development

Question 1

Explain the role/function of the brain stem

Answer 1

The brain stem consists of three parts and controls functions like heart rate blood pressure, respiration and level of consciousness, wakefulness and arousal

Question 2

Explain the role/function of the cortex

Answer 2

The cortex is made up of gray and white matter and is the outer part of the cerebrum. It is responsible for higher functions like language and conscious thought

Question 3

Explain the role/function of the thalamus

Answer 3

The thalamus is made up of two thalami, and is located at the top of the brain stem. Acts as a switchboard or a gateway and relays information to the cerebral cortex. It is important in functions such as sleep and wakefulness; it’s also important in coordinating information from various sensory systems

Question 4

Explain the role/function of the cerebellum

Answer 4

Sits directly behind the brain stem and is sometimes referred to as the ‘little brain’. It is responsible in motor control, coordination, balance and muscle tone

Question 5

Explain the role/function of the hemispheres

Answer 5

There is a right and left hemisphere and the functions that it is responsible for are: Thinking, memory, consciousness, language, emotion, movement and sensory perception

Question 6

State the function of the frontal lobe

Answer 6

Is important in decision making, problem solving and planning

Question 7

State the function of the parietal lobe

Answer 7

Is an integrator of sensory information so it receives and processes sensory information

Question 8

State the function of the temporal lobe

Answer 8

Is important in memory, language, emotion and hearing

Question 9

State the function of the occipital lobe

Answer 9

Is important in memory, language, emotion and hearing

Question 10

Describe how the brain develops

Answer 10

• Brain development begins in the 3rd week of pregnancy. Multiplying cells form a structure called the neural plate. This folds over on itself to form a tube shaped structure called the neural tube.
• During the 4th week of pregnancy the neural tube divides into the spinal cord, hindbrain, midbrain and forebrain
• During the 6th week the forebrain divides into two areas - the cortex and the thalamus. Neurons and synapse begin to develop in the spinal cord, which allows the foetus to move around
• By the 15th week the cerebellum has formed in the hindbrain
• By the 6th month the brain is fully formed although not its full size yet
• During the last 3 months folds begin to form in the cortex
• At birth the brain is 25% of its adult size

Question 11

Explain how twin studies showed how nature affected development

Answer 11

A study looked at a pair of identical twins who were raised apart from the age of four weeks. They were very similar when they met for the first time aged 39. They both had the same car, went on holiday to the same place, and both bit their nails. Their IQs were also very similar. It was concluded that nature plays more of a role in personality than nurture

Question 12

Explain how studies on babies showed how nature affected development

Answer 12

It is useful to study newborn babies because there will be very little impact of nurture on a baby before birth. Psychologists have found that besides being able to cry, babies can also recognise faces. This implies that nature is responsible for these abilities. As babies are not able to talk until much later on, it is believed that nurture is responsible for language development.

Question 13

Explain how studies on animals showed how nurture affected development

Answer 13

In one study, baby rats were kept in cages on their own with no toys. Another group of baby rats were kept in a cage together with lots of
stimulating toys. The rats that lived in the group in the stimulating environment developed bigger brains and demonstrated better problem- solving skills than the rats that lived on their own. This shows that nurture is very important for early brain development.

Question 14

Outline & evaluate Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

Answer 14

Piaget studied children’s cognitive development and believed schemas were the key to how children developed as they grew up. Schemas are frameworks of knowledge that exist because of our past experiences. They develop in response to our experiences of the world. He believed babies had simple schemas for sucking and grasping, and as the baby grows, more complex ones develop. Schemas develop through assimilation or accommodation. Assimilation means that you add to an existing schema, eg. going from dog, to golden retriever. Accommodation is when you change an existing schema to understand the world around us, eg. realizing that something flying is not a bird, but a plane. Piaget believed there were 4 stages to a child’s cognitive development. He said children pass through all of these stages in the same order and roughly the same age.

Sensorimotor stage (0-2yrs) - Children develop object permanence, which is knowing that objects still exist even if they are out of sight

Pre-operational stage (2-7yrs) - children are egocentric, so they struggle to see things from others’ point of view

Concrete operational stage (7-11yrs) - children begin to learn how to conserve, meaning that they understood that the amount of something would remain the same even if it’s appearance changed

Formal operational stage (11+)- Children could use systematic problem solving. They also developed inferential reasoning, so they could understand more complex ideas like ghosts, religion, etc.

