Cognitive Development

Question 1

What is cognition?

Answer 1

• knowledge
• reasoning
• problem-solving
• development of all of above

Question 2

what are the major theories/frameworks in cognitive development

Answer 2

• Piaget
• Information-processing
• core knowledge
• sociocultural/vygotsky
• dynamic systems

Question 3

Piaget

Answer 3

• detailed observations, simply but clever tasks
• legacy

Question 4

Piaget: how children learn

Answer 4

• the active child
• own activity
• constructivism = idea that children construct their own knowledge through experience
• hypothesis testing
• motivation

Question 5

Sensorimotor Stage

Answer 5

• 0-2 years
• infant = blank slate
• aside: nature and nuture
• for the first 8 months = only sensory and motor abilities -> no enduring representations/mental representations -> “fail” object permenence task

Question 6

Sensorimotor Stage

when does object permenance arive

Answer 6

• at 8 months
• but representations are “fragile” and tied to physical experience (egocentric)

Question 7

Sensorimotor Stage

A-not-B task/A-not-B-error

Answer 7

1. take the same object and hide it under the first object under the first cloth (place A)
2. repeat this 2 or 3 times
3. switch it and place under second cloth B

Question 8

Sensorimotor Stage

At 12 months

Answer 8

disappearance of AB search error (i.e., success on A-not-B task)

Question 9

Sensorimotor Stage

By 24 months

Answer 9

• mental representations
• deferred imitation

Question 10

Preoperational stage

Answer 10

• 2-7 years
• major accomplishment: symbols
• language = after age 2 language flourishes
• drawing/art
• from process to product to conventional representations
• pretend play = from object substitution to sociodramatic play

Question 11

Preoperational Stage

Limitations

Answer 11

• egocentrism
• three mountains task: what does the doll see?
• centration/absence of conservation

Question 12

Preoperational Stage

three mountain task

Answer 12

• have a series of pictures
• ask what they see
• then mix up pics and ask what doll would see
• younger preoperational (3-4 yr old) children choose their own view
• older preoperational children may choose another view, but not likely to get it right

Question 13

Preoperational Stage

Centration/absence of conservation

Answer 13

• focus on one feature/inability to incorportate multiple features
• conservation of liquid
• number version of conservation of liquid task

Question 14

Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 14

• 7-12 years
• logical reasoning about concrete features of the world
• operations/transformations
• conservation = “if you pour it back, its the same amount”; “it’s shorter but its also wider”

Question 15

Concrete Operational

Limitations

Answer 15

• reasoning limited to concrete (observable) and specific situations
• reasoning about counterfactural hypotheticals
• do not approach problems systematically (pendulum problem)

Question 16

Formal Operations Stage

Answer 16

• 12 and up
• new abilities:
• hypothetical reasoning/counterfactuals
• abstract reasoning
• systematic approach to problem solving (pendulum)

Question 17

Significance Piaget’s Theory

Answer 17

broad, keen, and still influential

Question 18

Weakness of Piaget’s theory

Answer 18

1. vague about processes of change -> gives rise to information processing -> difficult to determine when children go through conceptial + conginitve change
2. underestimate abilities -> core knowledge theories
3. social and cultural factors -> contrasts with sociocultural views/Vygotsky
4. Stage theory