Development 2 Flashcards
How could we view Piaget in terms of Freud?
Piaget was to developmental psychology what Freud was to clinical psychology: the leading figure against whom all theories are compared.
What is abstract thinking?
to represent, mentally manipulate, and communicate about things that are not in our perception (e.g., mathematics, science, the concept of justice, etc.).
Is abstract thought based on perception?
no it does not have anything to do with the immediate environment
What is most of the thinking done as adults?
abstract thought
What is the key idea behind piaget?
Piaget believed that humans are uniquely capable of abstract thinking, but that children gradually become more capable of it as they mature.
According to Piaget, do children start with the ability to have abstract thought?
no
according to Piaget do any non-human animals have abstract thought?
no
according to Piaget do any non-human animals have abstract thought?
no
What did Piaget believe in terms of the speed at which children advance through a series of four stages?
He believed that the children slowly advanced through the series of four stages
What are the 5 things that Piaget believed about each stage?
- Determines the kinds of thoughts children are capable of.
- Is better than the last and leads to more abstract thinking. (because the stage takes everything the kid knew and adds to it)
- Happens in a precise order and no child may skip one. (he thought that every kid went through each stage at the same time)
- Is advanced to the next one by biological maturity (there is little that can speed them up).
- Changes suddenly, not gradually. (technically could just wake up one day and be in the next stage)
What did Piaget mean by “operational”?
abstract
What is the sensorimotor stage? What age?
the first stage, marked by the absence of abstract thought. All infants [0 - 12 month-olds] and most toddlers [12 – 36 month- olds] are in this stage. (in this class we usually say infants and toddlers)
How can we describe thinking in the sensorimotor stage? How is knowledge conceptualized and gained through this stage?
For the child in this stage, the only things in their minds are what they can perceive right here, right now, including their own bodies.
Knowledge is conceptualized and gained through immediate perceptual and motor experiences only. Out of sight is out of mind. (This means that in this stage the only thing in the child’s mind is the immediate perception. They have no memories of the past, can’t think of the future, can’t categorize different experiences. They are entirely in the moment)
What is object permanence? What is a reason that piaget thought that babies don’t have this?
the knowledge that is something can’t be seen it
continues to exist. Object permanence is a minescule abstract thought. Piaget thought that sensorimotor babies do not have object permanence.
What is the A-not-B task? What will a baby in the sensorimotor stage do? What did Piaget believe this implied?
A baby is given a toy to play with. The toy is then hidden under one of two blankets or hidden behind an object.
Despite wanting the toy back, the baby will not look for it under either blanket and will instead be very upset that the toy is gone.
Piaget believed that this implied that sensorimotor children do not think that an object continues to exist once it is out of their perception (i.e., they lack object permanence).
Is the A-not-B task replicable?
very much so
What is a schema? How does object permanence relate to this?
an organized, stable bit of abstract knowledge about how the world works (e.g., that objects fall down when they are unsupported them).
Object permanence is a kind of schema. Kids become capable of more and more schemas.
Is Piaget’s theory nativist or fundamentalist?
nativist
What can child do with new experiences once they have a schema?
Assimilation: integrating new information into an existing schema (e.g., realizing that your pet Fido is a member of the schema “dogs”).
Accommodation: changing or making new schemas once new information is discovered (e.g., realizing that cats are not dogs). (once you have one schema you start to realize that not everything fits into the schema)
What is the pre-operational stage? At what age is a child in this stage?
the second stage during which children understand the permanence and abstraction of objects and events, but still struggle to think about minds of others, or to logically manipulate objects in their mind.
Some toddlers and all preschoolers [3 – 6 year-olds] are pre-operational. (in this class we won’t include toddlers)
What do children in the pre-operational stage lack? What are children fixated on at this stage?
Children in this stage lack a theory of mind.
Children remain “fixated” by their perception, easily believing things they see even if they are logically false.
What is conservation in Piaget’s theory? How is it measured?
logically reasoning that quantities
don’t change from simple transformations. The volume conservation task, number conservation task.
Volume Conservation Task?
children are shown two glasses with the same amount of water. The water from one cup is then poured into a wider cup; children say that the two glasses don’t have the same anymore.
