Cognition & Development

Question 1

What is a schema

Answer 1

This is an understanding of an object, person or idea. It is a cluster of facts based on previous experiences and used to generate new ones

Question 2

What is assimilation

Answer 2

This is the process of fitting new experiences into existing schemas without making any change

Question 3

What is accommodation

Answer 3

This is the process of adjusting or changing existing schemas as new information creates disequilibrium. A child will adapt an existing schema in order to understand new information

Question 4

What is equilibrium

Answer 4

This is experiencing a balance between existing schemas and new experiences

Question 5

What are Piaget’s stages of intellectual development

Answer 5

Sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage and formal operational stage

Question 6

Sensorimotor stage

Answer 6

0-2 years old, child gains understanding of their environment by using their senses in combination with movement. Object permanence is a skill that needs to be developed before moving to preoperational stage

Question 7

Preoperational stage

Answer 7

18 months to 7, child has a kind of logic, can use language to express ideas. Children rely on appearance rather than reality, seen in conservation task. Children at this stage are egocentric

Question 8

Concrete operational stage

Answer 8

7 to 11, child now has more sophisticated mental operations, they have decentred, now able to do conservation tasks

Question 9

Formal operational stage

Answer 9

11+, child has formal logic and can solve abstract problems, the most sophisticated stage of thinking.

Question 10

What is Piaget’s conservation task

Answer 10

Conservation - the ability to distinguish between reality and appearance. 2 cylinders with the same volume of water however one was taller than the other. Children who identified that the taller cylinder contained more water were said to be unable to distinguish between reality and appearance (conservation)

Question 11

What is egocentrism

Answer 11

When children only see thing from their viewpoint and are unaware of other possible viewpoints

Question 12

What is class inclusion

Answer 12

This is the relation between two classes where all members of one class are included in the other. Young children can classify objects into categories but have difficulties with subgroups (dogs and dog breeds)

Question 13

Vygotskys theory of cognitive development

Answer 13

He believed cultural influences were the key driving force in cognitive development.

Question 14

Elementary and higher mental functions

Answer 14

Children are born with elementary functions, memory and perception and are transformed into higher mental functions by the influence of culture

Question 15

The role of others (experts)

Answer 15

The idea that a child learns through problem solving experiences shared with someone else, parent or teacher (experts).

Question 16

The zone of proximal development

Answer 16

This is the region between a persons current abilities which are performed without assistance and their potential abilities which can be achieved with the assistance of experts

Question 17

What is scaffolding

Answer 17

This is an approach that aims to support a learner only when absolutely necessary. Bruner was the first to introduce this term, to describe the process of assisting a learner through ZPD.

Question 18

5 steps of scaffolding

Answer 18

1 - general prompts “now draw”
2 - specific verbal instructions “how about the green pen”
3 - indication of materials expert points to pen
4 - preparation for child * expert helps child grab pen*
5 - demonstration expert draws

Question 19

What is social cognition (Selman)

Answer 19

It is a sub-topic that focuses on how people process, store and apply information about other people and social situations.

Question 20

Selman’s stages of perspective taking

Answer 20

Undifferentiated perspective taking, social-informational perspective taking, self-reflection perspective taking, mutual perspective taking, societal perspective taking

Question 21

Undifferentiated perspective taking

Answer 21

3-6, children can distinguish between self and others - governed by own perspective (egocentric)

Question 22

Social informational perspective taking

Answer 22

6-8, children aware of other perspectives that are different but assume this is because others have different information

Question 23

Self reflective perspective taking

Answer 23

8-10, children can now view own thoughts and feelings from someone else’s perspective and recognise others do this

Question 24

Mutual perspective taking

Answer 24

10-12, can imagine how the self and others are viewed from third person viewpoint. Can now consider two viewpoints simultaneously

Question 25

Societal perspective taking

Answer 25

12-15+, personal decisions are now made with reference to social conventions

Question 26

What is perspective taking

Answer 26

This involves being able to view a situation or emotions from another person’s viewpoint.

Question 27

What is theory of mind

Answer 27

This is an individual’s understanding that other people have separate mental stages and that others see the world from a different point of view to their own. ToM first appears round the age of 3/4.

