Cognition & Development Flashcards
Outline Piaget’s stance on cognitive development.
1930s- he found that children think in entirely different ways to adults
.he was an empiricist
schemas: framework of expectations and beliefs that influence cognitive processing
new-borns- they only schemas they have are instincts
cognitive development involves more detailed schemas
. aims to answer 2 questions: how do we learn? why do we learn?
what does Piaget say about how knowledge develops? (how we learn)
ASSIMILATION: we acquire a more advanced understanding of an object, person or idea
occurs when newly acquired information does not drastically change our understanding of a whole topic
NEW INFORMATION IS ADDED TO AN EXISTING SCHEMA
e.g: child adapts to the existence of different dog breeds, and assimilates them into a dog schema
ACCOMMODATION:
takes place in response to drastically different experiences
. child has to adjust to new information by either radically changing their current schema, or forming a new schema.
e.g: child’s schema for dog is fur, tail, 4 legs.
then is sees a cat (can’t be part of the dog schema) so a new “cat schema” is made.
what does Piaget say about the role of motivation in development (why do we learn?)
EQUILIBRATION: PROCESS OF DEVELOPING SCHEMAS AND UNDERSTANDING
DISEQUILIBRIUM: unpleasant sensation- when an existing schema doesn’t allow us to make sense of something new
this motivates us to learn, adapt and understand (through assimilation or accommodation) so we can achieve EQUILIBRIUM (the preferred mental state)
discuss Piaget’s explanation of the processes involved in schema development
+: supporting research from Howe
. put 9-12 year old in groups to discuss the movement of objects down a slope.
Howe assessed knowledge and understanding before and after discussion
. the children had not come to the same conclusions and had developed their own explanations.
. supports the belief the schemas develop independently despite having similar environments
+: independent learning has practical application
. Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
. before formal education- main aim of EYFS is to aid play and exploration in order for children to learn. teachers actively try pish kids out of their comfort zones, so they are exposed to new experiences and information that they can assimilate or accommodate.
. this is in contrast how how children of all ages were taught in a lecturing style before,
(Montessori schools too)
-: contradicting explanation from Vygotsky
. argues that learning is a social process, where language, or semiotics in general is imperative.
Piaget describes children as mini scientists (trial and error) while V describes them as mini apprentices.
. V says they are capable of much more advanced learning, or schema development if aided by an expert.
-: evidence from Siegler and Svetina shows how learning is enhanced by social interaction.
. had a sample of 5yos take a number of class inclusion tasks and found that those who were given a logical explanation for why their answers were incorrect shows a subsequent increase in class inclusion tasks.
. suggests learning is not an independent process
. external validity.
-: research from Lazonder and Harmsen concluded that discovery learning with considerable input from teachers was the best way to learn, with input from others being the crucial element.
-: contradicting argument from Baillargeon
. P says that all schemas are developed through experience, but B is a nativist and argued that some schemas are developed from birth, such as the physical reasoning system, which allows babies to understand the physical laws of the world from birth
. undermines Piaget’s findings.
-: contradicting evidence
. B found that babies as young as 3 months on average stared at a model longer when a box was pushed off a surface and it didn’t fall, compared to if it did fall.
they have an understanding of gravity, or a schema of physical laws.
what are Piagets stages of intellectual development
sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)
pre operational stage (2-7 years)
concrete operational stage (7-11 years)
formal operations (11+)
describe the sensorimotor stage
. learn and develop schemas through movement and senses
. there is a focus on developing basic physical coordination in the earlier part of this stage
at 8 months the baby begins to develop OBJECT PERMENANCE- the ability to realise that an object exists even when it is out of their visual field
- Piaget observed babies to see their understanding of OP
. younger than 8 months: if he hid a toy they were playing with they immediately switched their attention away from it (forgot about it)
. after 8 months- babies continued to reach for the toy when hidden under blanket
describe the pre-operational stage
operations= reasoning
the toddler is mobile and they can use language but there are still some reasoning skills that they lack
1. CONSERVATION: ability to realise that the quantity of an object remains the same even when the appearance of it changes.
