Cognition and intelligence

Question 1

What is cognition?

Answer 1

The mental processes by which knowledge is acquired, elaborated, stored, retrieved and used to solve problems.

Question 2

Who came up with the stage theory? What is it about?

Answer 2

Jean Piaget

How children learn through action

Question 3

What are the stages ad how long do they like?

Answer 3

1. Sensorimotor birth – 2 years
2. Pre-operational-move from pre operational thinkers- 2-7 years
3. Concrete operational-capacity to think logically and reversibly. After that they can make hypothesis things they haven’t encountered yet. 7-11 years
4. Formal operational- 11 years+

Question 4

Sensorimotor birth- 2 years

Answer 4

6 sub-stages. Knowing the physical environment by seeing and touching- ‘thinking only by doing’.

Question 5

What happens between 2 and 3 months?

Answer 5

Developing memory systems- Rovee-Collier = mobile experiment:

• 2-3 months= develops a memory system. Baby kicks leg when attached to string attached to mobile. Then tests later to see if it remembers to kick
• 2 months – 1 day
• 3 months – 1 week
• 6 months – 2+ weeks

Question 6

What is object performance of an 8 month old?

Answer 6

Baby interested and will reach out but when they hide they lose interest- like it disappears from the world.
Babies will look for where they it was last hid not where when somewhere puts it elsewhere.

Question 7

8 months old baby can self recognise what is the practical to show this?

Answer 7

8 months- babies start self-recognition- baby looking in mirror seeing themselves.
Put paint/make up on themselves and they touch it because they realise that their image has changed.

Question 8

Schema definition

Answer 8

Theories about how the physical and social world operate

Question 9

Assimilation defintion

Answer 9

Understanding a new object

Question 10

Accommodation- in terms of schemas

Answer 10

Modifying a schema (by learning something that challenges it)

Question 11

Pre-operational thoughts- 2-7 years- what is centration?

Answer 11

Thinking about one idea at a time to the exclusion of others- problems with conversation

Question 12

Pre-operational thoughts- 2-7 years- what is egocentrism?

Answer 12

• self-centred world view

* difficulty taking another’s perspective

Question 13

Other examples of object performance- birth- 2 years

Answer 13

• Object permanence (will look for object even if covered up)
• Obeys simple requests
• Points to object and follows pointing gestures
• Holds cup to doll’s mouth
• Affection by hugging and kissing
• Shows toes
• Shakes head or says ‘no’ in refusal

Question 14

What is the 3-mountain problem?

Answer 14

3 model mountains are placed on a table and a child stands facing one side. Doll placed facing the other side. Child asked to describe doll’s view. Not able to do this in pre-operational.

Question 15

7-11 years = concrete operational- what is operation?

Answer 15

Mental consideration of information in a logical manner- ability to take schema, work through it. Let the conclusion allowed to work out the problem.

Question 16

7-11 years = concrete operational- what is conservation?

Answer 16

Understanding that amount is unrelated to appearance.

Question 17

How is concrete operational thought demonstrated?

Answer 17

Demonstrated by clay. Also demonstrated by pouring same volume of water into thin and thick glasses. They can imagine it being poured back into the original glasses - conservation of mass (concrete operational thought).

Question 18

Formal operational stage- 11+ years

Answer 18

• Able to use and reason symbols related to abstract concepts
• Consider alternatives and plan ahead
• Able to formulate hypotheses and consider possibilities

Question 19

What is the intelligence quotient?

Answer 19

The intelligence quotient (IQ) was originally calculated as mental age/chronological age x100, but now is calculated from tables of standardised age scores. It’s used as an assessment against a fixed quality.

Question 20

What are factors that affect IQ?

Answer 20

Factors affecting IQ = genetics, social and racial categories (hence can be influenced to make a ‘superior race’).

Good for measuring educational needs, predicting school performance and assessment following psychological trauma but not a measure of ‘world skills’

Question 21

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale- what is it?

Answer 21

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale = gives full IQ as well as measuring ability on verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory and processing speed. Can pay for extra 5 if looking at specific abilities. Very costly kit.

Question 22

Uses and limitations of IQ tests

Answer 22

1. identifying educational needs
2. assessment following neurological trauma, learning disability, cognitive impairment
3. predicting school performance and job success

But

4. is IQ stable?
5. does not measure underlying competence or ‘world skills’

Question 23

What is emotional intelligence?

Answer 23

Emotional intelligence – accurate perception and expression of emotions, ability to access and generate emotions, understanding of emotions and emotional meaning, good emotional regulation.

Question 24

What is multiple intelligence?

Answer 24

Howard Gardner – multiple intelligences = measures intelligence as: linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, bodily/kinaesthetic, musical, interpersonal and interpersonal (emotional intelligence; not taken into account in other tests), naturalist.

Question 25

Phrenology

Answer 25

Study of the shape and size of the cranium as an indication of character and ability

Question 26

Cerebral lateralisation

Answer 26

Tendencies functions of some abilities to be localised to one hemisphere. The hemispheres communicate to each other through the corpus callosum, proven by split brain patients.

Question 27

Overview of hemispheric asymmetry- left hemisphere

Answer 27

• complex language functions
• complex logical activities
• mathematical computations

Question 28

Overview of hemispheric asymmetry- right hemisphere

Answer 28

• simple language functions
• spatial and pattern abilities
• emotional recognition