Cognition & Development Flashcards
Piaget cog development
child as scientist
development of all mental processes eg thinking and reasoning
schema
mental structure/ framework representing packages of knowledge which can be applied to situations
-Piaget said we are born with a a few simple schema and we construct more as we explore the world
motivation to learn
when something doesn’t make sense, we experience disequilibrium
we must change our existing schema to match the new info and achieve equilibrium
assimilation- adding new info to an existing schema eg adding a breed of dog to dog schema
accommodation - when we come across something new and have to change schema/ create a new one
P cog development ao3- s
research support for individual mental representations
Howe- children (aged 9-12) were placed in groups and investigated the movement of objects down a slope
all were given the same info
all increased their understanding of the subject
but had picked up different facts and had different conclusions for the movement
showing they had created individual representations
P cog development ao3- w
piaget overplayed the importance of equilibration in motivation to learn
we are not all motivated to learn in the same way and some children are less intellectually curious
motivation depends on self image
neg self image- receiving criticism from peers/ parents- focus will be on trying to better themselves to get positive feedback, rather than gaining knowledge
positive self image- can focus on learning rather than improving themselves
underplayed importance of others
not much evidence to show that children learn better using discovery learning as Lazonder + Harmsen (2016) found that discovery learning with considerable input from a teacher was the most effective way to learn
stages of intellectual development
development is discontinuous and each stage is qualitatively different
sensorimotor (0-2)- learn by trial and error + acquire some basic language, sensing and performing actions
8m= object permanence
pre operational stage (2-7)- thoughts become more symbolic egocentrism- seeing the world from your POV, don't understand other people have dif POV conservation- understanding that quantity of something doesn't change even of appearance does class inclusion- idea that classes of objects are in subsets and can also be part of larger subsets
concrete operational (7-11)- basic logical thinking, can conserve , understand CI and not egocentric have better external reasoning abilities- applied to concrete objects (physical, that they can see)
formal (11+)- formal reasoning- can focus on form of an argument and aren’t distracted by its content
capable of abstract thinking eg not attached to physical/concrete objects
stages ao3
evidence against the ages at which children achieve the parts of the stages eg conservation etc
rather than the actual ideas of stages
samuel and bryant- conservation
hughes- egocentrism
donaldson- class inclusion
vygotsky cog development
child as apprentice
saw learning as a social process of learning from MKO
children develop the appropriate skills of their culture eg language/ hunting skills
zone of proximal development
explains the gap between a child’s current level of development and where they could be with the help of others
- MKO help a child pass the ZPD
- child develops more advanced understanding of the situation and more advanced reasoning abilities needed to deal with the situation- from a MKO
scaffolding
refers to kind of help that an adult/ MKO gives to a child in order to help them cross the ZPD
strategies
demonstration, preparation, identification, specific verbal instructions, general prompts
DPISG
dumb ppl i swear (to) god
V cog ao3- s
roazzi + bryant- 4-5yo guessing number of sweets in a jar
1 group worked alone and 1 group had the help of an older child who offered prompts
alone group failed to given good estimate
help group were more likely successfully master the task
real world application as they are used to change how children are taught in classrooms
social interactions incl group work, peers and teaching assistants can all be used to scaffold a child through their ZPD
V cog ao3- w
if children all learn through social interaction then we would expect children to pick up similar skills in tasks but Howe et al found that this isn’t true
cultural differences as Liu showed that children in china learn very effectively in large lecture halls of 50+ children, showing Vygotsky may have overplayed the importance of scaffolding
perspective taking
ability to appreciate a social situation from the POV of another person/ people
different to Piaget’s egocentrism as it looks at social perspective taking- involved in how people are feeling/ thinking
Selman measured perspective taking by asking children to take on different roles in social situations
holly promised her dad she wouldn’t climb trees but her friends’ cat was stuck in a tree
the children had to explain how Holly and her dad would feel in the different scenarios
selman stages
0-(3-6)- social egocentric; cannot distinguish between own and others’ emotions
1-(6-8)- social informational thinking- aware of dif perspectives but think it’s because they have different information
2-(8-10)- self relective- can view thoughts/ feelings from another perspective but only one other view at a time
3-(10-12)-mutual- able to look at a situation from their own pov and another person’s at the same time
4-(12+)- social conventional- personal decisions are made with reference to social conventions, understand dif perspectives and understand that people don’t always agree
selman ao3- s
Schultz had added extra aspects to social development for a more complete explanation- interpersonal understanding, interpersonal negotiation strategies, awareness of personal meaning in relationships
Research support for stages –
Gurucharri + Selman (1982) longitudinal study which followed children over a period of time and recorded improvements of their perspective taking ability
positive correlation with age and ability to take on dif perspectives
-longitudinal are good as they control for individual differences so have high validity
