Task 1

Question 1

Developmental periods

Answer 1

Prenatal period( conception to birth)
Infancy(birth to 2 years)
Early childhood(2 years to 6 years)
Middle childhood(6 to 11 years)
Adolescence(11 to 18 years)
Early adulthood(18 to 25 years)
Adulthood( from 25 years on)

Question 2

Piagets theory of cognitive development

Answer 2

Constructivist theory that suggests that children move through four different stages of mental development. It focuses not only on how children acquire knowledge but also in the nature of intelligence.

Question 3

Fundamental Assumptions of piagets theory on cognitive development.

Answer 3

From birth onwards, humans are mentally active as well as physically, and their activity greatly contributes to their own development.

Children learn many important lessons on their own rather than depending on the instruction of parents or older children.

Children are intrinsically motivated to learn and do not require rewards from adults to do so.

Question 4

Two basic processes of piagets theory

Answer 4

Organization: Tendency to integrate particular observations into coherent schemas.

Adaptation: Tendency to respond to demands of environment in ways which meet one´s goals.

Question 5

Central developmental issues of piagets theory

Answer 5

Nature and Nurture

Sources of continuity

Sources of discontinuity

Question 6

Nature and nurture

Answer 6

Nature and nurture interact to produce cognitive development.
Nurture being not only the care given by parents but also by every experience the child encounters.
Nature being the maturing of the brain and the body with the correspondent ability to perceive, act, learn from experiences. The tendency to integrate observations to knowledge.

Nature and nurture combo creates schemas based on internal mental activities. These schemas start being puting together with those of physical activities while kids grow older. It helps them to form more complex behavior.

Question 7

Sources of continuity

Answer 7

Children develop cognitive abilities by continually adapting schemes through assimilation, accommodation and equilibration.

Question 8

Assimilation

Answer 8

Interpreting new ideas or experiences to fit existing schemes.

E.g Child saw dalmatian dog and interepreted this information based on prior experience calling it doggy

Question 9

Accomodation

Answer 9

Changing existing schemes to fit new ideas or experiences.

Child sees 4 legged animal (cow) and cals it doggy. Mother tells him that that is not a dog but a cow so the child wil have to have to change his schema about fourlegged animals

Question 10

Equilibration

Answer 10

Balancing accomodation and assimilation to create stable understanding

Equilibrium

Disequilibrium

Advanced equilibrium

Question 11

Equilibrium

Answer 11

Children are satisfied with their understanding of a particular phenomenon. They do not see any diifferences between their observations and understanding of a phenomenon.

Question 12

Disequilibrium

Answer 12

New information leads children to perceive that their understanding is inadequate, but they still cannot generate superior alternative.

Question 13

Advanced equilibrium

Answer 13

They develop sophisticated understanding eliminating shortcomings of old one. They create advanced equilibrium with broader range of observations that can be undrstood.

Question 14

Sources of discontinuity

Answer 14

Piaget depicts discontinuous aspects of cognitive development. Each stage is a way of understanding one´s experience and each transition represents discontinuous intellectual leap from one way of understanding it to another.

Question 15

Central properties of piagets stage theory

Answer 15

Qualitative change:Children of different ages thing in qualitetively different ways.In early stages of develoment consider morality based on consequences of behavior. In later stages they conceive it in terms of intent.

Broad applicability: Type of thinking characteristic of each age, influences childrens thinking across diverse topics and contexts.

Brief transitions: Before netering new stage, children go through a transitional period where they are somewhere between the more advanced type of thinking(new) and the less advanced one (old).

Invariant sequence:Everyone progresses through the stages i same order without skipping any of them.

Question 16

Four stages of cognitive development

Answer 16

Each stage has children exhibit new abilities that allow them to understand the world in qualitatively different ways than before.

Question 17

First Stage

Answer 17

Sensorimotor stage (Birth to two years)

Period within Piagets theory in which intelligence is expressed through sensory and motor abilities.

Concepts such as time,space and causality begin to be constructed

infants live largely in the here and now, their inteliggence is bound to their immediate perceptions and actions

Question 18

Reflexive schemes in the first stage

Answer 18

Birth to first month.

Infants are born with many reflexes: Reflexes and perceptual abilities are essential tools for building intelligence.

Question 19

Primary circular reactions in the first stage

Answer 19

1-4months

Infants begin to organize reflexes into larger behaviors, most are centred on their own bodies

Question 20

Secondary Circular reactions

Hallmark of this shift

Deficiency in children thinking 7-8 months

Answer 20

4-8months
Infants become increasingly interested in the world around them ( people, animals, toys and othe robjects and events beyond their own bodies).

hAMMMARK OF THIS SHIFT is that children start repeating their actions on the environment producing interesting results(banging rattles)

Deficiency in children thinking from 7-8 months:

Lack of object permanence( knowledge that objects continue to exist when out of view)
“Out of sight, Out of mind”(Only able to mentally represent objects that can be perceived at the moment

Question 21

Coordinationn of secondary circular reactions in the first stage

A not B error

Answer 21

8-12 months

Intentional and goal directed behavior e;g intentionally droppiing a spoon so our parents will give it to us. We see something and can grasp it to obtain the object(object permanence).

