theories of cognitive development Flashcards
1
Q
basic principles of piagets theory
A
- Child as scientist
- Kids naturally curious and create theories about the world
- Assimilation → new experiences incorporated into existing theories
o Have cat and so does neighbor → things that are small and furry are cats - Accomodations → existing theories modified based on experience
o See squirrel, small and furry →think it’s a cant → need to get info to change theory - Assim and accom usually in eqm
- When balance upset, kids reorganize thought → equilibration
- Results in different and more advances schemas (mental concepts and structures in the kid’s mind)
- 3 reorganizations lead to 4 stages
- All kids pass stages in same order
2
Q
sensorimotor
A
- Birth – 2y
- Adapting to and learning about environment
- 4-8mo show more interest in world
- 8mo – deliberate, intentional behavior
- 12mo – active experiments
- Begins with reflexive responding and ends with using symbols
- Object permanence: understanding that objects exist independently
o Just bc its not there doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist
o Not until 1y
3
Q
preoperational
A
- 2-7y
- Kids use symbols to represent object but there are many thinking errors
o Egocentrism → how they see the world is how everyone else does
Animism - give inanimate objects life characteristics
Centration - Tunnel vision
- Can only focus on 1 aspect of something at a time
- Ex equal sandwiches but jealous if u tint 4 vs 2
- When errors go away → next stage
4
Q
concrete operational
A
- 7-11y
- Thinking based on mental operations (strategies and rules that make thinking for systematic and powerful
- Operations can be reversed
- Focus on the real and concrete, not abstract
5
Q
3 mountain task
A
- Kids asked to walk around and play with a model of 3 mountains
- When familiar kids sit on one side and see a doll with a different pov
- Kids asked to identify pic that correspond with dolls perspective
- Almost always pic their own pov
- Flaw
o Kids may not remember whats on other side
o Might need to be taught to see in other pov
6
Q
class inclusion
A
- Are there more roses or flowers
- Understanding that a subclass cannot be greater than its superordinate class
Formal operational stage
7
Q
formal operational
A
- 11-adult
- Increasingly able to think abstractly
- Adolescents can think hypothetically
- Deductive reasoning to draw appropriate conclusions
8
Q
weaknessess
A
- Underestimates cog competence in infacts and overestimates in adolescence
- Some components too vaue to test
- Stage model to vague to test
- Undervalues influence of sociocultural factors
9
Q
vygotskis theory
A
- develop quicker with an expert partner → parent
o shared understanding of activity and what is happening - Zone of proximal developemt → diff between what one can do alone or with help
- Scaffolding → teaching style that matches assistance to learners needs
- Private speech → comments intended to regulate own behavior
o Thought = inner speech - Social interaction required for progress in development
10
Q
cultural differences in parent scaffolding
A
- Cultural context helps organize development
o Defines which cognitive activities are valued
o In Canadian society we value reading but don’t value reading the stars - Culture influences how we teach
- Diff cultures use diff tools for diff cog concepts
11
Q
educational application of theory
A
- scaffold learning → provide right amount of expert assistance to move learning forward
- Emphasize learning opportunites that are social and cooperative, encourage kids to learn from and teach each other
12
Q
information processing
A
- People and computers are both symbol processors
- Distinction between hardware and software
- Hardware → sensory, working and longterm memory, coordinated by central executive
- Software → task specific
- Working memory capacity increases but there are differences
- Distracted more easily by irrelevant things when younger
- Increased automatic processing → becomes automatic, frees space to remember more
- Increased speed of processing, how quick you can provice output
13
Q
how information processing changes with development
A
- People and computers are both symbol processors
- Distinction between hardware and software
- Hardware → sensory, working and longterm memory, coordinated by central executive
- Software → task specific
- Working memory capacity increases but there are differences
- Distracted more easily by irrelevant things when younger
- Increased automatic processing → becomes automatic, frees space to remember more
- Increased speed of processing, how quick you can provice output
14
Q
core knowledge theories
A
- Much of knowledge is general
- Distinctive domains of knowledge, some acquired early in life
- Some forms of knowledge important for survival that learning these is simplified
- Kids rapidly aquire language and knowledge of objects, people and living things
15
Q
understanding objects and their properties
A
- Infants rapidly create reasonably accurate theories of basic properties of objects
- Infants form categories to organize objects by properties and function
- By 18mo infants combine categories and create subcategories based on increased knowledge