One strength of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is that it can be applied to education. This is because teachers can use it to plan activities that children can do in lessons. Therefore, we can makes sure that children are being taught the rights things at the right time, so this improves the quality of education that exists.

One weakness of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is that the ages and stages are fixed. This is because some children develop at different rates. Some children will develop slower or quicker than Piaget suggested. Therefore, this decreases the validity of the theory.

One strength of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is that his work led to an enormous amount of research, and while some supported the theory, some helped adjust ‘truths’ to his theory. For example, those studies conducted by Hughes and McGarrigle and Donaldson. They helped to refine Piaget’s theory that although young people move through the stages, some are earlier or later than others. Therefore, without research, we would not be able to test the validity of the theory.

Question 15

Outline & evaluate McGarrigle & Donaldson’s Naughty Teddy Study

Answer 15

• The aim was to investigate if children developed conservational skills at an earlier age than Piaget suggested if the change to the materials was accidental
• 80 children between the ages 4 to 6 were shown two rows of counters and were asked if there were the same amount of counters in each row
• Then a glove puppet, ‘Naughty Teddy’ accidentally messed up one of the rows of counters
• The messed up row was spread out to look longer than the other row
• The experimenter pretended to be really cross with Naughty Teddy and told it off
• The child was then asked if there were the same amount of counters in each row
• 62% of the 4-6 year olds said there were still the same amount of counters in each row, therefore they could conserve
• This is compared to only 16% of the 4-6 year olds in Piaget’s original study who could conserve when the adult changed the counters
• They concluded that children younger than 7 years can conserve if the change to the materials is accidental
• A strength of McGarrigle and Donaldson’s study is that it was a standardized procedure. This is a strength because the experiment can be replicated to find that most children can find that children below the age of 7 can conserve if the change in appearance to the materials is accidental. Therefore, the increases the reliability of McGarrigle and Donaldson’s study
• One weakness of McGarrigle & Donaldson’s study is the sample size used is too small. This is a weakness because it’s difficult to generalize the findings about children aged 4-6 and their ability to conserve. Therefore, the results are not representative to suggest that all children at this age can conserve
• One weakness of McGarrigle & Donaldson’s study is that it was conducted in a controlled environment. This is a weakness because there may be other factors that influence children aged 4-6 and their ability to conserve that were not present in the lab. Therefore, the research lacks ecological validity to suggest that not all children can conserve at this age

Question 16

Outline & evaluate Hughes’ Policeman Doll study

Answer 16

• The aim of the study was to investigate if children could see things from another person’s point of view at an earlier age than Piaget suggested
• 30 children aged between 3.5-5yrs were shown a model of two intersecting walls that formed a cross
• The policeman doll was placed on the model, and the children were asked to hide a boy doll so the policeman could not see it
• The policeman was then placed in different positions in the model and the child was asked to hide the doll again
• Then, a second policeman doll was introduced and the children were asked to hide the doll again
• This was repeated 3 times so the children had to use different sections of the grid
• They found that 90% of the children were able to hide the boy doll from both policeman dolls
• They concluded that children aged between 3.5-5yrs could see things from other people’s point of view if the situation was familiar and the task makes sense. This was different to Piaget’s findings who said that children are egocentric till they are 7 years old
• One strength of Hughes’ study is the task given. This is because hiding a boy doll from multiple policemen was a familiar task for the 3.5-5 year old children as they were likely to be familiar with the concept of hide and seek. Therefore, it increases the mundane realism of the task
• One weakness of the study is the setting in which it was conducted (lab experiment). This is because the environment was artificial. So, participants may change their behaviour to please the researcher. Therefore, our understanding of of egocentric abilities may not be valid.
• One weakness of the study was the sample size used. This is because a sample size of 30 children aged between 3.5-5 years may be hard to generalize. Therefore, the results of knowing which children are egocentric is not representative

