cog and development

Question 1

what is Piaget’s theory of cognitive development?

Answer 1

• Piaget saw intelligence as a process and balance; with individuals learning about the world around them and how to interact with it being achieved by an individual when they are able to deal adequately with the data before them.
• Intelligence is not a static state; it continually changes by adapting to new stimuli.
• Humans therefore adapt and construct an understanding of reality by interacting with the environment. Knowledge is actively discovered by using mental structures;
  o The process of adaptation – involving accommodation and assimilation
  o The process of equilibrium – swinging between equilibrium and disequilibrium
  o Schemas
  o Operations – strings of schema assembled in logical order

Question 2

what is cognitive development

Answer 2

a general term describing the development of all mental processes, in particular thinking, reasoning and our understanding of the world. Cognitive development continues throughout the lifespan, but psychologists have been particularly concerned with how thinking and reasoning develops through childhood.

Question 3

what is schema and what did Piaget think of them

Answer 3

• A schema is a mental structure that represents a group of related concepts, such as a schema for a dog - fur, four legs, wet nose
• Schemas can be behavioural such as grasping for an object or cognitive such as classifying as object
• As children develop, they construct more and more detailed and complex mental representations of the world. These representations are stored in the form of schema.
• According to Piaget, children are born with a few schemas to allow them to interact with the world and other people. schema is constructed from infancy.
• One of these is the ‘me-schema’ in which all the child’s knowledge about themselves is stored. Cognitive development involves the construction of progressively more detailed schema for people including ourselves and also for objects, physical actions and later more abstract ideas like justice and morality

Question 4

what is assimilation

Answer 4

a form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information or a more advanced understanding of an object, person or idea. When new information does not radically change our understanding of the topic, we can incorporate it into an existing schema e.g. a child in a family with dogs can adapt to the existence of different dog breeds by assimilating them into their dog schema

Question 5

what is accomodation

Answer 5

a form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information that changes our understanding of a topic to the extent that we need to form one or more new schema and/or radically change existing schema in order to deal with the new understanding e.g. a child with a pet dog may at first think of cats as dogs (because they have four legs, fur and a tail) but then recognise the existence of a separate category called cats. This accommodation will involve forming a new ‘cat-schema’

Question 6

what is equilibration

Answer 6

takes place when we have encountered new information and built it into our understanding of a topic, either by assimilating it into an existing schema or accommodating it by forming a new one. Once assimilation or accommodation has taken place, everything is again balanced, and we have escaped the unpleasant experience of a lack of balance - disequilibrium

Question 7

what is meant by equilibrium in terms of Piaget’s work

Answer 7

According to Piaget, we are pushed to learn when our existing schema do not allow us to make sense of something new. This leads to unpleasant sensation of disequilibrium. To escape this, we have to adapt to the new situation by exploring and developing our understanding. By doing this we achieve equilibrium; the preferred mental state.

Question 8

Piaget’s theory evaluation

Answer 8

Research support - objects down a slope
P - One strength of Piaget’s theory is the research support for the individual formation of mental representations
E - Piaget’s theory of learning suggests that children will form individual representations of the world, even when they have similar learning experiences. Howe et al. demonstrated this in a study in which children aged 9-12 years were placed in groups of four to investigate and discuss the movement of objects down a slope. Following this activity all the children were found to have increased their understanding. However, their understanding had not become more similar. Instead each child had picked up different facts and reached slightly different conclusions.
E - This means that each child had formed an individual mental representation of how objects move on slopes - as Piaget would have expected

Real-world application
P - A further strength of Piaget’s theory is that it has been applied in teaching.
E - Piaget’s idea that children learn by actively exploring their environment and forming their own mental representation of the world has changed classroom teaching. Since Piaget’s ideas became popular in the 1960s, the old-fashioned classroom, in which children sat silently in rows copying from the board, has been replaced by activity-orientated classrooms in which children actively engage in tasks that allow them to take different forms. In the Early Years classroom children may, for example, investigate the physical properties of sand and water. At A level, discovery may take the form of ‘flipped’ lessons where students read up on the content, forming their own basic mental representation of the topic prior to the lesson.
E - This shows how Piaget-inspired approaches may facilitate the development of individual mental representations of the world.

Counterpoint
Piaget’s theory has certainly influenced modern practice in teaching and learning. However, there is no firm evidence showing that children learn better using discover learning. In a recent review, researchers concluded that discovery learning with considerable input from teachers was the most effective way to learn, but it seems that input from others, not discovery per se, is the crucial element of this effectiveness. This means that discovery learning is less effective than we would expect if Piaget’s theory of learning was correct.

