Cognition and Development Key Words Flashcards
Cognitive development
A general term describing the development of all mental processes, in particular thinking, reasoning and our understanding of the world. Cognitive development continues throughout the lifespan but psychologists have been particularly concerned with how thinking and reasoning develops through childhood
Schemas
Contain our understanding of an object, person or idea. Schemas become increasingly complex during development as we acquire more information about each object or idea. A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. They develop from experience
Assimilation
A for of learning that takes place when we acquire new information or a more advanced understanding of an object, person or idea. When new information does not radically change existing schemas in order to deal with the new understanding
Accommodation
A form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information that changes our understating of a topic to the extent that we need to form one or more new schemas and/or radically change existing schemas in order to deal with the new understanding
Equilibration
Takes place when we have encountered mew information and built it into our understanding of a topic, either by assimilating it into an existing schema or accommodating it by forming a mew one. Everything is again balanced and we have escaped the unpleasant experience of a lack of balance - disequilibrium
Stages of intellectual development
Piaget identified 4 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 through the same sequence of stages
Object permanence
The ability to realise that an object still exists when it passes out of the visual field. Piaget believed that this ability appears at around eight months of age. Prior to this, children lose interest in an object once they can’t see it and presumably are no longer aware of its existence
Conservation
The ability to realise that quantity remains the same even when the appearance of an object or group of object changes. For example, the volume of liquid stays the same when poured between vessels 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 a child can only appreciate their own perspective
Class inclusion
An advanced classification skill in which we recognise that classes of objects have subsets and are themselves subsets or larger classes. Pre-operational children usually struggle to place things in more than one class
Operations
The term used in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development for internally consistent, logical mental rules, such as rules of arithmetic
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 zone of proximal development and advance as much ad they can, given their stage of development. Typically the level of help given in scaffolding declines as the learner crosses the zone of proximal development
Peer tutoring
An effective form of learning recommended by Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development because peers are potential experts (individuals with greater knowledge)
Knowledge of the physical world
Refers to the extent to which we understand how the physical world works. An example of this knowledge is object permanence. There is a debate to the ages at which children develop this knowledge
