Developmental

Question 1

Cortex

Answer 1

The outer covering of the brain. Responsible for thinking/cognition

Question 2

Cerebellum

Answer 2

Looks like a miniature brain. Responsible for the co-ordination of movement e.g. balance

Question 3

Thalamus

Answer 3

Deep inside the brain. Hub of information. Responsible for receiving and sending signals

Question 4

Brain Stem

Answer 4

Connects the brain to the spinal cord. Carries motor and sensory nerves between brain and the rest if the body

Question 5

What is nature (when it comes to brain development)?

Answer 5

Genetic influences and characteristics you inherit from your ancestors

Question 6

What is nurture (when it comes to brain development)?

Answer 6

Refers to all influences other than genetics - external influences e.g. influences e.g. how you were raised, your experience and your environment in general

Question 7

Examples of nurture factors that affect brain development

Answer 7

Smoking in pregnancy - smaller babies/smaller brains
High alcohol intake in pregnancy - possible fetal alcohol syndrome
German measles in pregnancy - can cause brain damage
Reading/singing whilst pregnant - babies recognise mother’s voice when born

Question 8

Evidence that we are born with certain abilities (nature factors)

Answer 8

Babies can recognise faces at birth (compared to non faces, they look at faces for a longer amount of time)
Some studies show that identical twins have a similar IQ (intelligence), showing that they are born with this.

Question 9

Who was Piaget?

Answer 9

Swiss Psychologist who carried out research in child development in the early 1900s
Changed the way we view children

Question 10

What was Piaget’s basic theory?

Answer 10

Children’s cognitive development occurs in stages
Children think differently to adults
Children do not think logically
Children interact with the world to learn about the world
Adults can help support the children with their learning (by assisting - not doing everything for them)

Question 11

What is cognitive development?

Answer 11

How a person’s thinking develops

Question 12

What is a schema?

Answer 12

A mental structure containing the information we have about something e.g. what a dog is

Question 13

What is assimilation?

Answer 13

A form of learning that takes places when we add new information to an existing schema (if the thing we come across is pretty similar to the schema we have) e.g. spaniels and labs look different but are still dogs

Question 14

What is accommodation?

Answer 14

A form of learning that takes place when we come across something that does not fit into our existing schema, so we create an entirely new schema in order to cope e.g. even though a cat has 4 legs and a tail it does not fit into a ‘dog’ schema so a new ‘cat’ schema is made.

Question 15

What is conservation?

Answer 15

Knowing that the amount of something stays the same even though its appearance may change

Piaget said that children can conserve at around 7 years of age

Question 16

Describe McGarrigle and Donaldson’s (1974) study

Answer 16

Aim: to see if children can conserve earlier that Piaget thought
Procedure:
80 4-6 year old Edinburgh children
2 rows of 4 counters
Deliberate condition where experimenter messed one of the rows up and Accidental condition when a ‘naughty’ teddy accidentally messed the row of counters up
Children asked before and after in both conditions ‘“Is
there more in this row, this row or are they the same?”
Findings:
41% got it right in the deliberate condition
68% got it right in the accidental/naughty teddy condition
Older children could conserve more
Conclusions:
Piaget underestimated children’s abilities/his methods did not show how children could conserve. However the fact that more older children conserved shows Piaget was right that thinking changes as we get older

Question 17

Evaluate Donaldson and McGarrigle’s study (sample)

Answer 17

One weakness of the study has sample bias
because all of the children who took part
were from the same area (Edinburgh). The
reason the older children did better than
the younger children might be due to
differences in their educational
background.

Question 18

Evaluate Donaldson and McGarrigle’s study (individual differences)

Answer 18

Over 30% of children still failed to
conserve when shown the naughty teddy
which means that individual differences
must be taken into account. When
replicated by a different psychologist
results were not as high as McGarrigle and
Donaldson had found.

Question 19

What is Egocentrism?

Answer 19

Not being able to see things from another person’s point of view

Question 20

Sensorimotor stage 0-2 years

Answer 20

Children learn about the world through their senses (sensori-) and by doing things (motor) co-ordinated by the cerebellum. Child develops object permanence at
around 8 months old (knowing that object still exists even when it is out of sight).

Question 21

Preoperational stage 2-7 years

Answer 21

Children are now more mobile but do not think in a consistently logical way. The
main feature of this stage is that children are egocentric. Children under 7 years
tend to view the world only from their own perspective (e.g. three mountain task).