The role of others in learning
P - One limitations of Piaget’s theory is that he underestimated the role of others in learning.
E - Piaget saw other people as useful to learning in the sense that they are potential sources of information and learning experiences. However, he saw learning itself as an individual process. This contrasts with other theories in which learning is seems as a more social process, supported by more knowledgeable others. In particular, Vygotsky saw knowledge as existing first between the learner and the more experienced other and only then in the mind of the learner. There is strong evidence to support the idea that learning is enhanced by interaction with others, and this is perhaps better explained by alternative theories.
E - This means that Piaget’s theory may be an incomplete explanation for learning because it doesn’t put enough emphasis on the role of other people in learning.

Question 9

What are Piaget’s stages of intellectual development

Answer 9

Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)
Pre-operational Stage (2-7 years)
Stage of concrete operations (7-11 years)
Stage of formal operations (11+)

Question 10

what is the sensorimotor stage?

Answer 10

• A baby’s early focus is on physical sensations and on developing some basic physical co-ordination
• Babies learn by trial and error that they can deliberately move their body in particular ways, and eventually that they can move other objects
• The baby also develops an understanding during the first two years that other people are separate objects and they acquire some basic language
• They have no internal representation of objects, and therefore when an an object is not being perceived on acted upon, it no longer exists – the infant has no object permanence

Object permanence
* By around 8 months the baby is capable of understanding object permanence.
* This is the understanding that objects still exist when they are out of sight
* Piaget found that before 8 months, babies immediately switched their attention away from the object once it was out of sight.
* However, from around 8 months they would continue to look for it
* This led Piaget to believe that it was from around this age that babies understood that objects continue to exist one removed from view

Question 11

what are the three parts of the pre-operational stage

Answer 11

conservation, egocentrism and class inclusion

Question 12

outline conservation

Answer 12

• The basic mathematical understanding that quantity remains constant even when the appearance of objects changes. Piaget demonstrated this in several situations. In his number conservation experiments, Piaget placed two rows of eight identical counters side-by-side. Even young children correctly reasoned that each row of counters had the same number. However, when the counters in one row were pushed closer together, pre-operational children struggled to conserve and usually said there were fewer counters in that row.
• In his liquid conservation procedure Piaget found that when two identical containers were placed side by side with the content sat the same height, most children spotted that they contained the same volume of liquid. However, if the liquid was poured into a taller, thinner vessel, younger children typically believed there was more liquid in the taller vessel.

Question 13

outline egocentrism

Answer 13

• This means to see the world only from one’s point of view.
• This was demonstrated in the three mountains task, in which children were shown three model mountains, each with a different feature – cross, a house or snow.
• A doll was placed at the side of the model so that it faced the scene from a different angle from the child
• The child was asked to choose what the doll would ‘see’ from a range of pictures
• Pre-operationalised children tended to find this difficult and often chose the picture that matched the scene from their point of view.

Question 14

outline class inclusion

Answer 14

• Early in the pre-operational stage children begin to understand classification – the idea that objects fall into categories.
   e.g., most pre-operational children can classify pugs and Labradors as dogs
• However, Piaget and Inhelder found that children under the age of 7 struggle with the more advanced skill of class inclusion, the idea that classifications have subsets.
• So, when a 7–8-year-old child was shown pictures of 5 dogs and 2 cats and was asked ‘are there more dogs or animals?’ children tended to respond that there were more dogs.
• Piaget interpreted this as younger children cannot simultaneously see a dog as a member of the dog class and the animal class.

Question 15

what is the stage of concrete operations

Answer 15

• Piaget found that from the age of around 7 most children can conserve and perform much better tasks on egocentrism and class inclusion.
• Egocentrism declines, with children increasingly able to see things from the perspective of others – a process called decentring.
• However, although children now have better externally-verifiable reasoning abilities – what Piaget called operations – these are strictly concrete, i.e., they can be applied only to physical objects or situations they cannot see.
• Children develop an understanding that objects can belong to two or more categories simultaneously – a pointer being a dog and a mammal at the same time.
• They still struggle to reason about abstract ideas and to imagine objects or situations they cannot see.

Question 16

what is the stage of formal operations?

Answer 16

• Piaget believed that from about 11, children become capable of forming reasoning
• This means children become able to focus on the form of an argument and not be distracted by its content
• Formal reasoning can be tested by using the pendulum task
  e.g.
  ‘All yellow cats have two heads. I have a yellow cat called Charlie. How many heads does Charlie have?’ The correct answer is ‘two’. Piaget found that younger children became distracted by the content and answered that cats do not really have two heads. Piaget believed that once children can reason formally they are capable of scientific reasoning and become able to appreciate abstract ideas.

Question 17

piaget’s stages of cognitive development evaluation

Answer 17

Conservation Research
P – One limitation of Piaget’s conclusions about conservation is that the research was flawed.
E – Children taking part in Piaget’s conservation studies may have been influenced by seeing the experimenter change the appearance of the counters or liquid. Why would the researcher change the appearance and then ask them if it was the same? McGarrigle and Donaldson set up a study in which the counters appeared to be moved by accident. In one condition they replicated the standard Piaget task with 4-6-year-olds, and, like Piaget, they found that most children answered incorrectly. However, in another condition a ‘naught teddy’ appeared and knocked the counters closer together, and now 72% correctly said there were the same numbers of counters as before.
E – This means that children aged 4-6 could conserve, if they were not put off by the way they were questioned. This in turn suggests that Piaget was wrong about the age at which conservation appears.

