Development Flashcards
Who was Jean Piaget?
Swiss psychologist, who studied and theorized about child development for more than half a century.
Name the four major Piaget´s stages of development.
1) Sensory-motor stage
2) Preoperational stage
3) Concrete-operational stage
4) Formal-operational stage
Characterize the sensory-motor stage.
-the first 2 years
of life
- development of schemes for thinking about
the physical world (object permanence)
Characterize the preoperational stage.
-from 2 to 7
years of age
-ability to engage in internal thought about the world, but these mental processes are intuitive and unsystematic
Characterize concrete-operational stage.
-7 to 11 years of age
-development of a set of
mental operations that allow children to think about the physical
world in a systematic way
-major limitations on their capacity to reason formally about the world
Characterize formal-operational stage.
-from 11 years of age onward
-emergence of capacity
-adult cognitively
-capable of scientific reasoning — the paradigm case of mature intellectual functioning
What does the term “conservation” mean?
It most generally refers to knowledge of the properties of the world that are preserved under various transformations. A child’s understanding of conservation develops as the child progresses through the Piagetian stages.
What was the A-not-B experiment about?
If an object is put under cover A, and then, in front of the child, removed and put under cover B, the child will often look for the object under cover A.
-Piaget argues that this shows that the child does not understand that the object will be found under cover B
At what age do infants develop an understanding of object permanence?
They develop a concept of it during the first year.
What did the conservation experiment with checkers reveal about the way children in the preoperational stage perceive quantity?
Children in the preoperational stage (typically 2 to 7 years of age):
-do not yet understand the concept of conservation—the idea that quantity remains the same despite changes in the arrangement or appearance of objects
-say that the expanded row has more checkers
-if asked to count the two groups of checkers, they express great surprise that they have the same number
What did the conservation experiment with checkers reveal about the way children in the concrete-operational stage perceive quantity?
Children in the concrete-operational stage (typically 7 to 11 years of age):
-understand the concept of conservation
-say that the expanded row has the same amount of checkers
-if asked to count the two groups of checkers, they think that it is silly to count the objects in order to confirm this
Why do preoperational children believe that the taller, thinner beaker holds more liquid after it is poured from an identical beaker? (Liquid-conservation task)
Preoperational children are distracted by the irrelevant physical characteristic of the height of the beaker and do not relate having seen the milk poured from one beaker into the other to the unchanging quantity of liquid.
How do formal-operational children understand and think about conservation?
Their understanding reaches new levels of abstraction and they are able to understand concepts such as the conservation of energy and the conservation of momentum.
Why do younger children often do worse than older children and adults on memory tasks?
Experience and strategies.
Young children are novices at most things (universal novices), and increased knowledge of topic is critical to memorization. Much more critical than age or general ability level are.
Why do older people perform worse, in reasoning problems that rely on working memory?
The amount of information that can be maintained in working memory is controlled by the speed of information processing. Older people process information slower.
Why does age correlate positively with crossword puzzle performance?
While crossword performance does involve reasoning ability (which declines with age from the peak in the twenties), it relies much more on accumulated knowledge.
What part of the brain is particularly susceptible to cell death with age?
The Hippocampus which is important to memory. It loses about 5% of its cells every decade. Other cells in hippocampus also shrink and atrophy, but sometimes also new cells and neurons grow to compensate a bit in this area.
How did Chomsky criticize Skinner’s behaviourist theory of language learning?
Chomsky argued that language acquisition relies on innate abilities to generalize and understand syntax, which cannot be explained solely through conditioning and stimulus-response associations.
What are the two primary factors that contribute to cognitive development in children?
“Know better” (gaining more facts, experiences, and better strategies) and “Think better” (improvements in basic cognitive processes and possibly holding more information in working memory).
What key neural changes occur during the first two years of life?
The brain undergoes significant “hardware” development, including a rapid increase in synapses, or connections between neurons.
What is synaptic pruning, and when does it occur?
Synaptic pruning is the process of reducing unnecessary synaptic connections, and it occurs mainly after the age of two.
What is neuronal pruning, and how is it different from synaptic pruning?
Neuronal pruning, which happens before the age of two, reduces the number of neurons, while synaptic pruning reduces redundant synaptic connections later on, enhancing brain efficiency.
What role do glial cells play in brain development, especially after age two?
Glial cells support neurons, and many provide myelinated sheaths around axons, which speed up signal transmission in the brain.
By what age does the brain reach approximately 80% of its final size, and why is this significant?
By age two, the brain reaches about 80% of its final size, suggesting that cognitive development afterward relies more on knowledge and experience rather than further physical growth.
What do empiricists believe about the origin of knowledge?
Empiricists believe that nearly all knowledge is learned through experiences with the environment, suggesting humans are capable of change.
What do nativists believe about the origin of knowledge?
Nativists believe that the most important knowledge about the world is part of our genetically programmed development.
What evidence from Piaget’s experiments argues against the idea that knowledge of number is innate?