2. EGOCENTRISM: inability to perceive the world from another POV
applies visually shown by the 3 mountains tasks
child was shown a model with 3 mountains, each with different features (cross, house, snow etc)
a doll was placed around the model, so it was facing the model at a different angle than the child #. when the ppts was asked to choose from a range of images what view the doll could see ppts in the pre-op stage mostly chose the scene that matched their own view
3. CLASS INCLUSION: an advanced classification skill where we realise classes of objects can have smaller subsets and also be part of laeger classes. pre-ops usually struggle to put things in more than one class.
showed children 7-8 years old a photo of 5 dogs and 2 cats than asked the question ‘are there more dogs or animals’. children tended to respond withmore dogs than animals, as they didn’t realise dogs also fit into the class of animals.
also struggle with CENTRATION: can only focus on one thing at once.
describe the concrete operational stage
. at this point most children have mastered conservation and have largely overcone egocentrism and issues with class inclusion
although kids are developing their reasoning skills, these are strictly concrete operations
. they can only be applied to physical objects in the child’s presence
. they struggle with abstract or imagined objects, or syllogisms (theoretical scenarios) especially if they don’t abide by the laws of reality
describe the formal operations stage
they are capable of formal reasoning- they are able to focus on the form of an argument rather than the context of it (allows them to accept unrealistic premises)
they can understand and follow syllogisms
e.g., ‘all orange casts have 2 heads’ ‘i have an orange cat called charlie’ ‘how many heads does charlie have’
. kids can give correct answer despite scenario not being real.
evaluate Piaget’s stages of intellectual development.
+: RESEARCH SUPPORTING PRE-OP STAGE
. studies on ego centrism and class inclusion
. studies on conservation too
number conservation: 2 rows of 8 identical counters side by side.
if counters in each row were all equally spaces out then the ppts said there was the same amount of counters but if in one row the counters were pushed closer together (shorter) then pre-op kids struggled to conserve and said there were fewer counters
quantity conservation: poured liquid in 2 identical containers to the same height. children spotted that there was the same amount in each
. if the liquid of one container was poured into a taller, thinner vessel pre-op kids thought the quantity had increased.
. supports inability to conserve in multiple scenarios.
increased validity of skills of each stage.
+: STUDIES HAVE BEEN REPEATED MULTIPLE TIMES BY DIFF RESEARCHERS
. majority of experimental repeats support Piaget’s initial findings on the operations of each stage.
number of repeats increases the reliability and means validity of stages has been tested on a larger and more varied sample than Piaget initially had access to as he used to test on the Swiss children of his peers.
more generalisable which is important for these nomothetic claims
-: FLAWS IN PIAGET’S METHOD COULD UNDERMINE HIS FINDINGS
. specifically relating to the conservation experiment; moving the counters in front of the ppts and asking a leading question of whether anything changed- they are more inclined to agree that something changed, especially younger more impressionable ppts. So, this is an EV and means Piaget may be testing differences in impressionability in each stage over conservation skills.
-: McGarrigle and Donaldson- repeated Piaget’s PG study and had similar findings
. then they altered the ex so counters were ‘accidently’ moved further/closer and 72% of ppts said that counters remained the same.
flawed method is confounding variable for conservation research which undermines supporting findings of experimental repeats. calls into question whether his other findings into staged could be undermined due to method.
-: CONTRADICTING EV. TO EGOCENTRISM FROM HUGHES
. set up model similar to 3 mountains to test egocentrism
. ppts had to imagine the model from the POV of either 1 or 2 police officers- this was more realsitic and familiar to ppts
3.5 years: 90% of the time ppts could place a doll where the police officers would not be able to see them
4 years: 90% of the time they could place doll to hide from 2 police offiecers (imaginging 2 POVs at the same time)
. child can grow out of egocentric perception early-mid stage.
T= P’s RESEARCH MAY HAVE OVERSTATED LACK OF OPERATIONS IN YOUNGER AGES
+: STAGES HAVE PRACTICAL APPLICATION
. has influenced the education system
. knowledge on the lack of operations in most children under 7 is why education before this time is mostly play time and exploration rather than formal education
. has helped us form teaching methods around the assumed reasoning ability of certain age group in order to maximise learning
e.g. if pre-ops focus on outward appearances they should be taught visually
-: NOMOTHETIC APPROACH
. creates general rules on the operations of an entire age group
ignores individual differences which may affect a child’s reasoning ability.
. socially sensitive: a child in the assumed concrete operational stage may be classed as abnormal if they have not developed a certain level of operations yet when in reality they are just developing slightly slower.
. this is especially an issue since research from Hughes showed that intellectual development is not confined to the age range that Piaget stated.
T= leeway is essential when applying Piaget’s stages.
outline Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development
Piaget thought that learning and development occurred at the same time (cognitive ability puts limits to what you can learn)
however Vygotsky says that learning can accelerate cognitive development.
he saw learning and development as a social process, that requires some kind of semiotics (language, i.e., social interactions)
. therefore learning is a culturally relative process.
. learning is first an INTERMENTAL process (happening between an learner an expert-someone more experienced) and then becomes an INTRAMENTAL process, when the individual can perform the task on their own.
