Piaget

Question 1

What is Piaget considered to be?

Answer 1

One of the founders of developmental psychology. Began working examining intelligence testing in children, and found they made similar mistakes at similar ages

Question 2

What is the influence of Piaget’s research?

Answer 2

• Gave the most comprehensive account of cognitive development from birth to adolescence.
• Set the groundwork for developmental psychology as a sub-discipline.
  -Gave some of the first insights into children’s minds, developing new methods and spurning research into cognitive development.

Question 3

What is the impact of Piaget’s work on education?

Answer 3

• It emphasised that children’s distinctive ways of thinking at different ages needs to be considered in teaching
• It led educators to focus on play and see children as active learners
  -Provides support for a child-centred to education

Question 4

What is a brief overview of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 4

• Proposed a constructive theory of cognitive development
• Believed that children are active learners who construct their own knowledge through interacting with their environment.

Question 5

What are the four stages of cognitive development?

Answer 5

Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

Question 6

Describe sensorimotor

Answer 6

Birth - 2 years
Increasingly able to explore the environment, begin to develop mental representations, object permanence, self-awareness

Question 7

Describe preoperational

Answer 7

2-7 years
Develop symbolic thinking, children are egocentric, conservation of numbers is mastered, reduction in animism

Question 8

Describe concrete operational

Answer 8

7-12 years
Logical mental operations are possible with visual aids. Conservation of mass, length, weight, and volume is mastered. Metacognition develops. Understand cause-and-effect relations

Question 9

What is formal operational

Answer 9

12 years onwards
Abstract reasoning develops. Children begin to formulate and test their hypotheses in the world

Question 10

Is development continuous or discontinuous

Answer 10

Most likely discontinuous - sudden change in ability

Question 11

What is a schema?

Answer 11

Mental representations that enable children to interact with their world through defining a particular category of behaviour and develop through experience and become more complex with development

Question 12

How are reflexive schemas formed?

Answer 12

Via physical interaction with the environment

Question 13

Do mental schemas require physical interaction?

Answer 13

No

Question 14

How do children go through the stages?

Answer 14

1) To go through the stages, children need to organise schemas with increasing proficiency
2) Children will be motivated to do this as they will want to adapt to their environment
3) In order for children to organise schemas, assimilation and accommodation of new information is necessary

Question 15

How are schemas changed and organised?

Answer 15

Via the dual process of assimilation and accommodation

Question 16

What is assimilation?

Answer 16

The integration of new information into existing schemas, leading to more consolidated knowledge

Question 17

What is accommodation?

Answer 17

The adjustments of schemas to new information, leading to growing and changing knowledge

Question 18

What is disequilibrium?

Answer 18

The adjustments of schemas to new information, leading to growing and changing knowledge

Question 19

What are the key milestones in the sensorimotor stage?

Answer 19

Senses and motor skills develop. Object permanence. Self-awareness. Beginning to explore their environment

Question 20

What are the two sub-stages of preoperational?

Answer 20

Preconceptual 2-4 and intuitive thought 4-7

Question 21

What are the key milestones in pre-operational?

Answer 21

Egocentrism - thinking everyone feels, sees and hears what they are
Symbolic functions - pretend play
Reduction in animism – belief that inanimate objects have lifelike abilities (PRECONCEPTUAL)

Conservations of numbers is mastered, intuitive problem solving developed, can systematically order, classify and quantify items (INTUITIVE THOUGHT)

Question 22

What is egocentrism measured by?

Answer 22

The mountains task - coordinates spatial perspective - can’t take the perspective of another person

Question 23

What are the key milestones of the concrete operational?

Answer 23

Rigid ability of mental operations. Children begin to become more flexible in their thinking but still lack flexible abstract reasoning. Metacognition develop.

Question 24

What are the key milestones of formal operational?

Answer 24

Sophisticate ability of mental operations. Children begin to reason hypothetically without objects present

Question 25

What are the limitations of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 25

Sensorimotor - infants may be able to form mental representations prior to 18 months. Found by Meltzoff and Moor, 6 week old infant imitation
Preoperational - Children can pass egocentrism tasks earlier when the materials change.
Formal operational stage - abstract thinking can develop much later than 12 and can be improved with training

Question 26

Overall limitations of Piaget’s theory

Answer 26

• Some children are able to master conservation at an early age
• Object permanence may occur much earlier than Piaget thought
• Abstract thinking can develop much later than 12
• Piaget acknowledged variability but failed to explain it
• Piaget described change but explanatory value of development may be low
• Cognitive development may not be discontinuous