early conceptions of the physical world

Question 1

what is Piaget’s constructivist theory of physical knowledge?

Answer 1

action is necessary for children to construct their own knowledge

so later development of conceptual understanding of objects

Question 2

what is Spelke and Baillargeon’s nativist theory of physical knowledge?

Answer 2

core knowledge hypothesis

infants possess innate knowledge of object concepts

Question 3

what are the core principles of object knowledge?

Answer 3

solidity
cohesion
contact
continuity

Question 4

what is solidity?

Answer 4

no two objects can occupy the same space at one time

Question 5

what is cohesion?

Answer 5

objects are connected masses of stuff that move as a whole

Question 6

what is contact?

Answer 6

objects move through contact- not spontaneously

Question 7

what is continuity?

Answer 7

objects move in continuous paths

Question 8

what does developmental change involve in nativism?

Answer 8

refine core concepts and further changes to additional abilities

Question 9

what is Karmiloff-Smith (1992) theory of physical knowledge?

Answer 9

midground between nativism and constructivism

genes initially channel attention to environmental inputs, leads to implicit understanding

change occurs from implicit to explicit knowledge

Question 10

what is object permanence?

Answer 10

awareness that objects continue to exist, even when they are no longer visible

Question 11

when does the Piagetian account suggest object permanence occurs?

Answer 11

late development
around 8-9 months

Question 12

why does Piaget suggest object permanence occurs later in development?

Answer 12

learn about the world through interacting with it

when infants are younger they do not do much interaction with the world

Question 13

what is evidence used when investigating object permanence?

Answer 13

A not B error

Question 14

what happens with the A not B error?

Answer 14

infant searches for a hidden object where they last found it (location A) rather than at its current location (location B)

Question 15

when does the A not B error occur?

Answer 15

8-12 months old

Question 16

what is the criticism for manual search tasks like the A not B task?

Answer 16

tasks could be underestimating infant’s knowledge

studies like eye tracking which don’t include manual reaching suggest earlier competencies

Question 17

what happened in Baillargeon et al (1985) drawbridge study?

Answer 17

infants were shown a screen which could rotate or remain stationary

behind the screen was a drawbridge which could rotate or stay in place

researchers observed infants reactions when the screen rotated to reveal a possible or impossible event based on the drawbridge’s movement

Question 18

what were the findings for Baillargeon et al (1985) drawbridge study?

Answer 18

from 5 months old, infants looked for longer at the impossible event

according to Baillargeon, findings show that infants understand that objects continue to exist when hidden from view

challenges Piaget’s conclusions, but for Piaget- he focused on action, just thinking things wasn’t enough for him

Question 19

what are alternative explanations for the drawbridge study?

Answer 19

perceptual persistence- in order to have object permenance, must represent an object in their head
maybe when they watched the drawbridge rise, didn’t think about its existence just its linger activity

preference for events which display more motion

Question 20

what happened in Baillargeon’s 1986 study into a block on the track?

Answer 20

block on the track

truck seemed to go through to the other side- impossible event

spent longer looking at this

cannot be explained by lingering activation

Question 21

what happened in Baillargeon 1987 third study of permanence and solidity?

Answer 21

shown a squashy and hard object

7.5 month old infants represented the properties of hidden objects

infants looked for longer at the impossible event (object going through hard object)

Question 22

what happened in Spelke et al 1992 impossible event study?

Answer 22

ball was dropped onto a platform behind a screen

when the screen was raised, the ball was on the floor

more children aged 2.5 years than 2 years searched for the upper cup (where the ball should be)

Question 23

what are search errors?

Answer 23

discrepancy between early looking data and later search errors

infants have knowledge, but are unable to use it to guide their actions

Question 24

what are the possible reasons for search errors?

Answer 24

children have:
limited problem solving abilities

frontal cortex immaturity

weaker memory representations

early representations are implicit

Question 25

who proposed a model of cognitive development?

Answer 25

Karmiloff-Smith (1992)

Question 26

what model of cognitive development did Karmiloff-Smith propose?

Answer 26

implicit, procedural knowledge (in the mind)

representational re-description

explicit, declarative knowledge (available to the mind)

Question 27

what is our understanding of support and gravity?

Answer 27

gradual mastery over the first year of life

increased sophistication

impacted by the role of experience of playing with and placing objects

Question 28

how does elaboration of core knowledge occur?

Answer 28

at their first go of understanding physical events, infants construct all or none representations

these capture the essence of events, but few of the details

with more experience, these core representations are progressively elaborated

Question 29

what are children’s naive theories?

Answer 29

conceptual frameworks children spontaneously generate to make explanations and predictions about the world

include simplifications and misunderstandings

resistant to counter evidence- hard to convince children that these aren’t true

Question 30

what is the gravity error?

Answer 30

children infer that the trajectory of the invisibly falling object will be straight down

Question 31

who investigated the gravity error?

Answer 31

tubes task- Hood, 1995

Question 32

what is the naive physical theory?

Answer 32

thought that all objects must balance in the centre

Question 33

who investigated the naive theory that all things must balance in the centre?

Answer 33

Karmiloff-Smith, 1992

Question 34

what does U shaped performance mean for naive physical theories?

Answer 34

children have better performance when they are younger and older, middle period where they do worse

4-5 year olds perform well by trial and error

6-7 year olds rigidly stick to a naive centre theory of balance and fail the task

8-9 year olds are flexible and switch strategy when evidence contradicts their centre theory

Question 35

when do children begin to think about objects being used for a purpose?

Answer 35

around 1 years old
-begin to show correct use of everyday objects
-play with objects functionally

Question 36

how did Hunnius and Bekkering (2010) investigate when knowledge of object use occurs?

Answer 36

used an anticipatory looking technique to find out if 6 to 16 month olds have expectations about how a number of everyday objects are used

showed conventional and unconventional ways of how we use an object

from 6 months, looked more when the object was used quickly