Lecture 1

Question 1

Explain the behaviourist child

Answer 1

Child is regarded as mini adults with continuous development. Emphasis is on the environment, when the child is born it s a blank slate and knowledge-empty mind. Behaviour and development conditional on reinforcement from the environment. View children as passive information storers.

Question 2

Who developed the behaviourist child?

Answer 2

B.F.Skinner

Question 3

Explain how reinforcement is important in the behaviourist chlid

Answer 3

More likely to repeat a behaviour if rewarded and less likely if outcome is aversive

Question 4

Explain the epistemic child

Answer 4

The child is seen as a scientist. Logical operations are the crucial developmental phenomenon. The child’s relations to the world are those of logical testing and calculations. Social world isn’t really considered.

Question 5

Describe how the epistemic child operates

Answer 5

Biologically inspired mechanisms by which knowledge becomes progressively internalised.

Question 6

How does knowledge become internalised in the epistemic child?

Answer 6

Child encounters new info and attempts to assimilate into existing cognitive structures/schemas. If new info doesn’t fit within an existing schema, structure must be adapted to accommodate new info. Process of equilibration, meaning rebalancing between external world and internal cognitive structure.

Question 7

Describe the stages of development within the epistemic child

Answer 7

Birth-2 years = SENSORIMOTOR. 2-7 years = PRE-OPERATIONAL. 7-12 years = CONCRETE OPERATIONAL. 12+ years = FORMAL OPERATIONAL

Question 8

Who discovered the epistemic child theory?

Answer 8

Piaget

Question 9

Name three criticisms of the epistemic child theory

Answer 9

Underestimating variability in children’s thinking. Infants and young children are more competent than Piaget recognised. Understating the contribution of the social world to cognitive development

Question 10

Who came up with the cultural-historical child theory?

Answer 10

Lev Vygotsky

Question 11

Describe what the cultural-historical child theory is

Answer 11

A thoroughly social child whose development is driven by social interactions, e.g. children learn from adults/peers and become socialised this way. Development is shaped by culture and historical context. Emphasis on importance of language, as it is used to organise and enhance cognitive behaviour.

Question 12

What are the domains of the child as a theorist

Answer 12

The linguist. The biological theorist. The physicist. The psychologist

Question 13

Describe what the linguist is in relation to the child as a theorist theory

Answer 13

A device for working out the rules of grammar - Chomsky

Question 14

Describe what the biological theorist is in relation to the child as a theorist theory

Answer 14

A theory of the biological world, with concepts clashing and changing overtime - Carey

Question 15

Describe what the physicist is in relation to the child as a theorist theory

Answer 15

A folk theory of physics (continuity of movement, one object in one space) unchanging in development - Spelke

Question 16

Describe what the psychologist is in relation to the child as a theorist theory

Answer 16

A folk theory of mind (an implicit , unconscious theory acting precisely like a scientific theory) - Gopnik, Wellman

Question 17

How did Nelson (2007) explain children as theorists?

Answer 17

Children are said to be born with theories that guide their knowledge gathering but that are subject to revision. Their innate origins take some of the burden off the child as a scientist. Children seem to come into the world equipped with a set of ‘ghost children’ - a physicist, a linguist antd a psychologist

Question 18

Describe what is meant by “theory leads to practice”

Answer 18

Assumption that theoretical knowledge is necessary for practice, e.g. knowing that people can have false beliefs so being able to tell lies

Question 19

Why is the metaphor, Child as a theorist, problematic?

Answer 19

It does not explain changes in basic ‘architecture’ of the system. Child brings to knowing built-in-structure, not experience; outside influences are simply ‘data’ that may support or challenge the child’s theory. Accounts for neither biology nor culture if we focus only on ‘what is in the head’.

Question 20

Explain what is meant by the modular snapshot child

Answer 20

Development occurs in domain specific modules. Modules can range from recognising faces to learning language to recognising gravity to understanding intentions to recognising other people’s gaze direction. There is a module for everything. Development can be studied by testing the level of each of these modules at any particular point in time.

Question 21

Describe development in relation to the modular snapshot child

Answer 21

Modules mature at different points based on a biological programme. Modular development independent of general intelligence. New modules can be acquired through extensive practice - effectively, without central thought processes.

Question 22

What is the evidence for domain-specific modules?

Answer 22

Swiss Army Knife Analogy.
Adult Neuropsychology (double dssociations).
Early competencies. Genetic/developmental disorders (impaired modules?)

Question 23

Explain what is meant by the Swiss Army Knife Analogy

Answer 23

Evolution has caused the human brain to evolve innately specified modules, exquisitely adapted for specific independent functions

Question 24

Explain what is meant by impaired modules in relation to genetic/developmental disorders within the modular snapshot child

Answer 24

uneven cognitive profiles, i.e. strengths in specific domains alongside serious deficiencies in other domains

Question 25

Give 2 examples of what is meant by Double Dissociations and explain how they can relate

Answer 25

Individuals with damage to Wernicke’s area can produce language, but not understand it. Individuals with damage to Broca’s area can understand language, but not produce it. Therefore Wernicke’s area is involved in comprehension and the Broca’s area is involved in production.

Question 26

Describe the early competencies Spelke found

Answer 26

Infants born with a large array of innate mental abilities - core knowledge. This includes a folk theory of physics - perceptual knowledge of objects

Question 27

Describe the early competencies Chomsky found

Answer 27

Abstract structure of language means that it cannot just be learned from exposure. poverty of stimulus: infants learn to speak despite being subjected to grammatically degraded input. Therefore infants must be born with innate knowledge of language

Question 28

Explain children with Williams syndrome in relation to impaired modules

Answer 28

Severe impairments in general cognitive skills. But unimpaired in language

Question 29

Explain children with Downs syndrome in relation to impaired modules

Answer 29

Severe impairments in language, but less impaired in general cognitive skills.

Question 30

Name 3 reasons against using snapshots to interpret level or normality of function

Answer 30

The underlying processes might be quite atypical in one of the groups. The social and training support might be atypical in one. The developmental trajectory might be atypical involving compensation for a deficit.

Question 31

Describe the developmental trajectories in Williams Syndrome

Answer 31

Apparently normal in face processing, but the typical developmental trajectory involving increasing specialisation and localisation of function is absent - so face processing in WS is atypical. Language in WS is high, but their family members often have above normal range. Cognitive modules are outcome of development, not its starting point.

Question 32

What are the three domains and who came up with them

Answer 32

Domain-general (Piaget). Domain-relevant (Neuroconstructivists). Domain-specific (Nativists)

Question 33

What is the modern nativist?

Answer 33

The adult brain is highly modularised. Domain-specific modules are genetically determined. (Chomsky, Pinker, Fodor)

Question 34

What is neuroconstructivism?

Answer 34

The adult brain is highly modularised. Domain-relevent modules become domain-specific as a result of development. (Karmiloff-smith)

Question 35

Explain the Neuroconstructivist view

Answer 35

Do not deny that adult brain is highly modularised. But, it is important to think about how things change/develop over time. Could it be that modules are the end product of development not the starting point - thus a gradual process of modularisation? Avoid snapshots, look at processes of change, at developmental trajctories, at brain plasticity and continuing specialisation

Question 36

Explain modularisation in terms of Karmiloff-Smith

Answer 36

Innate, very primitive, predispositions lead o modularisation. Small differences in parts of brain make them more relevant to certain kinds of input over others. Initially all parts compete to process inputs but most domain-relevant neural circuits will ‘win’, becoming more practised and specialised over time. Plasticity of brain connections allows flexibile construction of knowledge. Domain-relevant - domain specific