Cognitive Development, thinking and perspective taking Flashcards
Schema
A mental framework on how certain situation should look
Assimilation
The cognitive process of using new information fit into our existing schema
Equilibrium
A state of stability, when existing schemas fit a new situation
Disequilibrium
A state of instability when existing schema does not fit a situation
Accommodation
The cognitive process in which new information does not fit into our existing schema
Sensory Motor Stage 0-2
-Children learn via trial and error.
-Develop senses
-Object permanence at around 8 months
Pre Operational Stage 2-7
-Child is egocentric, i.e. the child cannot see from any other POV but their own
-The child cannot conserve, so they do not understand the concept of quantity
-Animism- believes that toys have feelings
-Class inclusion cannot put things into categories
Concrete operational stage 7-11
-Children become less egocentric
-They can now categories objects and they can now also conserve
-More logical
Formal operational stage 12+
-Understands abstract concepts
-Reason
-deeper understanding
-can make rational choices
Piagets overall theory
-children have to actively engage and become active learners, he believes children learn via trial and error. That cognition develops biologically alongside age.
Ball and Blanket
-Piaget carried out a study whereby he found that babies above 8 months looked for the hidden ball, this suggests that object permanence exists
3 Mountains
- Doll sits around mountain
-child has to pick photo of what doll can see
-4 year old’s consistently picked their perspective#
-7 year old however picked right photo
-proof of egocentrism
Piaget Methodology A03
- Piagets experiments to support his theory where carried out by himself, which may have lead to investigator bias, as piaget may have looked for the evidence to back up his theory
-Small sample size, of all same cultured children
Nature VS Nurture Piaget
Piaget did not consider nurture as something that could affect the development of cognition and development. He therefore assumes that age is the determining factor though some children may exceed faster than others
-To ensure this theory to be more valid he should have taken a more of an interactionalist approach
Culture Bias Piaget
Piaget’s theory is mostly based on western culture. There is no evidence or cross cultural studies to generalize findings. Beta bias
Children of different culture cognition may be different
McDonald’s research into conservation
-McDonald’s study included children in the pre operational stage. Like piaget answered wrong number of counters first time, but when the ‘naughty teddy’ knocked the counters closer together, they said same as before
Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development
Vygotsky believed that children learn via social interaction. Believed that language was important because language connects the child to others and a wider community to learn. He also believed that cultural differences were important in determining cognitive development.
At 0-3 years the child is external and learns approval and disapproval. At 3-7 they are still egocentric and think aloud, and at 7/8 they develop an inner voice.
-Scaffolding is when a more knowledgeable other tailors support to meet the needs of the learner, zone of proximal development increases
Vygotsky’s A03
- Evidence to support scaffolding. A piece of longnitudal research followed people aged 16, 26, and 44, found more mothers scaffolded more effective
-Evidence to support zone of proximal development, 4/5 year olds estimate number of sweets in a box, group with MKO was more successful
-Keer and Pierre- found that 10year old’s who helped 7yr olds read- excelled
in school application sch as teaching assistant and peer group learning
Vygotsky Nature Vs Nurture
-Vygotsky was definitely more on the nurture side, he did not account for biological factors and development of learning, if he took a ore interactional approach- more valid
Vygotsky Culture
A strength to this theory is that Vygotsky took into account cultural elements
Baillargeon’s explanation to early infant abilities
-Baillargeon research aimed to discover unsuspected abilities of new-borns and young children. She said that children are born with a Physical reasoning system, disagreed with piaget and said it was a lack of motor ability to carry out search for objects
-Basic understanding and knowledge.
-one being Occlusion is understanding an object can be blocked by another object.
Violation of expectation research
VOE is the idea that infants will look at new things for longer than they will look at things they have encountered before
Presented with a new stimulus.
Until look away, in which no longer consider to be new
One stimuli is a possible event, one is an impossible event
If infants have object permanence will look at impossible even for longer
An example of VOE research
- two groups, expected event and the impossible event.
–24 infants, a tall and a short rabbit behind a screen with a window. In possible condition, the tall rabbit can be seen passing through window whereas small rabbit cannot.
-In impossible neither rabbit could be seen
Findings, 33 seconds impossible, 25 seconds at possible
Drawbridge
Infants repeatedly shown a stimulus, in this case drawbridge.
Habituation drawbridge moves to 180 degrees. Box placed- impossible stimulus
-looked more at impossible stimulus
Baillargeon A03
-Use drawbridge study
-Assumptions about VOE, assumes she knows that looking longer means the infant must be surprised
-Working with children- Consent from parents and a right to withdraw
-observer bias
-Culture bias, only from her culture, methodology used was selecting children from a local newspaper
-Nature over nurture
Selman’s theory A01
Selman believed that for a child to take another persons perspective they must have experienced the scenario themselves. Although Selman does label his stages with ages, he does account for an overlap as he recognises that although experience happens with age, this experience may happen at different ages.
Egocentric stage 0-6
The child only sees from their own perspective
Social informative role taking stage 2-7
The child recognises that other people have different perspectives from their own but they cannot take any other perspective at this stage
Social reflective role taking stage 5-9
The child can now take the perspective of one person but not multiple
Multiple perspectives 7-15
-The child can now take on multiple perspectives at the same time
Social and conventional role taking stage
-The child can now recognise that perspectives do not all reach agreement.
-Evaluate views on societal level
Selman A03
-There has been evidence found, that perspective taking does get better as we age. The Holly and cat scenario found a significant positive correlation. Also cross sectional research has found the same thing
-Overly cognitive- Selman’s theory is arguably overly cognitive, does not account for other internal factors, and even external factors which may affect cognition development
-Keysar- Not culture bias, allowed studies to be carried out in other cultures, Keysar found that Chinese children were better than Western cultures at PT
-Nature and Nurture both accounted for
-An explanation for autism- Marton et al, 8-12 year olds with ADHD and autism done worse on perspective taking
Mirror Neurons A01
-Rizzolotti et al. discovered mirror neurons accidentally, whilst studying neuron activity in the motor cortex of the macaque monkey species
-Mirror Neurons are neurons which fire when an observer views a meaningful action, this means that the individual experiences the the action as if it were there own.
- This allows the person to imitate the actions of another person, because it is like they are acting out the same activity.
-Development of social cognition- ToM etc..
-Understanding intentions
-Language acquisition
Lacoboni intentions (frontal and partial cortex)
MNs encode not just what but why. Found highest level of activity in the inferior frontal cortex during the intention clip compared to Context and action.
(context, tea cup full then empty, Action, grasping tea as if drinking, intention both)
Language acquisition
-Imitation of speech sounds and MN
-Brain scan imaging, MN in broca area, assossiated with speech, human equivilant to F5
Di Pellegino research
-Electrodes where inserted into individual neurons of macaque monkeys, recorded when monkey reached for an apple, but also when the monkey observed another monkey reach for an apple, activity levels were high
Mirror Neuron A03
-Link with the ToM, however monkey brains are not as complex as humans, in terms of developing empathy, also FMRI research has also found that brain areas are active when we feel emotions that other people are also feeling- support for empathy
-Meltzoff and Moore, infants imitate within first year of life- suggesting either have minor innate basis or another factor causes it.
-Unethical- for humans- electrodes
