Cognitive Development

Question 1

Jean Piaget‘s Theory (cognitive developmental approach)

Answer 1

• children of different ages think differently
• changes in cognitive development proceed in dusting stages -> discontinuous
• each persons cognitive abilities are organized into one coherent mental structure/scheme
• driving forces behind development from one stage to the next is maturation

Question 2

Piaget‘s study approach

Answer 2

observed his own childs; let them play with toys and observed their problem solving

Question 3

Piaget’s observations

Answer 3

huge age differences in thinking; big developmental burst where they figure out stuff -> ones it is figured a transformational change happens

Question 4

continuous change

Answer 4

-> information processing theories
development happens slowly and no clear development stages are visible

Question 5

discontinuous change

Answer 5

-> Piaget
distinct stages in development can be identified -> resulting from „AHA“ Moments

Question 6

Equilibrium

Answer 6

-> cognitive balance; your scheme matches environment

Question 7

Disequilibrium

Answer 7

-> your scheme does not match environment -> distress; adaptations need to be done to restore balance between schemes and experiences

Question 8

Assimilation

Answer 8

interpreting new information in terms of existing schemes; how does new situation fit the scheme

Question 9

Accommodation

Answer 9

modifying/changing scheme to adapt to new information (when things in environment change)

Question 10

organization (children perceiving the world)

Answer 10

kids create hierarchical scheme to denote all the differences in the world and see what belongs to what

Question 11

Piagetian Stages

Answer 11

1. Sensorimotor
2. Preoperational
3. concrete operations
4. formal operations

Question 12

Sensorimotor - Piagetian Stages

Answer 12

0-2 years;
cognitive development involves learning how to coordinate activities of the senses with motor activities

Question 13

Preoperational - Piagetian Stages

Answer 13

2-7 years;
capable of representing the world symbolically (ex. language)

Question 14

Concrete Operations - Piagetian Stages

Answer 14

7-11 years;
become more adept at using mental operations which leads to a more advanced understanding of the world

Question 15

Formal Operations - Piagetian Stages

Answer 15

11-15 to 20 years;
allows adolescents to reason about more complex tasks and problems involving multiple variables

Question 16

concrete operations stage in depth

Answer 16

allows to understand reversibility (of objects and ideas), moving away from centration - can focus on several things at a time, moving away from egocentrism - understand different points of view/perspectives

Question 17

Constructing ideas (when do kids understand sarcasm, poetry, …)

Answer 17

kids don’t understand such things, since they take it literal
-> environment determines when kids will actually understand

Question 18

formal operations in adolescence

Answer 18

rational and systematic thought about abstract and hypothetical events; hypothetical deductive reasoning (what got you there?); naive idealism - good at thinking what is possible but not necessarily about what is actually probable

Question 19

Metacognition

Answer 19

“thinking about thinking”; enables efficient learning and problem solving due to the understanding of biases in thoughts and knowledge about own abilities
-> being aware of one’s thinking process

Question 20

Contributions of Piaget’s Theory

Answer 20

• pioneer in this field; active constructor of knowledge
• sequential course
• role of errors
• ecologically valid

Question 21

Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory

Answer 21

• some abilities can be seen earlier than as stated by him
• horizontal decalage; uneven performance
• role of experience and scaffolding (idea that we break learning into chunks; what we can deal with at a time)
• influence of culture

Question 22

Post-formal thinking (Labouvie-Vief)

Answer 22

1. Pragmatism; adapt thinking to real life constraints (ex. compromise) -> dialectic thought = some problems might not have a clear solution
2. reflective judgment; reflecting on evidence and arguments (always two sides of a story), multiple thinking, relativism (what is best), commitment (to a view point)

Question 23

Information Processing Approach (inspired by computer)

Answer 23

-> cognitive changes as continuous; gradual and steady
- focussed on thinking process that exist at all ages
- human thinking has several capacities: attention, processing and memory -> if we don’t pay attention to things they will be forgotten, if we don’t rehearse them they will not end up in long term memory

Question 24

deductive reasoning - information processing and reasoning

Answer 24

top down; general statement to specific conclusion, based on prior knowledge/proof
-> theory - hypothesis - observation- confirmation

Question 25

inductive reasoning - information processing and reasoning

Answer 25

bottom up; begins with specific thing (ex. an observation) and looks for general theory = specific to general
-> observation - pattern - tentative hypothesis - theory

Question 26

limitations of information processing

Answer 26

• reductionism; broken into parts, meaning/coherence as a whole becomes lost
• holistic perspective; several things play a role at the same time
• computer analogy; computer has no reflective behavior as we humans do

Question 27

Vygotsky’s ideas

Answer 27

-> social process of learning
- zone of proximal development; gap between what adolescence can do alone and what they need guidance for -> scaffolding as the amount of assistance which is given at a time (decreases as adolescents become more competent at a task)

Question 28

Guided Participation (Barbara Rogoff)

Answer 28

teaching interaction in terms of cultural and social values (ex. cookie backing every Sunday)

Question 29

Strengths - Vygotsky’s Theory

Answer 29

• importance did social contexts of learning and cognition
• new methods of assessing cognitive ability and of teaching reading, math and writing
• useful in multiethnic society

Question 30

Limitations - Vygotsky’s Theory

Answer 30

• no explanation of the processes governing the development
• only a general approach and few standard tasks

Question 31

social cognition (definition)

Answer 31

describes the way we think about other people, social relationships and social institutions
-> requires perspective taking (starting from 10-12 year; mutual perspective taking), see where those come from
-> society shapes our perception -> pro social behavior increases

Question 32

Perspective taking (Selmans research)

Answer 32

the ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others

Question 33

Adolescent egocentrism (Elkind’s research)

Answer 33

having difficulty distinguishing your own thinking about yourself from thoughts of others
-> teenagers think there is always an audience watching them = imaginary audience
(maladaptive behavior from lack of ToM)
-> highly conscious of how you look and act, being special/unique = personal fable

Question 34

optimistic bias (related to personal fable)

Answer 34

bad things are more likely to happen to others than to ourselves
-> towards health risk behavior