Theories of Cognitive Development

Question 1

Piaget’s theory focus

Answer 1

the active child

Question 2

Piaget’s theory view of children’s nature

Answer 2

constructivist, children play an active role in their development, intrinsically motivated to learn!

Question 3

assimilation

Answer 3

process in which people incorporate incoming information into concepts they already understand
ex. a new breed of dog

Question 4

accomodation

Answer 4

process in which people improve their current understanding in response to new experiences
ex. a cow not a dog

Question 5

schema

Answer 5

category of knowledge, mental expectation about the world

Question 6

equilibration

Answer 6

process in which people balance assimilation and accommodation to create a stable understanding

Question 7

properties of stage theory

Answer 7

1. qualitative change: different age = different thinking
2. broad applicability: applied to all children in many areas
3. brief transitions: not long transition, quick jump to next stage
4. invariant sequence: everyone progresses through stages in the same order w/o skipping

Question 8

sensorimotor stage

Answer 8

birth-2 years, intelligence expressed through sensory/motor abilities (ex. infant reflexes), generally bound to immediate perceptions/actions

Question 9

object permanence

Answer 9

• knowledge that objects continue to exist even when out of view, develops late in the first year
• may actually be close to 3.5 momths

Question 10

A-not-B error

Answer 10

tendency to reach for object where it was last found rather than the new location where it was hidden

Question 11

circular reactions

Answer 11

experiencing actions and their consequences
- primary - repeat pleasurable actions
- secondary - repetition with variation
- tertiary - trial and error representation

Question 12

deferred imitation

Answer 12

repetition of other people’s behaviors a substantial time after it originally occurred

Question 13

2. pre-operational stage

Answer 13

2-7 years, able to represent experience in language/mental imagery, but cannot perform certain mental operations (ex. water volume)

Question 14

symbolic representation

Answer 14

the use of one object to stand for another (ex. using a playing card as an iPhone)

Question 15

egocentrism

Answer 15

tendency to perceive the world soley from one’s own point of view (ex. spatial perspectives)

Question 16

conservation concept

Answer 16

idea that merely changing the appearance of objects does not change key properties (ex. conservation of liquids, solids, quantity

Question 17

3. concrete operational stage

Answer 17

7-12 years, more logical reason (now understand conservation), but cannot think in purely abstract terms (ex. pendullm problem)

Question 18

4. formal operational stage

Answer 18

12-beyond, think deeply about both concrete and abstract events, perform systematic scientific experiments and draw conclusions (ex. can conduct a proper scientific experiment)
- not universal, not all children/adults reach this stage

Question 19

Piaget’s theory weaknesses

Answer 19

• vague abt mechanisms of change
• underestimates competency of infants and children
• underestimates the social world on cognitive development
• stage model depicts thinking as more consistent than it is

Question 20

information processing theories

Answer 20

a class of theories that focus on the structure of cognitive system and the mental activities used to deploy attention and memory to solve problems, evolved out of cognitive and computer studies

Question 21

information processing theories focus

Answer 21

how change occurs
- development through an increase in cognitive capabilities

Question 22

task analysis

Answer 22

research technique of specifying the goals, obstacles, and potential solution strategies in problem solving

Question 23

computer simulation

Answer 23

mathematical model that expresses ideas about mental processes in precise ways

Question 24

problem solving

Answer 24

process of attaining a goal by using a strategy to overcome an obstacle

Question 25

working memory

Answer 25

involves actively attending to, maintaining, and processing information, increases greatly during childhood development

Question 26

long-term memory

Answer 26

information retained on an enduring basis, unlimited info for an unlimited time

Question 27

executive functioning

Answer 27

• control behavior/thought processes
• basic processes, inhibition, enhanced working memory, cognitive flexibility
• prefrontal cortex!

Question 28

basic processes

Answer 28

simplest and most frequently used mental activities
ex. associating, recognizing, recalling, generalizing

Question 29

encoding

Answer 29

representing in memory, information that draws attention or is considered important

Question 30

planning

Answer 30

difficult for children b/c it requires inhibiting the desire to solve the problem

Question 31

rehersal

Answer 31

the process of repeating information multiple times to aid memory of it

Question 32

selective attention

Answer 32

process of intentionally focusing on the information most relevant to the current goal

Question 33

content knowledge

Answer 33

makes learning new info even easier, prior knowledge on a subject

Question 34

overlapping waves theory

Answer 34

emphasizes the variability or children’s thinking, with age and experience, children rely on more advanced strategies

Question 35

core knowledge theory

Answer 35

approaches that view children as having some innate knowledge of special evolutionary importance and specific learning mechanisms for aquring additional information

Question 36

core knowledge view of children’s nature

Answer 36

children are active learners!
both with general learning capabilities and mechanisms to acquire certain info of evolutionary importance

Question 37

domain specific

Answer 37

info about a particular content area, different learning mechanisms for different domains, ex. language, indentifying facial expressions

Question 38

nativism

Answer 38

belief that infants are born w/ substantial knowledge of evolutionary info and can quickly/easily acquire more knowledge

Question 39

constructivism

Answer 39

theorizes that infants possess specialized learning abilities to understand evolutionary info, but more advanced knowledge developed through experience

Question 40

how are core knowledge theories organized

Answer 40

biology - plants/animals
physics - other objects
psychology - about people

Question 41

sociocultural theories

Answer 41

approaches that emphasize that other people and the surrounding culture contribute greatly to children’s development

Question 42

guided participation

Answer 42

a process in which more knowledgeable individuals organize activities for less knowledgeable people to learn

Question 43

social scaffolding

Answer 43

more competent people provide framework that supports thinking at a higher level than children could manage on their own

Question 44

cultural tools

Answer 44

the innumerable products of human ingenuity that enhance thinking

Question 45

phases of internalized speech

Answer 45

1. controlled by other’s statements
2. private speech: internalization of thought process children develop self-regulation by telling themselves aloud what to do
3. silent inner speech (thought)

Question 46

zone of proximal development

Answer 46

given your current maturation, what can you do with help

Question 47

intersubjectivity

Answer 47

the mutual understanding that people share during communication

Question 48

joint attention

Answer 48

social partners intentionally focus on a common referent in the external environment
- responding to joint attention (1 year)
- initiaiting joint attention (2 years)

Question 49

dynamic systems theory

Answer 49

a class of theories that focus on how change occurs over time in complex systems
ex. how motor skills provoke development, maybe one is inhibiting another, etc.