Theory of Cognitive Development

Question 1

Who made the theory of cognitive development?

Answer 1

Piaget

Question 2

What are schemas?

Answer 2

Concepts of understanding. Ideas about what something is and specific details about it.

Question 3

What is assimilation?

Answer 3

The process of taking in new information and fitting it into an existing schema about objects or the world.

Question 4

What is accomadation?

Answer 4

Accommodation involves creating new schemas, or modifying existing schemas so new info can be incorporated and fit in the new idea or experience.

Question 5

What is equilibrium?

Answer 5

When a child learns something that assimilates into their existing schemas, their mind is in equilibrium.

Question 6

What is disequilibrium?

Answer 6

When a child finds something that doesn’t assimilate into one of their existing schemas, they have to accommodate for this new information and they’re in disequilibrium.

Question 7

What are the 4 stages of cognitive development?

Answer 7

1. Sensory motor stage
2. Preoperational stage
3. Concrete operational stage
4. Formal operational stage

Question 8

What is the age range for the sensory motor stage?

Answer 8

0-2

Question 9

What occurs in the sensory motor stage?

Answer 9

Children develop their motor skills and make sense of the world through their senses/ interaction with it. Object permanence is developed (around 8 months), the understanding that objects still exist even if they cannot be seen or touched

Question 10

What was Piagets test for object permenance?

Answer 10

Invisible displacement: hide object and see if child will look for it.

Question 11

What is the age range for the preoperational stage?

Answer 11

2-7

Question 12

What occurs in the sensory preoperational stage?

Answer 12

Kids develop:
- Animism
- Seriation
- Symbolic thinking

Kids outgrow:
- Centration
- Egocentrism

Question 13

What is animism?

Answer 13

The ability to treat inanimate objects as if they were alive. This is developed in the preoperational stage

Question 14

What is seriation?

Answer 14

Ordering using common properties. Developed in the preoperational stage

Question 15

What is symbolic thinking?

Answer 15

Children learn to mentally represent an object that is not present. Developed in the preoperational stage.

Question 16

What is centration?

Answer 16

The tendency to attend to one aspect of a situation while ignoring seemingly obvious issues/ problems. Children grow out of this in the preoperational stage.

Question 17

What is egocentrism?

Answer 17

A child’s inability to see a situation from another person’s point of view, out grown in the preoperational stage.

Question 18

What is the age range for the concrete operational stage?

Answer 18

7-11

Question 19

What occurs in the concrete operational stage?

Answer 19

Children can think logically and carry out mental operations if using concrete materials. eg. Counting on their fingers

Question 20

What is piaget’s test to see if childeren are in the concrete operational stage?

Answer 20

Conservation: Understanding hat an object doesnt change mass because it changes shape.

Question 21

What is the age range for the formal operational stage?

Answer 21

11+

Question 22

What occurs in the formal operational stage?

Answer 22

Capable of both abstract (hypothetical) and logical thinking.

Question 23

What is abstract thinking?

Answer 23

Thinking in your head, does not require concrete materials to reason.

Question 24

What is logicalthinking?

Answer 24

Working through problems systematically, developing a hypothesis and testing

Question 25

What is piagets tests to se if childeren are in the formal operational stage?

Answer 25

The pendulum task, kids are asked what whanges the speed of swinging

Question 26

What are 4 criticisms of piaget’s theory or methods?

Answer 26

• Use of unfamiliar tasks: Kids failed due to a lack of familiarity rather than a lack of cognitive ability
• Use of language that breaks conversational rules: Experimenters asking questions over and over resulting in kids changing their answers
• Failing to distinguish between competence and performance: The tasks require verbal responses meaning the kids may know the answer and not be able to explain it
• Limiting development to stages: Current researches deiw development as a continuous process