Cognitive development Flashcards
What does cognitive development relate to?
Age related changes
What are invariant stages?
Stages that are fixed - they do not vary
What are universal stages?
Stages that are the same globally
What is a schema?
A pattern of thought
What is assimilation?
Taking on board new information
What is accomodation?
blending the new information with the old
Outline the core theory?
1- sensori motor stage (0-2 years)
2 - pre operational stage (2 - 7 years)
3 - concrete operational stage (7- 11 years)
4 - Formal operational stage (11 + years)
What is the core theory based on?
nature
What happens during the sensory motor stage?
- body schema (child will recognise existence in e.g. mirror
- motor-coordination (a baby explores the world using its movement skills)
- develops Object permanence (know an object exists even if we cannot see it)
What happens during the pre operational stage?
- use symbols e.g. words to solve problems and thinks more (though makes mistakes)
- animism (treats inanimate objects like animals) e.g. talk to bears
- ego centrism - children only see world from own point of view
- reversibility - cannot work back from an idea
What happens during the concrete operational stage?
- Not egocentric
- can reverse thinking
- Dont animalise objects
- develop conservation skills (when the child understands how properties stay the same even if appearance changes
- linguistic humour (e.g understanding double meanings)
- develop seriation (are able to rank in order)
What happens during the formal operational stage?
Hypothetical thinking: can solve sophisticated abstract problems
What are criticisms of the core theory?
- the stages are not as fixed as Piaget suggested
- the theory underestimates the role of nurture
- ethnocentric theory, not universal
Outline the alternative theory
Vygotsky’s theory
Describe the alternative theory
- children are born with natural thinking ability
- cognitive development is a result of nurture
- children are ‘apprentices’ who learn skills of others
- development happens at individuals pace
What is the zone of proximal development? (Alternative theory’?
The gap between where we are (in our learning) and where we can be (with support of others)
What is scaffolding?
Support network to help the child to develop
Outline the core study?
Piaget (1952)
what was the aim of the core study?
To highlight differences that pre-operational and concrete operational stages show in terms of conservation
Who were the participants?
Children of different ages across the two stages
What was the method of the study?
A lab experiment and it was a cross sectional study (took place at a single point in time)
What was the procedure of the study?
- children shown one at a time two identical parallel rows of counters
- Researcher changes position of the counters whilst child watched.
- One row was stretched out whilst other was kept the same
- Children were asked, which row had more counters
What was the results of the study?
Children in the pre operational stage would say, row that was changed had more counters because they could not conserve and thought it was longer. OPPOSITE FOR CONCRETE OPERATIONAL
What was the conclusion of the study?
Conservation is learnt in the concrete operational stage. (supports Piagets theory)
What are criticisms of the core study?
- Asking the same question twice may have confused the children
- lacked ecological validity - lab experiment
- Small sample size, not representative. cant be generalised
How does Piagets theory help in educating children?
- readiness: children can only learn what their allows them to and so they can only move when theyre ready
- Discovery learning: child is a scientist, learn by doing. children should be active. teacher is facilitator
- peer support - ability to take others point of view (get rid of ego centricism
How does vygotskys theory help in educating children?
- teacher should be actively involved to help child develop knowledge and understanding
- spiral curriculum: simple ideas visited then revisited at a harder level
- scaffolding: a teacher provides the child with a support network to help the child develop at their own pace. (in a very structured way)
