Cognitive Development Flashcards
What are the four theories of cognitive development?
- Piaget’s theory
- Information-processing view
- Naturist view
- Learning view
What are the four stages of Piaget’s theory?
- Sensorimotor stage (0-2)
- Preoperational stage (2-7)
- Concrete operation stage (7-12)
- Formal operation stage (12+)
What knowledge is present in the sensorimotor stage?
No concept of past and future and knowledge gained through sensation and movement
What happens between 0-4m according to Piaget?
Interaction with the world via reflexes and repetition of pleasurable action
What happens between 4-8m according to Piaget?
Repetition to actions to produce desirable outcomes and formation of link of causality
What happens between 8-12m according to Piaget?
Combination of several actions to make a goal and emergence of object permanence
What is object permanence?
The ability to understand that object continues to exist even though it can no longer be seen. So, infants looking for hidden object = object permanence (8m)
What is the a-not-b error?
Infants looking for hidden objects in the first place it was hidden, not the last (disappears at around 12m)
What happens between 12-18m according to Piaget?
Trials and error experiments to see how outcomes change (better understanding of cause and effect)
What happens between 18-24m according to Piaget?
Mental representations and fully developed object permanence (deferred imitation) and beginning of symbolic thoughts.
What happens in the Preoperational stage according to Piaget?
Presence of symbolic thought, which is the ability to think about objects or events from the past or not in the immediate environment.
What does symbolic thought enables? And how is it evident?
Language acquisition and evident through ability to pretend play
What are two limitations of the preoperational stage?
- Egocentrism: perceiving the world solely from one’s perspective (shown by 2 mountains task)
- Centration: tendency to focus on a single perceptually striking feature and exclude other relevant information. Difficulty with conservation concept (2 glasses task)
When does a-not-b error disapears
12m
What happens in the concrete operational stage?
Less egocentrism and ability to reason logically about concrete object and events.
What are three abilities in children development in concrete operational stage?
- Decentration: something can stage the same even though it looks different
- Reversibility: capacity to think through a series of steps and mentally reverse actions
- Seriation: ability to order items along a quantitative dimension, such as length or weight
What is one thing children cannot do in concrete operational stage?
Abstract thinking
What is the formal operational stage?
Ability to think abstractly and engage in deductive reasoning (showed by Piaget’s pendulum task). However, this stage is not universal
According to Piaget, how do children learn?
Through brain maturation and exposure to concepts (active exploration)
What 2 strengths of Piaget’s theory?
- Good overview of cognitive development
- Applicable to education
What are 4 weaknesses of Piaget’s theory?
- Depicts children’s thinking as more consistent than it is (more incrementally than he thought)
- Theory is vague on mechanism of cognitive growth
- Children are more cognitively competent than he thinks (pendulum problem is too hard)
- Underestimates contribution of social world
What is the information processing view?
Children gradually overcome their processing limitations via improvements in cognitive skills (executive functioning skill)
What are the three basic cognitive skills needed for cognitive development according to information processing view?
- Inhibitory control (ability to ignore distraction)
- Working memory
- Cognitive flexibility (task switching)
How can inhibitory control be assessed?
Through day-nights troop task (longer time on incongruent trials)
How can cognitive flexibility be assessed?
Through dimensional card sorting task (sorting cards based on changing rules)
At what ages do these executive functions develop the most?
Between 3-6y
What is the link between executives functions and Piaget?
Improvement in executive functions are the mechanisms responsible for cognitive changes in Piaget’s theory
What is the executive function associated with passing a-not-b error?
Inhibitory control
What is the executive function associated with less egocentrism?
Cognitive flexibility
What is the executive function associated with decentration?
Working memory
Why are executive functioning differences important?
They are a good predictor (at 4y) of grades, SAT scores and social skills in adolescence
Children with worse executive functioning at 5y predict in adulthood:
WORSE OUTCOMES
Why are preschoolers in China about 6m more advanced than preschoolers in the US in executive functioning? What does it suggest?
