Early Childhood Cognitive Development Flashcards
Development during early childhood:
Period of considerable growth and change
- type of skill commonly developed
- brain size by age 5
- reason for age related advance in children …
- motor skills (see table 7.1 for description of stages)
- by age 5, children’s brain weighs 90% of average adult brain
- maturation of prefrontal cortex = reason for age related advance in children
Information processing theory: MEMORY
cognitive growth allows mastery of deliberate strategies like… (4)
Understand memory as… (2)
Metamemory (definition)
5 year olds are aware that (5 things about memory)
Cognitive growth allows mastery of deliberate strategies:
- organisation
- labelling
- rehearsal
- elaboration
Understand memory as a goal in itself as part of a motivated meaningful activity
Metamemory = understanding memory and its limitations (young children often naive to limitations of own memory)
5 year olds are aware that:
- it’s easier to remember previously learned information than new
- a lot of items are harder to remember than a few
- noise distracts memory
- adults remember better than babies
- others can assist recall
- longer study time benefits memory
Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development
- sensorimotor
- Preoperational
- concrete operations
- formal operations
(Age and description)
Sensorimotor stage: (birth to 2 yrs) knowing by sensing/acting
Preoperarional stage: (2-7 years) concept formation, symbolic reasoning
Concrete operations: (7-11yrs) logical operations on concrete objects and events
Formal operations (12 yrs +) abstracts, analogies, metaphors, hypothetical reasoning
Definition of:
Cognitive equilibrium
If threatened/challenged how do we get back to equilibrium again? (3 - assimilation, accommodation, equilibration)
Cognitive conflict - arguments with peers can lead to _______
^ hence social disagreements can facilitate _____
Cognitive equilibrium - state of mental balance
If threatened/challenged how do we achieve equilibrium again?
- assimilation = incorporate new events into existing schemas
- accommodation = change schema
- equilibration = dialectical struggle between processes of assimilation and accommodation
Cognitive conflict - arguments with peers can lead to disequilibration of thought processes
^ hence social disagreements can facilitate higher levels of understanding
Cognitive changes during early childhood
6 things that happen in early childhood Preoperational stage
- characterised by symbolic thinking
- mental reasoning
- use of concepts
- less dependence on sensorimotor activity for understanding
- intuition thinking rather than logical
- egocentric: inability to distinguish between between own and others perspective
Preoperational thinking
Piaget’s theory
Transductive reasoning (meaning)
Adults use: - induction - deduction - abduction (definition for each)
Piaget: pre schoolers use distinct format logic = transductive reasoning
Transductive reasoning = search for explanation is limited to salient details of situation.
In contrast, adults use:
INDUCTION - series of specific instances implies a general rule
DEDUCTION - specific proposition is inferred from general fact/principle
ABDUCTION - logical inference from observation to a theory which accounts for the observation (find simplest and most likely explanation)
Key development
- key development (definition)
- belief and reality (children’s realisation)
Symbolic function: ability to use symbols, words, objects to represent something not physically present. (Symbolic function is directly related to language acquisition)
Belief and reality: between 3 - 6 children come to realise that thoughts may not reflect reality.
Piaget’s constraints to Preoperational thinking
CENTRATION (meaning)
^ major characteristic of…
^ focus on appearance, child ….
^ major limitation
^ problems arise when visual….
CENTRATION = concentrating on one limited aspect of situation and ignore other aspect
^ major characteristic of Preoperational thought
^ focus on appearance: child ignores all attributes that aren’t apparent
^ major limitation = leads to inaccuracy of thought
> > > problems arise when the visual image dominates child’s thinking
Obstacles to logical operation
Logical operation meaning:
Obstacles:
Irreversibility (definition)
Conservation (definition)
^^ + eg
Logical operation: static reasoning and perception as series of (static) “snapshots”
Irreversibility - inability to recognise that something can sometimes be restored to the way it was before change occurred.
Conservation - learning that appearances are deceiving
^ the Preoperational child doesn’t understand conservation
E.g. - the knowledge that quantity is unrelated to arrangement and physical appearance of objects
Developing conservation understanding (3 stages)
Definition of each:
- no conservation
- on / off conservation
- complete conservation
\+ required concept of ....
Piaget’s (short) theory of conservation development
- No conservation = quantity is judged on appearance
- On and off conservation = judgement wavers between perception and conservation
- Complete conservation = children provide explanations with answers and may show surprise at “obvious” questioning = concrete operational thinking
^^^ requires concept of reversibility
Piaget: conservation skills are acquired gradually = horizontal decalage
Egocentrism
- general theory
- Piaget’s theory
Aspect of intellectual development
General theory: inability to take on the perspective of others into account:
1) from lack of awareness that others see things from different physical perspectives OR 2) failure to realise that others may hold thoughts, feelings and points of view different from own
Piaget theory: child’s tendency to think about world from entirely his/her perspective. Not intentional or inconsiderate - just a lack of understanding that everyone doesn’t view things like them
According to Piaget: Preoperational children can’t understand notions of TRANSFORMATION and REVERSIBILITY
- meanings
- why can’t they understand them
The process in which one state is changed into another
Children can’t understand because they’re unable to understand/fill in sequences of change and to reverse the process.
According to Piaget: key intellectual limitations during pre operational phase are….. (3)
- inability to decentre = focus (centre) on dominant aspects of situation
- difficulty following transformation and reversal
- egocentrism = see world from their perspective and interpret actions from their perspective
Critics of Piaget’s child studies argue that…
- cognition develops in…
- training improves…..
