Exam 2 Flashcards
- What is constructivism? Describe the two types of constructivism.
Paradigm in psychology that characterized learning as a process of actively constructing knowledge.
- Individual – a person constructs knowledge by using cognitive processes to gain knowledge from experience rather than by memorizing facts provided by others.
- Social – individuals construct knowledge though an interaction between the knowledge they bring to a situation and social/cultural exchanges.
- Define disequilibrium. Why does disequilibrium matter? Do we want disequilibrium?
- A discrepancy between their existing way of knowing and the new experiences. Matters because it motivates them to explore and to reach a conclusion that restores balance in their cognitive system. YES
- Name and describe the four stages in Piaget’s theory of development.
- Sensorimotor o Acquiring a capacity for internalized thinking is the central goal. o Object Permanence - Pre-operational o children develop semiotic functions An ability to represent an object or action with signs and symbols. o Egocentrism o Centration o Identity Constancy o Lack of conversation
- Concrete operational o Children form mental representations that accurately reflect possible actions and events in the physical world. o Perspective-taking o Conversation o Reverse operations o Multiple classification - Formal operational o Achieved a characteristic way of thinking that allows them to solve many physical, logical, and mathematical problems. o Hypothetically o Abstractly
- What is scaffolding? What must be involved for scaffolding to be effective?
- Temporary social support to help children accomplish a task.
- To be effective adults must match their communication and support to the learner’s needs and current cognitive level.
- Describe Vygotsky’s theory of development,
- Vygotsky argued that cognitive development results from a complex interaction between heredity and environment.
1. Biological maturation – not emphasized
2. Environment – cultural influences
3. Social experiences within culture
explain the difference(s) between Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories of development.
Piaget – Development precedes learning. Stages place constraints on what and how much a child can learn.
Vygotsky – Learning pulls development to higher levels.
- Explain the information-processing approach to cognitive development and describe its three essential features.
- Encompasses a variety of specific theories about the process of human cognition.
Sensory Memory, Working Memory, Long Term Memory.
Sensory MEmory
o Unlimited capacity o RAW data – uninterpreted form o LIMITED duration Visual (ironic) – 1 second Auditory (echoic) – 2-3 seconds o Criteria that humans use to determine how much to attend to certain stimuli: 1. Size 2. Intensity 3. Novelty 4. Incongruity 5. Emotion 6. Personal significance
Working Memory
o Processes information from sensory memory
o Retrieval from LTM
o Holds 5-9 bits of information
Recent research focus: time to rehearse
Long Term Memory
- Long Term Memory
o Unlimited amounts of information
o To store, takes effort and time
o To retrieve, takes effort and time
o Explicit
Refers to all the information we are consciously aware of and use. Math or grammar rules.
o Implicit
Not aware, may involve conditioned responses, routines, triggering of related concepts. - Four types of long term
o Episodic – memory of a certain episode or event that you have experience, sometimes referred to as autobiographical memory.
o Declarative – or semantic knowledge, is a compilation of verbal information or facts
o Procedural – knowing how to do something, is a compilation of all the sills and habits you have formed.
o Conceptual – indicates why something is the case. Reflects understanding.
- Define encoding and explain the two types of encoding processes. How are these two encoding processes different?
- Process in which we modify or reformat information to prepare it for long-term storage.
o Automatic – happens automatically, like a habit.
o Effortful – Conscious effort and attention.
Assimilation VS accommodation
Assimilation- involves integrating new information or a new experience into existing cognitive structure
Accommodation – involves any modification of an existing scheme or formation of a new cognitive structure when it is not possible to fit information into an existing structure.
Metacognition Chart
Knowledge - Content, Task, Strategies
Regulation- Planning, Monitioring, evaluation.
- What types of things affect a person’s ability to engage in metacognition
- Neurological impairments
- Environment ◦
o Family experience - Individuals characteristics
o ◦ Belief about the nature of the task
o ◦ Motivations
o ◦ Prior knowledge of the topic
o ◦ Prior success using metacognitive skills
- With your working memory, you retain information by using two types of rehearsal strategies. What are they and what is the difference between the two strategies?
