cognitive development Flashcards
organization (piaget cog)
the process of combining existing schemes into new & more complex intellectual schemes
e.g. infant who has ‘gazing’, ‘reaching’ & ‘grasping’ reflexes - organizes into a more complex structure: visually directed reaching
equilibrium –> assimilation –> accommodation –> organization
adaptation (piaget cog)
process of adjusting to the demands of the env
occurs through 2 complementary activities: assimilation & accommodation
assimilation (piaget cog)
process of trying to interpret new experiences in terms of their existing models of the world
- child tries to adapt to novel stimulus by constructing it as something familiar
e.g. child sees horse for the first time, tries to assimilate it into one of their existing schemes for 4 legged animals = may think of creature as a dog
accommodation (piaget cog)
process of modifying existing structures to account for new experiences
e.g. child may notice that the ‘dog’ (horse) makes a different noise and has different feet = may seek a better understanding of their observations
Piaget’s stages of cog development
sensorimotor: birth - 2 years
pre-operational stage: 2-7 years
stage of concrete operations: 7-11 years
stage of formal operations: 11-
sensorimotor stage
birth - 2 years
- rely on behavioral schemes as a means of exploring & understanding the env
- reflex activity
- primary circular reactions
- secondary circular reactions
- coordination of secondary reactions
- tertiary secondary reactions
- inner experimentation / symbolic problem solving
sensorimotor - reflex activity
birth - 1 month
actions are confined to innate reflexes, assimilating new objects into these reflexive schemes & accommodating their reflexes to these novel objects
sensorimotor - primary circular reactions
1-4 months
a pleasurable response, centered on the infant’s own body, that is discovered by chance and performed over & over
e.g., sucking thumbs
will not search for objects hidden from view
sensorimotor - secondary circular reactions
4-8 months
a pleasurable response, centered on an external object, that is discovered by chance & performed over & over
e.g., squeezing a rubber duck to make it quack
retrieve toys that are partially concealed or placed beneath a semitransparent cover, but not if it is completely concealed
sensorimotor - coordination of secondary reactions
8-12 months
infants begin to coordinate 2 or more actions to achieve simple objectives. This is the first sign of goal-directed behavior
e.g. lifting a pillow that is on top of a toy & grabbing the toy
- object permanence appears but not complete
- A not B error = looking for a hidden object where they previously found it even after seeing it being moved somewhere else
- imprecise imitation
sensorimotor - tertiary circular reactions
12-18 months
an exploratory scheme in which the infant devises a new method of acting on objects to reproduce interesting results
e.g. throwing, stepping on & dropping a rubber duck to see if this will have the same effect as squeezing it
reproducing actions in different ways
improves object permanence & A not B error
inferred imitation
sensorimotor - inner experimentation/symbolic problem solving
18-24 months
the ability to solve simple problems on a mental/symbolic level without having to rely on trial & error experimentation
can mentally represent invisible displacements & use these mental inferences to guide their search for objects that have disappeared
fully understand object permanence
deferred imitation
pre-operational stage
2-7 years
marked by the appearance of the symbolic function = the ability to use symbols (e.g. images & words) to represent objects & experiences
- understand representational insight & dual representation
- display animism & egocentrism
- incapable of conservation because they lack decentration & reversibility
deferred vs inferred imitation
deferred = temper tantrum is imitated when other child is doing it too but also without their presence
inferred imitation = imitation of behaviour directly in front of you
egocentrism
the tendency to view the world from one’s own perspective while failing to recognize that others may have different points of view
makes it nearly impossible for them to distinguish appearance from reality
animism
a mistake of attributing life and lifelike qualities to inanimate objects
conservation
the recognition that the properties of an object/substance do not change when its appearance is altered in a superficial way
decentration & reversibility
decentration = the ability to concentrate on more than one aspect of a problem at the same time
reversibility = the ability to mentally undo or negate an action
representational insight & dual representation
representational insight = the knowledge that an entity can represent something other than itself
dual representation = the awareness that an object can have a symbolic meaning & be an object in its own right
stage of concrete operations
7-11 years
rapidly acquire cognitive operations & apply these new skills when thinking about objects & events that they have never experienced
- are capable of mental seriation
- understand concept of transitivity
- some forms of conservation (mass) understood much sooner that others (volume) = horizontal decalage
mental seriation
the ability to mentally arrange items along a quantifiable dimension like height or weight
transitivity
the ability to recognize relations among elements in a serial order
e.g., if A=B &B=C, then C=A
horizontal decalage
a child’s uneven cog performance; an inability to solve certain problems even though one can solve similar problems requiring the same mental operations
stage of formal operations
11 onwards
begins to think more rationally & systematically about abstract concepts & hypothetical event
thinking is no longer tied to the factual or observable – can reason logically about hypothetical processes & events that have no basis in reality
- hypothetico-deductive & inductive reasoning
hypothetico-deductive vs inductive reasoning
HD reasoning = a formal operational ability to think hypothetically
- not restricted to thinking about previously acquired facts – can generate hypotheses – what is possible is more important than what is real
inductive reasoning = the type of thinking that scientists display, where hypotheses are generated and then systematically tested in experiments
criticisms of piaget’s theory of cog development
- culture & upbringing can have a greater influence than P thought
- one phase can be thought of at the level of another phase = there are no strict boundaries between the phases – development is more of a continuous process
- some cog skills come earlier & other come later than P thought
- used a very small sample on which he based his theories
Vygotsky’s cog development theory
emphasizes the socio-cultural influence & assumes nurture
children learn through interaction with adults or more skilled peers
focus on language - when young children talk to themselves, they use language to regulate their behavior and to study or guide themselves
- zone of proximal development
- scaffolding
zone of proximal development
- the amount of help a child needs helps us determine where they are in their development
- the gap between being able to do something alone and how much they need help
- discovering things themselves is crucial to development
low limit of ZPD = the child’s level when working alone – what they can do independently
high limit = how much extra help the child can accept
Vygotsky’s theory criticisms
-puts too much emphasis on language
-not specific in age & development
-says little about bio contributors
-does not describe the different contributions to cog development
