T4 - Cognitive Development

Question 1

Define:

• Schemas
• Assimilation
• Accommodation

Answer 1

Schemas = mental structures that capture the common properties of specific, behaviour, objects or experiences

Assimilation = new experience is incorporated into an existing scheme

Accommodation = new experience leads to the creation of a new scheme

Question 2

Sensorimotor Period: birth - 2 years

• 6 substages

Answer 2

Substage 1: Simple reflexes

• first month of life
• various reflexes that determine infants interaction with the world are at centre of cognitive life

Substage 2. First habits and Primary circular reactions

• 1-4 months
• infants begin to coordinate what were seperate actions into single, integrated activities

Substage 3. Secondary circular reactions

• 4-8 months
• infants take major strides in shifting their cognitive horizons beyond themselves to act on the outside world

Substage 4. Coordination of secondary circular reactions

• 8-12 months
• infants begin to use more calculated approaches to producing events, coordinating several schemes to generate a single act
• achieve object permanence

Stage 5. Tertiary circular reactions

• 12-18 months
• infants develop deliberate variation of actions that bring desirable consequences. Carry out miniature experiments to observe consequences.

Stage 6. Beginnings of thought

• 18months - 2 years
• capacity for mental representation or symbolic thought.
• infants can imagine where objects they can not see might be

Question 3

Pre-operational Period:

Limitations of thinking:

• conservation
• egocentric thought
• intuitive thought

Answer 3

Pre-operational period:
- 2-7 years
children use of symbolic thinking grows, mental reasoning emerged and the use of concepts increase

Limitations:
Conservation - the knowledge that quantity is unrelated to the arrangement and physical appearance of objects

Egocentric thought - thinking that does not take the viewpoint of others into account

Intuitive thought - thinking that reflects pre schoolers use of primitive reasoning and their avid acquisition of the world

Question 4

Concrete Operation Period

Answer 4

• 7-12 years of age
• characterised by the active and appropriate use of logic account, an ability known as decentering
• attain the concept of reversibility
• however, remain tied to concrete, physical reality. They are unable to truly understand abstract or hypothetical questions or ones that involve formal logic.

Question 5

Transition to Formal Operations:

What is hypothetical deductive reasoning?

How do children differ in this stage with thought?

Answer 5

• Adolescents in the formal operational stage use this reasoning - they start with a general theory about what produces a particular outcome and then deduce explanation for specific situations in which they see that particular outcomes.
• Piaget used a pendulum swing to illustrate this.

Difference in thought:

• they start with abstract possibilities then move to concrete thought.
• propositional thought = reasoning that uses abstract logic in the absence of concrete examples (all men are gay, sam is a man, therefore sam is gay)

Question 6

What is the sociocultural approach of cognitive development?

What is scaffolding?

Answer 6

• Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory is important
• Lev argued that developmental outcomes are influenced by the child’s own learning - that is in turn facilitated by others who are more skilled.
  Proposed 2 levels of development:
  1. the actual development level is the stage of development that has already been completed
  2. the potential development level is that stage of development that is evolving and it is during this stage that guidance is required.
• The different between the two level of a child’s performance defines their zone proximal development (ZPD)
• The concept of scaffolding: the assistance or structuring provided by others, encourages independence and growth