W2 - Readings (Chapter 4; P142-183)

Question 1

What are the 4 criticisms of Piaget

Answer 1

CCSV (Consistent; Competent; Social World; Vague)

1. ) Stage model depicts children’s thinking as being more consistent than it is.
2. ) Infants and young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized
3. ) Piaget’s theory understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development.

4.) Piaget’s theory is vague about the cognitive processes that give rise to children’s thinking
and about the mechanisms that produce cognitive growth

Question 2

Elaborate criticism 1: Stage model depicts children’s thinking as being more consistent than it is.

Answer 2

Piaget: Enter stage = Shows characteristics of stage over diverse concept

Reality: Far more variable

E.g. most children succeed on conservation-of-number problems by age 6, whereas most do not succeed on conservation-of-solid-quantity problems until age 8 or 9 (Field, 1987)

Piaget recognized variability exists but underestimated its extent

Question 3

Elaborate criticism 2: Infants and young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized

Answer 3

Piaget: Difficult test = Miss earliest knowledge of concept

E.g. Object permanence = hidden object after a delay (Claim until 8/9months)
Alternative tests of object permanence = hidden object without delay (Claim until 3 months) (Baillargeon, 1987, 1993)

Question 4

Elaborate criticism 3: Piaget’s theory understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development.

Answer 4

Cognitive development reflects contributions of other people, as well as of the broader culture, to a far greater degree than Piaget’s theory acknowledges

Question 5

Elaborate criticism 4: Piaget’s theory is vague about the cognitive processes that give rise to children’s thinking and about the mechanisms that produce cognitive growth

Answer 5

Unclear about the processes that (a) lead children to think in a particular way and (b) produce
changes in their thinking.

E.g. Assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration have an air of plausibility, but how they operate is unclear.

Question 6

What are 3 alternative theories to Piaget

Answer 6

information-processing, sociocultural, and dynamic-systems

Question 7

1.) Information-Processing. What is it

Answer 7

Class of theories focusing on cognitive system structure and mental activities used to deploy attentionure and memory to solve problems.

Question 8

1.) Information-Processing. Key Features

Answer 8

1.) Precise specification of the processes
involved in children’s thinking (Identification of goals, mental processes)

2. ) Thinking as an activity that occurs over time (Quantitative change with age)
   - e.g. simple behaviour > reflects an extended sequence of rapid mental operations

Question 9

1.) Information-Processing: What do they see the child as

Answer 9

Limited processing system.

Limited by: Memory, capacity, speed of thought processes, availability of useful strategies and
knowledge

Children slowly surmount limits by: (1) expansion
of the amount of information they can process at one time, (2) increases in the speed with which they execute thought processes, and (3) acquisition of new strategies and knowledge.

Question 10

2.) Social-cultural. What is it. Who is the founder

Answer 10

Interactions with others

Vgotsky: Children as social learners/teachers

Question 11

2.) Social-cultural. Key features

Answer 11

1.) Guided Participation:

More knowledgeable individuals organize activities in ways that allow less knowledgeable people to engage in them at a higher level than they can manage alone

2.) Intersubjectivity

The mutual understanding people share in communication. E.g. Joint attention

3.) Social Scaffolding

More competent people provide a temporary framework that supports children’s thinking at a higher level than children could manage on their own

Question 12

Main Questions Addressed by Theories

of Cognitive Development

Answer 12

Piagetian: Continuity/discontinuity, the active child

Information-processing: How change occurs

Sociocultural: influence of the sociocultural context, how change occurs

Question 13

Central properties of piaget stage theory

Answer 13

1. ) Qualitative change: Entirely different criteria.
2. ) Broad applicability: Generasibility
3. ) Brief transitions: Brief transitional period between old,less advanced and new, advanced thinking
4. ) Invariant sequence: Cannot skip