Class inclusion Research
P – Another limitation is that findings on class inclusion are contradicted by newer research.
E – Siegler and Svetina showed that children were in fact capable of understanding class inclusion. They gave 100 five-year-olds ten class-inclusion tasks, receiving an explanation of the task after each session. In one condition they received feedback that there must be more animals than dogs because there were 9 animals but only 6 dogs. A different group received feedback that there must be more animals because dogs were a subset of animals. The scores across the sessions improved more for the latter group, suggesting that the children had acquired a real understanding of class inclusion.
E – This means that children under seven can in fact understand class inclusion – contrary to what Piaget believed. So, Piaget underestimated what younger children could do.

Egocentrism research
P - A further limitation is lack of support for Piaget’s view of egocentrism.
E – Hughes tested the ability of children to see a situation from two people’s viewpoints using a model with two intersecting walls and three dolls, a boy and two police officers. Once familiarised with the task, children as young as 3 ½ years were able to position the boy doll where one police officer could not ‘see’ him 90% of the time and four-year-olds could do this 90% of the time when there were two officers to hide from.
E – This means that, when tested with a scenario that makes more sense, children can decentre and imagine other perspectives much earlier than Piaget proposed. This again suggests that Piaget underestimated the abilities of younger children and that his stages are incorrect.

Question 18

what is Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development?

Answer 18

• Influenced by Piaget’s work
• Agreed on many of the basics of cognitive development
   Agreed that children’s reasoning abilities develop in a particular sequence, and that such abilities are qualitatively different at different ages, with a child typically capable of particular logic at particular ages.
• Major difference - Vygotsky saw cognitive development as a social process of learning from more experienced others - experts. Knowledge is first intermental, between the more and less expert individual, then intramental, within the mind of the less expert individual.
• Vygotsky also saw language as a much more important part of cognitive development than Piaget did.
• Died before he could finish all his research - so others continued it whereas Piaget studied his in great depth

Question 19

what were the main aspects of Vygotsky’s theory?

Answer 19

the cultural level, the role of language, the role of others, the zone of proximal development and scaffolding

Question 20

what is the cultural level of Vygotsky’s theory

Answer 20

• If reasoning abilities are acquired from the more experienced individuals with whom a child has contact, it follows that the child will acquire the reasoning abilities of those particular people, e.g. previous generations gained through interactions with caregivers
• This means that there may be cultural differences in cognitive development, with children picking up the mental ‘tools’ that will be most important for life within the physical, social and work environments of their culture – for example, hand-eye coordination for hunting
• There are a number of cultural tools which are passed on, including technological (e.g. the internet, clocks, phones), psychological tools (e.g. language) and values (e.g. power). For Vygotsky, the most important cultural tool is language.

Question 21

What is the role of language in Vygotsky’s theory

Answer 21

• Vygotsky believed that culture is transmitted using semiotics which are signs and symbols developed within a particular culture. Language and mathematical symbols are examples of semiotics.
• At first, children use pre-intellectual language for social and emotional purposes (to get a reaction from adults), but once the child reaches the age of approximately 2-3 years, language and thinking combine so that thinking and speech become dependent on each other.
• From ages 3-7 years speech is egocentric; it involves self-talk and thinking aloud.
• From ages 7 years +, self-=talk becomes internal and language is used for social interactions.

Question 22

What is the role of others in Vygotsky’s theory

Answer 22

• According to Vygotsky, a child learns through problem-solving experiences shared with someone else, usually someone more competent than themselves, such as a parent or a teacher.
• All people with greater knowledge than the child is referred to as an ‘expert’.
• At the beginning of the learning process, the person interacting with the child assumes most of the responsibility for guiding the problem-solving activity, but gradually this responsibility transfers to the child. (This links with scaffolding, which we will come back to shortly).

Question 23

What is the zone of proximal development

Answer 23

• The Zone of Proximal development is the gap between a child’s current level of development, what a child can understand and do alone, in comparison to what they are able to understand after interaction with more expert others. Although children are still limited by their developmental stage to an extent, expert assistance allows a child to cross the ZPD and understand as much of a subject or situation as they are capable. Vygotsky believed children develop a more advanced understanding of a situation and hence the more advanced reasoning abilities needed to deal with it by learning from others, as opposed to through individual exploration of the world.
• Vygotsky was not only saying that children can learn more facts during social interaction, but that they acquire more advanced reasoning abilities. In fact, he believed that higher mental functions, such as formal reasoning, could only be acquired through interactions with more advanced others.

