Quiz 2

Question 1

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Answer 1

• Children’s thinking is significantly different from adults
• Cognition grows and develops in STAGES
• Stages are universal and in a specific order
• Children learn on their own
• Children are intrisically motivated

Question 2

Stages of Piaget’s Theory

Answer 2

Sensorimotor: < 2yo
Pre-operational: 2-7yo
Concrete operational: 7-11yo
Formal operational: >12yo

Question 3

Sensorimotor stage

Answer 3

• Live in the here and now
• Gain knowledge through movements and sensations

1-4months: reflexes and repeat pleasurable actions. Interest in own bodies

4-8months: repeat actions on object to produce desired outcomes. Interest in the world beyond own body. Connection between own actions and consequences in the world

8-12months: combine several actions towards goal. Intentional actions. Emergence of object permanence (defining achievment)

12-18months: trial and error experiments, understanding of cause-effect relations

18-24months: Mental representations, fully developed object-permanence, deferred imitation (copying adults later spontaneously), symbolic thoughts

Question 4

Object Permanence

Answer 4

Knowing that objects continue to exist even out of sight
Develops around 8 months old

A-not-B error: tendency to reach for hidden object where it was last found (evidence that object-permanence is fragile). Disappears after 12 months

Question 5

Pre-operational Stage

Answer 5

Symbolic thought
Egocentricism
Centration

Question 6

Symbolic Thought

Answer 6

Think about objects or events, not present in the immediate environment.
Enables language acquisition
Ability to use symbolic representation
Engage in pretend play

Question 7

Egocentricism

Answer 7

Perceiving the world from one’s own point of view only
ie. egocentric speech

Signs of progress when children start engaging in verbal arguments, shows that they are lsitening to the other

Question 8

Centration

Answer 8

Tendency to focus on a single feature of an object, to the exclusion of the other features

Conservation concept: merely changing the appearance of an object does not change its key properties

Question 9

Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 9

Understand conservation concept
Reversibility (think through a series of steps)
Seriation (order items in quantitative dimension)
Cognitive maps (familiar large-scale spaces)

Cannot think purely hypothetically

Question 10

Formal Operational Stage

Answer 10

Think abstractly and reason hypothetically
Not everyone reaches this stage
Can imagine different realities

Question 11

Piaget’s pendulum probelm

Answer 11

Test of deductive reasoning
Children under 12 performed unsystematic experiments and drew incorrect conclusions

Question 12

Strengths of Piaget

Answer 12

• Children as active learners and learning progresses
• Good overview of children’s thinking at different ages
• Big breadth

Applied in real world by knowing that children think differently at different ages and decides how we teach them, and knowing that they learn best by interacting with their environment

Question 13

Weaknesses of Piaget

Answer 13

• No use of scientific method
• Depict children’s thinking as more consistent than it really is
• Children are more cognitively competent than he thought
• Vague about the mechanisms
• Underestimates contribution of social world

Question 14

Nativist View

Answer 14

Children have innate abilities that provide them with basic knowledge in evolutionary performance
These allow them to rapidly acquire additional knowledge in these domains

Question 15

Domains of evolutionnary importance for the Nativist view

Answer 15

• Solid objects
• Understanding of physical laws
• Numbers
• Categorization
• Understanding minds of people
• Language

Question 16

(1) Understanding solid objects

Answer 16

Evidence for earlier than 8mo object permanence (Piaget’s task was too difficult, involved motor abilities. Looking behaviour is a better measure)

Drawbridge study: 3.5mo infants looked longer at impossible, which means they have object permanence. Suggests that understanding of solid object is innate

Question 17

(2) Understanding Physical Law

Answer 17

Violation of Expecting paradigm with gravity: 3 months old looked longer at impossible. Suggests that rudimentary understanding of gravity is innate

Question 18

(3) Understanding numbers

Answer 18

Habituation paradigm with displays of random dots numbers. Infants looked longer at new display. 6mo 2:1 ration, 9 mo 3:2 ratio
Proves ANS (Approximate Number Sense), intuitively estimate numbers. This lays foundation for math abilities

Question 19

(4) Categorization

Answer 19

Begins in infancy, Habituation paradigm with pics of dogs vs cats, looked longer at dog which showed they saw it as a different category. Other study could distinguish mammals from non-mammals

