Cognitive Development Flashcards
Adaption of Schemas
- Assimilation
- Disequilibrium
- Accommodation
- Equilibrium
Assimilation
When we acquire and incorporate new information about an object or idea into existing schemas
Disequilibrium
When our existing schema does not allow us to make sense of something new, leading to a unpleasant sensation of unbalance
Accommodation
When we acquire a more advanced understanding of an object or idea, modifying existing schemas
Equilibrium
When we have built new information into our understanding of a topic. Everything is again balanced and we have escaped the unpleasant experience of a lack of balance
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
- Sensorimotor Stage
- Pre-operational Stage
- Concrete Operations
- Formal Operations
Sensorimotor Stage
- 0-2 years
- Key concept = Object permanence which develops around 8 months
- Infants learn through sensory experiences and motor actions
Pre-operational Stage
- 2-7 years
- Key concepts = conservation/egocentricism/ class inclusion
Conservation
Find it hard to see the relationship between properties of an object, despite changes in appearance
e.g. they find it hard to recognise that the same balled up string is the same length as when it is unravelled
Egocentricism
The can’t think outside of themselves
Class Inclusion
They cannot grasp that an object can belong to more than one subcategory
Concrete Operations
- 7-11 years
- Key concepts = egocentricism/class inclusion
Formal Operation
- 11+ years
- Children can now manipulate hypothetical ideas with no need for concrete objects
- They can also cope with inferential reasoning
- They tested this using Smith’s yellow cat study. e.g. All cats are yellow. Tom is a cat. What colour is Tom?
What was Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development?
- He suggested that children learn how to think through their interactions with others
- He saw the child as an apprentice
- He said that Piaget ignored the role of culture on cognitive development
- There are different parts to his theory that are vital for how children learn about the world = culture, language and speech
Culture
- A child develops within a culture and the culture influences the child
- A child develops through symbolic representation of the child’s culture
- Culture is passed down from families
Language
- We encode and represent our world through language development
Social Speech
- Up to 3 years
- Used to control the behaviour of other
Egocentric Speech
- 3-7 years
- Children speak without anyone listening
- It is used to guide thought
Inner Speech
- 7+ years
- Speech becomes internal and used to direct and rehearse actions to prepare for actual behaviours
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
- At any point a child is working at a certain level independently, however, there is a certain level of development that the child could reach with the help of others. This difference is the ZPD
How to get to the ZPD?
- A child needs to be guided by experienced others who make suggestions but don’t take over
- The expert needs to scaffold the child
What is Scaffolding?
The expert starts by giving a lot of help which is gradually lessened as the child becomes competent
Outside the ZPD?
If the activity is outside the ZPD, they will fail the task and learn nothing
What Makes Scaffolding Effective?
- Ensuring a task is easy
- Gaining and maintaining a child’s interest
- Demonstrating
- Keeping a child’s level of frustration under control
- Stressing elements that will help create a solution
Baillargeon’s Theory
- That children have a “physical reasoning system”; an innate knowledge of the physical world, which develops rapidly within the first year of life through experience and learning
Object Permanence (Baillargeon’s Theory)
- Children know that an object still exists even when its hidden
- It develops between 8 months - 2 years (by 2 years object permanence is complete)
Expectation Research
- A research technique based on the idea that infants will show surprise when witnessing an impossible event (staring longer)
- If babies are surprised they have developed object permanence as they know the world does not work like that (objects suddenly disappearing)
Habituated
Getting used to the activity until the baby is bored until they violate the babies expectation
Theory of the Mind
- Premack defined ToM as the ability to attribute mental states, knowledge, feelings and beliefs to oneself and others
- First used when describing the cognitive abilities of a chimpanzee
Signs of ToM
- Can be seen in the expression of language e.g. ‘I think she is upset’
- We realise that others have feelings, desires and beliefs too
- We understand that other people’s beliefs and so on may differ from our own
False Belief Tasks
Involves witnessing a scene and being asked to interpret it from the view point of one of the characters in the scene e.g. Sally Ann Doll
Mind Blindness
Not understanding that others have a separate mind to them
Theory of the Mind Applied to Autism
Suggests that autism is a result of finding it difficult to understand the thoughts, emotions and perspectives of others e.g. that they have ‘mind blindness’
Support for the ToM Theory in Explaining Autism - The Brain
In those with autism the left medial prefrontal cortex showed limited activity in false belief tasks while in neurotypical people this showed strong activity
- However, this was only done on 5 people and on people with Asperger’s rather than autism
Therapy
- Children with autism are taught to develop empathy
- Works on mirror neurons as these were found to be missing in autistic participant’s inferior frontal gyrus. Therapy aims to rejuvenate these missing mirror neurons
Change in the Diagnosis of Autism
-2015
- DSM 4 to DSM 5
- Looks at what people can do rather than what they can’t do
- Brought in co-mobility with ADHD
- Makes other previous studies irrelevant
Mirror Neurons
Neurons distributes in several areas of the brain that fire in response to personal action and in response to action on the part of others.
Mirror Neurons allow us to interpret intention and emotion in others.
‘Broken Mirror’ in People with Autism
- They have mirror neuron malfunction
- Prevents children from understanding others
- Frontal and parietal brain regions with mirror neurons were found to be abnormally activated in individuals with autism
Who Discovered Mirror Neurons ?
Rizzolatti, when doing research on monkeys
Why Would Mirror Neurons be Important in Human Evolution?
It is a survival mechanism.
- It helps us to learn skills such as feeding and cooking
- Helps us to know if someone is a threat
These are then passed on
Selman’s Theory of Social Cognition
The development of social cognition happens by passing through levels of perspective taking
Social Cognition
Mental processes that relate to the social world, such as understanding other people’s intentions, emotions and perspectives
Stages of Perspective Taking
- Egocentric
- Social Information Role Taking
- Self Reflective Role Taking
- Mutual Role Taking
- Social and Conventional System Role Taking
Egocentric Perspective Taking
- 3-6 years
- Know others have separate thoughts from their own but will often confuse it with their own
Social Information Role Taking
- 6-8 years
- Can reliably consider someone’s perspective but one person at a time
Self Reflective Role Taking
- 8-10 years
- Can fully appreciate the perspective of 1 person
- They can ‘step into another person’s shoes’
Mutual Role Taking
- 10-12 years
- Can simultaenously consider multiple people’s perspectives
Social and Conventional System Role Taking
- 12 years - adulthood
- Knows views are influenced by culture/values
