Cognition and Development Studies

Question 1

Piaget Theory of Cognitive Development-Children form individual mental representations from Discovery-Howe-Method

Answer 1

She put children aged 9 to 12 years in groups of four to study and discuss the movement of objects down a slope. Their understanding of this topic was assessed before and after the discussions

Question 2

Piaget Theory of Cognitive Development-Children form individual mental representations from Discovery-Howe-Results

Answer 2

The children were found to have increased their knowledge and understanding. However, the children has not come to the same conclusion or picked up the same facts about movement down a slope

Question 3

Sensorimotor Stage-Piaget-Method

Answer 3

He observed babies looking at objects as they were moved from sight throughout the child’s first year

Question 4

Sensorimotor Stage-Piaget-Results

Answer 4

Before 8 months of age, the child immediately switched their attention away from the object once it went out of sight. After 8 months of age, they would continue to look at it

Question 5

Pre Operational Stage-Conservation-Piaget-Methods

Answer 5

He placed two identical rows of counters side by side. In one condition, they were pushed closer together

Question 6

Pre Operational Stage-Conservation-Piaget-Results

Answer 6

Young children correctly reasoned that each row of counters had the same amount. However, when the rows were closed together, pre operational children usually said that there was less counters

Question 7

Pre Operational Stage-Conservation-Piaget-Method (Liquid)

Answer 7

He placed containers side by side with contents at the same height. In one condition, he poured one of the contents into a taller, thinner container

Question 8

Pre Operational Stage-Conservation-Piaget-Results (Liquid)

Answer 8

Children spotted that each container had the same volume. However, young children said that there was more liquid in the smaller thinner container

Question 9

Pre Operational Stage-Egocentrism-Piaget and Inhelder-Method

Answer 9

Children were shown three model mountains, each with a different feature, a cross, a house or snow. A doll was placed at the side of the model so that it faced the scene from a different angle. The child was then asked to choose from a range of photos, what the doll would see

Question 10

Pre Operational Stage-Egocentrism-Piaget and Inhelder-Results

Answer 10

Pre operational children often chose the picture that matched the scene from their own point of view

Question 11

Pre Operational Stage-Class Inclusion-Piaget and Inhelder-Method

Answer 11

They showed 7-8 year olds pictures of 5 dogs and 2 cats and asked them “are there more dogs or animals?”

Question 12

Pre Operational Stage-Class Inclusion-Piaget and Inhelder-Results

Answer 12

Children tended to say that there were more dogs

Question 13

Stages of Formal Operations-Piaget-Method

Answer 13

He tested this using Syllogisms. For example: All yellow cats have 2 heads, I have a yellow cat called Charlie, How many heads does Charlie Have

Question 14

Stages of Formal Operations-Piaget-Results

Answer 14

Young children became distracted by the context and answered that cats do not have two heads

Question 15

Conservation Study was dubious-McGarrigle and Donaldson-Method

Answer 15

They set up a number of conservation studies similar to Piaget’ s method. In the control condition, they replicated his counters task. In the experimental condition a “naughty teddy” moved the counters

Question 16

Conservation Study was dubious-McGarrigle and Donaldson-Results

Answer 16

In the control condition, most children answerad incorrectly. In the experimental condition, 62% answered correctly that the amount had not changed

Question 17

Class Inclusion conclusions was dubious-Siegler and Svetina-Method

Answer 17

They tested 100 5 year olds from Slovenia, who each undertook 3 sessions of 10 class inclusion tasks, receiving an explanation after the session. In one condition, they received feedback that their must be more animals than dogs, as they were 9 animals and 6 dogs. In the other condition, they were told that there was more animals than dogs, as dogs are a subset of animals

Question 18

Class Inclusion conclusions was dubious-Siegler and Svetina-Results

Answer 18

The scores across the sessions improved more from the subset group

Question 19

Children’s ability to decentre-Hughes-Method

Answer 19

He tested the ability of children to see a situation from others view point, using a model with two intersecting wall and 3 dolls, a boy and two police officers

Question 20

Children’s ability to decentre-Hughes-Results

Answer 20

Once they were familiarise with the task, children as young as 3 1/2 were able to position the doll where the police could not see him 90% of the time. 4 year olds could do this 90% of the time when there was two police officers to hide from

Question 21

Support for the Zone of Proximal Development-Roazzi and Bryant-Method

Answer 21

They gave 4-5 year olds the task of estimating how many sweets were in a box. In one condition, the children worked alone. In the other condition, they worked with an older child

Question 22

Support for the Zone of Proximal Development-Roazzi and Bryant-Results

Answer 22

Most children working alone failed to give a good estimate. In the help condition, the older children were observed to offer prompts, pointing the young children in the right direction. Most 4-5 year olds receiving help successfully did the task

Question 23

Support for the idea of Scaffolding-Conner and Cross-Method

Answer 23

45 children were followed up in a longitudinal study were they were observed engaging in problem solving tasks with the help of their mother at 16,26,44 and 54 months

Question 24

Support for the idea of Scaffolding-Conner and Cross-Results

Answer 24

Distinct changes were observed over time. As the child gained experience, the mothers used less direct interaction and more prompts. They also offered help when it was needed, not constantly

Question 25

Scaffolding is effective in education-Verhaeghe and Van Keer-Method

Answer 25

7 year olds were tutored by 10 year olds, in addition to their whole class teaching. They were compared to a control group of just the whole class teaching

