Week 3 - Cognitive Development & Understanding Flashcards
1
Q
Piaget’s view of children’s nature
A
“Scientist in the crib”
- mentally and physically active from the moment of birth –> development
- learn many important lessons on their own, rather than from direct instruction
- motivated to learn and do not require rewards to do so
- new abilities are applied as soon as possible
- lessons and experiences are reflected on in order to develop understanding
2
Q
Assimilation
A
Child interprets something new within their pre-existing knowledge
3
Q
Accommodation
A
Child changes schema as a result of new knowledge
4
Q
Equilibrium
A
Balance of assimilation and accommodation
5
Q
Children’s acquirement of schemas according to Piaget (steps)
A
- Assimilation
- Accommodation
- Equilibrium
6
Q
Piaget’s stages
A
- Sensorimotor stage
- Pre-operational stage
- Concrete operational stage
- Formal operational stage
7
Q
Sensorimotor stage
A
- birth-2yo
- child begins to interact with environment
- Infants do not have an awareness of objects as independent from their own actions
- Do not have object permanence
- Do not understand that objects continue to exist even when out of sight
8
Q
Sensorimotor stage test by Piaget
A
- Piaget observed infants reactions to events in which objects are hidden
- Beginning at about 9 months of age, infants start trying to obtain the object (however do make A not B error)
9
Q
Challenges to Piaget’s Conclusions About Object Permanence
A
- behavior that indicated object permanence was obtaining a hidden object
- did observe other behaviors that might suggest that infants know that objects continue to exist
- Maybe younger babies know that the
object is there, but they can’t coordinate
the actions necessary to get it
10
Q
Alternative Object Permanence Test
A
Violation of Expectations
11
Q
Violation of Expectations
A
Babies are habituated to an event
• At test, slight modifications are made
• One possible event and one impossible event
• Check to see if dishabituate more strongly to the impossible event
12
Q
Sliding bridge and cylinder experiment
A
- Habituation: bridge moving up and down with no object
- Possible event: bridge stopped by hidden cylinder
- Impossible event: bridge goes through hidden cylinder
- Results: Infants as young as 3.5 months of age look reliably longer at the impossible event; 3mo do not
13
Q
Sliding carrot experiment
A
- Habituation: short carrot through occlusion and tall carrot through occlusion
- Possible event: short carrot not visible through carved out occlusion
- Impossible event: tall carrot not visible through carved out occlusion
- Results: Infants as young as 3.5 months of age look longer at the impossible event
14
Q
A not B error
A
infants search for object in the wrong location
15
Q
Alternative interpretation of A not B error; Experiment
A
- 10mo
- 3 conditions: communicative test, non-communicative, nonsocial
- performed better with no social interaction
- Conclusion: A not B error may be due to both constraints on the motor system and behavior of adults
16
Q
Pre-operational stage by Piaget
A
- 2-6/7 years of age
- start understanding symbolic representations
- Important limitations:
• Egocentrism
• Centration
17
Q
Egocentrism
A
Perceive the world solely from one’s perspective
• Communication: Take the one that looks like Mommy’s!
• Spatially: Reference with regards to oneself
- Three mountain task
18
Q
Evidence for Perspective-Taking in Preschool-Aged Children
A
- 4-year-olds speak differently to 2-year-olds than they do to adults
- When asked to show a toy to an adult, children as young as 1.5 years old will turn the front side to the adult
- When asked to a show a photo to an adult, nearly all 2- and 3-year-olds show the front side
19
Q
Three Mountains Task: Alternative Explanations
A
- 3- and 4-year-old children
- Saw a toy fire truck
- There was a second toy fire truck on a revolving table
- Saw Grover in a toy car, asked child to turn firetruck how Grover sees it
- Children were highly accurate with the scenes with the toys
20
Q
Centration
A
- Young children often focus on single feature of an object or event
- Understanding of conservation
21
Q
Conservation tasks by Piaget
A
- identical liquid quantity in different size containers
- changing shape of identical clay
- identical amount of objects more or less spaced out
22
Q
Centration: Alternate Explanations
A
- Children are sensitive to what they think others want from them in the task
- Why would an adult change something and then ask you about it, unless they wanted you to give a different answer?
- When adult didn’t move the objects on purpose (teddy bear moved them), children answered correctly
23
Q
Continuity
A
- Objects exist continuously and cannot move from one location to another without travelling the intervening path
- understand at 2.5 months
24
Q
Solidity
A
- Physical objects are solid. Each object occupies a unique part of space. Objects cannot interpenetrate each other.
