Unit 3 - Chapter 6/7 Flashcards
Describe Piaget’s concept of Schema and give an example
Mental framework.
Cognitive structure.
Mental model of how world works.
e.g. Baby has schema “doggie” for furry four-legged animals.
Describe Piaget’s concept of Equilibration and give an example
Development proceeds as child seeks balance between existing schemas and novel experiences.
- Current schema is in equilibrium when it fits novel experience.
e.g. Baby calls Fido “doggie.”
Mommy calls Fido “doggie.”
Baby’s “doggie” schema is in equilibrium.
Describe Piaget’s concept of Assimilation and give an example
Child incorporates new information into existing schema.
* Novel experience is assimilated into current schema.
e.g. Baby doesn’t know what Rover is.
Mommy calls Rover “doggie.”
Baby assimilates Rover into “doggie” schema.
Describe Piaget’s concept of Accommodation
Child modifies schema to fit novel experience.
* Current schema is accommodated or changed when novel experience does not match existing schema.
e.g. Baby calls Sylvester “doggie.”
Mommy calls Sylvester “kitty.”
Baby accommodates “doggie” schema to exclude Sylvester.
What are Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor (0-2), Preoperational (2-7), Concrete Operations (7-11), Formal Operations 11+
Describe Piaget’s Cognitive Development Stage of Sensorimotor
0–2 years
How children learn: Senses, movement
eg. Shake rattle, put in mouth
Main Learning achievement: Object permanence
Limitations: Mental representation, symbols
Describe Piaget’s Cognitive Development stage of Pre-Operational
Age - 2-7
How they learn: Symbols, language, pretend play
eg. Use broom as horse
Main Learning Achievement: Language
Limitations: One dimension at a time, egocentrism, no conservation
Describe Piaget’s Cognitive Development Stage of Concrete Operations
Age 7–11 years
How they Learn: Rules, logic,
eg. Math, geometry
Main learning achievements: Conservation
Limitations: Abstract concepts
Describe Piaget’s Cognitive Development Stage of Formal Operations
Age 11+
How they learn: Abstract, hypothetical thinking
eg. Algebra, car mechanic
main learning achievement: Abstract concepts
Limitations: Adolescent egocentrism
In Piaget’s theory of development, the two processes that together control how someone deals with new experiences are
assimilation and accommodation
Three-year-old Tammy thought that her neighbour’s pet was a dog until it said “meow” instead of “bow-wow.” Tammy then also noticed that there were a number of other differences between her dog and the neighbour’s pet. She learned to call the neighbour’s pet a cat. The change in Tammy’s understanding illustrates which of Piaget’s concepts?
accommodation
The major difference between children in the concrete operational stage and children in the preoperational stage of development is that in the concrete operational stage, children:
understand the concept of conservation
According to Siegler, an information processing theorist, three mechanisms work together to create changes in children’s cognitive skills. What are they?
a. Encoding
b. Automaticity
c. Strategy construction
What do the subtest and composite scores of the Wechsler scales allow the examiner to do?
Determine the areas in which the individual is strong or weak
A scheme is best thought of as a
simple organized pattern of knowledge
What is a strong statement of Vygotsky’s ideas on private speech?
Children who use private speech do so to govern their behaviour and guide themselves.
What is the formula for the intelligence quotient?
IQ = CA/MA × 100
Internalized sets of actions that allow children to do mentally what before they had done physically are called
Operations
Language is made up of basic sounds called
phonemes
Two-year-old Gannon says, “I go park” to his mother to convey, “I want to go to the park.” This language is called _____ speech.
telegraphic
What approach to thinking analyzes how children manipulate information, monitor it, and create strategies for handling it?
Select one:
Information-processing
Identify two basic issues that characterize connections between language and cognition.
One of the basic issues is whether or not cognition is needed for language. According to research and expert opinions, cognition is actually not needed for language development. Some aspects of language development follow the assumption of certain cognitive skills, but it isn’t clear that language is dependent on any particular cognitive abilities.
The second basic issue is whether or not language is needed for cognition. Studies with deaf children have helped address this. in a series of problem solving and thinking skills children who were deaf (even with no acquired sign language yet) were able to perform as well as children with no hearing problems. The conclusion is that language is not needed for cognitive development.
fuzzy trace vs. schema memory
Constructing memory is not like a tape recording. According to schema theory, people fit memory into information that is already within their minds. It is done by ‘schemas’ which are mental structures for sorting information and concepts. An example given is someone overhearing a conversation about a sport they are not familiar with. The person overhearing is more likely to interpret this conversation in terms of their schema of a sport they are familiar with. This is more likely to create a false memory of the conversation being overheard. Schemas affect how people infer and retrieve information and therefore people can distort information or fill in gaps with pieces of memory.
