Cognition, Memory and Information Processing

Question 1

Piaget’s Sensorimotor stage

Answer 1

• birth to =/- 2 years
• infants use their senses and motor activity to learn about the world
• gradually understand object permanence

Question 2

critique of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

Answer 2

-violation of expectations research suggests that infants may know far more about properties of objects than Piaget thought

Question 3

Core knowledge hypothesis

Answer 3

infants possess innate knowledge of certain properties of objects

Question 4

contrasting view to core knowledge hypothesis

Answer 4

knowledge about objects is built through rapid advances in perception, attention and memory and the child’s experiences in the world.

Question 5

Piaget’s Preoperational Stage

Answer 5

• +/- 2-7 years

- preschool children are able to use symbols (language) but thinking is often illogical

Question 6

Critique of Piaget’s Preoperational Stage

Answer 6

-Piaget underestimated the abilities of young children by relying on verbal interviews and giving them complex tasks to perform

Question 7

Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 7

• +/- 7-11 years
• children can reason logically about concrete problems
• are able to conserve

Question 8

Evaluating Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 8

-Piaget’s descriptions have held up well. However, he may not have paid enough attention to the role of culture-based experience.

Question 9

Piaget’s Formal Operational Stage

Answer 9

+/- 11 years +

-adolescents become capable of complex, scientific reasoning about abstract problems

Question 10

Evaluating Piaget’s Formal Operational Stage

Answer 10

-Piaget has been criticised for overestimating the logical abilities of older children and adults

Question 11

Structures of knowledge: schemes

Answer 11

mental representations about what things are and how we deal with them

• sensorimotor (action schemes)
• cognitive (concepts)

Question 12

Structures of knowledge: organisation

Answer 12

combining schemes in a logical way

Question 13

Structures of knowledge: operations

Answer 13

internalised sets of actions that allow children to do mentally what they had done physically

Question 14

Adaption: Assimilation

Answer 14

trying to understand new info in terms of our existing schemes

Question 15

Adaption: Accomodation

Answer 15

changing our existing schemes or developing new schemes in response to new info

Question 16

Evaluating Piaget’s Theory: Contributions

Answer 16

• children and adults think differently
• children are active learners
• describes well the course and content of cognitive development across cultures

Question 17

Evaluating Piaget’s Theory: constructive criticisms

Answer 17

• stage theory is too rigid
• underestimates young children’s ability to think logically (and overestimates logical abilities of adolescents)
• gives limited attention to social influences on cognitive development

Question 18

Vgotsky’s Sociocultural Perspective: main themes

Answer 18

• culture
• zone of proximal development
• language

Question 19

Vgotsky: Social interaction and thought

Answer 19

Cognitive development occurs as children interact with more skilled partners on tasks that are within their zone of proximal development.

Question 20

Scaffolding (Bruner)

Answer 20

involves helpful, structured interaction between an adult and a child with the aim of helping the child achieve a specific goal.

Question 21

Guided participation

Answer 21

Guided participation emphasizes the active role of the child in learning and cognitive growth and the complementary role of parents and other caring adults in supporting,

Question 22

Vgotsky: language and thought

Answer 22

As social speech is transformed into private speech and then inner speech, the culture’s preferred tools of problem solving work their way from the language of competent guides into the thinking of the individual.

Question 23

What is memory?

Answer 23

the retention of information over time

Question 24

encoding

Answer 24

getting info into memory

Question 25

storage

Answer 25

retaining info over time

Question 26

retrieval

Answer 26

taking info out of storage

Question 27

long term memory

Answer 27

relatively permanent and unlimited

Question 28

short term memory

Answer 28

can hold a very limited amount of information for a few seconds

Question 29

working memory

Answer 29

a short-term “storehouse” for information one is actively working on

Question 30

explicit memory

Answer 30

conscious or intentional recollection

Question 31

implicit memory

Answer 31

remembering that occurs without effort or conscious awareness

Question 32

Recognition memory:

Answer 32

noticing when a stimulus is identical or similar to one previously experienced

Question 33

Recall memory

Answer 33

deliberately calling to mind objects and events without any clear reminders

Question 34

Cued recall

Answer 34

actively retrieving memories with the help of a hint or cue.

Question 35

infant recall

Answer 35

by 2 months (Rovee-Collier, string to baby toe)

Question 36

deferred imitation (infants)

Answer 36

By 6 to 9 months, infants can remember and imitate a sequence of behaviours that they learnt through observation alone, and have not practised (pure recall).

Question 37

infantile amnesia

Answer 37

-fuzz trace theory:

children more likely to use verbatim memory/adults on gist memory

Question 38

Generic memory

Answer 38

produces a script (general outline) of a familiar, repeated event

Question 39

Episodic memory

Answer 39

awareness of having experienced a particular incident

Question 40

Autobiographical memory

Answer 40

Episodic memories that form a person’s life history – events that have happened to you.

Question 41

Accuracy of eye witness from children increases if…

Answer 41

• children are interviewed only once, soon after the event
• the interviewers do not ask leading questions, ask open-ended rather than yes/no questions, and do not repeatedly ask the same questions
• the interviewers are neutral, patient and non-judgemental

Question 42

Phased interview approach

Answer 42

• establish rapport with the child
• ask to tell you everything about the case
• ask open-ended questions
• ask closed, specific, but non leading questions
• close the interview

Question 43

Why does children’s memory improve?

Answer 43

1. changes in working memory capacity
2. changes in memory strategies (selective attention)
3. increased knowledge about memory
4. increased knowledge about the world

Question 44

Experise

Answer 44

extensive, highly organised knowledge and understanding in a particular domain

Question 45

in late adulthood declines generally occur in..

Answer 45

• working memory
• processing speed
• explicit memory
• recall memory

Question 46

Influences on the memory of older adults

Answer 46

• physiological factors and health
• beliefs and expectations
• education and memory tasks
• memory training

Question 47

Representation

Answer 47

between the ages of 2.5-3 years, dramatic developments occur in children’s ability to use symbols to guide their problem-solving activites

Question 48

Planning

Answer 48

• thinking further ahead and keep more steps in mind

- become more flexible in their use of planning strategies

Question 49

Strategy choice

Answer 49

Siegler: children of all ages use a variety of problem-solving strategies when faced with a problem

Question 50

Transferring skills

Answer 50

-even toddlers demonstrate analogical transfer

Question 51

Analogical transference

Answer 51

Analogical transfer is transfer of a basic structure acquired through one or more instances to another instance.

Question 52

Practical problem-solving and expertise in adulthood

Answer 52

practical problem solving improves during early and middle adulthood as expertise develops