Cognition & Development Flashcards
Who’s theory looks at schemas?
Piaget
Which schemas are we born with?
Reflexes
According to Piaget, what do we learn from? (Piaget schema theory)
Interaction with the environment
What is a schema? (Piaget schema theory)
A ‘block’ of knowledge or ‘package’ of information
What did Piaget focus on? (Piaget schema theory)
Schema driven learning
What is adaptation? (Piaget schema theory)
The process of changing our schemas
What leads you to adapt? (Piaget schema theory)
Confusion
What processes does adaptation take place through? (Piaget schema theory)
Assimilation and accommodation
What is equilibration?
When we can comprehend everything around us, preferred mental state, balanced
What is assimilation?
When children deal with a new situation by adding to an existing schema
What is accommodation?
When children make an entirely new schema or make huge changes to existing ones
When does accommodation occur?
When a situation is so radically different that an existing schema cannot possibly assist
What is disequilibrium?
Confusion, incoming information does not fit with pre-existing knowledge
What kind of development is linked to schemas? (Piaget)
Intellectual
When we are confused what are we driven to do? (Piaget schema theory)
Find out/learn about it
What did Piaget call children? (schema theory)
Little scientists because learning is solitary
What does Howe et al support?
Piaget schema theory - own personal mental representations
What did Howe et al find?
Children (9-12) who had the same experiences and listened to same discussions had different conclusions
What did Piaget overemphasise? (schema theory)
The role of equilibration - children differ in intellectual curiosity
What was bad about Piaget’s sample? (schema theory)
All children were intellectually curious so can’t be applied to all children
What does Piaget’s theory of schemas ignore?
The influence of other people in development (Vygtosky)
What practical applications did Piaget’s schema theory have?
Discovery learning in teaching, learning through environment, useful in everyday life e.g. nature walks
Who are the named psychologists for cognition and development? (+ 1 study)
Piaget, Vygotsky, Baillargeon, Selman (+ Sally Anne study)
What are Piaget’s stages of intellectual development?
Sensori-motor (0-2yrs)
Pre-Operational (2-7yrs)
Concrete Operational (7-11yrs)
Formal Operational (11+yrs)
What does operational mean? (Piaget’s stages of intellectual development)
(just to help understand/remember the stages)
The ability to perform a mental function
What does it mean to say Piaget’s stage theory is universal and invariant?
All children go through all the same stages in the same order
What is thinking like in the Sensori-motor stage?
Cannot hold mental representations, thinking is limited to what they can sense and how they can move.
No awareness of past/future.
No awareness they exist as an independent figure
What is the cognitive skill to be learnt in the Sensori-motor stage?
Object permanence
What is object permanence?
The understanding that objects continue to exist even if we cannot see them anymore
When do infants learn object permanence?
Approximately 8 months
Which of Piaget’s studies supports his theory of object permanence?
The 3 blanket study
What was the procedure of the 3 blanket study?
Get child to play with toy.
Hide toy under 1 of 3 blankets.
See if child search for the toy.
If they do they have object permanence
What were the findings of the 3 blanket study?
Infants only looked for the toy after 8 months of age
What were 3 reasons why Piaget’s 3 blanket study may be flawed (and so the research lacks validity)?
Infant may have gotten bored and so not searched for the toy.
Infants may not have the attentional or motor capacities to complete the task.
They were overwhelmed by the 3 blankets
What is the challenging evidence for Piaget’s theory of object permanence?
Bower and Wishart
Had 1-4 month olds play with a toy.
Turned off lights.
Used infrared cameras to observe.
Infants searched for up to 90 seconds.
Later: Bower
Showed 1 month olds a toy.
Placed screen in front of toy.
Secretly removed toy.
Removed screen.
Babies showed surprise.
Both show object permanence is present at a much younger age
What is thinking like in the pre-operational stage?
Can think, but lack of logic.
Can’t understand reversibility (being able to reverse something in your mind) e.g. can’t understand that if you pour water from a cup to a bottle, it can be poured back into the cup for the original cup of water.
Show animism (human characteristics for inanimate objects) e.g. understand what ‘alive’ is, but think the moon or a toy is alive
What are the 2 periods that the pre-operational stage is divided into?
