Cognition & Development

Question 1

What is meant by Cognitive Development

Answer 1

A general term describing the development of all mental processes. In particular, thinking, reasoning and our understanding of the world. Cognitive development continues throughout the life span but psychologists have been particularly concerned with how thinking and reasoning develops through childhood.

Question 2

What is meant by Schemas

Answer 2

Contain our understanding of an object, person or idea. Schemas become increasingly complex during development as we acquire more information about each object or idea A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. They are developed from experience.

Question 3

What is meant by Assimilation

Answer 3

A form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information or a more advanced understanding of an object, person or idea. When new information does not radically change our understanding of the topic we can incorporate (assimilate) it into an existing schema.

Question 4

What is meant by Accommodation

Answer 4

A form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information that changes our understanding of a topic to the extent that we need to form one or more new schemas and/or radically change existing schemas in order to deal with the new understanding.

Question 5

What is meant by Equilibration

Answer 5

Takes place when we have encountered new information and built it into our understanding of a topic, either by assimilating it into an existing schema or accommodating it by forming a new one. Everything is again balanced and we have escaped the unpleasant experience of a lack of balance - disequilibrium.

Question 6

What is meant by Stages of intellectual development

Answer 6

Piaget identified four stage of intellectual development. Each stage is characterised by a different level of reasoning ability. Although the exact ages vary from child to child, all children develop through the same sequence of stages.

Question 7

What is meant by Object permanence

Answer 7

The ability to realise that an object still exists when it passes out of the visual field. Piaget believed that this ability appears at around eight months of age. Prior to this, children lose interest in an object once they can’t see it and presumably are no longer aware of its existence.

Question 8

What is meant by Conservation

Answer 8

The ability to realise that quantity remains the same even when the appearance of an object or group of objects changes. For example, the volume of liquid stays the same when poured between vessels of different shapes.

Question 9

What is meant by Egocentrism

Answer 9

The child’s tendency to only be able to se the world from their own point of view. This applies to both physical objects - demonstrated in the three mountains task - and arguments in which a child can only appreciate their own perspective.

Question 10

What is meant by Class inclusion

Answer 10

An advanced classification skill in which we recognise that classes of objects have subsets and are themselves subsets of larger classes. Pre-operational children usually struggle to lace thinks in more than one class.

Question 11

What is meant by Zone of proximal development (ZPD)

Answer 11

The gap between a child’s current level of development, defined by the cognitive tasks they can perform unaided, and what they can potentially do with the right help from a more expert other, who may be an adult or a more advanced child.

Question 12

What is meant by Scaffolding

Answer 12

The process of helping a learner cross the zone of proximal development and advance as much as they can, given their stage of development. Typically the level of help given in scaffolding declines as the learner crosses the zone of proximal development (ZPD).

Question 13

What is meant by Knowledge of the physical world

Answer 13

Refers to the extent to which we understand how the physical world works, An example of this knowledge is object permanence, the understanding that objects continue to exist when thy leave the visual field. There is a debate concerning the ages at which children develop this kind of knowledge.

Question 14

What is meant by Violation of expectation research

Answer 14

An approach to investigating infant knowledge of the world. The idea is that if children understand how the physical world operates then they will expect certain things to happen in particular situations. If these do not occur and children react accordingly, this suggests that they have an intact knowledge of that aspect of the world.

Question 15

What is meant by Social cognition

Answer 15

Describes the mental processes we make use of when engaged in social interaction. For example, we make decisions on how to behave based on our understanding of a social situation. Both the understanding and the decision making are cognitive processes.

Question 16

What is meant by Perspective-taking

Answer 16

Our ability to appreciate a social situation from the perspective (point of view) of other people. This cognitive ability underlies much of our normal social interaction.

Question 17

What is meant by Theory of mind

Answer 17

Our personal understanding (a ‘theory’) of what people are thinking and feeling. It is sometimes called ‘mind-reading’.

Question 18

What is meant by Autism

Answer 18

(more correctly called autistic spectrum disorder, ASD) is an umbrella term for a wide range of symptoms. All disorders on the spectrum share impairments to three main areas: empathy, social; communication and social imagination.

Question 19

What is meant by Sally-Anne study

Answer 19

Uses the Sally-Anne task to assess theory of mind. To understand the story participants have to identify that Sally will look for a marble in the wrong place because she does not know that Anne has moved it. Very young children and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) find this difficult.