The Fuzzy trace theory says that memory can be considered in two types of ways, 1) verbatim - or precise detail and 2) fuzzy trace (gist). The example given is of entering a pet store with a specific amount of each animal, for example 8 cats and 4 dogs. Verbatim memory (more prevalant in preschoolers) will be able to recall the precise number of cats. Fuzzy trace memory will remember the gist of the information - that there were more cats than dogs. This is more common in elementary school children. The theory is that children start remember more in gist or fuzzy trace because it lasts longer than verbatim memory.
Jean Piaget’s idea of the adaptation process includes three terms: assimilation, accommodation, and disequilibration. Explain through the use of an example how a child can go through the adaptation process. Label each term in your answer.
Assimilation is when a child adds in new information to an already in place schema. Accommodation is when a child changes their schemes to expand to fit new information.
Change happens when a child experiences disequilibrium (which is a conflict in cognition) in trying to make sense of the world around them. Eventually they resolve this and come back to balance, or equilibrium.
A child watches from the window and sees a car drive by. The parent calls this a car. The child assimilates that information. Soon every vehicle that goes by is labelled as “car” to the child, including trucks, motorcycles and vans. The child hears the mother say that is a motorcycle when a motorcycle goes by. This causes a cognitive conflict, or disequilibrium. Soon the child adjusts his schema (or accommodates) and recognizes that cars have four wheels and doors and motorcycles have two wheels and no doors, making an accommodation or adjustment to their schema of ‘Car”.
Describe the zone of proximal development and one example of this form of learning.
For Vygotsky, this term refers to tasks on a scale of lower and upper limits. The lower limits of this scale are tasks that the child can accomplish by working on their own, while the upper limit of this range are tasks that they cannot do without help or instruction from a more skilled child or adult. An example from the school I work at is children knitting. In grade one the children start knitting. They cannot accomplish this task without instruction and assistance, it is in the upper range of their zone of proximal development. By grade 3 the children are able to assist the grade 1’s with this task.
Describe and give an example of both divergent and convergent thinking.
Convergent thinking is. the kind of thinking that arrives at one defined or correct answer, such as in a math problem. Divergent thinking is open ended. It is the kind of thinking that comes up with many answers to one question and has a characteristic of creativity. One example would be how many uses a person could come up with for a paperclip.
organization
Piaget says children make sense of the world by organizing their experiences. vague idea how to use hammer, vague idea how to use other tools - learning to use both - relates them, groups them, organizing his knowledge
What are the 6 substages of sensorimotor stage according to Piaget
1) simple reflex
2) first habits and primary circular reactions
3) secondary circular reactions
4) coordination
5) tertiary circular reactions novelty curiosity
6)internalization of schemes
example of simple reflex
sucking, rooting
example of first habits and primary circular
coordinates sensation and two schemes - habit based on a reflect - suck even if no bottle is present & circular reaction - accidentally sucks hands near mouth…later searches for his finger to suck again but fingers do not cooperate yet. infants body is centre of attentino
example of secondary circular reactions
4-8 months of age - object oriented, moves beyond preoccupation with self eg. shake a rattle, repeating the action for fascination
example of coordination
8-12 months must coordinate vision and touch - visually and tactile inspection of an object
example of tertiary circular reactions novelty & curiousity
12-18 months eg a block can be made to fall, spin, hit another object, slide..exploring new possibilities with objects
example of internalizing schemes
18-24 months, primitive symbols - e.g. seeing a matchbox open and close - mimic the event by opening and closing her mouth
object permanence
The Piagetian term for one of an infant’s most important accomplishments: understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot directly be seen, heard or touched
A-not-B error
occurs when infants make the mistake of selecting the familiar hiding place (A) to locate an object, rather than looking in a new place (B) as they progress into substage 4 of piaget’s sensorimotor stage
core knowledge approach
States that infants are born with domain-specific innate knowledge systems, such as space, number sense, object permanence and language - nature - proponents of this say that Piaget greatly underestimated the cognitive abilities of infants
experiment - 5 months olds who had the ‘impossible event’ looked longer than those who had the possible event
egocentrism
important feature of preoperational thought: the inability to distinguish between one’s own and someone else’s perspective
symbolic function substage
First substage of preoperational thought, occurring roughly between the ages of 2 and 4. young child gains the ability to represent mentally an object that is not present e.g. scribbles to represent people, houses, cars etc.
