contemporary theories of cog dev continued

Question 1

what are the contemporary theories

Answer 1

information processing
neo piagetian
sieglers overlapping waves theory

Question 2

what is the neo piagetian theory

Answer 2

robbie case
-incoporates aspects of info processing model with the stages of cog dev
-explains indiv differences in development
-principles from social cog theory

Question 3

what weaknesses of piagets theory does the neo piagetian approach overcome

Answer 3

-looks at indiv diff
-explains how culture and interactions with others influence cog development

Question 3

what are cases stages of cog dev(neo-piagetian theory)

Answer 3

1.predimensional (0-24 months): perceptions and actions
2.inter relational (2-8yrs): simple mental representations
3.dimensional (5-11yrs): associated mental representations
4.vectorial (11-19yrs): connecting complex dimensions of relations

Question 4

what leads to advancements in cases stages

Answer 4

increases in WM capacity and central processing speed

Question 5

what causes increases in WM capacity

Answer 5

-automaticity of processes (increased efficiency)
-brain maturation (myelination, changes in brain activity)
-formation of central conceptual structure

Question 6

what is the central conceptual structure

Answer 6

-mental network of concepts used to represent and assign meaning to problems
-used to solve problems

Question 6

what is the 5 component process of the waves theory

Answer 6

1.acquiring new strategies
2.mapping strategy to novel problems
3.strengthening strategy in relation to new and old problems
4.refining choices among alternative versions of strategy
5.increasing effective execution of new strategies

Question 7

what do experience and learning interact with

Answer 7

biological maturation

Question 7

what is sieglers overlapping waves theory

Answer 7

-children generate several diff strategies to try and solve problems (unlike piaget model)
-strategies compete or overlap each other
-children experiment with diff strategies when doing new tasks

Question 8

siegler and robinson 1982 findings

Answer 8

20% children use the same strategy on an addition problem task

Question 9

what is attention

Answer 9

identifying and selecting sensory input for more detailed processing

Question 10

learning to shift attention in infancy

Answer 10

-young infants have sticky fixation or obligatory attention (Hood 1995), heavily fixate on faces
- 2-3 months: better at disengaging attention, smooth eye movements

Question 11

attention span in children

Answer 11

very young children can sustain attention for only very short periods of time but this improves with age

Question 12

attention deficits in children

Answer 12

-children struggle with attending to relevant info
-remember irrelevant details and cannot extract crucial info
-process irrelevant verbatim details instead

Question 13

example of a childs attention deficit

Answer 13

imitate instead of adjusting their behaviour according to instructions

Question 14

what is the development of voluntary attention

Answer 14

taking control of attention and shifting away from salient but irrelevant info develops sig across childhood

Question 15

processing speed

Answer 15

-increases with age
-declines in older age
-task specific, more you do a specific task the better you are
-effect consistent across domains e.g if you are quick at processing auditory info you will also be quick for visual info

Question 16

what is processing speed a result of

Answer 16

brain maturation

Question 17

which theory is memory key to

Answer 17

info processing theory

Question 18

what is memory

Answer 18

how info is stored by cognitive system to be used later

Question 19

what are the 2 types of memory in childhood

Answer 19

recognition memory: present at birth
recall: more complex and develops later (better strategies)

Question 19

3 key aspects to memory

Answer 19

encoding
storage
retrieval

Question 20

what is infantile amnesia

Answer 20

idea that we cannot remember info from our first few years of life due to lack in memory capacity

Question 21

opposing idea to infantile amnesia

Answer 21

-infants do have memory even at young age
-e.g habituation
-infant watching screen, infant looks away when presented with same stimulus for long time repeatedly
-shows infant knows they have seen this before
-the length of delay that can be bridged by memory increases with age

Question 22

what is the WM

Answer 22

limited capacity store for retaining info for brief period whilst performing mental operations on that info

Question 22

brain development and memory

Answer 22

-brain integrates info from multiple areas for memory e.g hippocampus and prefrontal cortex
-most of hippocampus develops at birth but some into childhood and adulthood (Aimone and Gage 2011)
-prefrontal cortex takes longer to be fully developed for LTM

Question 23

WM and age

Answer 23

-WM ability increases with age steadily between 4 and 15 yrs
-large diff in WM ability between children of same age

Question 23

what is recognition

Answer 23

ability to identify person object or quality that was previously observed

Question 24

what is recall

Answer 24

ability to reproduce info or material from memory

Question 25

recall and recognition in infants

Answer 25

-infants recognition memory is better than ability to recall info
-recall relies on info to have been encoded and stored for a long time
-infants lack metacognition

Question 26

infants develop more effective strategies as their brains mature but why dont they apply these from task to task

Answer 26

-do not have enough cog capacity
-more sophisticated strategies require language and knowledge the child has not yet developed
-lack of feedback on strategy
-lack of metacognition

Question 26

awareness memory strategies

Answer 26

-young children need to be taught there are ways to improve memory
-they need to be taught strategies and how effective they are
-ability to apply understanding of their understanding is needed

Question 27

what did ringel and springer find in 1980

Answer 27

feedback on strategy can improve recall

Question 28

which cog dev model emphasises role of attention, memory and perception

Answer 28

information processing theory