Lecture 4: Cognitive Development 1

Question 1

clinical method

Answer 1

a technique in which Piaget asks the child questions in order to find out about their thinking patterns
- first question is the same for every child, but the adjusted based on the child’s answers

Question 2

schemas

Answer 2

schemas are mental structures that help individuals organize and interpret information. they are frameworks that allow us to take shortcuts in interpreting the vast amount of information available in our environment.
- a set of rules that can be generalized to different situations
- children acquire knowledge by creating schemas (nurture), based on 2 innate intellectual functions (nature): organization and adaptation

Question 3

organization

Answer 3

children learn to combine existing schemas to make them more compex

Question 4

adaptation

Answer 4

the process of adjusting to the demands of the environment
- based on 2 other processes: assimilation and accommodation

Question 5

assimilation

Answer 5

the process of incorporating new information into existing schemas without changing the schema itself. It involves interpreting new experiences in terms of our current understanding.
- as a result, we deal with our environment in our own way, making new information fit into our existing categories

Question 6

accommodation

Answer 6

the process of modifying existing schemas or creating new ones in response to new information that doesn’t fit into existing schemas. this allows for a more accurate understanding of new experiences

Question 7

disequilibrium

Answer 7

when a new experience challenges your schema, you experience a cognitive conflict

Question 8

equilibrium

Answer 8

achieving a mental stability in which internal thoughts are consistent with what we see before us

Question 9

Piaget underestimated the cognitive capacities of young children

Answer 9

if researchers make the tasks more familiar to children and somewhat simplify them, they will be able to perform them
- Piaget made no distinction between competence (understanding a concept) and performance (passing a test)
- when a child did not complete a task, Piaget thought competence was lacking

Question 10

Piaget is wrong in stating that broad developmental stages exist

Answer 10

according to Piaget, there is a different form of thinking at each developmental stage, however people are inconsistent in their performance and do not show the same level of thinking in every area
- in addition, transitions between phases are often subtle and long, contrary to what Piaget said

Question 11

Piaget did not explain development

Answer 11

according to critics, Piaget mainly described development and did not explain it
- contemporary researchers want more answers about how changes in the brain and experiences can contribute to cognitive development

Question 12

Piaget paid little attention to social influences

Answer 12

Piaget paid little attention to social interactions and cultural differences
- children also develop throughout interactions with their parents, peers, family members, teachers, and so on

Question 13

Piaget’s constructivism

Answer 13

implies that children actively create their own understanding of the world, based on their experiences

Question 14

neuroconstructivism

Answer 14

new knowledge is gained through changes in the neural structures of the brain in response to experience

Question 15

Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspective

Answer 15

stated that cognitive growth takes place within a sociocultural context and grows through the child’s social interactions

Question 16

zone of proximal development

Answer 16

there is a gap between what a child can do independently and what a child can do with help from a parent

Question 17

guided participation

Answer 17

children actively contribute to culturally relevant activities where they are guided by their parents
- similar to ‘scaffolding’

Question 18

scaffolding

Answer 18

parents give structured help to their children and gradually reduce this help as the child becomes more competent

Question 19

private speech (talking out loud to yourself)

Answer 19

contributes to the development of young childrens thoughts

Question 20

criticism of Vygotsky’s work

Answer 20

too much emphasis on social interactions and too little on the individual development of knowledge

Question 21

Piaget’s sensory-motor phase

Answer 21

Question 22

primary circular responses

Answer 22

repetetive actions directed at the child’s body

Question 23

secondary circular reactions

Answer 23

actions are more directed towards the outside world

Question 24

tertiary circular reaction

Answer 24

a child is no longer bound to stereotypical schemes

Question 25

little scientist phase

Answer 25

when a child experiments with behavior to see what happens next

Question 26

means-end behavior

Answer 26

a child performs a certain action to achieve another certain goal

Question 27

object permanence

Answer 27

a child knows that objects exist even if they are not being perceived

Question 28

A-not-B error

Answer 28

if an object is clearly placed in front of the baby at a location where it is no longer visible and then taken to another location while the child sees it, the child will still look for the object at the first location
- still made around 9 or 10 months

Question 29

Piaget’s pre-operational phase

Answer 29

• 2 to 7 years
• learning through symbols and language
• fantasy play
• increased curiosity
• intuitive thinking

Question 30

causal understanding

Answer 30

developed in preschoolers
- feelings of participation
- animism
- artificialism
- finalism
- transductive reasoning

Question 31

animism

Answer 31

things are conscious and alive

Question 32

feelings of participation

Answer 32

child actively and dynamically participates in the actions of nature, and this is accompanied by magical beliefs

Question 33

artificialism

Answer 33

everything is willed, intentional and organized for the better

Question 34

finalism

Answer 34

everything has an explanation

Question 35

transductive reasoning

Answer 35

combining unrelated facts, which results in faulty cause-effect conclusions only because the 2 events took place close together in time or space

Question 36

lack of conservation

Answer 36

they do not yet understand that certain properties remain the same in weight/number/volume even though the shape of the object changes
- do not understand this due to centering, irreversibility, and static thought

Question 37

centering

Answer 37

attention goes to the visually most salient parts, thus attention is only centered on a single aspect of a problem

Question 38

irreversibility

Answer 38

the child is unable to mentally reverse change

Question 39

static thought

Answer 39

ideas are fixed on end states rather than the changes that transform one state into another

Question 40

egocentrism

Answer 40

children cannot yet understand that others may think differently in the pre-operational stage

Question 41

pre-operational thinking

Answer 41

defined by what young children lack, namely the ability to see things from another’s perspective

Question 42

concrete-operational thinking

Answer 42

the ability to reason about the world in a logical and mature way

Question 43

conservation test

Answer 43

two equally sized balls of clay are shown to the child and then one of the two balls is flattened
- the child is then asked whether the 2 are still the same size or not
- most children under the age of 7 will indicate that there is now a difference

Question 44

reversibility

Answer 44

a transformation can be undone without altering the properties

Question 45

class inclusion

Answer 45

the knowledge that a given category can contain several underlying elements

Question 46

identity consistency

Answer 46

children believe that if a person looks different, this person has actually assumed a different identity and is no longer the same person

Question 47

three mountains test

Answer 47

a test used to measure egocentrism
- a model is presented to children with different mountains on it and each side one can see something different
- the question is whether the children can point out from ten pictures what a doll can see, sitting on a particular side

Question 48

Piaget’s concrete-operational phase

Answer 48

• 7 to 11 years
• realistic understanding of the world and logical reasoning
• understanding of transitivity (the ability to combine relations logically to reach certain conclusions

Question 49

transition from pre-operational phase to the concrete operational phase

Answer 49

Question 50

social cognition

Answer 50

refers to any ability to understand people’s emotions and to get along with other people

Question 51

formal-operational phase

Answer 51

• 11+ years
• adolescents can think logically and clearly
• hypothetical-deductive reasoning

Question 52

third eye task

Answer 52

a child is asked where on the body they would like to have a third eye, and why
- when children can be creative in thinking of a place for the eye, it shows that they can think in a formal operational way

Question 53

adolescent egocentrism

Answer 53

increased self-awareness

Question 54

Hughes (1975)

Answer 54

a boy hides from policemen
- a screen is placed, and then there was a doll and 2 policemen
- one policeman was placed, and then it had to be reasoned what the policeman could see and where the other doll was safe
- after this, a second policeman was placed to make it more complex