Theories of Cognitive Development

Question 1

What is Piaget’s approach to understanding cognitive development labeled as? Why?

Answer 1

Constructivist, because he depicts children as constructing knowledge form themselves in response to their environments.

Question 2

How did Piaget view children’s thinking as different than adults? How was this thinking reflected in his model?

Answer 2

He thought it was qualitatively different. As a result, his theory had stages.

Question 3

Piaget believed that children had what kind of innate drive?

Answer 3

He believed that children had an innate drive to “organize” the world mentally.

Question 4

What were Piaget’s three sources of continuity in his model?

Answer 4

1. Assimilation. 2. Accommodation. 3. Equilibration.

Question 5

What is assimilation?

Answer 5

Process by which people incorporate incoming information into concepts they already understand.

Question 6

What is accommodation?

Answer 6

The process by which people improve their current understanding in response to new experiences.

Question 7

What is equilibration?

Answer 7

The process by which people balance assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding.

Question 8

What are Piaget’s sources of discontinuity represented by in his model?

Answer 8

His stages.

Question 9

What are Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development?

Answer 9

1. Sensorimotor. 2. Preoperational. 3. Concrete operational. 4. Formal operational.

Question 10

What age bracket is represented by the sensorimotor stage?

Answer 10

Birth to 2 years.

Question 11

What age bracket is represented by the preoperational stage?

Answer 11

2-7 years.

Question 12

What age bracket is represented by the concrete operational stage?

Answer 12

7-12 years.

Question 13

What age bracket is represented by the formal operational stage?

Answer 13

12+ years.

Question 14

What are the characteristics of the sensorimotor stage? (5)

Answer 14

1. Emphasis on learning through motor actions or objects. 2. Thoughts limited to here and now. 3. No mental representation. 4. Object permanence. 5. Deferred imitation.

Question 15

What characteristic marks the end of the sensorimotor stage and marks the start of the preoperational stage?

Answer 15

The development of symbolic representation.

Question 16

[Piaget] What is deferred imitation? What stage is it first displayed in?

Answer 16

The repetition of other people’s behavior a substantial time after it originally occurred. It is first displayed in the sensorimotor stage.

Question 17

[Piaget] What is the A-not-B error? What stage is it relevant to?

Answer 17

The tendency to reach for a hidden object where it was last found rather than in the new location where it was last hidden. It is relevant to the sensorimotor stage.

Question 18

What are the main characteristics of the preoperational stage? (3)

Answer 18

1. Symbolic Representation. 2. Egocentrism. 3. Centration.

Question 19

[Piaget] What is symbolic representation? What stage is it relevant to?

Answer 19

The use of one object to stand for another.

Question 20

[Piaget] What are examples of symbolic representation? (2) What stage is it relevant to?

Answer 20

1. Pretend play (imagine something is something else). 2. Language (use words to stand for things). Preoperational stage.

Question 21

[Piaget] What is egocentrism? What stage is it relevant to?

Answer 21

The tendency to perceive the world solely from one’s own point of view. Preoperational stage.

Question 22

[Piaget] What are examples of measuring egocentrism? (2) What stage is it relevant to?

Answer 22

1. Piaget’s three mountains task. 2. Animism. Preoperational stage.

Question 23

[Piaget] What is centration? What stage is it relevant to?

Answer 23

The tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event. Preoperational stage.

Question 24

[Piaget] What is conservation concept? What stage is it relevant to?

Answer 24

The idea that merely changing the appearance of objects does not necessarily change the objects’ other key properties. Preoperational stage.

Question 25

What is the main characteristics of the concrete operational stage?

Answer 25

Logical reasoning, but limited to concrete, here and now, problems that are not too complex.

Question 26

What is the main characteristic of the formal operational stage?

Answer 26

Ability to think abstractly and to reason hypothetically.

Question 27

[Piaget] What is a schema?

Answer 27

Internal mental structures created by assimilation/accommodation.

Question 28

[Piaget] What is class-inclusion? What stage is it relevant to?

Answer 28

Understanding an object being part of a subset included within a parent set. Concrete operational can understand problem; Preoperational can not understand problem.

Question 29

Does Piaget’s model emphasize global or domain specific processes?

Answer 29

Global.

Question 30

What are the weaknesses of Piaget’s theory? (4)

Answer 30

1. Vague mechanisms that produce cognitive growth. 2. Children more competent than Piaget realized. 3. Understates social role. 4. Depicts children’s thinking as being more consistent than they are.