Cognitive Development Flashcards
What are the weaknesses of Piaget’s theory?
-Depicts children’s thinking as more consistent than it is
-Inadequately explains individual differences in cognitive development
-Vague about mechanisms of cognitive growth
-Children more competent than Piaget recognized
-Underestimate the contribution of social world (caregivers)
What are the 4 stages of Piaget’s theory?
-Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2yo)
-Preoperational stage (2-7yo)
-Concrete operational stage (7-12yo)
-Formal operational stage (12yo and up)
What are the steps in the sensorimotor stage?
-0-4 months→ interact with reflexes and interest only in own body
-4-8 months→ repeat actions towards objects to produce desired outcome AND learned causality
-8-12 months→ combine several actions, actions become intentional
–>emergence of object permanence
-12-18 months→ trial-and-error experiments AND seek a greater understanding of cause-effect relations
-18-24 months→ Mental representation
–>deferred imitation→ implication that fully developed object permanence
–>apparition of symbolic thoughts
What is object permanence and when does it appear according to Piaget?
Understanding that objects continue to exist even though they can no longer be seen or heard (appears around 8months)
When does object permanence appear in nativist view?
3.5 months
What is the A-not B error?
tendency to reach for a hidden object where it was last found rather than in the new location where it was last hidden
What is the main acquirement during the preoperational stage?
Symbolic thoughts
What are some limitations of the preoperational stage?
Egocentrism-> Perceiving the world solely from one’s own point of view
-ex: mountain task / egocentric speech
Centration-> tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object
-ex: conservation task
What are the main acquirements during the concrete operational stage?
Logical thinking
-Decentration
-Seriation (height)
-Reversability
What is the main acquirement of the formal operational stage?
Abstract thoughts
-ex: Piaget’s pendulum problem
What are the strenghts of Piaget’s theory?
Spans the entire lifespan
Examine different domains
Largely accurate
What are the three basic skills involved in executive functioning?
Inhibitory control-> suppress automatic responses
-ex: Day-Night stroop task
Working memory-> hold memory to manipulate it
Cognitive flexibility-> switch mental processes
What is the nativist view?
Children have innate, specialized cognitive mechanisms that provide them with basic knowledge in domains of evolutionary importance
What domains are concerned by the nativist view?
- Understand of physical laws
- Numbers
- Categorization
- Understanding the minds of people
- Language
Wha are the two ways that infants learn according to the learning view?
Trial and error
Statistical learning