A not B error: Tendency to reach for a hidden object where it was last found rather than in the new location where it was last hidden.

Question 22

Tertiary circular reactions

Answer 22

1_18 years old

Infants begin to actively and avidly explore the potetntial ways in which objects can be used.

–“child as a scientist”: Their actions are the beginning of scientific experimentation.

Question 23

Mental representations

Deferred Imitation

Answer 23

Infants become able to form enduring mental representations. They also acquire deferred imitation.

Deferred imitation: Repetition of other people´s behavior a substantial time after it originally occurred

Question 24

Stage 2

Answer 24

Preoperational stage 2-7 years

Period in which children become able to represent the world through language, mental imagery, and symblic thought.

Question 25

Stage 2 Highlights

Answer 25

Children are able to think about things symbolically (3-4 years)
Language use becomes more mature
Develop memory and imagination ( allows them to understand time and engage i make-believe
communication and thought are still inflexible and limited
children are unable to perform mental operations

Question 26

Limitation of the second stage

Answer 26

Egocentrism- Inability to take someone elses perspective Three mountain task

animism: belief that inanimate objects have feelings as the young child has. They consider this objects as having emotions motives intentions thoughts and desires

No conservation: No capacity to infer knowledge that you understand from what is happening

Conservation- Capacity to infer knowledge that you undestand from what is happening.

Question 27

Stage 3

Answer 27

Concrete operational estate (7 TO 12 years)

Period in piagets theory in which children become able to think logically and not just intuitively. They can now classify concrete objects and understand events influenced by more than one factor.

Question 28

Highlights of stage 3

Answer 28

Children reason logically about concrete features of the world.

Most children can solve conservation tasks and many problems requiring attention to multiple dimensions.

Abstract and hypothetical thinking are not yet developed

pendulum problem

Question 29

Stage 4

Answer 29

Formal operational stage(12 years and beyond)

people in piagets theory in which adolescents thik systematically and reason about what might be, as well as what is. It allows them to understand politics, ethics and science fiction, as well as to engage in scientific reasoning.

Question 30

Staircase model

Answer 30

Example of piagets theory with sharp and regular transitions from ohase to phase with no ovzrlap or hierarchical system

Discontinuous/ stepwise change when one phase neds the next begins

not ocnstantlly developing

Question 31

Weaknesses of piagets theory

Answer 31

Infants and young children acquire cognitive abilities earlier than piaget thought

stage transitions are not as sharp as expected

theory emphasize individual processes at the expense of social and cultura influences.

Question 32

Alternative theories

Answer 32

Information proccessing theories(KLAHR)

Sociocultural theories

Question 33

Information processing theories(khlar)

Memory system

strategies that enhance learning ad memory

Answer 33

Class of theories focusing on structure of cognitive system and mental activities used to deploy attentio and memory to problem solving.

Memory system= working memory long term memory and executive functoning

rehearsal and selective attention

Question 34

overlapping waves theory

Answer 34

Information processing approach that emphasizes that individual childrne use multiple strategies to solve the same type of problem.

Question 35

Sociocultural theories

Answer 35

Approaches that emphasize that other people and the surrounding culture contribute greatly tochildrens development.

Emphasizes the developmebntal importance of children´s interactions with other people.

Emphasizes cultural tools for cognitive development

Question 36

Difference of socioultural theories with infromation processing theories and piagets theory

Answer 36

They dont tak eo naccount othe rpeople and focus on child sown efforts to ndesrtand the world

Question 37

Vygotskys theory

Answer 37

Vigotsky portrayed children as social learners, involved with people who are willing to help them gain skills and understanding.

Question 38

Internalization of thought proccess

Answer 38

A thought is internalized through speech and it originates a statement parents and adults make to children.

Proccess of internzlizing speech:
1 Childrens behavior is controlled by others statements
2 Childrens behavior is controlled by own private research (teel themselves what their parents told them)
3 Children´s behavior is controlled by internalized private speech, though
They tell themselves what tod do
More prevalent between ages 4 and 6

Question 39

Weakness of vigotskys theory and the internalization thought proccess

Answer 39

It doesnt specify when it comes to age related changes

Question 40

Central developmental issues

Answer 40

specific ideas about how change occurs through social interaction

Intersubjectivity

Social scaffolding

Zone of proximl development

Guided participation

Question 41

Intersubjectivity

Joint attention

Answer 41

mutual understanding that people share during communication

Proccess in which social partners intentionally focus on common referent in external environment

Question 42

Social Scaffolding

Answer 42

Providing temporary framework that supports children thinking at higuer level thatn children could manage on their own

Question 43

Zone of proximal development

Answer 43

Tasks that a child can complete with the guidance of an assitance of an adult or older childrne

Question 44

Guided participation

Answer 44

Organizing activities in ways that allow chuldren to engage in them at higher level than they could manage on their own

Question 45

Educational Implications

Answer 45

According to social constructivism, education should be aimed at deep understnding, with learning to be a cooperative activitiy, in whih learning makes a little one want to learn more.