Psych 2ap3- sept 25th

Question 1

Who is Piaget? is he a constructivist or empiricist?

Answer 1

A researcher on child development, he is a constructivist

Question 2

Since Piaget is a constructivist, what does this mean?

Answer 2

While empiricists only look at the object, constructivists believe they construct their knowledge of the world by INTERACTING with the object

Question 3

What are Piaget’s assumptions?

Answer 3

1. discontinuous development (learning happens in distinct stages)
2. children are active agents
3. constructive knowledge
4. domain general mechanism

Question 4

What type of theory is the discontinuous development theory? What does this mean?

Answer 4

Stage theory, invariant, universally iexperienced

Question 5

How does Piaget account for individual differences in development?

Answer 5

It is not the stages themselves changes, but the SPEED of development that causes individual differences

Question 6

What is the domain general mechanism?

Answer 6

The belief that children aren’t naturally good at a particular thing, but they go through different knowledge/activities and pick up on it better simply out of interest (the cognitive ability hasn’t changed)

Question 7

What type of theory does domain general mechanism theory contrast with?

Answer 7

information processing theories (people are naturally better at a particular thing)

Question 8

What does children being active agents mean?

Answer 8

Children are curious and seek out stimulation in their environment, choose their own development

Question 9

What is the constructivist approach?

Answer 9

Children build their knowledge through interactions with objects/environment and the speed of development (individual differences) depend on the different objects child is interacting with

Question 10

What is assimilation vs accommodation in development?

Answer 10

Assimilation: New experiences are incorporated into a child’s existing theories
Accommodation: new experience modify’s a childs theory

Question 11

How do developing ideas happen?

Answer 11

Specific —-> general

Question 12

How do updating ideas happen?

Answer 12

General —> specific

Question 13

What are schemas?

Answer 13

Information blocks, that are constructed upon with other schemas

Question 14

First stage of cognitive development/when?

Answer 14

sensorimotor (0-2 years)

Question 15

What is an example of a scheme?

Answer 15

A schema for what a cat looks like

Question 16

Second stage of cognitive development?

Answer 16

pre-operational (2-7 years)

Question 17

Third stage of cognitive development?

Answer 17

Concrete operational (7-11 years)

Question 18

Fourth stage of cognitive development?

Answer 18

Formal operational (11-adulthood)

Question 19

During the sensori-motor stage what do we see evidence of? How old are the infants during this?

Answer 19

8-12 months: object permanence (knowing objects don’t disappear when out of sight), cause-and effect behaviour, and goal directed behaviour

Question 20

What is the a-not-b error? did the 9-month old pass it?

Answer 20

Baby understanding where an object is when it is switched from point a to point b. no, although the child passed object permanence, it did not pass a-not b

Question 21

What is the pre-operational stage characterized by?

Answer 21

have the sensory/motor reflexes but still limited mentally

Question 22

What can kids in the pre-operational stage not do?

Answer 22

reversibility (reverse an action/series of steps) and conservation (understand that the same AMOUNT remains, despite changes in appearance, and egocentrism

Question 23

What is eco-centrism in the pre-operational stage?

Answer 23

when understanding is limited to one’s own perspective

Question 24

What video/study showed egocentricism?

Answer 24

the mountain task

Question 25

What is the concrete operation stage?

Answer 25

can do concrete mental problems to solve a problem, reversibility and constructivism is understood by them, less influenced by external appearance

Question 26

What is the formal operational stage?

Answer 26

Us: can reason abstractly, generate ideas, heightened metacognition

Question 27

What is heightened metacognition?

Answer 27

Ability to evaluate one;s own thoughts and actions from an objective perspective