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT- what the child could potentially understand if helped by an expert
how has Vygotsky’s theory been developed
Wood, Brunner and Ross developed the idea of SCAFFHOLDING- the process of experts helping the learner cross the ZPD, moving the performance of a specific task from inter-mental to intra-mental
. there are stages of scaffolding, in which assistance from the expert declines as learner gets closer to achieving the tasks intra-mentally
5- DEMONSTRATION (adult draws object with crayon)
4- PREPARATON FOR CHILD(expert helps child grasp crayon)
3- INDICATION OF MATERIAL (expert points to crayons)
2- SPECIFIC VERBAL INSTRUCTIONS
1- GENERAL PROMPTS
evaluate Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development.
+: research support from Roazzi
. has 4-5 year olds estimate the number of sweets in a box. some had help of an older child (expert) while others did not.
most children working alone failed to give a good estimate, while those with an expert who gave prompts performed better.
. supports child can develop additional reasoning abilities with an expert. and shows expert just needs to be someone a bit more experienced.
+: research supporting scaffolding from Wood and Middleton
. mothers of 4yos had to help the child put together a 3d pyramid puzzle
. most successful mothers were ones who adjusted their help in reaction to their child’s actions, following stages of scaffolding and gradually reducing help until child can do it on their own.
+ practical application
. changed education systems by emphasising the importance of social interactions and experts.
. led to hiring of TAs, and peer tutoring
. real life application- positive implications
-: culturally relative
. Liu and Matthews point out that in China classes of up to 50 people learn very effectively with lecturing styles, which according to V should not be possible
. he may have overestimated the importance of social learning and scaffolding.
t= practical value of theory may be culturally bound.
-: individual differences.- not all children are suited to learning through social interactions. e.g., children with autism, difficult to engage socially, and could potentially get overwhelmed.
-: contradicting argument from Piaget
. says that learning happens individually, and that how can only learn within the limits of cognitive stage. (e.g., quantity conservation task)
. undermines Vygotsky
-: contradicting evidence from Howe
. children developed individual explanations of why object moves down a slope, despite learning in the same group.
outline Baillargeon
nativist- thought that babies were born with some schemas, and had an innate knowledge of the physical laws of the world (physical reasoning system)
. contrasts Piaget and Vygotsky, especially Piaget who thought that functions as simple as object permeance were developed at around 8 months
. her theory is supported by Violation of Expectation research- research testing a babies’ knowledge of the physical world by how surprised they are when something defies natural laws.
research supporting innate OP
. 24 5-6 month olds
. 2 test events- one that abides by physical laws, and one that doesn’t
there is a screen with a window in it
expected event: a small rabbit (smaller than the window) passes behind screen, and is not visible until it comes from the other side, or a tall rabbit passes behind the screen, and is visible from the window
unexpected event: tall rabbit and would not be seen through the window
. baby with Object persistence should be surprised at this
. expected event: babies looked for 25.11 seconds
. unexpected event: 33.07 implying they were confused by this (therefore have an understanding of world)
. children as young as 3 months responded similarly.
evaluate Baillargeon’s explanation of infant abilities.
-: contradicting research from Piaget
. said OP was developed at a later stage.
observations of babies younger than 8 months- if you hid a toy they were playing with under a blanket they lost interest but older than 8 months, they continued to reach for it.
-: B has better method
. Piaget doesn’t acknowledge that babies have limited motor skills, so just becasue younger babies don’t reach for it, it doesn’t mean they don’t understand it, they just don;t have capability to reach. mixing ability with performance
B solves this issue by instead tracking the babies’ eyes and length of staring- doesn’t require any action from them meaning her research into OP has more face validity
+: Research support from Bower and Wishart
. experimented on 3 month old children. they would be playing with a toy, then they turned the lights off and observed with an infared camera
. children continued to reach for toy in the dark, suggesting they were aware of its existence.
-: Piaget’s criticism of Baillargeon. young children may not understand OP but simply react to it (in both research).
. Bremner said being surprised at impossible task does not mean they understand OP. understanding means it can be consciously thought about and applied to different aspects of the world, which B’s research does not suggest.
t= B’s research does not completely disprove Piaget’s views, and has its own methodological issues.
+: research supporting innate physical reasoning
. tested 3 month old babies and their knowledge of gravity
. normal: finger pushes box across a surface
. magical: finger pushes a box off a surface, and it doesn’t fall
. babies stared at this for longer than control
. by 3m they understand that unsupported objects should fall suggests that this is an innate understanding
+: innate physical reasoning supported by universality of certain beliefs.
explains a universal understanding of the physical world despite different personal and cultural experiences
. if it were not innate we would expect cultural and individual differences in our understanding basic understanding of physical world which there is no evidence for.
increases validity of innate explanation.