What is the Number Conservation Task?
two rows of five coins are aligned and children say that the two rows have the same number; one of the rows is stretched, and the kids now say that the longer row has more.
Which of Piaget’s experiments demonstrates a critical failure of fixedness?
The experiment with the juice demonstrates a critical failure of fixedness where the way that things look affect the kids ability to reason
What is the concrete operational stage? What age is in this stage?
the third Piagetian stage during which children become capable of doing basic logical thinking (e.g., “reversibility” of perception) but still cannot imagine the world to be different than it is.
All school-aged children [6 – 12 year-olds are concrete operational.
What are children in the concrete operational stage fixed by?
before they were fixed by their perception of the world, now they are fixed on the rules of the world
What are children in the concrete operational stage fixed by?
before they were fixed by their perception of the world, now they are fixed on the rules of the world
What is the counterfactual rule task?
a child is told a counter-intuitive rule and asked to predict – if the rule is true – what will happen. Concrete operational children focus on the reality of the situation, not on what would logically happen if the rule was true. (They will be told a rule that isnt true in our world abd they will not be able to imagine what would happen inconsistently with how the world really is)
What is the Formal Operaitonal Stage?
the final Piagetian Stage during which children become fully capable of logical and abstract thinking and are no longer dominated by their own perceptions or intuitions about the world.
What is the Formal Operaitonal Stage? What age is in it? What does this finally give them the ability to do in terms of thinking?
the final Piagetian Stage during which children become fully capable of logical and abstract thinking and are no longer dominated by their own perceptions or intuitions about the world.
This finally gives them the ability to conceptualize of hypothesis testing, deductive reasoning, and planning of what to do and how to achieve it.
All adolescent [post-puberty until 19] and adults are formal operational.
What did Piaget think was the epitome of abstract thinking?
scientific thinking
What can kids do in the sensorimotor stage? What can they not do?
Can:
Perceive the world and their bodies. Form schemas. Assimilate and accommodate.
Cannot:
Abstract thought of any kind
Know that things exist outside of perception
Reversibility
Counterfactual Rules
Hypothesis testing or scientific thinking
What can kids do in the pre-operational stage? What can they not do?
Can:
Have basic schemas of how the world works, including that things in immediate perception are not only things that exist.
Cannot:
Reversibility
Counterfactual Rules
Hypothesis testing or scientific thinking
What can kids in the concrete operational stage do? What can they not do?
Can:
More advanced abstract thought, including reversibility.
Cannot:
Counterfactual Rules
Hypothesis testing or scientific thinking
What can kids in the formal operational stage do?
fully abstract thought
What are modern theories on cognitive development?
Modern theories of cognitive development are varied and there are many active debates and disagreements about how children learn.
Is there consensus on how cognitive development actually unfolds?
no
What are three parts of modern theories that contrast with Piaget’s approach?
Tasks: Modern approaches believe Piaget did not make his tasks sufficiently well for children’s actual capabilities, thereby under-estimating what they can do.
Stages: Most researchers today think of development as fluid and non-universal.
Early Abstract Thought: Modern research shows abstract thought in very young
children and infants. (people think that kids are capable of abstract thought even as babies)
What do modern theories think are the 2 main problems with Piagetean tasks and games?
Leading questions: many Piagetian tasks are structured in ways where children are asked the same question twice, making children believe that they answered incorrectly the first time and changing their answer even if they don’t believe it to be right. (the experimenter doesn’t say that they are right or wrong, they just change it. This resembles a teaching moment. Kids are very sensitive to this so they might think you are trying to teach us something because they think they got it wrong the first time)
Motor and Perceptual Development: many tasks, especially A-not-B, require stronger motor development that young infants have. Maybe they want to reach, but just can’t? (Piaget did not properly estimate what kids are capable of in terms of motor development)
How is object permanence tested today?
with looking time measures which
consistently reveal that infants do have object permanence:
When infants are shown an object move behind the wall, they are very surprised when it fails to peek out from the hole in the wall even though, the moment the object disappears, they should have no expectations about it continuing to exist. (hands are one of the last things to develop in terms of motor control so it may be that a kid cannot lift the blanket so they don’t try.)
What have researchers done to remove leading questions in the conservation tasks?
researchers can have the child watch the transformation that another child (or stuffed animal) did not see.
