Theories Of Cognitive Development Flashcards
What are the benefits of developmental theories?
They provide a framework for understanding important phenomena
Raise crucial questions about human nature
Lead to better understanding of children by stimulating new research
What are the four stages of Piaget’s theory?
Sensorimotor – the period (birth to 2y) in which intelligence is expressed through sensory and motor abilities
Preoperational – the period (2-7y) in which children become able to represent their experiences in language, mental imagery and symbolic thought
Concrete operational – the period (7-12y) in which children become able to reason logically about concrete objects and events
Formal operational - the period (12+) in which people become able to think about abstractions and hypothetical situations
How does Piaget suggest these stages are constructed?
Through processes of:
Assimilation
Accommodation
Equilibrium
How does Piaget’s theory fit into the themes?
Active child - yes, constructivist and intrinsically motivated to learn
Nature v nurture - interact
Continuity - discontinuous (stages) but talks about 3 processes of continuity
How does the information processing theory fit into the themes?
Active child - yes, active problem solvers
Nature v nurture - interact
Continuous
MOC - memory and EF
How does the core knowledge theory fit into the themes?
Active child - ?
Nature v nurture - interact (nature = innate knowledge)
Continuous
How does the sociocultural theory fit into the themes?
Active child - yes but focus on motivation of others to teach
Nurture
Continuous
How does the dynamic systems theory fit into the themes?
Active child - yes, innate motivations but also influenced by others
Nature and nurture - interact
Continuous - in complex systems
MOC - motor activities, attention etc
Who is the main information processing theorist and what was their methods?
Siegler and Klhar
Task analysis - including computer simulation
Who was the main Piagetian theorist and what was their methods?
Piaget
Clinical methods and observational
Who was the main core knowledge theories and what was their main method?
Spelke
Habituation paradigms
Who was the main sociocultural theorist and what was their methods?
Vygotsky
Naturalistic and structured observations
Who was the main dynamic theorist and what was their main method?
Thelen
Stepping reflex
Constructivist
Children construct knowledge in response to experiences
Assimilation
The process by which people translate incoming information into a form that fits concepts they already understand
Accommodation
The process by which people adapt current knowledge structures in response to new experiences
Equilibrium
Process by which children (or other people) balanced assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding.
Includes three stages; satisfied with understanding of phenomena (equilibrium), new info makes them realise mistake (disequilibrium) then they develop a more sophisticated understanding.
What are Piaget’s sources for discontinuity
Qualitative change — children of different ages think in qualitatively different ways
Board applicability — the type of thinking characteristic of each stage influences children’s thinking
across diverse topics and contexts
Brief transitions – stages of transition between thinking styles
Invariant sequence — everyone progresses through the same stages in the same order without
skipping any of them
Sensorimotor stage of Piagets theory
Adapt movement to environment from birth e.g suck nipples
Lack object permanence
Develop A not B error
Show first sign of deferred imitation
Object permanence
Knowledge that objects continue to exist when they are out of view
A not B error
the tendency to reach for hidden object where it was last found rather than in the new location where it was last hidden.
Deferred imitation
repetition of other people’s behaviour a substantial time after it originally occurred
Preoperational stage of Piagets theory
Development of symbolic gestures (use of object to stand for another)
Limited by egocentrism
Limited by centration as shown by conversion problem
Egocentrism
tendency to perceive world from own point of view only
Centration
the tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event (shown in the balance scale problem)
Conversion problem
Concrete operational stage of Piagets theory
Reason logically - solve conversion problems
Limited by reasoning about hypothetical situations and thinking systematically as shown in Inhelder and Piagets pendulum problem
Formal operational stage
Think abstractly
Reason hypothetically
Not universal
Information processing theory
Focus on the structure of the cognitive system and mental activities used to deploy attention and memory to solve problems
Emphasis on process involved in children’s thinking and thinking as a process that occurs over time
Child is limited by their memory capacity and speed of processing which both increase over time
Memory and IPT
Working memory capacity is limited but increases through childhood
LTM is unlimited
Memory is key to identity
EF and IPT
Inhibiting inadvisable actions, enhancing WM and being cognitively flexible
3yo have trouble switching goals whereas 5yo don’t
Simon says - inhibition
Quality of EF enhances academic success
Overlapping waves theory
IPT
refers to using a variety of strategies to solve problems, with the strategies becoming more advances with age and experience
Core knowledge theory
View that children have some innate knowledge domains of special evolutionary importance and domain-specific learning mechanisms for rapidly and effortlessly acquiring additional information in those domains
Tendency to deceive increases (they understand people don’t have access to same knowledge as them) - contradicts Piaget’s egocentrism
ToMM
CKT and constructivism v nativism
Nativism: the theory that infants have substantial innate knowledge of evolutionary important domains as well as the ability to quickly and easily acquire more knowledge in these domains
Constructivism: the theory that infants build increasingly advanced understanding by combining rudimentary innate knowledge with subsequent experiences
Spelke’s 4 innate core knowledge systems
Inanimate objects and their mechanical interactions
Minds of people and other animals capable of goal directed actions
Numbers
Spatial layouts and geometric relations
(Language is another core knowledge believed to be innate)
Sociocultural theory
Emphasise that other people and the surrounding culture contribute greatly to children’s development.
It’s suggested that its others that are motivated by watching you learn and develop through guided participation which is a process in which more knowledgeable individuals organise activities in ways that allow less knowledgeable people to learn
Vygotsky’s phases of internalisation of speech
Behaviour controlled by other peoples statements
Private speech – children develop self-regulation and problem solving abilities by telling themselves aloud what to do
Internalised private speech
Chen, Mo and Honomichi (2004)
Conducted a study with uni students in US and China and asked them to solve two problems, one related to a fairy tale of each culture e.g Hansel and Gretel for US and they found that if the problem was related to a fairy tale from their culture they were superior in solving it
Wang (2013)
Asked 4-8 year olds about earliest memories in China and US they found correlation with the cultures values and attitudes i.e independence v interdependence
Intersubjectivity
The mutual understanding that people share during communication, by focussing on the same topic as well as the other persons reaction.
Joint attention is at the heart of intersubjectivity, a process in which social partners internationally focus on a common referent in the external environment - children start this at age 1
Social scaffolding
Process in which more competent people provide a temporary framework that supports children’s thinking at a higher level than children could manage on their own
It involves explaining the goal of the task, demonstrating how the task can be done and helping with the most difficult parts, until they gradually need less and less support.
Social scaffolding helps process of forming autobiographical memories as children are encouraged to expand on their statements, improving encoding of key information.
Dynamic systems theory
Focus on how change occurs over time in complex systems.
Integrative of all theories
Thinking serves an adaptive process as it helps attain goals but also requires action.
Centrality of action - how specific actions shape development e.g walking or imitating others
Thelen et al (1993)
Conducted a longitudinal study on the reaching efforts of 4 infants during their first year. A computer analysed the infants muscle movements, and found that because of individual differences in the infants physiology, activity level, arousal, motivation and experience, each child faced different challenges in attempts to master reaching.
Infants varied in age that they reached the milestone, reaching speeds and typical motions.
Smith et al (1999) - A not B error as motor habit
Self-organisation
Development is a process of integrating attention, memory, emotions and actions as needed to adapt to a continuously changing environment. The organisational process is sometimes called soft assembly, because the components and their organisation change from moment to moment and situation to situations.
Stepping reflex
Neonatal reflex in which an infant lifts one leg and then the other in a coordinated pattern like walking.
Disappears around 2 months due to rapid weight gain
If you place babies legs in water it comes back and attach weights to newborns ankles and disappears
