Conceptual development

Question 1

What is emergence?

Answer 1

Emergence is a process by which larger entities are produced by interactions of simpler entities, such that larger entities have properties that smaller ones do not have.

Question 2

What is the importance of multi-sensory coupling?

Answer 2

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Question 3

How does higher-level correlations support abstract thought?

Answer 3

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Question 4

What evidence is there for Smith’s ideas?

Answer 4

Linda Smith says there are no such things as concepts. What labels we give to things is what makes a category, not some abstract existence of a category in our mind

Question 5

What is the significance of distinguishing objects from relations?

Answer 5

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Question 6

What is the natural partitions hypothesis (Gentner)?

Answer 6

The natural partitions hypothesis says that we parse the world into objects and relations among objects.
Objects are stable, perceptually cohesive, long-lasting, clear contrast with the background. For example: the woman, the blanket, the bucket.
Relations are harder to perceive directly, less stable, and indefinite number of options eg: movement towards and away. For example: walking away, left of the maid/north of the maid, washing/obeying orders.
Gentner hypothesised that children will learn categories of objects (eg: nouns - dog, chair) before they learn categories of relations (eg; verbs such as throw or relational nouns such as guest).
There is lots of evidence for an early predominance of nouns over verbs.

Question 7

What is the relational shift?

Answer 7

A change occurring in the development of analogical reasoning, wherein the child focuses less on perceived similarities and more on relational similarities when problem solving.
Analogical comparison highlights relations. eg: Rutherford model of the atom and the solar system. The sun is more massive than other planets so they revolve around it, the nucleus is more massive than the electrons so they revolve around it.

Question 8

How does comparison support the relational shift?

Answer 8

Example: toma - if you have one set of pigs and then ask which of the next set is a toma, they’ll be much more likely to select the object match. But if you have a comparison of two tomas first eg: 2 pigs and 2 fish, more likely to select relational match as a toma.

Question 9

How does language support thought?

Answer 9

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Question 10

What are the different theories for how language supports thought?

Answer 10

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