Question 20

What is meant by The mirror neuron system

Answer 20

Consists of special brain cells called mirror neurons distributed in several areas of the brain. Mirror neurons are unique because they fire both in response to personal action and in response to action on the part of others. These special neurons may be involved in social cognition, allowing us to interpret intention and emotion in others.

Question 21

What are Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development?

Answer 21

Sensorimotor stage
 (0-2 years approx.)
Pre-operational stage
 (2-7 years)
Concrete operations stage
 (7-11 years)
Formal operations stage 
(11+ years)

Question 22

Outline the features of Piaget’s Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years approx.)

Answer 22

• A baby’s focus is on physical sensations and basic coordination between what they see and their body movement.
• Babies also come to understand that other people are separate objects, and they acquire some basic language.
• They also develop object permanence (the understanding that objects still exist when they are out of sight):
• Before 8 months, children immediately switch their attention away from an object once it is out of sight. After 8 months children continue to look for it. This suggests that children then understand that objects continue to exist when removed from view.

Question 23

Outline the features of Piaget’s Pre-operational stage (2-7 years).

Answer 23

• Egocentrism was tested in the three mountains task (Piaget and Inhelder 1956). Children were shown three model mountains, each with a different future: a cross, a house or snow. Pre-operational children tended to find it difficult to select a picture that showed a view other than their own.
• Class inclusion is tested, using a picture of five dogs and two cats and asking, ‘Are there more dogs or animals?’ Children under 8 years tend to respond that there are more dogs (Piaget and Inhelder 1964). Younger children cannot simultaneously see a dog as a member of the dog class and the animal class
• Conservation is the ability to realise that quantity remains the same even when the appearance of an object or group of objects changes. When tested with rows of counters (number), liquid (volume) or playdough (mass) children in this stage are unable to conserve.

Question 24

Outline the features of Piaget’s Concrete operations stage (7-11 years).

Answer 24

• By the start of this stage, children have mastered conservation and are improving on egocentrism and class inclusion.
• However, they still have some reasoning problems – they are only able to reason or operate on physical objects in their presence (concrete operations).

Question 25

Outline the features of Piaget’s Formal operations stage (11+ years).

Answer 25

• Abstract reasoning develops – being able to think beyond the here and now. Children can now focus on the form of the argument and not be distracted by its content.
• E.g. They can process syllogisms: ‘All yellow cats have two heads. I have a yellow cat called Charlie. How many heads does Charlie have?’ The answer is two but younger children are distracted by the fact that cats do not have two heads.

Question 26

Wood et al. (1976) suggest a number of features of scaffolding including. Can you give an example of a feature?

Answer 26

• Recruitment – engaging learner’s interest.
• Reduction in degrees of freedom – focussing learner and getting started.
• Direction maintenance – motivating learner to persevere.

Question 27

Name the five stages of Selman’s theory of perspective taking. Include approximate ages for each stage.

Answer 27

Stage 0 (3-6 years) Socially egocentric

Stage 1 (6-8 years) Social information role-taking

Stage 2 (8-10 years) Self-reflective role-taking

Stage 3 (10-12 years) Mutual role-taking

Stage 4 (12+ years) Social and conventional system role-taking

Question 28

Describe Selman’s Socially egocentric Stage.

Answer 28

Stage 0 (3-6 years) Socially egocentric – a child cannot distinguish between their own emotions and those of others nor explain the emotional states of others.

Question 29

Describe Selman’s Social information role-taking stage.

Answer 29

Stage 1 (6-8 years) Social information role-taking – a child can now distinguish between their own point of view and that of others, but can only focus on one perspective at a time.

Question 30

Describe Selman’s Self-reflective role-taking stage.

Answer 30

Stage 2 (8-10 years) Self-reflective role-taking – a child can explain the position of another person and appreciate their perspective but can still only consider one point of view at a time.

Question 31

Describe Selman’s Mutual role-taking stage.

Answer 31

Stage 3 (10-12 years) Mutual role-taking – a child is now able to consider their own point of view and that of another at the same time.

Question 32

Describe Selman’s Social and conventional system role-taking stage.

Answer 32

Stage 4 (12+ years) Social and conventional system role-taking- a child recognises that understanding others’ viewpoints is not enough to allow people to reach agreement. Social conventions are needed to keep order.

Question 33

In his later work, Selman added three further elements to fully explain social development. Identify and briefly describe these three elements.

