Cognition and Development Key words Flashcards
(26 cards)
Cognitive development
A general term describing the development of all mental processes, in particular thinking, reasoning, and a persons understanding of the world. Cognitive development continues throughout a human lifespan, but psychologists have been particularly concerned with how thinking and reasoning developed through childhood
Schema
Schemas contain the understanding of an object,person or idea. They are mental frameworks of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. Schemas become increasingly complex during development as more information is acquired about each object or idea
Assimilation
A form of learning that takes place when the new information is acquired or there is a more advanced understanding of an object person or idea. The new information does not radically change the understanding of the topic so information can be incorporated (assimilated) into existing schema.
Accommodation
A form of learning that takes place when new information is acquired that radically changes the understanding of a topic to. The new information means that new schemas need to be formed to deals with the knowledge. The alternative is that the existing schema have a major reorganisation to deals with the new understanding
Equilibrium
A state of balance. This is a ‘pleasant’ feeling
Disequilibrium
A state of unbalance. This is an ‘unpleasant’ feeling. It motivates a return to equilibrium
Equilibration
This takes place when new information is encountered and built into the understanding of a topic, by either assimilating it into an existing schema or accommodating it by forming a new one. Everything is again balanced and the unpleasant experience of a lack of balance - disequilibrium is avoided
Stages of intellectual development
Piaget identified four stages of intellectual development. Each stage is characterised by a different level of reasoning ability. Although the exact ages vary from child to child, all children develop though the same sequence of stages
Object permanence
The ability to realise than an object still exists when it passes out of the visual field. Piaget believed that this ability appears around 8 months old. Prior to this, children loose interest in an object once they cannot see it and are thought to no longer be aware of its existence
Conservation
The ability to realise that quantity remains the same even when the appearance of an object or group of objects changes. For example, the volume,e of liquid stays the same when poured between containers of different shapes.
Egocentrism
The child’s tendency to only be able to see the world from their own point of view. This applies to both physical objects - demonstrated in the three mountains task - and arguments, in which the child can only appreciate their own perspective
Class inclusion
An advanced classification skill in which there is recognition that classes of objects have subsets and are themselves subsets of larger classes. Pre-operational children usually struggle to place things in more than one class
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 from a more expert other, who may be an adult or a more advanced child.
Scaffolding
The process of helping a learner cross the ZPD and advance as much as they can, given their stage of development. Typically, the level of help given declines as rather learner crosses the ZPD
Scaffolding
The process of helping a learner cross the ZPD and advance as much as they can, given their stage of development. Typically, the level of help given declines as rather learner crosses the ZPD
Knowledge of the physical world
This refers to understanding how the physical world works. An example od this knowledge is object permanence, the understanding and object continues to exist outside the field of view. There is a debate concerning the ages at which children develop this knowledge.
Nativist approach
A theory that suggests humans are born with innate abilities
Physical reasoning system (PRS)
An innate system that provides a framework for reasoning about the displacements and interactions of physical objects
Violation of expectation research
An approach to investigating infants knowledge of the physical world. The idea is that if children understand how the psychical world operates a the they will expect certain things to happen in situations. If these do not occur and children react accordingly, this suggests that they have an intact knowledge of that aspect of the world.
Social cognition
This describes the mental processes individuals make use of when engage din social interaction. For example, humans make decisions based on how to behave based on their understanding of a social situation. Both the understanding and the decision making are cognitive processes.
Perspective taking
An individuals ability to appreciate the social situation from the perspective of other people. This cognitive ability underlies typical social interaction.
Theory of mind (ToM)
The personal understanding (a ‘theory’) of what other people are thinking and feeling. This is sometimes called ‘mind reading’.
Autism
More collectively called autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is an umbrella term for a wide range of behaviours. All disorders on the spectrum have differences in three main areas: empathy, social communication and social imagination.