Question 24

what is scaffolding

Answer 24

 All kinds of help adults and more advanced peers give a child to help them to cross the zone of proximal development
* This is referred to as a Vygotsky-Bruner model because Vygotsky did not include much about scaffolding I his work
* Wood, Bruner and Ross explain how the expert creates a ‘scaffold’ which is gradually withdrawn when the child is more able to work independently and crosses the ZPD, as well as the strategies that experts use when scaffolding
* In general, as a learner crosses the zone of proximal development, the level of help given in scaffolding declines from level 5 (most help) to level 1 (least help).
* An adult is more likely to use a high level of help strategies when first helping, then to gradually withdraw the level of help as the child grasps the task.

Question 25

evaluation of vygotsky's theory

Answer 25

Cultural bias P – One strength of Vygotsky’s theory is that it is seen as being culturally ‘fair’. E – For example, different cultures emphasise different skills and learning goals and yet Vygotsky's concepts of ZPD and scaffolding are applicable in all cultures. E – this is important because it suggests that the theory can be applied universally. However... it is important to recognise that the theory was developed within a collectivist culture and is therefore more suited to such cultures, with their stronger element of social learning than individualist western cultures. For example, Liu and Robert Matthews point out that in China classes up to 50 children learn very effectively in lecture-style classrooms with very few individual interactions with peers or tutors. This should not be possibly if Vygotsky were entirely correct. This means that Vygotsky may have overestimated the importance of scaffolding in learning and his findings may not be universal. Support for the ZPD P - One strength of Vygotsky’s theory is research support for the ZPD. E - There is clear evidence to show that there is a gap between the level of reasoning a child can achieve on their own and what they can achieve with the help of an expert other. For example, Roazzi and Bryant gave children aged 4-5 years the task of estimating the number of sweets in a box. In one condition the children worked alone and in another they had an older child helping them. Most children working alone failed to give a good estimate, whereas the other condition had the older child giving them prompts to try sway them in the right direction to give a more accurate estimate. They found that most 4-5-year olds with the help successfully did the task. E - This shows that children can develop additional reasoning abilities when working with a more expert individual. This in turn suggests that the zone of proximal development is a valid concept. Support for scaffolding P - Another strength of Vygotsky’s theory is research support for scaffolding. E - Research shows that the level of help given by an expert partner declines during the process of learning, as predicted by the principles of scaffolding. For example, Conner and Cross used a longitudinal procedure to follow up 45 children, observing them engaged in problem-solving tasks with the help of their mothers at 16, 26, 44 and 54 months. Distinctive changes in help were observed over time - the mothers used less and less direct intervention and more hints and prompts as children gained experience. Mothers also increasingly offered help when it was needed rather than constantly. E - This means that adult assistance with children’s learning is well described by the concept of scaffolding. Additionally, the research supporting it is high in validity as it is a longitudinal study, therefore any changes seen are not due to individual differences.

Question 26

compare Vygotsky and Piaget

Answer 26

Real Word Application P - One similarity between Piaget’s theory and Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development is that they both have real world application within education of children. E - Piaget’s idea that children learn by actively exploring their environment and forming their own mental representation of the world has changed classroom teaching. For example, the way of teaching has changed from sitting sat silently in rows copying the board to now having activity-orientated classrooms allowing children to engage in a variety of tasks that aid their own understanding of the curriculum. E - On the other hand, Vygotsky’s theory of social interaction in learning, through group work, peer tutoring and individual adult assistance from teachers and teaching assistants, has been used to scaffold children through their ZPD. There is evidence to suggest that these strategies are effective, for example Van Keer and Verhaeghe found that 7-year olds tutored by 10-year-olds in addition to whole class teaching progressed further in reading than controls who just had standard whole-class teaching. Cognitive abilities take place in stages P - One similarity between Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories is that they both agree that development of cognitive abilities takes place in stages. E - Piaget’s theory is compromised into stages of cognitive development, including the sensorimotor stage from ages 0-2 years, pre-operational stage between ages 2-7 years, concrete operational stage from 7-11 years, and formal operational stage from ages 11+. E - Likewise, Vygotsky’s theory sees that children are taught culture by the use of semiotics, which are signs and symbols developed in a particular culture, and one example of this is language. Vygotsky said that language is learnt in stages. In the first stage, children use pre-intellectual language for social and emotional purposes to get a reaction from adults. They then enter a second stage at 2-3 years where language and thinking combine so thinking and speech become dependent on each other. The third stage from ages 3-7 is egocentric talk which involves self talk and thinking out loud, and the final stage from ages 7+ the self-talk becomes internal and language is used for social interactions diff focus P - A difference between Piaget's stage of intellectual development and Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development is they emphasis on different element of development. E - Piaget's theory emphasises only on children's interaction on with the outside world and how the mismatch between situation and schema creates a sense of disequilibrium and thus motivates the child to develop their understanding to adapt to the new information through accommodation and assimilation. He also believed that learning was an individual process in which the role of other people was to either be sources of information or learning experiences. E - Whereas Vygotsky's theory focuses more on the social and language-driven nature of cognitive development, and the importance of culture. Vygotsky believe cultural belief and attitudes are pass on through generation and are developed further by each generation. He also believes culture is transmitted using semiotics, thus language is important for the children's development. Furthermore, he also emphasis more on learning through interaction with expert peers rather than just a mismatch between schema and new situation, and emphasised how individuals develop advanced reasoning skill through social interaction on a individual level.

