PAPER 3- TOPIC 2 COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT Flashcards
describe Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
- children learn in a different way to adults, because they think different (shown in the stages)
- he suggested cognitive development was as a result of two things
- maturation - effects of the biological process of ageing (learn as we grow)
- –> more complex mental operations become available (stages of intellectual development)
- environment - interaction with environment
- —-> leads to more complex understanding of world (assimilation and accommodation)
define schema
mental framework of someone’s knowledge, beliefs and expectations, that is developed through experience
used :
- to make shortcuts when interpreting large amounts of info
- to understand how to act and behave in new situations
- organise and interpret new information
Piaget’s view of the schema
- children are born with a few innate schemas to allow basic interaction (e.g. grasp objects, distinguish familiar faces)
- can be behavioural or cognitive
- as children develop, they develop more detailed existing schemas and construct new schemas, for other people, themselves, objects, actions and later on more abstract ideas (e.g. morality)
how does Piaget suggest we are motivated to learn
- when in disequilibrium (our existing schema doesn’t allow us to make sense of new information)
- to escape unpleasant experience of disequilibrium, we must adapt or develop new schemas, in order to return to preferred mental state of equilibration
state and briefly outline, through what processes does learning take place, where schemas become more complex and adapt to new situations
- assimilation - add information to existing schema
- accomodation - radically change existing schema or develop new ones
describe assimilation
e.g.
form of learning when we acquire new information or a more advanced understanding from new experiences, by adding new information to existing schemas
e.g. child can assimilate his schema of dogs, when told a different dog breed is also a dog
describe accommodation
e.g.
form of learning where we acquire new information from a dramatically new experience that changes our understanding of a topic, and we equilibrate by constructing new schemas or radically changing existing ones
e.g. baby with schema for dogs, initially thinks cats are dogs, then told they are actually cats, accommodate new schema for cats
define equilibration
the preferred mental state that we achieve when we escape disequilibrium (when new information is present, that current schemas can’t make sense of)
—> done through building it into our understanding by accommodation by creating new schemas or assimilation by adding new info to schemas,
define cognitive development
- development of all mental processes, but mostly thinking, reasoning and understanding of world
describe Piaget’ stages of intellectual development
state 4 stages
- four stages of intellectual development
- each stage has different level of reasoning ability
- all children go through same sequence of stages, maybe at slightly different ages
sensorimotor
pre-operational
concrete operational
formal operational
summarise what is present in the sensorimotor stage
•age 0-2 years
- learn object permanence (8 months)
- learns about world through senses, and exploration in environment
- develop basic physical co-ordination through trial and error
- develop basic language
define object permanence
understanding that people/objects do still exist, even when they are out of sight
- explains why children love peekaboo
how did psychologists show object permanence
Piaget’s A not B error
- toy put under A multiple times
- child sees it put below B
- checks for it under A
summarise the pre-operational stage
• 2-7 years
- mobile, can use language but still lacks reasoning ability to explain how things in real world work
- generally egocentric
- generally struggle with conservation problems
- begin to understand classification, but struggle with class inclusion
define egocentric
• child’s tendency to only see the world from their own point of view
- physically and emotionally
describe the egocentrism study
and findings
• 3 mountains task
- child does 360 surveillance of 3D mountain scene to try and see what ‘a doll’ would see from 3 different viewpoints
- they were given 10 photos and had to choose which one suited the ‘dolls’ view
FOUND
- pre operational children chose the picture that matched their own viewpoint
- by age 7, children could clearly acknowledge the different point of view
define conservation
- ability to understand that redistributing material, or a change in appearance, doesn’t affect the quantity or volume
describe the conservation of volume study
and findings
- asked children age 5 and age 7, whether the volume of liquid in a beaker had increased in volume, after changing its physical appearance (pouring it into taller thinner beaker)
FOUND
- children age 5 would say a different amount (cant conserve liquid)
- children age 7 would say the same amount (can conserve liquid)
briefly outline conservation of quantity study
- two rows of eight counters
- one row pushed closer together
- child in pre operational stage said it had now had less counters
define class inclusion
• a classification skill in which we can recognise that classes of objects are subsets of larger classes, and have their own subsets
(e.g. schnauzers are subset of dog class, dog class is subset of animal class)
summarise the concrete operational stage
• age 7-11
- children can conserve and perform well on class inclusion and egocentrism tasks
- —-> (much improved operations)
- however, only applied to physical objects or situations in child’s presence (only concrete)
- —-> and can’t be applied to abstract ideas or out of sight situations/object
- ————> as still lack abstract and formal reasoning
summarise the formal operational stage
• 11+ years
- capable of formal reasoning (in abstract and out of sight situations)
- —> 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗿𝗴𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁
- now capable of scientific, abstract and idealist thinking-> (if this changed, what would happen)
how can formal reasoning be tested
- syllogisms
e. g. if cats have 2 heads, I have a cat, how many head does my cat have
- younger children become distracted by fact cats have one head so wouldn’t answer correctly
describe Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development
- saw development as a social process, of learning from experts in our environment
- where knowledge goes from being intermental (between expert and learner) and intramental (within mind of learner)
- through social interaction, children learn knowledge and develop more advanced reasoning abilities
- 𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗮𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺
- he also referred to the importance of………
• cultural factors influencing elementary functions
• the zone of proximal development
• scaffolding
• language
………in cognitive development
describe what an expert is
- more experienced others, that have greater knowledge on a particular subject than you
what did Vygotsky suggest the importance of “culture influencing elementary functions” was on cognitive development
- elementary mental functions are developed into higher mental functions by the influence of culture
- the role of culture is to develop the mental functions that will be most important in the physical and social environments of their culture