animism
a facet of preoperational thought, the belief that inanimate objects have life like qualities and are capable of action. e.g. the tree pushed the leaf off.
intuitive thought substage
second substage of preoperational thought - occuring between 4-7. years of age, when children begin to use primitive reasoning e.g. why questions
centration
focusing attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others
conservation
realization that altering an objects or substance’s appearance does not change its basic properties (the glass pouring)
horizontal decalage
Piaget’s concept that similar abilities do not appear at the same time within a stage of development, e.g mastering length before mass in conservation
Classification
e.g. concrete operational child can master a family tree and see that a family member can be brother, son, uncle at the same time. The ability to divide things into sets and subsets and understand their relationship
seriation
concrete operation that involves ordering stimuli along a quantitative dimension such as length (e.g. lining up sticks)
transitivity
principle that says if a relation holds between a first and second object, and holds between a second and third object, then it holds between the first and third object. sticks of different lengths. A is longest b middle c shortest. A is longer than B, and B is longer than C - does the child understand that A is longer than c?
scaffolding
Vygotsky used this term to describe the practice of changing the level of support provided over the course of a teaching session with the more-skilled person adjusting guidance to fit the child’s current performance level
Apply Piaget Theory for school
How it’s applied to teaching:
1) take a constructivist approach. - children learn best when they are active and seek solutions for themselves. - students learn best by discoveries, reflecting on them, rather than blinding imitating
2) Facilitate rather than direct teaching - effective teacher designs allow students to learn by doing. Teachers watch, listen and question students help them to gain understanding
3) Consider the child’s knowledge and level of thinking: Students don’t have empty minds - they have concepts of space, time, quantity, causality - these differ from the ideas of adults - teachers need to interpret what a student is saying and respond in a way that is not too far from the students level. Examine the mistakes in their thinking, not just in their answers
4) Promote the students intellectual health Children should not be pressured to achieving too early, before they are maturationally ready.
5) Turn the classroom into a setting of exploration and discovery. Not using workbooks and predetermined assignments; teachers observe students interest. i.e. counting lunch money, dividing supplies among students, games for mathematical thinking
Contribution of piaget theory
Contribution: giant in development psychology - founder of field for children’s cognitive development.
Assimilation, Accommodation, object permanence, egocentrism, conservation etc.
vision of children as active constructive thinkers
theory that created a huge volume of research on cognitive development
Importance of things to look for in cognitive development - shift from preoperation to concrete operation thinking for example.
Gradual movement of cognitive thinking. concepts do not emerge suddenly - but develop.
Adapt information to their schemes and adapt their schemes to fit their experience
Critique of Piaget Theory
- some cognitive abilities emerge earlier than Piaget thought. e.g. object permanence , even 2 year olds are non-egocentric in some cases ,Conservation of number has been demonstrated as early as 3 although Piaget thought 7.
- Some cognitive abilities develop later than Piaget thought.
*Some of his developmental stages do not arrive in synchrony - eg children do not learn to conserve at the same time they learn to cross-classify.
*His argument about training before a child is mature enough is superficial - but children can be trained to reason at a higher cognitive stage
- underestimated the role culture and education can play on cognitive development - certain cultures can acquire conversation skills earlier or younger for example
What is Neo-Pagetianism
Developmentalists who have elaborated on Piaget’s theory, believing that children’s cognitive development is more specific in many respects than Piaget thought and giving more emphasis to how children use memory, attention, and strategies to process information
Vygotsky’s theory for teaching
1) Asses the child’s ZPD. Vygotsky and Piaget agree that formal standardized tests are not the best way to assess children’s learning. V. thought to assess the child’s ZPD
2) Use the child’s ZPD in teaching. teaching should begin toward the zone’s upper limit so that the child can reach the goal with help and move to a higher level of skill and knowledge. Offer just enough assistance. “what can I do to help you?” or observe child’s intentions and attempts and provide support when needed. When the child hesitates, offer encouragement.
3) Use more skilled peers as teachers. Remember that it is not just adults who are important in helping children learn. Children also benefit from the support and guidance of a more-skilled child.
4)Monitor and encourage children’s use of private speech. Be aware of the developmental change from externally talking to oneself when solving a problem to privately talking to oneself in the early elementary years.