Question 27

what was Baillargeon's theory

Answer 27

* Baillargeon suggested that young babies had a better understanding of the physical world than Piaget had suggested. She proposed that the lack of understanding of object permanence could be explained differently. For example, young babies might lack the necessary motor skills to pursue a hidden object or they may just lose interest because they are easily distracted. * She investigated the stages at which infants reach various levels of cognitive development by creating her violation of expectation (VOE) technique.

Question 28

what is violation of expectation

Answer 28

* This works on the principle that infants will look longer at things they have not experienced before * The technique works by repeatedly showing a child a scenario that is new to them until they demonstrate, by looking away, that it is no longer a novel experience. * The child is shown an example of a scenario that is impossible, such as a solid object appearing to pass through another solid object without either being damaged. The length of time that the infant looks at the scenario is compared with an example of the scenario that is possible.

Question 29

examples of Baillargeon's studies

Answer 29

1. * Three and a half month old infants watched a tall or short carrot sliding along a track with the centre of the track hidden by a screen that has a large window in its upper half * The short carrot did not appear in. the window when passing through the screen, as expected, because it was not tall enough, but the tall carrot also did not appear in the window even though it was clearly tall enough to do so * It was found that the infants looked longer at the tall rather than the short carrot scenario, which suggests they were able to assess the existence, height and pathway of the carrots when behind the screen and so were surprised at the non-appearance of the tall carrot in the window * This supports the idea that children younger than Piaget claimed have a sense of object permanence, as they realise objects continue to exist even when hidden. 2. - 5 month old infants were familiarised with a drawbridge that moved through 180 degrees - a coloured box was then placed in the path of the drawbridge - infants either witnessed a 'possible event' where the drawbridge stopped at the point where its movement would be stopped by the box - or an impossible event where the drawbridge appeared to pass through the box and ended up laying flat with he box disappearing - infants surprised that their expectations were violated and they knew a solid object could not pass through another solid object - supports the idea that children can develop and understanding of the properties of objects at a much younger age than Piaget thought

Question 30

Baillargeon evaluation

Answer 30

High Control P - One strength of Baillargeon’s theory is that she used a high level of control. E - Whilst Piaget was criticised for only using middle-class children, on the other hand Baillargeon used birth announcements in a local paper to identify participants meaning she had a higher population validity and less biased sample. Additionally, she employed inter-rater observer reliability and a double-blind method. This means that there were two observers noting the amount of interest shown by the infant, and these observers did not know whether these events were possible or impossible. E - This is a strength as it suggests Baillargeon accurately tested the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable to establish cause and effect, therefore the conclusions drawn have high validity, making this approach scientifically credible. Implications for further research P - One strength of Baillargeon’s theory is that there is implications for further research E - Baillargeon’s VOE technique has become a paradigm method (an accepted method of assessing children understanding the physical properties of objects). This is testimony to the high regard in which the procedure is held. Investigating the cognitive abilities of an infant is problematic because they cannot communicate these abilities verbally, therefore this paradigm technique is extremely useful to allow insight into what skills an infant possesses. E - This is a strength as it is helpful for other researchers to understand infant behaviours Universal understanding P - One strength is that Baillargeon’s explanation is able to explain universal understanding of the physical world. E - Hespos and van Marle identify that regardless of culture and personal experience, there is a very good understanding of the basic characteristics of the physical world. For example, everyone understands that if we drop a key, it will fall to the ground. This does not rely on past experience of dropping keys, or even a cultural background of using keys. E - This suggests that a basic understanding of our physical world is innate, otherwise we would expect significant cultural and individual differences, as well as supporting the physical reasoning system. Confounding variables P - One limitation of Baillargeon’s study is that it may be influenced by confounding variables E - Schoner and Thelen argue that all that VOE studies illustrates is that infants notice a difference between the possible and impossible scenarios. This does not necessarily mean that they are surprised by what they have witnessed. For example, in a study involving a drawbridge, infants may be attracted to the fact that in the impossible scenario there is more movement that in the possible scenario. E - Therefore, what Baillargeon uses as evidence of infants having an innate knowledge of object representation, may actually be the effect of confounding variables.

