Paper 3 - Cognition And Development

Question 1

Explain Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

Answer 1

Piaget believed that the difference between adults and children, in terms of cognition, is that adults know more because we learn as we grow. Piaget believed that the reason cognition is so different is because of us thinking differently. He suggested cognitive development is the result of: 1) Maturation - The effects of biological processes of ageing. 2) Environment - Interaction with the environment leads us to understand the world more complexly.

Question 2

What is schema and how does it relate to Piaget’s theory?

Answer 2

A schema is a mental framework containing all the information we have about one aspect of the world. As children develop they construct more schemas. Adults have schemas for people, objects, physical actions, abstract ideas (justice, morality). Babies are born with very few schemas. In infancy we construct new schemas. One of these is the ‘me-schema’ in which all the child’s knowledge about themselves is stored.

Question 3

What is meat by motivation to learn?

Answer 3

A key element of Piaget’s theory is motivation to learn. According to Piaget, we are motivated to learn when our existing schema can’t allow us to make sense of something new. This leads to the unpleasant sensation of disequilibrium. To escape disequilibrium we have to learn what we need to know. By doing this we achieve equilibrium, the preferred mental state.

Question 4

What is meant by accommodation and assimilation for schema development?

Answer 4

Piaget saw learning as adapting to new situation so we understand it. He identified two processes how adaption takes place: Accommodation - The process of taking in new information in one’s environment and altering pre-existing schemas in order to fit in the new information. Assimilation - Takes place in response to dramatically new experiences. The process of taking in and fully understanding information or ideas.

Question 5

Piaget’s theory evaluation

Answer 5

+ Application in education - Piaget’s view that self-discovery is an important part of learning - true understanding only occurs through the process of making one’s own accommodations.

+ Evidence to support innate schemas. Fantz (1961) showed that infants as young as 4 days show a preference for a schematic face rather than the same features jumbled up. This shows that the unique configuration of a human face rather than a complex face pattern is preferred.

• Equilibrium is very difficult to demonstrate. There is very little research support on Piaget’s idea about the effects of equilibrium.
• Piaget may have overplayed the importance of equilibrium. Actually children vary greatly in their intellectual curiosity. Piaget may have overestimated how much children are to learn
• the children he studied were from the nursery attached to his university and this was a biased sample of clever middle-class children.

Question 6

Describe the sensorimotor stage of intellectual development by Piaget

Answer 6

• First stage - 0-2 years - Includes the development of object permanence which is the understanding that objects and people do still exist even when they cannot be seen. - Children don’t understand that things still exist when they are out of sight until they reach 8 months old. - This explains the enjoyment of peekaboo.

Question 7

Describe the pre-operational stage of intellectual development by Piaget

Answer 7

• Second stage - 2-7 years - Children’s logic cannot be used to explain how things work in the real world. - E.g. they believe most things are “alive” like their teddy. - Children cannot perform logical reasoning and rely heavily on the appearance of things rather than reality.

Question 8

Describe the concrete operational stage of intellectual development by Piaget

Answer 8

• Third stage - 7-11 years - Children have developed the ability to use logic at this stage, however what they lack is abstract reasoning.

Question 9

Describe the formal operational stage of intellectual development by Piaget

Answer 9

• Fourth stage - 11+ years - In this stage, it can take a much longer time to adapt ourselves to abstract reasoning. Some people never completely master abstract thinking. - This stage allows us to think more like scientists.

Question 10

Discuss two studies demonstarting the stages of intellectual development by Piaget

Answer 10

Question 11

Piaget’s stages of intellectual development evaluation

Answer 11

+ Application - Piaget suggested certain concets can’t be taught to children because they’re not biologically ready- E.g. i would be difficult to teach a pre-operational child abstract maths calcuations - for real learning to take place, activities should be at the appropriate level for a child’s age - The Plouden report (1970) drew extensively on Piaget’s theory adn led to changes in primary education.

• Cultural bias - Piaget came from a middle-class European background and his studies involved children from European academic families who valued academic abilities. However, in other cultures a greater value may be placed on a more basic level of concrete opertions (i.e. making things rather than thinking about abstract ideas - Thus, may not be applicable.
• Piaget may have overestimated the ability to use logic in the formal operational stage. Dawson (1994) claims that only a 1/3 of adults ever reach this stage and even then not during adolesnc - contradictory evidence reduces reliability of the theory.
• it is suggested that children taking part in the conservation study were influenced by the experimenter change the appearnce of the counters or liquid. This means that they are suggested to think that the quantitiy had changed; otherwise why would the experimenter change the appearance then ask if it was the same? - Demand characteristics.

