Social development + Theories of cognitive development Flashcards
Joint attention behaviour
Develops around 9 months of age
Infants begin to point to direct another’s attention
Understand that their perspective is different from the other person
Self-recognition
Develops around 18-24 months
Rouge test: Put a sticker on the baby’s forehead and get them to stand in front of the mirror, understand that the reflection is them
Self-representation
Develops at 3 years old
Can develop a solid representation of themselves, describe themselves and how they feel
Self-esteem
Judgments of worth, liking and satisfaction
Global Or Domain-specific
The impact of these domains on self-esteem depends on the degree to which an individual judges the domain to be important
Mueller and Dweck (1998) reasoning experiment
10 year olds
Set 1 reasoning problem (moderately difficult)
Manipulated feedback after success “You got >80% problems right. That’s a really high score”
Group 1: ‘You must be smart at these problems’
Group 2: ‘You must have worked hard at these problems’
Group 3: No feedback
Praised for ability group chose easier questions later
Set 2 reasoning problems (high difficulty)
“You performed a lot worse on those problems. You got <50% right”
Children rated
□ Failure attributions
□ Desire to persist
□ Enjoyment
Praised for ability group attributed failure to lack of ability
Set 3 reasoning problems (moderate difficulty)
Post failure performance
Praised for ability group ended up failing
Praising children’s ability makes them
Less likely to embrace the challenge
More likely to attribute failure to a lack of ability
Less likely to persist in difficult situations
Less likely to seek out learning situations
More likely to misrepresent performance (cheat?)
Process praise
Focuses on a child’s effort, strategies, and actions, rather than their inherent abilities
Children who experienced process praise as toddlers were more likely to report that traits like IQ are malleable, they prefer challenge and attribute failure to lack of effort
Preregistered analysis
Researchers published independent plan early on online, even before collecting data (has more research integrity and honestly)
What do early studies show about directing praise
Self-esteem in children is important, but praise may have adverse consequences
Early studies showed that directing praise at children’s behaviour/action/effort is beneficial for developing motivational constructs and the ability to cope with failure
Why are theories important
Theories provide frameworks to develop knowledge
- Organise information
- Make meaning to the data
Theory’s are interconnected statements that explain unobservable structures and processes
Lay out hypotheses that can be tested with empirical work
What makes a good theory
Logically sound
Empirically sound
Clear, testable parsimonious
Hard to vary
Covers a large area of science
Jean Piaget
Constructivist theories: Depicts children as constructing knowledge for themselves
Children are seen as:
- Scientific problem solvers
- Active
- Learning many important lessons on their own
- Intrinsically motivated to learn
Argues that children go through 4 stages, each building on the previous one
3 processes of learning
Assimilation: integrating new information into reality
Accommodation: incorporating changes from new information and developing new understanding of the world
Equilibration: encounter something new and have to update it and either assimilate it to understand (views don’t change) or accommodate by updating information (views change)
Piagets theory what’s good about it
Logically sound
Covers a large area of science
It isn’t:
Empirically sound
Clear, testable parsimonious
Hard to vary
Eleanor Gibson (Theory, Domain, Known for, Famous study)
Theory: Ecological theory of Perceptual development
Domain: Perception
Known for: Ideas of affordances (inks what objects offer to the possibilities for behaviour that exist for a given creature. The theory “implies that to see things is to see how to get about among them and what to do or not do with them)
Famous studies: Visual cliff (put on a high platform, one side of board was checkboard material that was right under glass and other side the checkboard patter was all over the floor) - infants crawling avoided deep side of board
Esther Thelan (Theory, Domain, Known for)
Theory: Dynamic systems theory
Domain: Motor and language development (Motor and language development are interconnected, with advancements in motor skills providing opportunities for new experiences that in turn support language development)
Known for:
○ Longitudinal studies of reaching and walking (What happens and why it happens)
Psychophysiological measures
Liz Spelke (Theory, Domain, Known for)
Theory: Core knowledge theory
Domain: Perceptual and cognitive development
Known for:
○ Claims that infants have an innate understanding of the physical world (e.g. understand gravity)
○ Claims that infants have innate understanding of number (sensitive to the distinctions between numbers)
Theory of core knowledge: allow them to understand fundamental aspects of the world, such as objects, agents, numbers, and space, from birth
Core objects theory
Core object theory
Cohesion: objects stay together
Continuity: follow a clear path through time and space
Contact: move upon contact
Alison Gopnik (Theory, Domain, Known for, Famous study)
Theory: Theory Theory
Domain: Cognitive development
Known for:
○ Thinking about infants/children like scientists
Famous studies:
○ Blicket detector (casual learning)
○ Broccoli and crackers (theory of mind - people have preferences e.g. for broccoli or crackers)