5) Place instruction in meaningful context. Teachers move away from abstract presentations of material, provide students with opportunities to experience learning in real world settings. for example instead of just memorizing math formulas, children work on math problems with real world implications
6) What does a v classroom look like? - many learning activities take place in small groups. spend time in centre’s. Scaffolding is used to improve children’s literary skills. The instructor asks questions, responds to students queries, build on the ideas that students generate.
social constructivist approach
emphasis on the social contexts of learning and the construction of knowledge through social interaction. v theory reflects this approach
Compare and contrast Piaget and Vygotsky:
Sociocultural context
V - strong emphasis
P - little emphasis
Compare & Contrast V & P
Constructivism
V - social constructivist
P - cognitive constructivist
Compare & Contrast V&P
stages
V- no general stages of development
P- strong emphasis on stages (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational)
Compare & contrast V&P
Key processes
V- ZPD, language, dialogue, tools of the culture
P - Schema, assimilation, accommodation, operations, conservation, classification
Compare & contrast V&P
role of language
V - major role, language plays a powerful role in shaping thought
p- language has a minimal role, cognition primarily directs language
Compare & contrast V&P
view on education
V - central role, helping children learn the tools of the culture
P - education merely refines the child’s cognitive skills that have already emerged.
Compare & Contrast V&P
Teaching implications
V - teacher is a facilitator and guide, not a director. establish many opportunities for children to learn with the teacher and more skilled peers
P - also views teacher as a facilitator and guide, not a director. Provides support for children to explore their world and discover knowledge
Information Processing Approach
An approach that focuses on the ways children process information about their world - how they manipulate information, monitor it, and create strategies to deal with it
Encoding
The mechanism by which information gets into memory
automaticity
The ability to process information with little or no effort
Strategy contstruction
the creation of new procedures for processing information.
metacognition
Cognition about cognition, or knowing about knowing
How does information process theory compare to Piaget?
Piaget - distinct stages of thinking develops, qualitatively different schemas in each stage
information processing theory - constructivist like Piaget , see children directing their own cognitive development. Like Piaget they see children with capabilities and limitations at various points in development.
Unlike Piaget - do not see development occurring abruptly in distinct stages with a brief transition period from one stage to the next. IPT sees individuals develop a gradually increasing capacity to process knowledge which allows them to acquire increasingly complex knowledge and skills.
Main difference: IPT - focuses on more precise analysis of change such as encoding and strategies to that change.
What is attention?
attention is concentrating and focusing mental resources
What are the 4 types of attention
1) Selective
2) Divided
3) sustained
4) executive
Selective attention
focusing on a specific aspect of experience that is relevant while ignoring others that are irrelevant. Focusing on one voice among many in a crowded room for example.
Divided attention
concentrating on more than one activity at the same time. Listening to music or tv while reading for example
Sustained attention
ability to maintain attention to a selected stimulus for a prolonged period of time. Also called focused or vigilance
Executive attention
involves planning actions, allocating attention to goals, detecting and compensating for errors, monitoring progress on tasks and dealing with novel or difficult circumstances
Attention the first year of life:
Dominated by orienting/investigative process. - Directing attention to important locations in environment, recognizing objects and their features (such as color and form)
Habituation
decreased response to a stimulus after repeated presentation - researches study habituation to determine the extent to which infants can see, hear, smell taste and experience touch
dishabituation
recovery of a habituated response after a change in stimulus
Joint attention
individuals focusing on the same object or event; requires the ability to track another’s behaviour, one person directing another’s attention, and reciprocal interactions
memory
retained information over time
short term memory
limited capacity memory system in which information is usually retained for up to 30 seconds.
long term memory
a relatively permanent and unlimited type of memory
working memory
a mental workbench where individuals manipulate and assemble information when making decisions, solving problems, and comprehending written and spoken language
schema theory
states that when people reconstruct information, they fit it into information that already exists in their minds
schemas
mental frameworks that organize concepts and information
implicit memory
memory without conscious recollection, memory of skills and routine procedures that are performed automatically
explicit memory
conscious memory of facts and experiences
Thinking
transforming and manipulating information in memory. Individuals think in order to reason, reflect, evaluate ideas, solve problems, and make decisions
concepts
cognitive groupings of similar objects, events , people, or ideas
executive function
an umbrella-like concept that consists of a number of higher -level cognitive processes linked to the development of prefrontal cortex. Executive function involves managing one’s thoughts to engage in goal directed behaviour and to exercise self-control .
Executive function in middle-late childhood that are most important for school success in 4-11 year olds
1) self control/inhibition
2) working memory
3) flexibility
critical thinking
to think reflectively and productively and evaluating the evidence
mindfulness
being alert, mentally present and cognitively flexible while going through life’s everyday activities and tasks
metamemory
knowledge about memory
Theory of mind
Awareness of own mental processes and the mental processes of others