Maintenance – repeating information over and over so it can be maintained indefinitely.
Elaborative – connecting new information you are trying to remember to prior knowledge.
- “Forgetting” is a function of not being able to retrieve memories from the long-term memory. Describe three reasons for “forgetting” and what they mean.
- Encoding failure
o Failure to encode the information successfully means that it may never have reached long-term memory storage. - Storage decay
o Memory for new information fades quickly and then levels off. - Retrieval failure
o We are certain we have learned a piece of information but cannot pull up the mental record of it.
- Within the context of metacognition, we talked about children’s theory of mind. Describe the four characteristics of theory of mind.
- False beliefs
a. The understanding that a belief is only one of many mental representations, which can be false or accurate. - Appearance reality distinctions
a. A person’s ability to understand that something may look one way but actually be something else. - Visual perspective taking
a. Understanding that views of physical objects digger based on one’s perspective. - Introspection
a. Children’s awareness and understanding of their own thoughts.
- Define transfer and explain why transfer matters. What are the three different types of transfer?
- The influence of prior knowledge, skills, strategies, or principles on new learning.
o Positive – previous leaning facilitates learning on new tasks.
o Negative – previous learning hinders learning on new tasks.
o Zero – previous learning has no effect on the performance of a new task.
- What is the difference between higher- and lower-order thinking?
Higher order – involves complex cognitive processes that transform and apply our knowledge, skills and ideas.
- Productive behavior
- Integrating past experiences
- Challenges student to interpret, analyze, or otherwise manipulate information
- Manipulating information
- Analysis, synthesis, and evaluation
Lower order – reproducing a behavior previously observed or practiced. Reproductive behavior
- Repeating past experiences
- Routine or mechanical application of previously acquired information
- Recalling information
- Knowledge, comprehension, and application
- Explain adolescent egocentrism.
Difficulty differentiating between one’s own thoughts and the thoughts of others.
Imaginary audience – imagines of believes that she is the focus of attention in social settings due to a lack of differentiation between self and others’ thoughts.
Personal fable – mistakenly believe that they are unique, such that no one else can understand the difficult they might have in studying or receiving good grades.
- What is a thinking disposition? Provide at least four examples of different thinking dispositions
truth-seeking—a desire to understand clearly, to seek connections and explanations;
■ open-mindedness—the tendency to explore alternative views, to generate multiple options;
■ analytical thinking—the urge for precision, organization, thoroughness, and accuracy;
■ systematic planning—the drive to set goals, to make and execute plans, and to envision outcomes;
■ intellectual curiosity—the tendency to wonder, probe, and identify problems; a zest for inquiry;
■ confidence in the use of reasons and evidence—the tendency to question assumptions, to demand justification, and to weigh and assess reasons; and
■ metacognition—the tendency to be aware of and to monitor the flow of one’s own thinking and the ability to exercise mature judgment.
- Define critical thinking
Evaluate the accuracy and worth of information
Internal motivation to decide what to believe and/or what to do
Reflect, explore, and analyze.
- What is the difference between an ill-defined problem and a well-defined problem?
Well-defined problem
◦ Goal is clearly stated
◦ All the information needed to solve the problem is available
◦ Only one correct answer exists
Ill-defined problem
◦ Desired goal may be unclear,
◦ Information needed to solve problem is missing, and/or
◦ Several possible solutions exist (“more than 1 right answer”)
- With our conversation of critical thinking and problem solving, we discussed the meaning of algorithms and heuristics. What are the differences between these two concepts?
Algorithm = “formula”
◦ A prescribed sequence of steps for achieving a goal
◦ Solution is clearly achievable IF you follow the steps
◦ Lead to accurate answers
Heuristic = “rule of thumb”
◦ Problem-solving without a formula
◦ A general problem-solving strategy that might lead to a right answer or a solution that is usually reasonable close to the best possible answer
◦ Lead to approximations
- Describe three types of heuristics.
Means-end analysis
- Main problem solving goal is divided into sub-goals.
Working-backward strategy
- Systematic approach in which you start with the final goal and think backward to identify the steps necessary to reach that goal
Analogical thinking
- Limits the search for solutions to situations that are most similar to the one at hand.
