cognitive development Flashcards
what are the characteristics of the preoperational stage?
mental imagery without principled thought
egocentrism
operational intelligence
fail to decenter
what is operational intelligence?
the process of solving a problem by working through logical principles
what is decenter?
broadening attention to various aspects of a problem, rather than just fixating on one
which experiments can test pre-operational thinking?
conservation
class inclusion
what is conservation?
understanding that changing the form or location of an object doesn’t change the object’s mass, volume or amount
what is class inclusion?
the ability to simultaneously classify objects into multiple categories, eg) more ducks or black ducks
what tasks does a child struggle with in the preoperational stage?
class inclusion
conservation
what are the characteristics of the concrete operational stage?
give correct answer in conservaton tasks but principled thought is confined to real life problems
what are three justifications for conservation?
compensation
inversion
identity
what are the characteristics of the formal operational stage?
principled thought is applied to abstract problems
systematic logical thinking and reasoning, eg) can recognise factors influencing pendulum speed using hypothetico-deductive reasoning
who argued against Piaget’s theory?
Donaldson
what does Donaldson argue against Piaget’s theory?
if problems are rephrased, children can pass conservation tasks earlier than previously thought
what are schemes?
mental operations guiding actions, which allow us to work in a principled way
what is assimilation?
learner applies an existing scheme to a novel task
what is accomodation?
modifying a scheme to an environmental change
what is equilibrium?
allowing new schemes to exist by the interaction of assimilation and adaptation
what happened in McGarrigle and Donaldson’s ‘naughty teddy’ experiment?
Piaget’s experiment asked children if there were the same number of counters when counters were moved
McGarrigle and Donaldson made the changes appear to be accidental, by introducing a ‘naughty teddy’ whos aim it was to interfere with the experiment
in this variation, the majority of children gave the correct conserving answer
children no longer felt demand characteristics
what happened in the three mountains task?
used to assess egocentrism
doll is placed at varying points of a set of mountains- asked to judge how the doll would see the display
who conducted the inference by elimination task?
Rai and Mitchell
what happens in the inference by elimination task?
told 4 year olds that one superhero was Murkor
even 4 year olds could appreciate that the unfamiliar name belongs to the unfamiliar character
this is logical reasoning beyond Piaget’s expectations
who conducted the inter-cognitive conflict task?
Russell
what happened in the inter-cognitive conflict task?
two pencils of the same length on a table
child either side of the table
moved pencil to either side of the table
asked which is longer (perceive further as longer)
left in room to discuss
dominance influenced the pairs decision, but understood conservation
who proposed social constructivism?
Vygotsky
what are the principles of social constructivism?
emphasises the environment in development
argued cognitive abilities socially constructed
motivated to learn to interact with others
culture and language are funamental of language
thinking is a function of language
what is egocentric speech?
internal to external speech
what is private speech?
external to internal speech
what is linguistic relativity?
language shapes culture, and culture shapes language
what is the zone of proximal development?
in order to learn something, the child needs to be cognitively ready
what is scaffolding?
parent creates support structures to aid a child’s learning
how do constructivism and social constructivism differ in terms of influences?
constructivism= internal
social constructivism= external
how do constructivism and social constructivism differ in terms of attributing development?
constructivism= attributes development to personal discovery
social constructivism= attributes development to social construction
how do constructivism and social constructivism differ in terms of engagement in learning?
constructivism= child engages in active learning, searches for understanding
social constructivism= mentors aid a child’s learning
how do constructivism and social constructivism differ in terms of learning motivation?
constructivism= learning driven by own curiosity
social constructivism= learning motivated by need for social interaction
what are the strengths of Piaget’s theory?
comprehensive development account
educational emphasis
concerned with process rather than end result
what are the weaknesses of Piaget’s theory?
little emphasis on social/emotional factors
doesn’t consider abnormal development
possibly underestimating children’s abilities