Question 31

what is social cognition

Answer 31

o Social cognition refers to the role of thinking (cognition) in our behaviour with others of our species (social) o It is concerned with how our thinking affects our social behaviour o For example, we make decisions on how to behave based on our understanding of a social situation - both the understanding and the decision-making process are cognitive processes o A major element in this is the development of perspective-taking as documented in Selman’s levels of perspective-taking, where individuals gradually come to understand the viewpoints of others

Question 32

what is social perspective taking

Answer 32

Social perspective taking - the ability to appreciate a social situation from the perspective of other people. this cognitive ability underlies much of our normal social interaction. Referred to specifically as ‘social perspective-taking’ or also called ‘role-taking’ because we take on the role of another and therefore their perspective.

Question 33

What was Selman's theory

Answer 33

Selman was concerned with how children develop perspective-taking, or more specifically social perspective-taking. This is different from Piaget’s idea of physical perspective-taking with the three mountains task where he believed in domain-general cognitive development; physical and social perspective-taking would occur together, whereas Selman proposes that the development of social perspective-taking is a separate process, therefore offering a domain specific approach to explaining cognitive development. Being able to differentiate between other people’s perspectives and your own enhances the understanding of others, and even of yourself. Very young children do not appreciate that other people have experiences and feelings different to their own, but Selman devised a role-taking theory to explain the development of perspective-taking, where adopting the perspective of others allows an individual to comprehend their feelings, thoughts and intentions.

Question 34

what are Selman's levels of perspective taking

Answer 34

Selman conducted research on children’s perspective-taking abilities by using a series of dilemmas, such as the Holly dilemma, to explore the child’s reasoning when faced with conflicting findings. The dilemmas require the child to have to take someone else’s perspective. When Selman analysed the responses the children of different ages made, he realised that there was a definite pattern related to reasoning at different ages.

Question 35

what is Selman's research

Answer 35

Procedures 60 children comprised of 30 boys and 30 girls, of which 20 were four-year olds, 20 were five year olds and 20 were six year olds. They were given the dilemmas and were asked how each person felt in the scenarios. One scenario featured a child called Holly who has promised her father she will no longer climb trees, but then comes across her friend whose kitten is stuck up a tree. The task was to describe and explain how each person would feel if Holly did or did not climb the tree. Findings A number of distinct levels of perspective-taking were identified. Selman found that the level of perspective-taking correlated with age, suggesting a clear developmental sequence.

Question 36

Selman's theory evaluation

Answer 36

Research support for stages P - One strength of Selman’s stages is evidence that perspective-taking becomes more advanced with age. E - Selman tested 60 children using scenarios like that involving Holly and the Kitten. There were significant positive correlations between age and the ability to take different perspectives. This cross-sectional research has since been supported by the findings of longitudinal studies, such as Gurucharri and Selman’s five-year longitudinal study using Selman’s methodology to assess the development of perspective-taking in 41 children and recorded improvements in their perspective-taking ability. Longitudinal studies have good validity because they control for individual differences whereas cross-sectional studies don’t. E - This means that there is solid support from different lines of research for Selman’s most basic idea, that perspective-taking improves with age. Practical applications P - One strength of Selman’s theory is that it has practical applications to the real world E - For example, Selman’s thoeyr has a practical application in physical education, as it has been used to identify the ages at which children can understand other viewpoints and roles within competitive team sports. There is little point in trying to teach team sports to children before they are less egocentric and can appreciate others’ viewpoints. Additionally, social skills training programmes are used with older children, as well as being used in therapeutic settings with people with psychological disorders or emotional problems. E - This suggests Selman’s theory has had a positive impact in the real world, helping individuals improve and understand social behaviour. Reductionism P - One limitation of Selman’s stages is the focus on cognitive factors alone E - Perspective-taking is a cognitive ability. However, there is far more to children’s social development than their increasing cognitive abilities. By focusing on the cognitive element of development, Selman’s approach fails to take into account the full range of other factors that impact on a child’s social development. Other internal factors include the development of empathy and emotional self-regulation. There are also important external factors including parenting style, family climate and opportunities to learn from peer interaction. E - This means that Selman’s approach to explaining social development is reductionist. Culture bias P - One limitation of Selman’s theory is that it may be an example of culture bias E - Research into perspective-taking may be culturally biased, as research was carried out mainly on children from Western cultural backgrounds. Selman suggests that his stages of perspective-taking are based primarily on cognitive maturity and are therefore biologically driven (therefore universal). However, Wu and Kevlar (2007) compared American and matched Chinese children and found that the Chinese children were significantly more advanced. This suggests that cultural influences might be important. E - This is a limitation as it means the findings should only be able to be generalised to western cultural backgrounds, therefore it is not universal.