Question 26

Scaffolding is effective in education-Verhaeghe and Van Keer-Results

Answer 26

The children who were tutored progressed further in reading than the control group

Question 27

Violation of Expectation Research-Baillargeon and Graber -Method

Answer 27

24 infants aged 5-6 months were shown a tall and a short rabbit pass behind a screen with a window. In the possible condition, the tall rabbit can be seen passing as the window but the short rabbit cannot. In the impossible condition, neither rabbit was seen at the window

Question 28

Violation of Expectation Research-Baillargeon and Graber -Results

Answer 28

The infants looked for an average of 33.07 seconds at the impossible event, and 25.11 seconds at the possible event

Question 29

Perspective Taking Research-Selman-Method

Answer 29

30 boys and 30 girls, 20 aged 4, 20 aged 5 and 20 aged 6 took part. All were individually given a task. This involved asking them how each person felt in various scenarios. One scenario featured a child called Holly who promised her father she will no longer climb trees, but then comes across her friend whose kitten is stuck up a tree. The children were then asked to explain how each person would feel if Holly did or did not climb the tree

Question 30

Perspective Taking Research-Selman-Results

Answer 30

Selman found out that level or role taking correlated with age. This lead to the development of the Stages of Development for perspective taking

Question 31

Mixed evidence for the importance of perspective taking-Buijzen and Valkenburg-Method

Answer 31

They observed child parent interaction in toyshops and supermarkets

Question 32

Mixed evidence for the importance of perspective taking-Buijzen and Valkenburg-Results

Answer 32

They found a negative correlation between age, perspective taking and coercive behaviour (forcing parents to buy things). Suggests that perspective taking is important in developing prosocial behaviour

Question 33

Mixed evidence for the importance of perspective taking-Gasser and Keller-Results

Answer 33

They found out that bullies displayed no difficulties in perspective taking

Question 34

Application in understanding atypical development-Marton-Method

Answer 34

50 8-12 year old children with ADHD were compared with a control group on their performance of perspective taking tasks

Question 35

Application in understanding atypical development-Marton-Results

Answer 35

Those with ADHD did worse on understanding the scenarios, identifying the feels of each person involved and evaluating the consequences of each action

Question 36

Intentional Reasoning in Toddlers-Meltzoff-Method

Answer 36

Children of 18 months observed adults place beads into a jar. In the experimental condition, the adults appeared to struggle with this and dropped the beads. In the control condition, the adults placed the beads successfully into the jar

Question 37

Intentional Reasoning in Toddlers-Meltzoff-Results

Answer 37

In both conditions, the children successfully placed the beads into the jar. Shows that the children were imitating what the adults intended to do

Question 38

False Belief Tasks-Wimmer and Perner-Method

Answer 38

They told 3-4 year olds a story in which Maxi left his chocolate in a blue cupboard in the kitchen and then went to play outside. Maxi’s mother then used the chocolate in her cooking and placed the remaining chocolate in the green cupboard. Children were asked where Maxi would look for his chocolate when he comes back

Question 39

False Belief Tasks-Wimmer and Perner-Results

Answer 39

Most 3 year olds incorrectly said that he would look into the green cupboard . However, most 4 year olds correctly identified the blue cupboard

Question 40

Sally- Anne Task- Baron-Cohen-Method

Answer 40

20 high functioning children diagnosed with ASD and a control group of 14 children with downs syndrome and 27 without a diagnosis were individually administered the Sally Anne test. In this test, children were told a story about two dolls, Sally and Anne. Sally places a marble in her basket, but when Sally is not looking, Anne moves the marble into her box. The task is to work out where Sally would look for her marble

Question 41

Sally- Anne Task- Baron-Cohen-Results

Answer 41

85% of children in the control group correctly identified where Sally would find her marble. Only 20% of the ASD group could do this

Question 42

Testing Older Children and Adults-Baron-Cohen-Results

Answer 42

He found out that adults with Asperger syndrome and those with high functioning ASD struggled with the Eyes Test

Question 43

Evidence for the role of Mirror Neurons-Haker-Method

Answer 43

A fMRI was used to assess brain activity in participants while they were stimulated to yawn by showing them film of others yawning

Question 44

Evidence for the role of Mirror Neurons-Haker-Results

Answer 44

When they yawned in response, participants showed considerable activity in Brodmann’s area, a area in the right frontal lobe, believed to be rich in mirror neurons

Question 45

Evidence for the role of Mirror Neurons-Mouras-Method

Answer 45

Male participants either watched a fishing documentary, Mr Bean or heterosexual pornography. Brain activity was measured by a fMRI and arousal by a pressure sensitive penis ring

Question 46

Evidence for the role of Mirror Neurons-Mouras-Results

Answer 46

Pars Opercularis activity was seen immediately before sexual arousal, consistent with the idea that mirror neurons produced the perspective taking that make pornography arousing

Question 47

Mixed evidence for abnormal mirror function in ASD-Hadjikhani-Method

Answer 47

She reviewed evidence for the link between ASD and a deficit in mirror neuron function

Question 48

Mixed evidence for abnormal mirror function in ASD-Hadjikhani-Results

Answer 48

She found some support using brain scans, which have shown a smaller average thickness for the pars Opercularis in those with ASD