General cognition

Question 1

Observational methods- preferential looking, Fantz (1961)

Answer 1

If babies prefer to look at one of two stimuli, we can infer that they can discriminate between them, an can measure a number of different perceptual abilities

Question 2

Observational methods- habituation

Answer 2

Infants prefer to look at novel stimuli, after looking at something for a while they will get bored and stop looking at it (habituation) Then if something new is presented, they will regain interest and look at it (dishabituation)

Question 3

Observational methods- violation of expectation

Answer 3

Child watch with interest as a toy is taken, if something unexpected happens, the surprised child will look at it for longer, but if an impossible event causes this we can infer something interesting about what they know

Question 4

Object knowledge- the permanence principle

Answer 4

Until 8 months old infants don’t understand the ‘permanence principle’ of objects

Question 5

Object permanence- a comparative perspective

Answer 5

3 month old monkey will understand object permanence not a 3 month old baby

Question 6

Object permanence and Piaget’s sensorimotor stage: Substage 3 (4-8)months

Answer 6

no understanding of ‘object permanence’

Question 7

Object permanence and Piaget’s sensorimotor stage: Substage 5 (12-18 mths)

Answer 7

some improvements but still no understanding things can happen to hidden objects

Question 8

Object permanence and Piaget’s sensorimotor stage: Substage 6 (18-24 mths)

Answer 8

full understanding of object permanence, triggered by the development of mental imagery

Question 9

Object knowledge- the solidarity principle-

Answer 9

Understand by 6 months that objects cannot pass through solid walls

Question 10

Object knowledge - the non-magic principle

Answer 10

even by 3.5 months infants seemingly understand the ‘non-magic principle’ of objects (i.e., objects don’t just disappear)

Question 11

Object knowledge the A not B error

Answer 11

the A not B error Substage 4 (8-12 months) the infant has a basic, but incomplete notion of object permeance. The error: searching for a hidden object where they had previously found it, rather than where they had last seen it. The pre frontal cortex does not develop fully until the mid twenties Diamond (1991) points out several associated functions that are needed for A not B task

Question 12

Object knowledge- the invariance principle

Answer 12

Understood Between 5-8 years understand that objects conserve their properties despite various transformations, shown through Piaget’s ‘conservation tasks’

Question 13

Piaget’s stage theory pre - operational stage (2-6 years) limitations Centration-

Answer 13

focus only on the most salient aspects of a situation, most static states rather than transformations

Question 14

Piaget’s stage theory pre - operational stage (2-6 years) limitations Animism

Answer 14

attribute lifelike qualities to common inanimate objects

Question 15

Piaget’s stage theory pre - operational stage (2-6 years) limitations Reversibility-

Answer 15

Don’t understand if you split a piece of clay into ten paces then roll it back to a ball it will look the same as it did at the start

Question 16

Piaget’s stage theory pre - operational stage (2-6 years) limitations Egocentrism

Answer 16

Egocentric conversations, three mountains task

Question 17

Piaget’s stage theory pre - operational stage (2-6 years) limitations Appearance vs Reality

Answer 17

Easily fooled by appearance due to egocentric focus

Question 18

Pre-operational thinking

Answer 18

develop internalised representations: pretend play, increasing social play, imagery. Symbols similar to idem that representing ( banana for telephone) signs more abstract (less common) e.g., thumbs up

Question 19

Pre Operational thinking The scale model task

Answer 19

2.5 year olds (15-20% errorless retrievals)
3 year olds (75-90% errorless retrievals)
children must detect and represent the relation between the room and the model or picture of it

Question 20

Concrete operational thinking

Answer 20

7-11 year olds increasingly logical thinking
- Sociocentricity, classification of things, seriation, decentration, reversibility of actions, transitivity

Question 21

Concrete Operational thinking: Limitations

Answer 21

Rooted in the child’s existing knowledge of the world
So turned to ‘concrete’ real life examples not abstract
Relies on fact rather than validity

Question 22

Concrete Operational thinking: Moral dilema

Answer 22

6-7 year olds will reason about the consequences of an action, but an older child reasons about the intent

Question 23

Formal operational thinking 12 years-adulthood

Answer 23

Increasingly abstract and hypothetical thinking, e.g., algebraic equations, abstract transitivity, scientific-like thinking