When the child is asked to tell to another child (or stuffed animal) if the liquid/number is the same or different, preschoolers correctly say “the same” even after the transformation.
Therefore: the original tasks likely had kids change their answer because the experimenter asked the same question again for apparently no reason.
does modern research show that children go through ordered stages?
no
What is domain specificity?
children develop some very abstract abilities early (e.g., language skills) but other ones very slowly (e.g., spatial navigation) despite a comparable level of abstraction required. (the fact that there can be unequal evidence of the development of different domains of abstract thought suggests that Piaget was wrong about the stage aspect)
What is domain specificity?
children develop some very abstract abilities early (e.g., language skills) but other ones very slowly (e.g., spatial navigation) despite a comparable level of abstraction required. (the fact that there can be unequal evidence of the development of different domains of abstract thought suggests that Piaget was wrong about the stage aspect)
What are the cross cultural effects of stage development?
children’s development varies widely across cultures; in cultures where children are taught to hunt from an early age, their spatial navigation develops substantially faster than in cultures where they do not. (people in the west develop spatial navigation slowly, but in other cultures, it develops substantially faster. Suggesting these stages are not universal and kids can accelerate through some abilities and not others.)
Can babies reason about abstract concepts? Which ones, how?
yes.
Physics of objects: if a baby is shown an object that is impossibly balanced, they will be surprised and stare at the object longer.
Morality: babies as young as six months understand the concept of “nice” vs. “bad” guy and gravitate towards nice ones.
Number: newborns have been shown to be able to represent and think about numbers approximately, as well as roughly add, subtract, and even multiply.
What idea has most modern psychology gone beyond the idea of?
While Piaget has been deeply influential, most modern psychology research has gone beyond the idea of children as purely perceptual beings and as going through a series of stages.
What are 3 things that modern theories of cognitive development all agree on?
Children can learn in varied and unpredictable ways.
Babies and young children know much more about the world that we ever
thought.
Children can go beyond their perception and use logical thinking much earlier than we ever expected.
What is language? What is it for?
Language: a system of thinking and communicating that combines arbitrary symbols (e.g., words or gestures) in a rule-based way to generate meaning:
Language is for communicating (external) but also for thinking (internal).
Are the symbols used in a language arbitrary? How does this relate to learning a language.
yes. (i.e., there is nothing particularly
dog-like about the word “dog”).
This makes language very flexible but it also makes it really difficult to learn because you have to learn so many random associations
Do symbols in language have to be verbal?
no. The symbols can be verbal, written, gestural, etc. Sign language is as much a language as spoken language is.
What are the 4 distinct levels that language can be though of through?
Phonemes: The basic building blocks (e.g., sounds) out of which words are constructed.
Syntax: The grammatical rules that we follow to construct meaning from words
Semantics: The meaning that we derive from complete sentences
Pragmatics: The “extra-linguistic” inferences we make from the manner in which we say sentences.
What are phonemes? Example? Are they tied to letters?
the basic building blocks (e.g., sounds) out of which words are
constructed.
For example, English has around 44 unique sounds/phonemes (20 vowels and 24 consonants) out of which we construct all words. (these sounds are not tied to letters which is why we have so many vowel sounds)
Do different languages differ in their sets of phonemes? Examples?
yes.
English lacks a “retroflex /d/” sound which is present in languages like Hindi.
English doesn’t use “non-pulmonic consonants” (click sounds) which are very common in many African languages.
English doesn’t use “uvular consonants”, which push the sound further back the throat or into the nose, which are very common in Arabic and other Middle- Eastern languages.
English doesn’t use “trill consonants”, like rolling /r/ sounds.
What is syntax?
the grammatical rules that we follow to construct meaning out of
words.
What are 2 differences in the syntax of language?
Word Order: English is a “Subject/Verb/Object” language (e.g., “John kicked the dog”) while many others (e.g., Japanese, Korean, Latin) are “Subject/Object/Verb” languages (e.g., “John dog kicked”).
Morphology: some languages, like English, mark for tense or number by adding “morphemes” at the ends of words (e.g., table/tables, clean/cleaned/cleaning). Other languages mark for these properties by introducing entirely new words (e.g., in Malay, you pluralize by repeating the word).