Question 37

what is theory of mind

Answer 37

o The theory of mind refers to the ability that each of us has to ‘mind-read’ or to have a personal theory of what other people know or are feeling or thinking. Each of us has a theory of mind when we have a belief, (a theory), about what is in someone else’s mind. o Signs of ToM in humans can be seen in expressions of language where another person’s mental state is referred to, such as, “I think she is upset”. o An important aspect of understanding the concept of mind is the realisation that other people have feelings, desires and beliefs too – they also have a mind. Equally important is the understanding that other people’s beliefs etc may differ from our own. o Research into ToM indicates that this ability is not present at birth but develops over time.

Question 38

what is intentional reasoning in toddlers

Answer 38

this is how TOM is studied: o Children of 18 months observed adults place beads into a jar o In the experimental condition the adults appeared to struggle with this and some beads fell outside the jar o In the control condition the adults successfully placed the beads in the jar o In both conditions the toddlers did successfully place the beads in the jar, they dropped no more beads in the experimental condition o This suggests they were imitating what the adult intended to do rather than what the adults actually did. This kind of research shows that very young children have a simple ToM.

Question 39

what are false belief tasks

Answer 39

o False belief tasks were developed in order to test whether children can understand that people can believe something that is not true. o This first was developed by Wimmer and Perner o They told 3-4-year-olds a story: Maxi left his chocolate in a blue cupboard in the kitchen and then went to the playground. Later, Maxi’s mother used some of the chocolate in her cooking and placed the remainder in the green cupboard. Children were asked where Maxi would look for his chocolate when he comes back from the playground. Most 3-year-olds incorrectly said that he would look in the green cupboard because they are assuming that Maxi knows what they know - that his mother moved the chocolate. However, most 4-year olds correctly identified the blue cupboard. This suggests that ToM undergoes a shift and becomes more advanced at around 4 years of age.

Question 40

what is the Sally-Anne study?

Answer 40

Baron-Cohen et al. used a similar false belief task called the Sally-Anne task. Children were told a story involving two dolls, Sally and Anne. Sally places a marble in her basket, but when Sally is not looking Anne moved the marble to her box. The task is to work out where Sally will look for her marble. Understanding that Sally does not know that Anne has moved the marble requires an understanding of Sally’s false belief about where it is. Baron-Cohen and colleagues have explored the links between ToM deficits and autism using false belief task. Procedure The Sally-Anne task was given individually to 20 autistic children, 27 non-autistic children and 14 children with Down syndrome. Findings 85% of children in the control groups correctly identified where Sally would look for her marble. However, only four of the autistic children were able to answer this. Baron-Cohen et al. argued that this difference showed that autism involved a ToM deficit and that this may in fact be a complete explanation of autism.

Question 41

What is the Eyes task?

Answer 41

Many autistic people who do not have learning disabilities have challenges with empathy, social communication and imagination but their language development may be relatively unaffected. Studies of older autistic children and adults without a learning disability showed that this group could succeed on false belief tasks. This contradicts the idea that autism can be explained by ToM deficits. However, Baron-Cohen and colleagues developed a more challenging task to assess ToM in adolescents and adults. The Eyes Task involves reading complex emotions in pictures of faces just showing a small area around their eyes. Baron-Cohen et al. found that many autistic adults without a learning disability struggled with the Eyes Task, scoring a mean of 16.3 compared to a control group mean score of 20.3 out of a maximum score of 25. This suggests that there is an impairment of reading emotion in individuals with autism.

Question 42

TOM evaluation

Answer 42

Real-world application P - One strength of ToM research is its application to understanding autism. E - The tests used to assess ToM are challenging for some people with autism, possibly because they may not fully understand what other people are thinking. This in turns offers an explanation for why some autistic people find social interactions difficult - it is hard to interact with someone if you don’t get a sense of what they are thinking and feeling. In contrast, it is often assumed that most neurotypical people can ‘pick up’ another person’s thoughts and feelings with little effort. Additionally, a lack of ToM can explain the lack of pretend play exhibited by people with autism. When a child pretends to be a mother to a doll, the child must be capable of simultaneously holding in their mind two contradictory sets of beliefs, the child knows that they are a child and that the doll is not a real baby, but they also must think that they are a mother and the doll is a baby. Without ToM it is not possible to do this, as children with autism often demonstrate. E - This means that ToM research has real-world relevance as it is high in face validity. Biological Basis Strength P - One strength is that there is research to support that ToM has a strong biological basis E - Baron-Cohen (1995) argued that as ToM appears to develop at a particular age, and that it is likely to be absent in many people with autism, this suggest that there is a biological basis for autism. Harris (1989) reports that at around the age of 4, children become aware of their emotions and use them to pretend to be someone else, permitting them to be aware of others’ thinking, suggesting that this is a pivotal age in realising that others think differently to them. Additionally, Avis and Harris (1991) found that 4 years is the universal age that children can develop false beliefs, supporting the idea of biological maturation. E - This is a strength as it shows there is a large body of research to support the main claims of the ToM Cultural Bias P - One limitation of research into the ToM is that it is affected by culture bias E - Baron-Cohen’s sample was entirely British, and this approach to understanding autism has a very Western perspective. Maguire (2013) has suggested that the higher rates of autism diagnosed in the West than elsewhere might be explained in terms of the fact that the symptoms associated with autism may actually not be considered abnormal in some cultures. E - Therefore the view that the lack of social interaction is a problem to be solved may be a Western but not universal perspective.

