Cognitive Development Flashcards
What was Jean Piagets stage theory?
he said that cognitive development develops through a series of distinct stages, and is not a gradual acquisition of knowledge
He said these stages are universal, every child will go through these stages in the exact same order.
Domaine general mechanism
Born with a nervous system that dosnt prioritize one type of information over another.
Constructivist approach
Children discover/constract all knowledge of the world through their own actions
What is a scheme?
a basic unit of knowledge; an organized way of making sense of the world. This can change with age, and are related to each other though organization. Schemes are integrated into high order systems.
What is adaption?
Adjusting of building schemes through interaction with the environment
What are the two types of adaption?
Assimilation: When you incorporate new knowledge into a preexisting scheme
Accommodation: When you change an existing scheme, or make a new scheme to put new information in
What is equilibration?
Process of keeping schemes in balance. when you encounter information that does not match a scheme, results in disequilibrium.
What are Piagets stages of development?
- Sensorimotor (0-2)
- Pre-operational (2-7)
- Concrete operational; (7-11)
- Formal Operational stage (11-adulthood)
What is the sensorimotor stage?
-Infants learn through motor and sensory actions
-they have an inability to differentiate themselves from the world
-This stage is characterized by an increased understanding of:
-Intentionality
-Object permanence
-Symbolic representation (Understanding that one item can stand for something else)
-6 substages
-around 8 months- goal-directed behaviour
What is the preoperational stage?
This stage is largely defined by what children cannot do
-children have difficulty mentally manipulating items they see in the real world
-They fail to understand:
-Reversibility (eg. understanding that pouring the liquid back and forth between containers doesn’t change the amount of liquid)
-Conservation (eg. understanding that changing the shape of playdough doesn’t change the amount
-Childrens thinking is limited by:
-Egocentrism (inability to distinguish others viewpoints from their own)
-Animistic thinking (Belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities)
-Centration (Focus on one aspect of a situation while ignoring other important features)
What is the concrete operational stage?
Children develop the ability to solve conversion and reversibility tasks
-they are less influenced by outward appearance
-they develop the ability to use seriation (The ability to order items along a quantitative dimension
What is the formal operational stage?
Key characteristics of this stage include:
-ability to include:
-Ability to reason abstractly
-heightened metacognition
-ability to generate ideas about things they’ve never experienced
-egocentricity
What are some limitations to Piagets theory?
-It underestimates children’s abilities
-Stages are more flexible than originally proposed
What is Lev Vygotskys theory?
Sociocultural theory. Childrens development must be measured in a social and cultural context
What is sociocultural theory?
Children learn the skills and knowledge valued by their culture through cooperative dialogues and shared activities with more knowledgeable members of society