Question 22

Concrete operational stage 7-11 years

Answer 22

Children now perform better on tasks which tests for egocentrism i.e. they understand others’ perspectives. They also develop the ability to conserve (e.g.
liquid conservation experiment). Children still struggle to imagine objects or situations they cannot see.

Question 23

Formal operational stage 11+ years

Answer 23

Children are able to focus on the form of an argument and not be distracted by its content. Children can now solve problems in systematic ways e.g. the pendulum
task by keeping the length of string the same whilst changing the weights rather than changing both at the same time.

Question 24

Object permanence

Answer 24

Knowing that objects exist even when they are out of sight

Question 25

Piaget’s Three Mountains Task

Answer 25

Piaget had models of three mountains - one with a church on top, one with snow on top and one with a house on top. The child sat at one side of the set of mountains and the doll was placed elsewhere. The child was asked what the doll could see (which mountain). Below the age of 7, the child usually said what they could see instead of the doll, this showed that younger children tended to be egocentric

Question 26

Strength of Piaget’s Cognitive Development theory (evidence)

Answer 26

There is evidence to support the view that
children go through stages of cognitive
development as they get older. For example,
in the research it suggests that children do
change the way in which they think as they
get older. This is a strength of Piaget’s
theory as it seems that the overall concept of
stages in cognitive development is correct.

Question 27

Strength of Piaget’s Cognitive development theory (impact on education)

Answer 27

Piaget’s research has had a major impact on
early years education and his methods of
testing children can be easily replicated. For
example, his experiments were new and fun
and used simple resources that people could
repeat themselves
This is a strength because it shows how the
theory can be applied to real-life and many of
his ideas are still used today.

Question 28

Limitation of Piaget’s cognitive development theory (sample)

Answer 28

Piaget’s theory is based on data collected
from small samples of children. For
example, Piaget used his own children
within his research.
This means that the sample is
unrepresentative and there could be
researcher bias.

Question 29

Limitation of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development (underestimated children)

Answer 29

Piaget seemed to over-estimate what
older children are capable of. For
example, Piaget suggested that by the
age of 11 children should be able to think
in abstract way. However, research has
gone against this. This suggests that
Piaget was optimistic about what children
of 11 could do in the formal operational
stage (some may never actually reach it).

Question 30

Hughes’ Policeman Doll Study

Answer 30

Aim: To see if children can see things from another person’s point of view earlier than Piaget said
Procedure: The model consisted of 2 intersecting walls that made the shape of a cross. A policeman doll was placed a one point in the model and the child was asked to place a boy doll in the model so the policeman could not see the doll. The children were allowed to practice and make mistakes before the real experiment began. Hughes then introduced another policeman doll to make it more challenging.
Findings: 90% of children were successful
Conclusion: Younger children were less egocentric than Piaget thought

Question 31

Evaluation of Hughes’ policeman doll study (sample)

Answer 31

One weakness of the study has sample bias
because all of the children who took part were
from the same area (Edinburgh). The reason the
older children did better than the younger
children might be due to differences in their
educational background.

Question 32

Evaluation of Hughes’ policeman doll study (researcher hint)

Answer 32

One weakness is that the researcher might have
unconsciously hinted about the correct answer.
The person doing the study with the children
might have given subtle clues about where the
boy doll could be hidden. Researcher sometimes
do this without realising, they might be staring
at the correction section.

Question 33

Dweck (2007)

Answer 33

The key difference between those who succeed and those who do not is mindset

Question 34

What is readiness according to Piaget?

Answer 34

Children can only learn to do certain things when they are biologically ready

Question 35

What is ‘learning by discovery’ according to Piaget?

Answer 35

Children are not passive learners, they need to interact with the world to learn about it. Teachers need to create an environment so the learners can assimilate and accommodate

Question 36

How can Piaget’s theory be applied to real life?

Answer 36

Children can be given the correct environment at home or school to help with their learning e.g. sensory toys in the sensory motor stage or role play and dressing up in the pre-operational stage

Question 37

FIXED MINDSET

Answer 37

Believing that achievements are due to abilities
we are born with.

If you can’t do something, there is no point trying again because you simply don’t have the ability.

If you have a fixed mindset, you give up after
failing.

Question 38

GROWTH MINDSET

Answer 38

Believing that achievements are due to abilities
we develop over time.

If you can’t do something, you should practice because you will eventually succeed. If you have a growth mindset, you see failure as a challenge to try again.