- Piaget focussed too much on children’s….
- idea of pragmatics in experiments
- cognition develops in continuous manner, not in stages
- training improves performance on conservation tasks
• Piaget focused too much on deficiencies of young children’s thought by:
> designing experiments to reveal what children seemed not to understand rather than identify what they could understand
> relied on child’s words rather than the child’s non verbal signs in play context
• idea of pragmatics of questioning where children are asked the same question twice - children might wonder why an adult would ask the same question again if they were right the first time - and then change their answer
Removing the pragmatic bias - Naughty Teddy
- what was the experiment
- what did they compare
- what were the findings/results
- Donaldson suggests that children…. (3) - in relation to experiment
- recap: when alteration is presented in a way that…..
Naughty teddy - teddy bear messed up an experiment by “accident” to provide context to why a child needed to answer question twice.
McGarrigle and Donaldson (1975) compared performance on “standard” and “accidental” version.
Results:
- when transformation was perceived as outside control of experimenter (accident) performance improved
- however performance on standard versions remained poor
Donaldson suggests that children:
- are sensitive to experimenter
- wants to please them and respond in an appropriate manner
- question phrasing biases response in children by introducing uncertainty
Recap: when alteration is presented in a way that provides meaningful context, performance improves.
The ability to “decentre” - Hiding from Policeman (Huges 1975)
- Piaget says that children under 9 would….
- experiment method
- questions perceptual….
- even in more complicated situations (results)
- underlines importance of ….
• Piaget says children under 9 should fail when in fact 90% of 3-5 year olds succeed.
Experiment was: asking children to hide a doll from a “policemen” within a room. They thought from the “police” point of view of where would be easily visible or easy to find.
- questions perceptual ability and abstractedness
- even with more complicated patterns (more policemen) 3 year olds still got 60% right and 4 year olds get 90% right
- underlines importance of context and meaning
Hiding from policemen experiment:
Piaget underestimated children’s ability - erroneous conclusions based on: (2)
- Verbal methods of interview (eg. Conservation) that rely on language measure»_space;> Donaldson considered: language abilities, perceived intent, meaning of situation to child.
- Not differentiating between performance (what we can accomplish on a given day) and competence (what we really know/can do)
Advances in thought occur in Preoperational stage:
- children begin to understand functionality (definition and example)
- cultural influence affect …
- social influence affect ….
• children begin to understand FUNCTIONALITY - the concept that actions events and outcomes are related (cause-effect relationships) to one another in fixed patterns.
E.g - pushing pedals moves bike faster but they may be unable to work out precise nature of relationship
- cultural beliefs affect extent of social influence - e.g. Tolerance of children disagreeing with peers/adults
- social influence: discussions with conserving peers enables early attainment of conservation
Vygotsky’s theory: taking culture into account
- culture and society affect
- cognition proceeds because/and is mediated by….
- children as apprentices
- guided participation
• culture and society influence cognitive development
• cognition proceeds because of and is mediated through social interactions
^ partners jointly work to solve problems
- children as apprentices: apprentices in thinking > a person whose cognition is stimulated and directed by older, more skilled members of society
- guided participation: process of people learning from others who guide their experiences and explorations
Vygotsky’s theory suggests that…
- development results from…
- cooperative learning is a strategy used in …
- reciprocal teaching helps lead students …
Development results from activities that involve interaction with others
- cooperative learning is a strategy used in education that incorporates several aspects of Vygotskys theory (kids work together to achieve goals)
- reciprocal teaching helps lead students through zone of proximal development
Cognition proceeds through…
- partnerships may be determined by (4 different factors/situations)
Social interactions in which partners jointly work together to solve problems
- the partnership may be determined by cultural and societal factors
^^ institutions that promote development (playgroups or preschools)
^^ emphasising certain tasks
^^ language
Vygotsky’s definitions of language (private speech) and social mediation
+ language and vocabulary
- age 2 word count
- age 6 word count and ability
Language - as a tool to manage pragmatics of social life via private speech and internal dialogue (talking to self either silently/out loud)
Social mediation - a function of speech by which a person’s cognitive skills are refined and extended through both formal instruction and casual conversation (in context)
Language and vocabulary:
Age 2: knows about 500 words
Age 6: knows about 10,000 words AND has ability to understand and discuss almost anything (social pragmatic theory)
Social cognition and theory of mind
+ theory of mind in deaf children
+ conversational partners and theory of mind
+ early development of theory of mind results from …
Social cognition - understanding of human behaviour, human perspective and social life.»_space;> children must realise that other people are not necessarily thinking the same thoughts as them.
Theory of mind - understanding how people’s mental states and their thoughts, feelings, and intentions influence behaviour»_space;> a person’s “theory” of what other people may be thinking
^^^ children with severe deafness or blindness may fail false belief tasks - but profoundly deaf children who are native signers develop theory of mind at the same time as hearing pre schoolers
^^^ diverse conversational partners (eg. Siblings) expands ones theory of mind
^^^ early development of theory of mind results from language and fluent conversation
Social play and cognitive development
- tied to _____ skills and theory of mind
- pretend play can promote ….
- high fantasy, imaginative children are more:
- provision of safe, warm home environment where fantasy is allowed optimises _____ and _____ development
Tied to language skills and theory of mind
- pretend play can promote conversation
- high fantasy, imaginative children are more: creative, verbally fluent, ingenious, flexible in story creation and demonstrate superior theory of mind
- provision of safe, warm home environment where fantasy is allowed optimises cognitive and social development
