Cognitive Development Flashcards
What are the four factors that Piaget identifies as influences in our thinking?
Biological maturation, activity, social experiences and equilibration.
What are the two basic tendencies in thinking that Piaget proposes?
Organisation and adaptation.
What are the basic building blocks of thinking?
Schemes (Mental systems or categories of perception and experience.
When does assimilation occur?
Assimilation occurs when people use their present schemas to make sense of events in their world.
When does accommodation occur?
Accommodation occurs when someone modifies an existing scheme to respond to a new situation.
What is the difference between equilibration and disequilibration?
Equilibration occurs when a scheme that is applied to an event works. If the applied scheme fails to work that is disequilibration.
What are the four stages of cognitive development?
The four stages are sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational.
What age group does sensorimotor development come under and what are some characteristics of it?
0-2, characteristics of this stage include the development of object permanence, the start of imitation use, memory and thought and categorising and sorting.
What age group does preoperational come under and what are some characteristics of it?
2-7, characteristics include the ability to represent reality via symbols and mental images with words and gestures, an increased ability to categorise and limitation with irreversibility understanding and difficulty seeing the perspective of others.
What age group does concrete operational come under and what are some characteristics of it?
7-11, characteristics include being able to mentally manipulate objects and events along with explaining the transformation. Different perspectives can be considered more easily.
What age group does concrete operational come under, and what are some characteristics of it?
11-Adult, characteristics include being able to mentally operate on objects involving abstract thinking along with hypothetical and deductive reasoning.
Define semiotic function and provide an example.
Semiotic function relates to the ability to work with symbols and language in order to represent actions or objects mentally. Examples include using a word to represent what isn’t present or drawing a picture (Picture of a toy to represent it or writing the word to represent)
