Cognition + development - Piagets theory - piagets literal theory andschemas

Question 1

Who is Piaget?

Answer 1

A developmetal psychologist who studied how children develop psychologically as they mature.

Question 2

What are schemas?

Answer 2

• A way of organising knowledge
• We are constantly using our schemas to make sense of the world
• Some schemas are innate; our schemas change and grow in complexity with experience

Question 3

What is disequilibrium?

Answer 3

A state of unbalance if we cannot understand something using our existing schema.

Question 4

What is equilibrium?

Answer 4

A state of balance which we achieve by discovering and acquiring the new information we need to make sense of our experiences. This may involve forming a new schema or be incorporating information into an existing schema.

Question 5

What is equilibration?

Answer 5

The process of achieving equilibrium again.

Question 6

What is assimilation?

Answer 6

When information is taken in and incorporated into an existing schema, without much change being required.

Question 7

What is accommodation?

Answer 7

When some sort of change is needed - either a whole new schema is required or radical change of an existing schema is required.

Question 8

Explain the strength that Piaget’s theory has research support that some schemas are innate.

Answer 8

• Babies as young as four days old preferred looking at features arranged as a face than the same features jumbled up.
• This finding has been replicated many times
• As the babies are so young they could not have learnt to recognise faces but rather must have a pre-existing schema for them
• This is adaptive because it means the infant will be able to interact with caregiver from birth and be able to bond

Question 9

Explain the strength that Piaget’s theory has research support (Howe) showing that schemas are individual and vary between people.

Answer 9

After the discussion about moving objects down a slope, the children had not come to the same conclusion or picked up the same facts.
This supports Piaget’s idea that children learn by forming their own personal mental representations.

Question 10

How is application to education a strength of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 10

• Piaget’s theory that children construct their own schemas in response to what they discover about the world led to schools placing an emphasis on discovery learning, with practical activities so that children could find out about how things work and how they relate to each other
• However, applying Piaget’s work to educating older children is unhelpful because our education system and testing is standardised. Our schemas are personal and differ between children, if learning through discovery they will learn different things, just as Howe found.

Question 11

How can Piaget’s theory be linked to debates?

Answer 11

Nature vs nurture
Nature:
- Biologically primed to learn
- Evolutionary explanation - some schemas are innate + aid our survival
- (Biological determinism)
Nurture:
- Our schemas develop in response to the environment
- Different experiences result in different schemas + our perceptions + way we interact with the world will differ as a result
(Environmental determinism)