Question 12

Explain Vygotsky’s theroy of cognitive development

Answer 12

Vygotsky agreed that there is a qualitatitve difference in children’s cognition as they grow, however he believed the main reason for this is culture.

Vygotsky argued that influences within our cultuture are the driving force for the development of cognition, and that ability is a result of social contexts.

Elementary functions + cultural influence = higher mental functions

Part of the learning process stems from the role of experts. The role of experts suggests that as children we are constantly learning from other people in our environment. These people are known as experts (their knowledge is greater than yours).

As well there is the role of language. The language involved in communication allow children to develop intellectually. (Higher pitch = children are negaged). DIalogue between parent and child starts off the basis of learning, and as children develop and grow, they learn internal dialogue to discuss with themselves in order to resolve problems.

Question 13

What is the zone of proximial development? - Vygotsky

Answer 13

The difference between what children can do independently vs assistance.

Can = too easy and there is no learning

Can’t = too hard and there is no learning

The zone is just beyond what the child’s capable of and requires help (scaffoldin). The zone is where a child learns new information

There needs to be a good balance between can and can’t. (ZPD).

Question 14

What is scaffolding? - Vygotsky

Answer 14

Support given to a child by ‘more knowledge other’ which can be withdrawn when reached.

Question 15

Compare Vygotsky to Piaget

Answer 15

Similarities:

Both agree that there is a qualitative difference in children’s cognition as they grow.

Diffrences:

Piaget believed cognitive development is the result of maturation and environment. Whereas, Vygotsky believd the amin reason was culture.

Question 16

Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development

Answer 16

+ Evidence for the ZPD - McNaughton and Leyland (1990) observed children working on puzzles with their mothers. If the puzzle was too easy (below the ZPD) the mothers did little. If the puzzle was moderately challenging (ZPD) the mothers focused on helping the child solve the puzzle themeselves. If the puzzle was too difficult (above ZPD), the mothers interviened a lot. Increases reliability.

+ Vygotsky’s ideas have highly influenced education over the decade. Social interaction in learning, through group work, individual adult assistance, has been used to scaffold children from their ZPD. Therefore, Vygotsky’s theory has had application to the real world.

• There has been relatively little research related to Vygotsky’s theory compared with the abundance of research on piaget’s theory. The conepts are more difficult to operationalised.
• Vygotsky assumed that learning is the same in all children. This does not take into account individual differences. SOme children learn best through social interaction but this may not be true for everyone. Personality may have an effect on what activities and what sort of help works for different children.

Question 17

Define violation of expectation

Answer 17

An approach to investigating how infants understand the world. If a child understands how the physical world operates they will have expectations about a situation. If these expectations are not met children will react accordingly (e.g. suprised).

Question 18

Outline Baillargeon’s study

Answer 18

Aim: To test to see if violation of expectation occurs in earlier months than Piagets suggested 8-9 months for object permenance.

Method: 24 infants aged 5-6 months shown ‘possible’ or ‘impossible’ events. A tall bunny or short bunny passses behind a screen with a window.

Results: Infants spent more time looking at impossible event than possible event. This is interpreted as ‘suprise’ if they looked longer.

Conclusion: Demonstrates an understanding of object permenance at an earleir stage (5-6 months).

Question 19

Explain Baillargeon’s theory

Answer 19

Baillargeon suggests that we are born with an innate ‘physical reasoning system’ (PRS). Primitive understanding of physical properties of the world.

• We are able to develop more detailed understanding over time through experience,
• From birth we have an innate understanding of ‘object persistance’ (objects exist and don’t alter structure

Question 20

Compare Biallargeon and Piaget

Answer 20

Similarities:

Both suggest that understanding develops throuh experience.

Differences:

Baillargeon suggested that object permenance is developed from birth whereas Piaget belieed that object permenance develops at 8 months.

Question 21

Baillargeon’s early infant abilities evaluation

Answer 21

+ Piaget’s participants were all middle- class European children . Baillargeon used a less biased sample by using birth anouncements in the local paper, thus having high population validity. Also, babies sat on parents lap, parents were asked not to interact with the infant. Carefully controlled research.

+ We all have a very good understanding of the basic properties of physical objects. We all know that if we let go of a key ring it wall fall to the floor. This understanding requires a physical reasoning system (PRS). This suggestes that the system is innate as this understanding is universal.

• Potential for low validity of violation of expectation. Infants may have looked longer at an impossible event not because it widens their undertsanding of the physical world but because one or more features of the impossible event are more interesting than the possible event.
• Looking longer at an event doesn’t mean infants understand it. Piaget distinguished between acting in accordance with a principle and understanding it. Baillargeon doesn’t so less valid.