The preconceptual period (2-4yrs)
The intuitive period (4-7yrs)
What is thinking like in the preconceptual period?
Can make use of symbols (e.g. a stick is a sword in play).
Egocentric.
Cannot distinguish between subgroups of categories (e.g. spaniels and dogs are in the class ‘dogs’).
Show animism
What is egocentrism?
Being unable to see things from another’s point of view (literally and emotionally)
What is thinking like in the intuitive period?
Child’s judgements are heavily influenced by the appearance of objects.
Rely on what they can see.
Later able to decentre.
Thinking is confined to what something looks like
What is the first cognitive skill to be learnt in the pre-operational stage?
The ability to decentre
(not egocentrism - that is what they are at the start, then they learn not to be egocentric)
When do children learn the ability to decentre?
Signs of it developing at 6, finished by 7
Which of Piaget’s studies supports his theory of egocentrism/decentring?
The 3 mountain study
What was the procedure of the 3 mountain study?
3 mountains, each with a different top on table.
Doll one side, 4-8 year olds on the other (1 at a time).
Gave child 10 drawings, asked them to pick which picture showed what the doll could see.
Child allowed to walk around.
If they identified the correct picture, they could decentre
What were the findings of the 3 mountain study?
4 year olds always chose what they could see (egocentric).
6 year olds chose different picture, but often wrong (beginning of understanding).
7 and 8 year olds always chose the correct picture (can decentre)
What are 2 reasons why Piaget’s 3 mountain study was flawed?
Child might be unfamiliar with mountains, so couldn’t even really understand what they were seeing.
May not have made sense to all children - the doll can’t actually see
What is the challenging evidence of Piaget’s theory on egocentrism/decentring?
Hughes
Set up a model with policeman dolls where there were 4 sections, and the only one the policemen couldn’t see was C.
Told the 3.5-5 year olds a doll had been naughty and needed to hide.
90% said to hide in C, egocentrism disappears at a much younger age
What is the second cognitive skill to be learnt in the pre-operational stage?
Conservation
When do children learn conservation?
After 7 years old (technically concrete operational stage but AQA wants it in the pre-operational stage)
What is conservation?
Understanding that redistributing material doesn’t affect its quality (volume/mass/quantity)
What was Piaget’s study of conservation of mass? (wouldn’t use this since I don’t have the findings, use volume and/or number)
2 identical balls of clay.
1 is rolled into a long thin shape.
A child can conserve if they know they are still the same amount of clay
What is centration?
When a child is fixated on the physical appearance of objects e.g. looks at height only to determine volume rather than height and width.
This is before conservation: conservation replaces this
What was the procedure of Piaget’s study of conservation of volume?
2 identical cups of water.
1 is then poured into a taller cup.
A child can conserve if they know they are still the same amount of water
What are the 3 things children learn to conserve?
Mass, volume, number
What were the findings of Piaget’s study of conservation of volume?
Children under 7 said the taller glass had more water.
Children over 7 said they had the same amount
What was the procedure of Piaget’s study of conservation of number?
2 identical rows of counters.
1 row gets spread out more.
A child can conserve if they know the rows had the same amount of counters
What were the findings of Piaget’s study of conservation of number?
Children under 7 said the row had more counters.
Children over 7 said they had the same amount
What is the methodological criticism of Piaget’s conservation studies?
Rose and Blank argued if you ask the child the same question twice, they will assume their first answer was incorrect, so they removed the first question and then 6 year olds were able to conserve
What is the challenging evidence of Piaget’s conservation studies?
McGarrigle and Donaldson redesigned the conservation of number study so that the lines changed because a naughty teddy messed them up.
60% of 6 year olds were able to conserve
What is thinking like in the concrete operational stage?
Children can perform mental operations but only with real (concrete) situations.
Can subtract, multiply, divide.
Understand reversibility
What is the cognitive skill to be learnt in the concrete operational stage?
Class inclusion
What is class inclusion
The ability to understand the difference between superordinate groups and subordinate groups and that some objects belong in more than 1 class
What are superordinate categories?
Broad categories e.g. dog
What are subordinate categories?
More specific details, subsets of classes e.g. husky is a subset of dog
Which of Piaget’s studies supports his theory of class inclusion?
The wooden bead study