulate other’s actions in our motor system and experience their intentions using mirror neurons.
- Iacaboni et al. (2004): Mirror Neurons & Intention
o Procedure: Twenty-three right-handed subjects watched three film clips of visual stimuli.
1.Context only - scenes containing objects.
2. Action only- grasping hand actions without a context.
3. Intention- context with an action which was either drinking or cleaning up.
o Investigated if observation of same grasping action elicited same/different activity in mirror neuron areas for grasping in human brain. fMRI used.
o Results: Observing grasping actions in contexts (intention clips) = greater activity areas in inferior frontal cortex (associated with grasping) than observing actions without contexts/while observing contexts only.
o Conclusion: Premotor mirror neuron areas (areas active during execution and observation of action) previously thought involved only in action recognition also involved in understanding intentions of others - basis of empathy.
- Stuss (2001) - those with damage to frontal lobes (motor cortex located) often unable to empathise, read other people’s intentions and easy to deceive.
- Suggests damage to mirror neuron system and emphasises important in typical human social cognition.
Discuss the role of the mirror neuron system in social cognition. [16 marks]
AO3
AO3 – CW, DW, HB (TURN TO DW)
+/- Evidence for atypical mirror neuron function in ASD. Hadjikhani (2007) reviewed evidence for link between ASD and a deficit in mirror neuron function and found some support. Structural brain scans shown smaller average thickness for pars opercularis (an area believed to be rich in mirror neurons) in participants with ASD. Studies using functional scans have shown lower activity in brain areas associated with mirror neurons in participants with ASD. However, not all findings have been replicated consistently so the evidence linking ASD to mirror neurons is mixed. Problem for broken mirror theory of ASD as there is a lack of reliable direct evidence to support the theory.
- Evidence from brain scanning. Brain scans such as fMRI’s identify activity levels in regions of the brain but do not allow us to measure activity in individual brain cells. Researchers are therefore inferring that activity in parts of the brain means activity in mirror neurons. Therefore, there is a lack of direct evidence for mirror neuron activity in humans.
+ Supporting evidence for importance social cognition. Haker et al (2012) demonstrated Brodmann’s area 9 in right frontal lobe, an area of the brain believed to be rich in mirror neurons, involved in contagious yawning. Widely seen as an example of human empathy and thus the ability to perceive mental states in others showing that mirror neurons play a role in empathy.
Compare and contrast Piaget and Vygotsky
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