Piaget’s number conservation experiments show that understanding numbers develops gradually, which suggests it is learned rather than innate. (For example could children be shown one line with five coins compared to a stretched line of five coins where younger children would judge the stretched line to have more coins.)
What is the “Can babies add?” experiment, and what does it suggest about innate number knowledge?
In this experiment, babies watch as one object is placed behind a screen, then a second object is added. When the screen is raised, if there are not two objects, babies appear surprised, suggesting they may expect 1+1=2.
How do number-specific neurons in primates support the nativist view on number knowledge?
Certain neurons in the parietal cortex of primates respond specifically to small numbers (like 1, 2, 3, or 4) of objects or tones, suggesting a biologically based understanding of quantity.
What is the difference between “primary” and “secondary” mathematics in cognitive development? What evidence supports the distinction between primary and secondary mathematics?
“Primary” mathematics is what children naturally develop or learn by age five and appears in all human societies, while “secondary” mathematics involves more complex concepts that require formal schooling. Primary mathematics, such as basic numerical skills, appears to be innate, as shown by similarities between humans and chimpanzees, who share a large genetic overlap and display basic counting abilities. In contrast, secondary mathematics depends on formal education, as complex written number systems are a relatively recent development, emerging only a few thousand years ago.
What are some criticisms of Piaget’s theory of developmental stages?
- Underestimation of children’s abilities: Research has shown that children may understand certain concepts, like object permanence, much earlier than Piaget suggested. His tasks may have been too complex or required skills (like language) that younger children hadn’t yet developed.
- Overemphasis on stages: Critics argue that cognitive development is more continuous than Piaget proposed. Children’s cognitive abilities often develop gradually and don’t always fit neatly into the rigid stages Piaget described.
- Insufficient explanation for individual differences: Piaget’s theory doesn’t fully explain why some children progress through stages faster than others, or why there are significant individual differences in development.
What do Neo-Piagetian theories of development propose about cognitive capacities?
Neo-Piagetian theories propose that basic cognitive capacities increase progressively from birth through the teenage years. To correct the weaknesses (the incorrect idea of rigid universal stages of cognitive development, the lack of regard for individual differences…) of Piaget’s theory, neo-Piagetian theorists produced models of cognitive development that integrate concepts from Piaget’s theory with newer concepts.
What is Case’s memory space proposal regarding cognitive development?
Case’s memory space proposal suggests that the key to cognitive development is an increasing capacity of working memory. More advanced cognitive performance requires more information to be held in working memory.
What factors contribute to the increase in working memory capacity, according to Case?
Case believes that the increase in working memory capacity is due to the increased speed of neural transmission and the higher degree of myelination with age. He also emphasizes the role of practice in improving working memory efficiency.
What evidence did Case use to support his memory space proposal?
Case used the Noelting Juice problems as evidence. In this task, children of different ages had to judge which pitcher would taste stronger based on the amount of orange juice and water in each.
What cognitive ability does a 3-4-year-old have in the Noelting Juice problem?
A 3-4-year-old can only compare the extremes: all orange juice versus all water, focusing on one fact at a time.
What cognitive ability does a 4-5-year-old have in the Noelting Juice problem?
A 4-5-year-old can compare pitchers based on the absolute amount of orange juice, holding two pieces of information (two numbers) in working memory.
What cognitive ability does a 7-8-year-old have in the Noelting Juice problem?
A 7-8-year-old can recognize if one pitcher has more orange juice and the other has more water, keeping track of two subtractions (difference between juice and water amounts in each of them).
What cognitive ability does a 9-10-year-old have in the Noelting Juice problem?
A 9-10-year-old can calculate the difference in amounts (but not in percentages) of orange juice and water between pitchers and choose the one with the greater difference. This requires holding four facts in working memory
What is a criticism of Case’s memory space proposal?
A major criticism is the difficulty in defining and counting what exactly constitutes “working memory,” making it challenging to assess cognitive development in this context.
What was Kail’s experiment on mental rotation, and what was it designed to measure?
Kail’s experiment involved presenting participants with pairs of letters in different orientations and asking them to judge whether the letters were the same or mirror images. It was designed to measure the speed of mental rotation across different age groups.
What did Kail find about the speed of mental rotation in older individuals?
Kail found that older individuals were systematically faster at mental rotation tasks, showing a power function in the relationship between age and performance.
How did Kail test the hypothesis that experience could explain faster mental rotation in older individuals?
Kail tested this hypothesis by giving both 11-year-olds and adults over 3000 practice trials in mental rotation. Both groups improved with practice, but adults started out faster.
What did Kail conclude from his experiment regarding the impact of experience vs. biological maturation on mental rotation speed?
Kail concluded that the faster mental rotation seen in adults may be more related to prior practice rather than innate biological differences. After extensive practice, children actually performed better than adults without practice.
What was the overall conclusion of Kail’s studies on mental rotation?
The conclusion was that the increased rate of information processing as people develop from childhood into adulthood may have more to do with practice and learning rather than biological maturation.
