Cognitive Development: Information Processing and Social Context Flashcards
What is Piaget’s explanation for why children fail in differentiating between quantity and width, size, etc.?
They lack logical thought processes to apply principles (1 attribute at a time)
What is the criticism towards Piaget’s explanation for why children fail in differentiating between quantity and width, size, etc.?
- Superficial changes in design affect results
- Sometimes we do see success at younger ages if we tweak the design, which challenges Piaget’s theory
What is Information Processing Approach’s explanation for why children fail in differentiating between quantity and width, size, etc.?
Cognitive limitations in terms of memory, problem-solving, attention, and metacognition
Explain the Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968) Model of Information Processing
- Consists of 3 memory stores (flow of info) and control processes that operate on them
- Explains strategies for encoding, retrieving, maintaining info in short-term/working memory and long-term memory
What are the information processing limitations?
- Encoding limitations: Don’t encode the appropriate info
- Computational limitations: Don’t have strategies in LTM to apply
- Retrieval limitations: Retrieve inappropriate strategy
- Storage limitations: Restrictions in working memory
- Work-space limitations: Restrictions in working memory
Explain Brainerd’s (1983) Probability Judgment Task
Started with Piaget & Inhelder (1951)
- Children correct on 1st trial but not following
- Concluded that they lack probabilistic reasoning
- 4-5yo children in 5 trials
- Hyp 1: storage limitations -> still performed poorly on last 4 trials; concluded findings insig
- Hyp 2: retrieval problem -> they retrieve wrong info bcs of last response; children successful on all trials
How does information processing change with age?
- Attention
- Memory development: Strategies in encoding and retrieval
- Metacognition
- Constructive memory
- Role of knowledge and experience
What is attention?
- The ability to identify most crucial aspects of a task
- Pinpoint relevant and ignore irrelevant
Explain the encoding strategy: Rehearsal
- Mental repetition of info
- Older children apply this strategy more effectively
Explain the encoding strategy: Organisation
- Chunking or grouping info together
- 10yo and older organise more effectively
Explain the encoding strategy: Elaboration
- Making associations
- ex. words to remember, combine into image or sentence
How do memory strategies develop?
- Older children can spontaneously use more sophisticated/effective strategies
- Younger children CAN be taught more effective strategies
- Strategies take up too much of limited processing capacity; Thus why it might not result in better recall or be seen as useful
What is metacognition?
Awareness of own cognitive limitations
How does metacognition develop with age?
- More aware of memory capacity with age
- More aware of usefulness of memory strategies
What is constructive memory?
Ability to infer/extrapolate novel info using scripts and schema
What are scripts, in the context of constructive memory?
Sequence of actions appropriate for specific context
What are schema, in the context of constructive memory?
What information is known about a scene, place, object, etc.
How does constructive memory develop with age?
Young children use these, but do so flexibly than older children and adults
How does the role of knowledge and memory develop with age?
- Older children have more experience and knowledge
- Makes it easier to process and encode novel information, and retrieve relevant information
- An interesting study found that children are better at remembering chess positions than adults; Adults are better at digits
Describe Vygotsky’s view on learning in a social context
- Learning is the result of the interaction between a child and a more knowledgeable individual
- Empiricist view
- Culture provides the context within which interactions take place
- Language provides the means through which meanings are shared
Describe Vygotsky’s view on cognition, memory and attention
- The three are not only individual characteristics
- ## Cognitive processes are directly influenced by the type of culture and resources in child’s upbringing (ex. access to education)
What is Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)?
Difference between actual performance and potential performance
Describe Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
- It illustrates how the child learns with the help of others
- At level beyond existing skill (but not too far)
What was the importance of external monologue according to Vygotsky?
- Transition from language as tool for communication to a tool for thought
- Help organise and plan behaviour
- Internalised to become inner speech at 7months
Explain Bruner and Scaffolding (in terms of how knowledge is passed from expert adult to novice child)
- Recruitment: engage interest of child
- Reduction of degrees of freedom: reduce number of acts required, simplify
- Direction maintenance: keep motivation up
- Marking critical features: Marking relevant features
- Demonstrate: modelling solutions
What behaviours in cognitive development are uniquely human?
- Ability to adapt
- Many of the behaviours that distinguish us are supported by social learning; Examples are…
- Cultures (e.g. music, language, art, history)
- Tools and technology (e.g. computers, internet, cars) - Many animals socially learn, some even exhibit cultures or traditions BUT cultures not as complex as humans
Explain the Cultural Intelligence Hypothesis
- Humans have evolved special-cognitive skills (ex. ToM, social learning, communication, cooperation, imitation, teaching)
- This relies on input from demonstrator and observer
In the Cultural Intelligence Hypothesis, what is the role of the skilled ‘demonstrator’?
Role of the skilled ‘demonstrator’ is scaffolding, teaching, “natural pedagogy”
In the Cultural Intelligence Hypothesis, what is the role of the observer (child)?
- “Primed” to attend to demonstrator’s cues
- Copying to higher level of fidelity -> Bener2 faithfully imitating (Imitation vs Emulation; Overimitation wherein irrelevant features are copied too)