Question 43

how are mirror neurons linked to intention

Answer 43

Identifying mirror neurons has given us a new way of thinking surrounding understanding each other’s social cognitions - this is central to social cognition Gallese and Goldman suggested that mirror neurons respond not just to observe actions but to intentions behind behaviour. Rather than the common-sense view that we interpret people’s actions with reference to our memory, they suggested that we simulate others’ actions in our motor system and experience their intentions using our mirror neurons

Question 44

mirror neurons and perspective taking

Answer 44

It has also been suggested that mirror neurons are important in theory of mind and the ability to take other’s perspectives. If mirror neurons fire in response to others’ actions and intentions this may give us a neural mechanism for experiencing and hence understanding, other people’s perspectives and emotional states. Just as we can simulate intention by making judgements on our own reflected motor responses, this same information may allow us to interpret what others are thinking and feeling

Question 45

mirror neurons and human evolution

Answer 45

It is suggested that mirror neurons are so important they have effectively shaped human evolution. The uniquely complex social interactions we have as humans require a brain system that facilitates an understanding of intention, emotion and perspective. Without these cognitive abilities we could not live in the large groups with the complex social roles and rules that characterise human culture therefore mirror neurons are key to understanding the way humans have developed as a species

Question 46

mirror neurons autism

Answer 46

Some features of autism are associated with all the social-cognitive abilities linked to mirror neurons. If autistic children can be shown to have a dysfunctional mirror neuron system, then this may go a long way to explaining autism. Researchers have proposed the ‘broken mirror’ theory of autism which is the idea that neurological deficits that include dysfunction in the mirror neuron system prevent a developing child imitating and understanding social behaviours in others. This manifests itself in infancy when children later diagnosed as autistic typically mimic adult behaviours less than others. Later, problems with the mirror neuron system lead to challenges in social communication as children do not fully develop the usual abilities to read intention and emotion in others.

Question 47

Evaluation of mirror neurons

Answer 47

RESEARCH SUPPORT P - One strength of mirror neurons is the existence of supporting evidence. E - There is evidence from neuroscience to support a role for mirror neurons in a wide range of human behaviours. For example, Haker et al. scanned the brains of people as they watched a film of people yawning. Levels of activity in Brodmann’s Area 9, believed to be rich in mirror neurons, increased when participants yawned in response. Contagious yawning is widely believed to be the result of empathy, so this study links mirror neuron activity to empathy. Another study showed that activity in the inferior frontal gyrus increased significantly when the participants tried to understand the intentions behind a hand-grasping gesture. In other words, mirror neurons encoded why an object was being grasped. E - This means that mirror neurons may play a role in important aspects of social cognition, including empathy and understanding intentions. Hard to research P- one limitation of mirror neuron research is measuring neuron activity E - Animal studies of mirror neurons often involve implanting electrodes in the brain in order to study electrical activity in individual neurons. However, it is ethically impossible to use this kind of procedure in humans and such animal studies tell us little about human cognition. An alternative is to use scanning techniques, although these only measure activity in the brain rather than individual cells. E - Therefore, there is no ‘gold standard’ for measuring mirror neuron activity in humans and no direct evidence for mirror neuron activity in humans. Explaining autism P - one strength of mirror neuron research is support for explaining autism E - there is some evidence to support a link between autism and dysfunctions in the mirror neuron system. For example, brain scans have shown a smaller average thickness of the pars opercularis in autistic people compared with neurotypical people. This is an area thought to be especially rich in mirror neurons and thought to be involved in perspective-taking. Other studies using scanning methods show activity rather than just structure, have found lower activity levels in regions of the brain believed to be associated with high concentrations of mirror neurons, again in autistic people compared with neurotypicals. E - this suggests that a cause of autism may be related to the mirror neuron system.

Question 48

What are Selman's levels of perspective taking?

Answer 48

0. 3-6 Egocentric - child cannot reliably distinguish their own emotions from others and generally identify emotional states in others but don't understand the social behaviour that caused them 1. 6-8 Social-informational - child tells difference between their own POV and others but only usually focus on one of these perspectives 2. 8-10 self-reflective - child can put themselves in position of another person and fully appreciate other's perspectives - only take on board one view point at a time 3. 10-12 mutual - look at situation from own POV and others at same time 4. 12+ - social and conventional system - young people become able to see that sometimes understanding others' viewpoints is not enough to allow people to reach agreement - social conventions needed to keep order