9 months old have 3 broad categories: Animals, People, Objects

Infants focus on similarities in shape (better than texture). This however results in difficulties in understanding exceptions

By 2-3 yo they start classifying in hierarchies. Organized by set-subset relations. 3 levels:
- Superordinate (Furniture, vehicles, Plant)
- Basic (Chairs, Truck, Tree)
- Subordinate (Armchairs, Oak)
They use basic at first, Superordinate are less obvious and Subordinate are too hard to detect

Question 20

Criticism of Nativist view

Answer 20

• Over-estimate infants’ innate abilities
• Theirs findings can be explained by :
• perceptual features of stimuli ( may look longer at stimuli because more interesting)
• Learning from environment (already 3 mo)

Question 21

Learning from Environment View

Answer 21

• Children are born with no knowledge
• They learn from trial and error and statistical learning (track patterns, example of observational learning. Innate and domain general)

Study with pattern: 2mo looked longer at novel

Parents play a role by providing the home environment. Measured with HOME (parenting quality (most important) and stimulation of environment). Influenced by SES and culture

Question 22

Summary of 3 views

Answer 22

Piaget: Cognitive development happens qualitatively in stages
Nativist: Innate learning and specialized learning mechanisms in domains
Learning: Learn from environment, quality of home matters

Question 23

3 components of a mind

Answer 23

• Desires
• Knowledge
• Intentions

Question 24

Intentions

Answer 24

6mo: emergence of understanding others’ intentions
Study: infants who saw the hand reach for the doll looked longer at the display than infants who saw the hand reach for the ball even when reversed (they can tell the intentions behind actions)

9mo: can distinguish between intentional and accidental actions

Joint Attention: emerges at 9-12mo. Difficulty is early indicator of ASD)

Importance of understanding Intentions: steps toward understanding mind of others / enables joint attentions / enables imitation

Question 25

Imitation

Answer 25

Voluntarily matching one’s behaviour (9-12mo)
Imitating sticking tongue out is coincidental and an indication of interests
Imitation is critical for observational learning

Light study: hand occupied turned on light using hand, hands free turned on light with head
Shows that they imitate goals not actions, they are thinking about what they are observing

Question 26

Development Theory of Mind

Answer 26

Understanding desires lead to action emerge at 1yo

Kitten study: 12mo looked longer when experiment held other kitten vs the one they were originally looking at
Means 12mo understand the desires
8mo looked for same amount of time

2yo can predict character’s actions based on its desires rather than own
3yo understand what people know and don’t know (understand expertise)

Question 27

Distinguishing self

Answer 27

Born with implicit sense of self (rooting reflex)
More explicit sense of self develops at 18-24mo (pass rouge test)

Question 28

False-Belief problems

Answer 28

Test’ children’s understanding that other people will behave consistent with their knowledge even if a child knows this knowledge is false

3yo fail
5yo pass

Studies smarties: 3yo think that others will also know that there are pencil in the box. 5yo say that others will think there is smarties

Question 29

Social Cognition Development Timeline

Answer 29

6mo: emergence intentions
9-12mo: joint attention and imitation
2yo: explicit sense of self indicated by passing rouge test
2yo: greater understanding that others desires can be different from one’s own
3yo: sensitive to whether someone is knowledgable in a topic or not + basic understanding that beliefs lead to action but fail at false-belief tests
5yo: more fully developed theory of mind and pass false-belief task

Question 30

Explaining Development in Theory of Mind

Answer 30

1. Nativist: theory of mind module, innate brain mechanism that matures over first 5 years of life (evidence by newborn interest in faces and universal similar development & Temporoparietal junction (TPJ) the brain area (children with ASD have smaller one)
2. Improvements in Executive Functioning: set of cognitive processes that enable cognitive control of behaviour (ie planning, juggling). Evidence that as executive functioning improves, so does theory of mind (r=0.4)
3. Contribution of Social interactions: interaction with others matter. Parents’ use of mental state talk is correlated with preschooler’s theory of mind ability. Preschoolers that have siblings (+ with opposite gender) are better at theory of mind.
   Caregivers can foster children’s social cognition by using mental state talk, providing opportunities for interactions with different people, and encouraging joint attention

In summary: they all play a role (maturation of brain regions + improved executive functioning abilities + interactions with others)