Lecture 18 Flashcards
What is object permanence?
Object permanence is the idea that if an object is partially covered then any infant will grab for it, however if it’s fully covered, only the infants who have cognitively developed the idea of object permanence will still grasp for it. This skill usually develops between after 8 months of age, however, they still have A not B error which is when they see the object being hidden somewhere else but they still look in the place it was hidden before. At 18 months they can understand visible and invisible displacement. Invisible displacement is when you hide an object inside something, e.g a pen in a matchbox, in front of the child, then remove it from the box out of view. You then give the child the box and once they look inside and see it isn’t there, they will look where the box was originally hidden.
Discuss Piaget’s cognitive ideas about the origin of thought
Piaget believed in the constructivist approach which is when biological paths are triggered by individual exploration. Children actively try to develop a balance between their own knowledge and the environment. The two milestones of this development is object permanence and deferred imitation.
Discuss deferred imitation
Deferred imitation is a cognitive viewpoint about the origins of thought. According to Piaget, there are 6 stages that lead to deferred imitation, it begins with reflexes and ends with representational thought. Reflexes is an example of neonatal imitation. Deferred imitation can begin at 9 months old. It’s different to neonatal imitation because the imitation occurs at a later time to the original action. For example, 9 month olds are able to imitate behaviour they saw the day before. So object permanence and imitation occur before symbolic thinking so aren’t always the best markers of this.
Discuss mirror neurons
Mirror neurons are those that fire when executing an action but also when observing an action being performed. Macaques have mirror neurons and autistic people have reduced activity in mirror neurons.
Discuss selective vs faithful imitation
Selective imitation is when you imitate another person’s intentions rather than the actual action. Apes do this and so do children when the person they’re observing fails the intended action.
However, faithful imitation is when one over-imitates so they imitate everything in the action, even when some of the actions are unnecessary.
A children uses both of these types of imitation depending on the context: children’s own learning (selective), social pressure/ identification in a social group (faithful).
Discuss Vygotsky’s social ideas about the origin of thought
This viewpoint is a social constructivist model. He believed that higher mental functions appear on an interpersonal level first and then an individual level later. Also, language is thought of as a psychological tool.
What is scaffolding in terms of the social constructivist model about the origins of thought?
Scaffolding is a process that enables a child to solve a problem, carry out a task or achieve a goal that’s beyond unassisted efforts. An example of this is pointing; some children point to help them remember a location and when not allowed to point, they performed worse in the task.
Discuss language as a thinking tool (social constructivist model)
There are many examples of language being a thinking tool. For example, people talk to themselves to help their understanding of a task. Also, people ask questions to show how what they were doing was enhancing their performance. Elaborative utterances also predict a child’s ability to switch their performance.
What is executive function (social constructivist model)
This is also called executive control or cognitive control. There isn’t an exact definition for it but it’s basically the co-ordination of thought processes, allowing purposeful behaviour. It’s also involved with working memory which is the ability to maintain a set of problem-solving knowledge to help attain a future goal.
What higher functions is executive control related to?
Planning, cognitive flexibility, working memory, attention shifting etc. Also, executive function is associated with frontal lobe development. An example of a higher function is cognitive shifting which is when we are able to shift between focuses of attention, like matching objects on different similarities. Another example, is planning ahead in a task.
Discuss executive function in a social context
The social measures that were accounted for when measuring executive function were: family chaos, inconsistent parenting, planning and scaffolding. There was positive correlations of performance between problem solving and scaffolding and negative correlations of performance and chaos/inconsistency. So the children had worse executive function when their parents were inconsistent and chaotic.
List a timeline for the origins of thought in the first two years of development
In the first year, there is neonatal imitation and dyadic interactions like the still face paradigm and proto-conversations. However, there isn’t gaze following, requests or social referencing.
Between 12 and 18 months, children have secondary intersubjectivity and triadic interactions like requests, teasing, gaze following etc.
At the end of the second year, children have a motivation to take in other people’s attitudes, they also have symbolic learning like pretend play and deferred imitation.
