Domain One - Cognitive Development from Birth Through Adolescence Flashcards
Conservation
Conceptual tool that allows a child to recognize that when altering the appearance of an object, the basic properties do not change
**young children can mistake this because of how things appear
Assimilation
The way children incorporate new information with existing schemes in order to form a new cognitive structure
Fitting new knowledge into an existing schema
Example: a little kid calls a lion “doggie” because they only know that type of four-legged animal
Accommodation
Children take existing schemes and adjust them to fit their experience
Accommodate new information to fit the experience
Example: kid plays keys on a piano to hear different noises, then tries an electric keyboard and quickly learns that it must be turned on before it is played
Piaget’s Cognitive Learning Process
All thinking begins at a Balanced Mental State of Equilibrium —> child receives new information —> child adapts new information assimilation; child adapts new information accommodation —> new thought (schema) is formed
Four Assumptions of Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
- Children are organically inspired to think, learn, comprehend
- Children see the world differently than adults
- Children’s knowledge is ordered into mental structures called schemas
- All learning consists of assimilation and accommodation
Stage One: Sensorimotor period (infancy: birth-2 years)
Behavior is based upon the infant’s physical responses to immediate surroundings
Mentally organize and perceive the world through their sensory systems
Discover that physical reflexes have an impact on the world around them (reflexive actions to representational (symbolic) thought
Egocentrism (center of the universe)
Stage 2: Preoperational period (early childhood: 2-7)
Development of symbolic thought and imagination is boundless
Around age 5, “why?” Questions attempt to explain the world
Reason intuitively, representational thought
Still making mistakes in spoken language
Stories, songs, nursery rhymes are loved at this age
Independent and cooperative play is important
Language increases rapidly; learning new words every day
Stage 3: Concrete Operations Period (Middle Childhood: 7-11)
Child is able to solve simple problems while thinking about multiple dimensions of information
Metacognition (think about thinking)
Understand the world through trial and error
Cannot yet think abstractly, but they understand the distinction between appearance and reality if presented in terms of tangible objects
Ability to set own values as they become more subjective in moral judgments
Stage 4: Formal Operations Period (Adolescence: 12-adult)
Mental transformations are logical and continue to progress
Marked by ability to reason abstractly and solve complex problems, expanding possibilities for understanding the world
Have the ability to perform hypothetical-deductive reasoning and can integrate what they have learned in the past to consider many future possibilities
Educational Implications of Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
- Provides an alternative to behavior theorists’ belief that children are merely passive learners; they actively move through operational stages
- There are predictable and orderly developmental accomplishments; can be tested at each stage to verify their level of cognitive understanding
- Children’s minds seek a state of equilibrium; each stage, children form a new way to operate and adapt to the world
- Teachers can avoid presenting material in the classroom that is beyond the child’s cognitive ability
Animism
Believing that no living objects have lifelike qualities; can be demonstrated in imaginary friends (preoperational, ages 2-4)
Example: rain = the sky is pouring water on me
Causal Reasoning (causality)
Preschool = children cannot think in cause and effect, believe their thoughts can cause actions, with or without a causal relationship, reason by transduction reasoning (preoperational)
Changes over time
- level one (age 3): reality is defined by appearance
- level two (age 5): child appeals to an all-powerful force
- level three (age 7): child appeals to causes in nature
- level four (age 10): child now approaches an adult explanation
Centration
Tendency for a child to focus on only one piece of information while disregarding the rest of it (preoperational)
Egocentrism
Until around age 5, young children cannot differentiate between their own perspectives and feelings, and someone else’s
Equilibrium
Development is motivated by the search for a stable balance (equilibrium) toward effective adaptations
Three phases:
- Children begin in a state of balance
- Thought changes and conflict emerges
- Through assimilation and accommodation, a more sophisticated mode of thought arises
Irreversibility
Make errors in their thinking because they cannot understand that an operation moves in more than one direction
Cannot understand that the original state can be recovered
Example: if a child has a ball of clay that is given back flattened, they may think they were given less back
Metacognition
Child’s awareness of knowing about one’s knowledge]helps children plan their own problem-solving strategies (concrete operations)
Object Permanence
Recognition that objects and events continue to exist even when they are not visible; usually starts at about eight months old
Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning
Formulating a specific hypothesis from any given general theory (formal operations)
The ability to form ideas about “what might be”; this is done by mentally forming a logical and systematic plan to work out the right solution after considering all the possible consequences
Example: noticing only tall kids get picked for bball, short kid deduces that he will not be picked for bball
Inductive Reasoning
Drawing conclusions from specific examples to make a general conclusion, even when the conclusion is not accurate (concrete operations)
Example: all balls on the playground are round, concludes all balls are round (not true, football)
