cognitive development

Question 1

what are the characteristics of the preoperational stage?

Answer 1

mental imagery without principled thought
egocentrism
operational intelligence
fail to decenter

Question 2

what is operational intelligence?

Answer 2

the process of solving a problem by working through logical principles

Question 3

what is decenter?

Answer 3

broadening attention to various aspects of a problem, rather than just fixating on one

Question 4

which experiments can test pre-operational thinking?

Answer 4

conservation
class inclusion

Question 5

what is conservation?

Answer 5

understanding that changing the form or location of an object doesn’t change the object’s mass, volume or amount

Question 6

what is class inclusion?

Answer 6

the ability to simultaneously classify objects into multiple categories, eg) more ducks or black ducks

Question 7

what tasks does a child struggle with in the preoperational stage?

Answer 7

class inclusion
conservation

Question 8

what are the characteristics of the concrete operational stage?

Answer 8

give correct answer in conservaton tasks but principled thought is confined to real life problems

Question 9

what are three justifications for conservation?

Answer 9

compensation
inversion
identity

Question 10

what are the characteristics of the formal operational stage?

Answer 10

principled thought is applied to abstract problems
systematic logical thinking and reasoning, eg) can recognise factors influencing pendulum speed using hypothetico-deductive reasoning

Question 11

who argued against Piaget’s theory?

Answer 11

Donaldson

Question 12

what does Donaldson argue against Piaget’s theory?

Answer 12

if problems are rephrased, children can pass conservation tasks earlier than previously thought

Question 13

what are schemes?

Answer 13

mental operations guiding actions, which allow us to work in a principled way

Question 14

what is assimilation?

Answer 14

learner applies an existing scheme to a novel task

Question 15

what is accomodation?

Answer 15

modifying a scheme to an environmental change

Question 16

what is equilibrium?

Answer 16

allowing new schemes to exist by the interaction of assimilation and adaptation

Question 17

what happened in McGarrigle and Donaldson’s ‘naughty teddy’ experiment?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

what happened in the three mountains task?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

who conducted the inference by elimination task?

Answer 19

Rai and Mitchell

Question 20

what happens in the inference by elimination task?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

who conducted the inter-cognitive conflict task?

Answer 21

Russell

Question 22

what happened in the inter-cognitive conflict task?

Answer 22

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

Question 23

who proposed social constructivism?

Answer 23

Vygotsky

Question 24

what are the principles of social constructivism?

Answer 24

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

Question 25

what is egocentric speech?

Answer 25

internal to external speech

Question 26

what is private speech?

Answer 26

external to internal speech

Question 27

what is linguistic relativity?

Answer 27

language shapes culture, and culture shapes language

Question 28

what is the zone of proximal development?

Answer 28

in order to learn something, the child needs to be cognitively ready

Question 29

what is scaffolding?

Answer 29

parent creates support structures to aid a child’s learning

Question 30

how do constructivism and social constructivism differ in terms of influences?

Answer 30

constructivism= internal
social constructivism= external

Question 31

how do constructivism and social constructivism differ in terms of attributing development?

Answer 31

constructivism= attributes development to personal discovery
social constructivism= attributes development to social construction

Question 32

how do constructivism and social constructivism differ in terms of engagement in learning?

Answer 32

constructivism= child engages in active learning, searches for understanding
social constructivism= mentors aid a child’s learning

Question 33

how do constructivism and social constructivism differ in terms of learning motivation?

Answer 33

constructivism= learning driven by own curiosity
social constructivism= learning motivated by need for social interaction

Question 34

what are the strengths of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 34

comprehensive development account
educational emphasis
concerned with process rather than end result

Question 35

what are the weaknesses of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 35

little emphasis on social/emotional factors
doesn’t consider abnormal development
possibly underestimating children’s abilities