piaget

Question 1

the learing mechanism

Answer 1

assimilation - incooperating new info into existing schema

and accomodation - changing existing mental schema to explain new experiences

Question 2

sensorimotor stage

Answer 2

0-2yrs
co-ordination of senses and abilities
object permanence - still exist when out of sight

Question 3

preoperational stage

Answer 3

2-7
rise of symbolic thought
egocentrism - inability to take another’s view
animism - belief that all things are living

Question 4

concrete operational stage

Answer 4

7-11
developmet of metnal operations (images of objwcts/real events)
conservation - quantity stays the same despite change in form or shape
decentration - focus on >1 aspect of problem (less egocebtric)
reversability - able to foresee reversal of action
Thinking= hold representations & perform operations
Limitations:
Children cannot perform an operation if they have not observed it
their creative thinking (about the real world) is still limited to their experience
their thinking is still disorganized and lacks logic

Question 5

formal operational stage

Answer 5

11 -
develop ability to think abstractly and systematically (logic)
Thinking is:
Abstract = not bound to examples

Unbiased = not influenced by preconceptions

Systemic = consider all possible changes
more complex relations – two operations

Hypothetical = can imagine impact of changes

Question 6

criticisms

Answer 6

) No innate knowledge?

2) Single learning mechanism?
3) Domain general cognition?
4) Stage theory?

5) Solitary learning? (non-social)

Question 7

no innate knowledge?

Answer 7

Much recent data suggests newborns born with more than just a single learning mechanism & reflexes

They imitate at 6 hours old!
Meltzoff, A.N. and Moore, M.K. (1977). Imitation of Facial and Manual Gestures by Human Neonates,
The ‘know’ objects exist unseen at 4 months
Baillargeon, R. (1987). Object permanence in 3.5- and 4.5-month-old infants. (drwabridge experiment)

Question 8

domain general changes?

Answer 8

Evidence does not suggest that there are concurrent
changes across all content areas:

Evidence of within child variation
Conserve ‘how many’ before ‘how heavy’

Evidence of domain specific cognition
Developmental Psychopathology (Autism, Downs syndrome)

Question 9

studies of reasoning

Answer 9

wason task - EC54 how do you prove the rule E and 4 always together?
If a card has a VOWEL on one side then there is an ODD
number on the other side

The correct answer is E and 4
Very few people get this correct (5-15%)

Common ERROR to choose E and 5
(Matching or confirmation bias)

Question 10

is learning solitary?

Answer 10

Piaget views the child as a ‘lone scientist’ testing hypotheses and generating new models of reality (no attention paid to the role of language in development)

Maybe learning has to take place in a social environment of competent language users (Vygotsky)

Question 11

information processing approach

Answer 11

Information processing theorists view the brain like a computer (both have limited capacity) and make analogies with hardware and software

Cognitive development is the result of age-related changes in the hardware (i.e. nervous system) and software (i.e. memory, attention and problem solving strategies)

Researchers study how the ‘software’ develops and how it can be trained
but little attention paid to social and cultural influences

Question 12

changes in basic processing and capacity

Answer 12

Development of the short-term memory store
Span of apprehension (number of items that child can keep in mind at any one time) increases with age
4 items at 4 years, 7 items at 7 years

Changes in processing speed
3 yr olds take approx. 4 secs to say ‘white’ to a black square – adults take approx 400ms

Biological maturation is primarily responsible for age-related differences

Question 13

strategy development

Answer 13

Strategies are deliberately implemented, goal- directed
operations used to aid performance in a range of tasks

In general:

Young children do not employ strategies
Transitional stage: they can employ them but not spontaneously
Finally: they do spontaneously employ them

Question 14

assumptions of piaget

Answer 14

No innate knowledge:
a few reflexes and a learning mechanism (assimilation & accommodation)

All knowledge is learnt:
“a child constructs her own understanding through active interaction with the world”

Through physical interaction with the world the child builds an integrated cognitive model

Learning gives rise to across-the-board changes moving from one stage to the next (domain-general changes)

Question 15

overestimated abilities in the formal operational stage

Answer 15

Very few achieve pure operational thinking

The Wason Selection task

Participants are shown 4 cards and told a rule

They have to turn over the cards that allow them to find out if the rule is TRUE

Question 16

study against preoperational stage

Answer 16

Light, Buckingham & Robbins (1979)
- children shown two identical beakers with same amount of food in each. experimenter then points out that one of the beakers ischipped, and suggests putting the contents in a third, different shaped container for the sake of safety.
→ more children correctly say that there is still the same
amount of food.
Suggests that context of task may be important for children’s understanding of the situation. As far as children are concerned, adults rarely do something without a reason (e.g. they wouldn’t pour liquid from one place to another unless they wanted to change something; they wouldn’t ask a question
unless something had in fact changed).
By providing a clear reason for making the change (e.g. thechipped beaker) this allows some children to concentrate moreon the materials
Hughes (see Donaldson 1978)
- devised a version of the Piagetian perspective taking task which would make ‘human sense’ to a child.
- children shown a board with two barriers.
- toy policemen placed at the end of each barrier.
- child asked to place a model boy in the layout where the policeman can’t see him. Many preoperational children succeeded in placing model boy
in section ‘d’ suggesting that they could understand the
perspective of the two policemen.

Question 17

general methodological criticisms

Answer 17

clinical method criticised:
- carried out his studies with a handful of participants – in theearly studies he generally used his own children
- no set procedure and no statistical analysis
- cross-sectional so can’t draw strong conclusions about
process of development from stage to stage
BUT: bear in mind that Piaget considered the method
appropriate for his aims:
- method requires flexibility, to allow the researcher to explorethe basis of each individual child’s reasoning
- consistent with structuralist theory of the time and with the aims of genetic epistemology

Question 18

study against sensorimotor

Answer 18

Baillargeon et al. (1985) habituated child to screen that moved back and forth like a drawbridge through a 180° arc.
- a yellow box placed behind the screen.
- child then shown one of two test situations:
1) Possible Event: the screen is rotated up from a flat
position until it rests against the box where it stops before returning to the original position.
2) Impossible Event: the screen rotated up from flat position and appeared to move through the box before returning to original position.
→ infants as young as 3.5 months looked longer at the
impossible event.
Suggests infants were surprised at this event and expectedscreen to come to rest against box even though it was out ofsight

Question 19

theoretical criticisms

Answer 19

The Role of Culture in Development
Emphasises that the child’s cognitive development can only beproperly understood in the context of their culture and interactions with others.
See Vygotsky lectures.
7.2 Structure versus Process
Piaget’s theory emphasises the structure of the child’s
knowledge at each of the stages of cognitive development, and does not elaborate much on the processes underlying
development. Information Processing theories of development try to specify the processes involved in cognitive development explicitly by applying models of memory.
See Information Procssing lecture.
7.3 Nativism - Modularity
Also formulated as a reaction against radical behaviourism, but goes further than Piaget to suggest that a large proportion of mental structure is innate.
Piaget saw early thought as undifferentiated and fused
together; cognitive development is a process of differentiation, where thought becomes generalised and specialised.