Question 39

One strength of Dweck’s mindset theory of learning is that there is evidence to support it . . .

Answer 39

There is evidence that a growth mindset leads to better grades.
Dweck found that seventh graders taught a growth mindset had better grades and motivation than a group who were just taught about memory.
This suggests that this approach can improve performance.

Question 40

One limitation of Dweck’s mindset theory of learning is that using any sort of praise may be bad . . .

Answer 40

The idea of praising people’s effort still leads to them doing things for approval from others rather than doing it for themselves.

Growth mindset can therefore discourage the type of independent behaviour it is trying to promote

Question 41

What is the positive effect of praise?

Answer 41

Praise is a reward and makes someone feel good so they repeat behaviours. Praise must fit performance and not be used for everything.

Question 42

What does ‘praise effort rather than performance’ mean?

Answer 42

Praising effort is motivating – it gives a sense of control as people can always put in more effort. Praising others for their performance is demotivating especially when you can’t compete

Question 43

What is the definition of Self-efficacy?

Answer 43

This is understanding your own abilities which is related to expectations you have about future performance. Experiencing success is important and opportunities should be provided by parents and teachers

Question 44

What is the effect of self-efficacy on motivation?

Answer 44

Self-efficacy affects motivation because if it is high you will put in greater effort, persist longer, have greater task performance and more resilience than if you think you can’t do it.

Question 45

Evaluation for the role of ‘praise’ in learning . . .

Answer 45

One weakness with using praise to encourage learning is that it can have the opposite effect.
Research by Lepper found that children were less interested in doing a task if they had previously been rewarded for it.
This suggests that praise can be demotivating

Question 46

Evaluation for the role of self-efficacy in learning

Answer 46

A strength is that support for self-efficacy comes from research into the stereotype effect.

Steele and Aronson found that African-American students scored lower on an IQ test if they had to indicate their race beforehand.

This suggests that their performance was affected by how they expected to do, supporting the theory of self-efficacy.

Question 47

What is a learning style?

Answer 47

People differ in how they learn.

Matching teaching to a student’s learning style should improve learning

Question 48

What is a verbaliser learning style?

Answer 48

A person who prefers to process information through
words and sounds, i.e. listening to a teacher or
reading

Question 49

What is a visualiser learning style?

Answer 49

A person who prefers to process information through

pictures, diagrams and colour, i.e. making posters.

Question 50

What is a kinaesthetic learner

Answer 50

A ‘hands-on’ learner, preferring active exploration, making things and experimenting.

They prefer physical activities rather than watching others or reading.

Question 51

One problem with the ‘learning styles’ theory of learning is that it lacks support . . .

Answer 51

Massa and Mayer (2006) found no evidence for the idea that different methods should be used for different learning styles, this challenge the credibility of the theory.

Question 52

One problem with the ‘learning styles theory of learning is that people may be a mixture . . .

Answer 52

Not everyone fits into one learning style 100%. Some people are mixture of two learning
styles, such as visual-verbal.

Question 53

What is Willingham’s learning theory?

Answer 53

Willingham criticises the theory of learning styles because of a lack of scientific evidence.

Scientific research results from cognitive psychology and neuroscience can be used to improve learning.

Question 54

How does Willingham think that praise should be used to be effective in learning?

Answer 54

Praising effort should be unexpected.

Lepper et al. found that, if performance depends on praise, a person works to get the praise rather than to feel good.

Question 55

Willingham stated that we need to use cognitive psychology research to help us understand learning . . .

Answer 55

Memory research has found that forgetting often occurs because of a lack of the right cues (Tulving and Psotka).

People should practise retrieving information from memory (Roediger and Karpicke).

Question 56

How does Willingham think that self-regulation helps with learning?

Answer 56

Self-control or self-regulation is being able to control your behaviour: your emotions, attention and cognitive processes. This has been assessed with the marshmallow test.

Linked to better school progress (Shoda et al.).

Question 57

How does Willingham think that knowledge about neuroscience helps with effective learning?

Answer 57

Brain waves in children and adults with dyslexia are different from those in people without dyslexia.

If a specific pattern is associated with dyslexia they could receive help earlier, which will benefit progress (Willingham and Lloyd).

Question 58

One strength of Willingham’s learning theory is that there is evidence to support it . . .

Answer 58

A strength 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.

Question 59

One strength of Willingham’s learning theory is that it has real world application . . .

Answer 59

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).