Question 17

Outline & evaluate Dweck’s Mindset theory

Answer 17

• According to Dweck’s theory, one’s success is based on the type of belief system they have
• There are two types of mindset, fixed and growth
• A fixed mindset is when people believe that their intelligence (or any of their abilities) is fixed in their genes
• For example, they think that winning prizes of doing well in a test is evidence of their ability
• On the other hand, a growth mindset is when people believe at any time that you can always get a little bit better if you work at it
• People with a growth mindset believe in effort and actually enjoy being challenged and not always succeeding
• Dweck suggests that individuals deal with failure in different ways
• For example, if people with a fixed mindset fail, they will think that their failure is due to lack of talent, so there is no point in trying harder, whereas people with a growth mindset would think that the failure was an opportunity to learn more, and they would put in more effort
• The mindset is a continuum and people are a mixture of fixed and growth, rather than one or the other
• Whether people have a fixed or growth mindset depends entirely on the situation
• For example, if I really like jujitsu, and I lose in a round of sparring, (where my coach tells me to work on a specific skill), I will be likely to have a growth mindset and work on my technique, and hence I will put in effort and improve by the next lesson
• On the other hand, if I really hate physics, and I fail a test (where my teacher gives me resources to use in order to do better), I will be likely to have a fixed mindset, and not try harder and think that putting in effort won’t help me improve
• So, by not putting in effort, I won’t improve
• One strength is that there is evidence that a growth mindset leads to better grades. For example, a study was conducted on low achieving seventh graders. Half the students did a session where they were taught a growth mindset and the other half did a session on memory. The students in the growth mindset group had improved motivation and grades, whereas the other group did not improve. This shows that a growth mindset can be taught and improve performance.
• One weakness is that any sort of praise may be damaging. This is because in both a fixed and a growth mindset, the learner is dependent on praise from someone else (in growth mindset, this is a praise of effort and in a fixed mindset this is a praise of ability). If somebody is reliant on praise, this means that the learner works hard for someone else’s praise rather than their own satisfaction, which means they won’t be self-motivated. This shows that even praising someone’s effort may not be the best way to motivate learners
• Another strength is that Dweck’s theory can be applied to different settings like schools, sports, business and relationships. This is because in relationships, some people fail because they think that no effort is required to make relationships work. A good relationship requires hard work and effort to improve. A lot of people, when they hit ‘hard work’ believe that this shows the relationship will not work and it is better to quit now. This is an example of a fixed mindset. Seeing failure as a lack of effort rather than a lack of talent motivates future effort

Question 18

Outline & evaluate Willingham’s learning theory

Answer 18

• Willingham criticised the learning style approach to teaching as it does not improve learning
• He believed that students should be taught using the best method, based on the content being taught rather than the preferred learning style
• For example when learning about maps, visual learning style should be used, whereas for learning a new language, auditory/verbal styles may be preferable
• Willingham suggests that teaching and learning can be improved by the application of findings from cognitive psychology and neuroscience studies
• For example, psychological research has demonstrated that a key reason for forgetting is not having the right cues
• The information is in your brain but you can’t find it
• Research shows that if someone gives you a cue, then they may help you recall a particular piece of information
• Therefore, when trying to learn something, it is very important to use an associated cue to help you remember it - for example, a trigger phrase
• Like Dweck, Willingham believes that praise plays an important role, especially when the praise is unexpected
• This is because if the performance relies on the praise, then it destroys your intrinsic motivation for doing the activity
• One strength of Willingham’s theory is that the theory is based on scientific evidence. The studies on which it was based were well designed, objective investigations. This gives the claims of his theory greater validity
  Another strength of Willingham’s theory is that it has real world applicability. This is because Willingham has selected research that has clear relevance to education and has a better foundation than learning styles. His approach offers an explanation of what you learn, rather than how you learn
• One weakness of Willingham’s theory is Willingham ignored the importance of individual differences in mindsets. Dweck considered the fact that if people with a fixed mindset fail, they will think that their failure is due to lack of talent, so there is no point in trying harder, whereas people with a growth mindset would think that the failure was an opportunity to learn more, and they would put in more effort. The mindset is a continuum and people are a mixture of fixed and growth, rather than one or the other. Whether people have a fixed or growth mindset depends entirely on the situation. If somebody had a fixed mindset towards an activity, they would not improve or take in any new information, no matter what learning style was used