- Greater expectations to exercise self-control
- That caregivers play a role in the development of executive functioning
What is the nativist view on child cognitive development?
Idea that children have innate, specialized cognitive mechanisms that provide them with basic knowledge in domains of evolutionary importance
What are 5 domains of evolutionary importance according to Nativists?
- Understanding physical events
- Numbers
- Categorization
- Understanding minds of people
- Language
What is the Nativist view on object permanence?
Nativism believes object permanence happens much before Piaget’s 8m. Rather, infants as young as 2m will reach for objects when light are turned off (failure of Piaget test because of lack of ability to manually search)
What is the violation-of-expectation paradigm?
Adapted from habituation paradigm where infants are presented with possible and impossible event (novel event), where eye fixation is measuring novelty and ability to distinguish.
What is the drawbridge study?
Study on object permanence with 3.5m who viewed possible and impossible screen rotation next to a box. Infants looked longer at impossible event = object permanence and understanding of physical properties
According to Nativists, do infants innately understand gravity?
Yes, 6m infants were shown possible and impossible gravity event, they looked longer at impossible gravity event (hand holding box in air vs. box on a surface)
According to Nativists, do infants innately understand numbers?
Yes, 6m infants were shown a series of dots, when viewing either the same dots or half the dots, they looked longer at 1/2 the dots, suggesting ANS.
What is ANS?
Approximate Number Sense, idea that infants intuitively estimate numbers
What has a positive correlation with ANS?
Math abilities
What are 2 criticisms of Nativist View?
- Overestimate infant’s cognitive understanding
- Findings can be explained by more interesting perceptual features or simply the fact that infants learn from their environment (810 waking hours at 3m)
What is the Learning or Empiricism View?
Idea that children learn from interacting with their environment on their own
What are two learning mechanisms children use from birth according to Learning View?
- Trials-and-errors (active experimentation)
- Statistical Learning (ability to track patterns)
How was statistical learning studied?
In the habituation paradigm, 2m infants were habituated to a sequence of 3 pairs of shape, then in test phase either shown the same order or a new order. Infants looked longer at novel order, suggesting statistical learning
What are two implications of statistical learning?
- Infants actively interpret and draw conclusions
- Statistical Learning is innate and domain general
What is one difference between Learning and Nativist View in terms of learning?
Learning View believes learning is domain general, Nativist believe learning is domain specific
According to Learning View, how important is the social world?
Very important, children learn from caregivers especially through scaffolding
What is scaffolding?
Caregivers provide a temporary framework to support children’s thinking at a higher level than they could on their own
What are 4 ways to scaffold?
- Physically assisting children
- Demonstrating a skill
- Explicit instructions
- Breaking down tasks
What is the zone of proximal development?
Just outside what children can do on their own. Where scaffolding should happen
What is private speech? What does it show?
Children talking to themselves out loud. It shows that they internalize what they are being told
What age does private speech happen? When does it stop?
Starts a 3, peaks between 4-6 and ends at 7
How is quality of environment measured?
By HOME: home observation for measurement of environment. Examines emotional support and cognitive stimulation
What is positively correlated with higher HOME scores?
Better cognitive and language skills, as well as math ability and IQ
What is the impact of a lower SES on cognitive skills?
Lower IQ and worse academic test
What are three reasons low SES impacts cognitive skills?
- Poor nutrition (worse brain development)
- Conflicts create emotional distress and less learning
- Lower SE = lower HOME scores
In a low SES household, differences in IQ are explained almost entirely by what factor?
By environment
In a high SES household, differences in IQ are explained almost entirely by what factor?
By genetics
Does high quality day care impact cognitive development?
Yes, better day care results in higher language and cognitive skills
In a low SES environment, does the quality of daycare impact infants?
Yes and no, infants show better cognitive skills while in the program, but improvement is lost when it is over. However, these infants are more likely to graduate, register in universities, less likely to go to prison and be held back a grade.
What is the most important factor to development of cognitive skills according to Learning View?
The number of factors is more important than the factors themselves (more risk = lower IQ)
