Cognitive Development Flashcards
Who was Jean Piaget?
1896-1980, genetic epistemologist and developmental psychologist who observed and wrote about his children
What is an epistemologist?
someone who studies the nature of knowledge
How many books did Piaget write?
40+, 18,000 pages
What is the concept of discrete stages of development?
constant order of succession based on genetic potential and experience, no stages can be skipped because each stage lays groundwork for subsequent stages
What is the child’s role in moving through discrete stages of development?
the child is actively engaged in acquiring knowledge and constantly exploring the environment
What are the basic components of Piaget’s discrete stages?
schema/schemata, assimilation and accommodation
What is schema/schemata?
organized patterns of knowledge based on interactions with the environment, start as reflexes to complex actions to mental representations
What is assimilation?
interpreting external objects, places, people, events in terms of our present way of thinking
What is accommodation?
changing cognitive structure (schema) and expanding what we know aka dog to poodle and car to SUV
What is the cat schema example?
1) boy has learned schema of cat (schema) 2) boy saw a cub and called it “cat” sister said “no it’s a cub” (assimilation) 3) he accommodates new schema of cub (accommodation)
What is an infants favorite scheme to explore the world?
banging
What are the 4 cognitive stages from Piaget?
sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, formal operations
When does the sensorimotor cognitive stage occur?
birth to 2 years
When does the preoperational cognitive stage occur?
2-7 years
When does the concrete operations stage occur?
7-12 years
When does the formal operations stage occur?
12+ years
What are the 6 substages of sensorimotor cognitive stages?
reflex activity, primary circular reactions, secondary circular, coordination of secondary schemes, tertiary circular and beginning of representational thought
What is the reflex activity substage of sensorimotor?
innate reflexes to fulfill a need, rooting, sucking, grasping
When is the reflex activity substage of sensorimotor?
birth to 1 month
When is the primary circular reaction substage of sensorimotor?
1-4 months
What is the primary circular reaction substage of sensorimotor?
repear actions that they enjoy ex: sucking, stop and look at an object when grasping (early hand eye coordination), object permanence= out of sight out of mind, look where it was last
What is the secondary circular reaction substage of sensorimotor?
attention on objects, often unexpected result, repeat actions like shake, drop, bang, object permanence=rattle drops-partly covered or rattle drops fully covered
When is the secondary circular reaction substage of sensorimotor?
4-8 months
When is the coordination of secondary schemes substage of sensorimotor?
8-12 months
What is the coordination of secondary schemes substage of sensorimotor?
infant tries to solve a problem to achieve a goal/want, anticipate events, object permanence= still incomplete, hide toy under A baby looks under A, baby watches you hide toy under B but still looks under A
When is the tertiary circular substage of sensorimotor?
12-18 months
What is the tertiary circular substage of sensorimotor?
active experimentation, repeats actions but differently, object permanence=will search under different cloths but only if they watched the object being hidden
When is the beginning of representational thought substage of sensorimotor?
18-24 months
What is the beginning of representation thought substage of sensorimotor?
mental image of objects or events, not just now but past and future, symbolic functioning
What is symbolic functioning?
use symbols to represent what is not present aka signs vs symbols
When is the preoperative stage?
2-7 years
What 3 behaviors emerge in the preoperation stage?
deferred imitation, symbolic play, and sophisticated language skills
What is deferred imitation?
tea party, teaching school, something they have observed before
What is symbolic play?
use objects as something else ex: arms out running=airplane
What is the egocentric component of the preoperation stage?
world revolves around the child, think that others share their views feelings and desires, unable to see other perspective, mountain test
What is the conservation component of the preoperation stage?
amount remains the same even though the shape may change ex: cutting a sandwich
What is the tendency to focus on a single aspect part of preoperation stage?
may be task dependent, 10 wooden beads 7 blue 3 white child says there are more blue than wooden
What is the irreversibility of thought part of preoperation stage?
addition good, subtraction hard// do you have a sister? yes. does your sister have a sister? no.
What is the acquires concepts part of preoperation stage?
knows a dog, shapes are easy while numbers are harder
When is the concrete operations stage?
7-12 years
What skills are added with the concrete operations stage?
increased capacity for memory and understands reversibility/ thinks logically
What parts of conservation are understood in the concrete operations stage?
recognize change in multiple features, reciprocity- if you change one feature it can be balanced by another (water in glass), concept of horizontal decalage/increasing (#, length, liquid, mass, area, weight, volume), may be culture dependent, may be presentation dependent
What is the seriation aspect of concrete operations?
ability to arrange objects in an orderly series ex: simple to complex or short to long
What is the transitive reasoning aspect of concrete operations?
A>B and B>C the A>C
When does the formal operations stage occur?
12+
What does a child gain the ability to do in the formal operations stage?
able to think in the abstract and solve problems systematically, consider all variables of the problem, able to consider different points of view and different variables