Question 28

What is the false belief task

Answer 28

Wimmer and Perner - Maxi sees mother put chocolate into blue cupboard. Maxi goes out to play. Mother moves chocolate into green cupboard. Maxi comes back wanting chocolate. Researchers acted story out with dolls and matchboxes. Final question - ‘which cupboard will Maxi look in’. Nearly all 3 year olds say green cupboard but should be blue. From 4 onwards some give correct answer. By 6 all can do this

Question 29

ToM as an explanation for autism (Sallly-Anne test)

Answer 29

As autistic individuals find social interaction difficult, may be explained by an inability to understand mental states of other people. 3 groups of p’s: 20 autistic children, 14 children with Down’s Syndrome and 27 “normal” children. All asked a ‘belief’ question about where Sally thought the marble was. Child with ToM would respond Sally would look in the basket despite fact child knows it was in the box. 85% of “normal” and Down’s Syndrome children answered false belief question correctly. 20% of autistic children answered correctly

Question 30

What are mirror neurons

Answer 30

Discovered by Rizzolatti. These are neurons in the brain that react when a person performs an action and also when another individual performs the same action.

Question 31

What did researchers find in macaque monkeys

Answer 31

Found certain neurons in F5 area became active when the monkey wasn’t doing anything itself but was watching another monkey perform an action. Neurons became active if monkey repeated action itself

Question 32

What do mirror neurons do

Answer 32

They explain imitation as they encode activity of another person as if the observer were acting out the same activity.

Question 33

Imitation and mirror neurons and why its important

Answer 33

The imitation is important in the acquisition of skilled behaviours where an observer watches how someone else performs an action and then copies the behaviour. Imitation is the beginning of the development of social cognition.

Question 34

What is on-line behaviour

Answer 34

When you watch someone and immediately repeat the behaviour because the observation behaviour link is ‘on’

Question 35

Supporting evidence for Piaget’s theory

Answer 35

Piaget produced the first theory of children’s cognitive development. The theory has been more developed than any other. It has changed our ideas about children and has had influence on education. Real world applications

Question 36

Limitations of Piaget’s stages (underestimation)

Answer 36

Research demonstrated Piaget had underestimated children’s abilities at younger ages. Daren claims that only 1/3 of adults ever reach the formal operational stage. This weakens Piaget’s concept of the formal operational stage meaning the stages of intellectual development may not be valid.

Question 37

Limitation of vygotsky’s theory (scientific)

Answer 37

There is little scientific evidence to support the concepts in vygotsky’s theory. His theory does not provide as many specific hypotheses to test unlike Piaget. Therefore vygotsky’s theory lacks internal validity and it is hard to establish cause and effect

Question 38

Strength of vygotsky’s theory

Answer 38

Vygotsky’s theory is an important contribution to developmental psychology as he emphasises the importance of social interaction on cognitive development, which Piaget does not do. This therefore is beneficial for developmental psychology

Question 39

Limitation of Selman (correlation)

Answer 39

Much of selmans research is correlational meaning cause and effect cannot be established. E.g. it does not mean that perspective taking skills cause higher levels of social competence. Suggests that the supposed benefits of perspective taking may be over emphasised.

Question 40

Strength of Selman’s theory (reliability)

Answer 40

Selmans theory is high in reliability. E.g. Selman’s analysis of his own research found that 40 of the boys he interviewed had made gains in their levels of perspective taking and none had regressed. Improving the external reliability

Question 41

Limitation of ToM (biology)

Answer 41

There is evidence to state that ToM is not only determined by biology. Research shows it appears earlier in children with large families as the child is challenged to think about the feelings of their siblings by their parents. Suggests ToM may be too rigid and that it should take a more interactionist approach in understanding perspective taking.

Question 42

Strength of ToM (China and North America)

Answer 42

Researchers compared over 300 children from China and North America in terms of ToM and found a similar sequence of development in both groups, supporting the role of biological factors of ToM. ToM is therefore high in population validity.

Question 43

Support for mirror neurons (yawning)

Answer 43

Haker demonstrates that an area of the brain that is rich in MNs is involved in contagious yawning. f-MRI scans were used to assess brain activity in p’s while stimulated to yawn by showing them videos of others yawning. When they yawned in response, p’s showed activity in this area of the brain that is rich in MNs. Suggesting MNs can be used to understand the actions of others

Question 44

Limitation of MNs (Hickok)

Answer 44

Hickok questioned whether MNs exist. He proposed that we only know MNs by what they do and cannot identify individual cells and point to their differences from other neurons. This creates uncertainty in the role of MNs in social cognition

Question 45

What is object permanence

Answer 45

This involves understanding that items and people still exist even when you can’t see or hear them