Theories of cognitive development

Question 1

Plato argues

Answer 1

we are born with knowledge; nativist

Question 2

Aristotle argues

Answer 2

knowledge is learnt through experience; empiricist

Question 3

John Locke

Answer 3

Tabula rasa: emphasized nurture and importance of early strict parenting with progressive freedom

Question 4

Rousseau

Answer 4

emphasis on nature: innately good. children learn through interactions rather than instruction

Question 5

What influenced the study of child development? 19-20th C.

Answer 5

social reform movement and child labor laws; Darwin’s theory of evolution and his diaries abt childhood.

Question 6

Freud’s influence on developmental psychology

Answer 6

Unconscious desires that influence development; importance of early years

Question 7

G. Stanley Hall’s influence

Answer 7

earned 1st PhD in psyc; founded APA; wrote textbook on adolescence and formalized the study of development.

Question 8

John Watson’s influence

Answer 8

founded behaviorism; study of observable behavior; reward and punishment shape the emergence of any phenomena. Knowledge develops as product of experience and contribute to all aspects of development (nurture).

Question 9

Principle of operant conditioning

Answer 9

Behavior that is rewarded will increase; behavior that is punished or not rewarded will decrease.

Question 10

underlying cognitive processes (changing and growing)

Answer 10

can determine our ability to learn and how we gain knowledge from experience.

Question 11

contraints on development

Answer 11

social
cultural
economical
historical
physical (environment)
cognitive (capacity for thinking in different stages)

Question 12

cognitive maturation

Answer 12

substantial changes across development in how children process information

Question 13

Piaget funded…

Answer 13

field of cognitive development; constructivism (empiricist)

Question 14

assimilation

Answer 14

process that children translate new information into an existing schema

Question 15

accommodation

Answer 15

children revise current knowledge structures in response to new experiences

Question 16

equilibration

Answer 16

the balance of assimilation and accommodation for stable understanding

Question 17

Piaget’s stages of development

Answer 17

(discontinuous)
- sensorimotor (0-2)
- preoperational (2-7)
- concrete operational (7-12)
- formal operational (12-beyond); not everyone reaches this stage

Question 18

problems with Piaget

Answer 18

• competence/performance distinction
• evidence for knowledge even in the absence (poverty) of experience
• inconsistence with the timeline of stages

Question 19

false consensus effect

Answer 19

(Piaget) adult errors of egocentricity

Question 20

Piaget’s mechanisms for learning

Answer 20

assimilation, accommodation, equilibration

Question 21

key difference between Piaget and Vygotsky

Answer 21

Piaget: children trying to understand the world on their own.
Vygotsky: children as social beings, intertwined with others who are eager to help them learn and gain skills

Question 22

zone of proximal development describes

Question 23

social scaffolding

Answer 23

guided participation; more competent people provide temporary frameworks that leads children to higher-thinking capabilities

Question 24

elements of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory

Answer 24

zone of proximal development; social scaffolding; joint attention; intersubjectivity; social referencing.

Question 25

is sociocultural theory continuous or discontinuous?

Answer 25

continuous

Question 26

is information processing theory continuous or discontinuous?

Answer 26

continuous

Question 27

3 main points of information processing theory

Answer 27

• increasing efficient execution of basic processes
• expanding memory capacity
• acquisition of new strategies and knowledge

Question 28

basic processes (information processing theory)

Answer 28

the simplest and most frequently used mental activities

Question 29

2 biological processes important for faster processing

Answer 29

myelination & increased connectivity of brain areas

Question 30

increase in speed of processing with age is…

Answer 30

domain general

Question 31

memory system components

Answer 31

sensory, working, long-term

Question 32

sensory memory

Answer 32

can hold moderate amount of information for fraction of a second. capacity constant over development

Question 33

working memory

Answer 33

workspace where information about environment is attested to and actively processed. capacity and speed increase into adolescence

Question 34

long-term memory

Answer 34

information retained on enduring basis. can retain unlimited information and indefinitely

Question 35

memory strategies

Answer 35

rehearsal & selective attention

Question 36

object cognition

Answer 36

continuity, coherence, contact