- understand at 2.5 months
25
Contact
- Objects cannot influence other objects without touching them. When one object hits another, it should move.
- basic understanding at 2.5 months, more sophisticated at 6 months
26
Gravity
- Unsupported objects fall toward the ground.
| - understanding at 5-7 months
27
Inertia
- Objects do not change their motion abruptly unless they are acted on by another force.
- understanding at 5-7 months
28
Mobile, crib, ribbon experiment (causality)
```
(3-month-olds)
Reinforcement periods:
- Gently connected leg to mobile with a ribbon
- Kicking moved the mobile
Non-reinforcement periods
- Ribbon disconnected from mobile
```
29
Mechanistic Causality
When adults see one billiard ball hit another and
then the second ball starts to move, they represent:
(1) Two events
(2) That the first ball caused the second ball to move,
as long as
(a) Spatial contiguity
(b) Temporal contiguity
30
Study: Do Infants Differentiate Between a Causal and a Non-Causal Event?
```
7- to 8-month-olds
• Randomly assigned to one of two habituation conditions:
(1) Direct Launch
(2) Delayed Launch
At test, watch one of two films:
1) No reaction
2) No prior movement
Found could differentiate between direct launch (causal) and delayed
```
31
Study: Do Infants Perceive Direct Launch as Two Events?
7 mo
2 conditions:
- habituated to block moving, on test block moved opposite way
- habituated to direct launching, on test direct launch in reverse
Results: greater habituation for direct launching meaning perceive as 2 events
32
Study: No, For Serious, Do Infants Perceive Direct Launch as Two Events
7mo
2 conditions:
- habituation: block changes color; test: direct launch
- habituation: direct launch; test: direct launch
Result: are actually perceiving 2 events
33
Study: Do Infants Perceive Direct Launch as Causal?
| A causes B or A then B
__
34
Do Infants Perceive Mechanistic Cause?
7-month-olds perceive that a one block caused another to move under similar conditions to adults
35
Study: Does Experience Help Infants to Represent Cause?
4.5-month-old infants
Randomly assigned to:
1. Wear red sticky mittens/balls with velcro
2. Wear boring red mittens/balls glued to tray
- Infants sat on caregiver’s lap and were given 4 green
balls
- Infants get to play with the toys for 3 minutes
Results: Infants who get experience with casual relationships between the objects they are watching represent cause
BUT
The representation is not strong
--> The effect goes away if infants wear blue mittens
and play with yellow cubes
36
Categorization
- grouping like things
• Categories help us to manage and understand the world
- depends on concepts
37
Concept
mental representation that encapsulates properties, features, and structures that exist among members of a category
38
How Do We Study Categorization by Infants?
- Habituation paradigm
| • Object-examining paradigm
39
Types of categories
Superordinate (ex: animals) 3/4 mo
Basic (ex: dog) 3/4 mo
Subordinate (ex: poodle) 6/7 mo
40
Study: When Can Infants Form Basic Categories?
3/4 mo
habituated to look at cats or horses
Results:
- horse: spent more time looking at cats, giraffes, and zebras
- cats: spent more time looking at horses and tigers, but not female lions
NOTES:
- can tell different types of horses/cats apart
- prefer looking at cats than horses
41
Categorization by Preschoolers according to Piaget
only rely on visual features
42
Categorization by Preschoolers
Children younger than 7 can categorize based on non-observable features
By age 4:
• Children use the function of an artifact to categorize it
• Understand that dogs are animals with dog insides, not just animals that have four legs and bark
43
Induction
making inferences beyond the available evidence
44
Study: Induction by Preschoolers
3- and 4-year-olds
• Showed them two objects and taught them a fact about each
• Showed a third object that looked like one object but belonged to the same category as the other
• Asked them which of the two facts applied to the new object
- if you don't use same label, same results
Results: Preschoolers can draw inferences based on
categories
45
Types of properties
- Generalizable
| - non-generalizable
46
Second Study: Induction by Preschoolers
Preschoolers and second
graders
• Show them a picture of an object and teach them a
fact
• Sometimes those facts are generalizable Sometimes they are not
Results: Both preschoolers and second graders very
rarely generalized non-generalizable facts & were
sensitive to categories when generalizing