Answer 33

1. Interpersonal understanding: this is what Selman measured in his earlier research. Being able to take different roles is evidence that we understand social situations.
2. Interpersonal negotiation strategies: we also have to develop skills in how to respond to the social situations. This could include learning to negotiate and manage conflict.
3. Awareness of personal meaning of relationships: in addition to understanding and managing social situations we also need to be able to reflect on social behaviour in the context of life history and the full range of relationships.

Question 34

Baillargeon et al. (2012) proposed that we are born with a physical reasoning system (PRS). What does this mean?

Answer 34

• PRS means infants are predisposed to attend and learn from impossible events. Infants identify event categories. Each event category corresponds to one way in which objects interact and children learn about these from birth. An innate PRS means that, when an infant is shown an impossible occurrence (tall rabbit event where tall rabbit does not appear), it draws their attention. This well help them to develop their understanding of the physical world.

Question 35

ToM is tested via different methods depending on age. Can you outline a way it is tested with very young children/ toddlers.

Answer 35

Meltzoff (1988) allowed children to observe adults placing beads into a jar. Experimental condition: adults appeared to struggle with this and dropped the beads. Control condition: adults successfully placed the beads into the jar.
Results: In both conditions toddlers successfully placed the beads in the jar, suggesting that they were imitating what the adult intended to do rather than what they actually did. This demonstrates they understood intention which is the first steps to ToM.

Question 36

ToM is tested via different methods depending on age. It can be tested in children using a false belief task. Describe an example of a false belief task used to measure ToM. Include the procedure and what was found.

Answer 36

Wimmer and Perner (1983) told 3-4 year olds a story in which Maxi left his chocolate in a blue cupboard in the kitchen. After Maxi’s mother had used some of the chocolate in her booking she placed the remainder in a green cupboard.

Results: The children had to say where Maxi would look for his chocolate-most 3 year olds incorrectly said he would look in the green cupboard whilst most 4 year olds correctly identified the blue, demonstrating ToM.

Question 37

Explain how Baron-Cohen et al. (1985) used the Sally-Anne task to test high-functioning children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Include the procedure and the findings.

Answer 37

Procedure: Children were told a story involving two dolls, Sally and Anne: Sally places a marble in her basket- sally leaves the room- Anne moves the marble to her box – Sally returns- Where does Sally look for the marble?
In order to understand that Sally does not know that Anne has moved the marble, you need an understanding of Sally’s beliefs.
Sample: A control group of 14 children with Down’s syndrome and 27 children without diagnosis.

Results: 85% of the children in the control group correctly identified where Sally would look for her marble but only 20% of the ASD group did, suggesting that ASD involves a ToM deficit.

Question 38

ToM is tested via different methods depending on age. How can it be tested in older children or adults?

Answer 38

Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) developed the Eyes Task as a more challenging test of ToM and found that adults with high functioning ASD struggled. This supports the idea that ToM deficits might be the cause of ASD.

Question 39

Outline the role of mirror neurons in social cognition.

Answer 39

(1) Mirror neurons help us experience the intentions of others: Gallese and Goldman 91998) suggested that mirror neurons respond not just to observed actions but to intentions behind behaviour. We need to understanding intentions of others in order to interact socially. Research suggests we actually simulate the action of others in our own brains and thus experience their intentions through our mirror neurons.
(2) Mirror neurons play a part in development of ToM and perspective taking: It has also been suggested that mirror neurons play an important role in perspective taking and theory of mine (ToM). Mirror neurons can fire in response to others’ actions and intentions and this underlies ToM.

Question 40

Explain how mirror neurons can be used as an explanation for ASD.

Answer 40

The ‘Broken Mirror’ theory of ASD: Ramachandran and Oberman (2006) have proposed the ‘broken mirror’ theory of ASD.

According to this theory ASD develops due to neurological deficit, including dysfunction in the mirror neuron system. Such dysfunction prevents a child imitating and understanding social behaviour in others.

Researchers have observed that, in infant children who are later diagnosed with ASD typically mimic adult behaviours less than children with no diagnosis. This may demonstrate innate problems with the mirror neuron system.

Question 41

How have mirror neurons shaped human evolution?

Answer 41

Ramachandran (2011) suggested that mirror neurons have shaped human evolution, in particular how we have evolved as a social species. Mirror neurons enable us to understand intention, emotion and perspective. These are fundamental requirements for living in large groups with the complex social roles and rules that characterise human culture.