What is semantics?
the meanings that we derive from words and complete
sentences.
How can meaning differ between languages? (2 things)
Languages can all express the same meanings at the sentence-level. But languages vary at which meanings they carry as words:
Spatial terms: languages like Korean differentiate between spatial terms that refer to things fitting tightly together.
Color words: while some languages have hundreds of words for different colours, some languages only have 2 or 4 (roughly mapping to cool vs. warm colour).
What is pragmatics?
the “extra-linguistic” inferences we make from the manner in which we say sentences, or from information that we choose to include or exclude. (sarcasm falls into the idea of pragmatics)
What is language acquisition?
the developmental process through which a child learns their first language, and masters all four levels from phonemes to pragmatics. (the process that children go through to master their language)
What is production/comprehension Asymmetry?
children begin understanding/comprehending the language they are learning earlier than they start producing their own sentences.
Language acquisition is usually about when children begin understanding, not when they begin speaking. (Most of the time when we are talking about language acquisition we are talking about the comprehension part. We often would not assess someones syntax or semantics we see if they respond appropriately to a sentence)
When does phonetic development occur?
Phonetic development occurs extremely early:
In utero: by the fifth month of pregnancy, fetuses have a developed auditory system that can listen and begin identifying the phonemes of the languages that are spoken around the baby.
What is perceptual narrowing?
babies initially can perceptually hear all possible phonemes, but their perceptual systems slowly change to learn only those spoken by their language community.
Is real speech fluid? What does this mean? What does it suggest?
yes. we don’t leave gaps between words when we speak. (we can only tell where different words end and begin because of our comprehension of the language. You can’t learn the syntax of language until you learn what the words are and you can’t learn what those are until you have learned the syntax.
What is statistical learning? How does this relate to babies?
a learning mechanism that identifies which things tend to co-occur/follow each other very often, and which do not. Things that co- occur together frequently are assumed to be meaningful.
Babies are powerful statistical learners: they listen to fluid speech and detect which phonemes are occurring together again and again, and infer that common co-occurences are word boundaries.
we all have this but it is especially prevalent in infancy. As soon as they know what phonemes exist in their language, they can figure out patterns for how they occur together, to make inferences that things that co occur togethet are liekly to be words
What are words? Example?
Words are consistent patterns of phonemes: e.g., the sounds “pre” then
“ty” go together more often that “ty” then “pre”
this is a reliable pattern. Also, before mostnouns we use a word like “the “ so we understand that the is a marker that helps us identify that the following word is a noun
What is overgeneralization? Example? What does this show?
a common developmental phenomena whereby children
temporarily apply a syntactic rule to words that they shouldn’t:
When learning past tense, many children will say “I eated him” or “I goed to the store”; when learning plurals, children will say words that they have never heard from adults or those around them (e.g., “mouses” instead of “mice”).
This shows that children are learning syntactic rules and not just imitating what they have heard around them.
what are kids producing in terms of language at age 2? What do we believe about word acquisition in 7 year olds?
By age 2, most children are producing two-word utterances (“food please”),
and by age 3 most children can produce 3-4 word complete sentences.
By most estimates, by the time they are seven, children know well over 20,000 words and are learning about 10 – 20 words/day.
What is fast-mapping?
young children map a word to a meaning after only a single exposure.
what 2 special strategies does learning words acquire?
Fast Mapping: young children map a word to a meaning after only a single exposure.
Mutual Exclusivity: children assume that every object has only a single word, and therefore assume that a word they have never heard before goes with something they don’t know what to call. (eventually children will have to lose some of this in order to be more flexible with synonyms etc. )
Do children struggle with pragmatics? Why? When do they start to udnerstand?
Because pragmatics require a deep knowledge of not only what sentences mean but what they could mean, children struggle with pragmatics of language until they are around 7 – 9 years old, often taking the meanings of sentences too literally
What is bilingualism? How popular is it?
being proficient in speaking and comprehending two (or more) languages.
More than 50% of the world’s population is bilingual.
In Canada, 18% of households report regularly speaking at least two languages at
home.
How can bilingualism be challenging?
Bilingualism is a unique challenge for children, who must now find a way to learn the phonetics/syntax/semantics of two different languages (“L1” and “L2”).
