Cognitive Development

Question 1

Jean Piaget

Answer 1

• Started in biology & later shifted into psychology
• noticed that children’s responses varied by age
• wanted to know how children develop their understanding of the world

Question 2

Jean Piaget & his research

Answer 2

• Revised his theories throughout his life based on new observations
• Revised theories through semi-structured interviews & observations
• Cognitive development is a MATURATION process that happens in specific stages
• Environment influences are limited

Question 3

Jean Piaget & his theory

Answer 3

• Continual organization of knowledge
• Adolescent thinking qualitatively different from other ages
• Cognitive development is a maturation process that occurs in stages

Question 4

Biologically based functions

Answer 4

• Organize

* Adapt – fit w/ environment to promote survival

Question 5

What are the Processes of development?

Answer 5

• Schemas
• Constructivism
• Disequilibrium
• Equilibrium
• Assimilation
• Accommodation

Question 6

What is a schema?

Answer 6

• Processes of development

* outline/model

Question 7

What is Constructivism?

Answer 7

• Process of development

* Actively receive knowledge

Question 8

What is Disequilibrium?

Answer 8

• Process of development

* State of confusion where schemas do not fit into experience

Question 9

What is Equilibrium?

Answer 9

• Process of development

* Attempt to resolve cognitive uncertainty

Question 10

What is Assimilation?

Answer 10

• Process of development

* Making a new experience fit into an existing schema

Question 11

What is accommodation?

Answer 11

• Process of development

* Changing existing schemas, to they fit new experiences

Question 12

What are the Piagets 4 stages of development?

Answer 12

1. Sensorimotor stage (Birth-2 yrs old)
2. Pre-operational stage (2-7 yrs old)
3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-12 yrs old)
4. Formal Operations (12+ yrs old)

Question 13

What happens in the sensorimotor stage? (Birth - 2 years old)

Answer 13

• Learn about the environment through the senses
• Simple reflexes
• Developing Schemas (primary circular - repetition)
• Discover Procedures (secondary circular - consequences of outside world)
• Intentional behavior – Goal oriented
• Novelty & exploration – Trial & error
• Mental representation – pretending, imitation, thought

Question 14

What happens in the pre-operational stage? (2-7 years old)?

Answer 14

• Transductive reasoning – creating connections that do not exist based on observations
• Mental representation
• Magical reasons
• Centration – can only focus on 1 aspect of object
• Animism – Human attributes to inanimate objects
• Artificialism – belief that natural objects were created by humans, for a human purpose
• Lack of conservation – concentrate on length & height, cannot consider volume

Question 15

What happens in the concrete operational stage (7-12 years old)?

Answer 15

• Logical thought
• Reversibility (manipulation of info)
• Classification
• Transitivity – ability to recognize relationships among various things in a serial order
• decrease egocentrism

Question 16

What happens in the formal operations stage? (12 yrs. +)

Answer 16

• Abstract thought – inventing & formulating ideas about things they have not been exposed to
• Hypothetical deductive reasoning – forming hypotheses about how the world works & logically think about it
• Inductive reasoning – how to figure out problems, individual examples to genera concepts
• Internal Reflection (metacognition)
• Adolescent egocentricity

Question 17

What were some critiques about piaget theory or model?

Answer 17

• ages are inaccurate
• stages do not differ
• do the ideas stand up across different cultures?

Question 18

Attention in infancy

Answer 18

• Novelty preference
• Infantile amnesia
• magic shrinking machine

Question 19

Attention in childhood

Answer 19

• direct & sustain attention
• individual differences
• Processing efficacy

Question 20

Automaticity

Answer 20

When you become very good at doing a skill that you begin to do them implicitly

Question 21

Memory in childhood

Answer 21

• scripts
• repetition
• organization
• elaboration
• Knowledge base – know more info, easier to remember related information
• False memories – suggestibility

Question 22

Executive functioning

Answer 22

• Coordinated attention & memory
• controls behavioral responses
• Inhibition – focus on 1 task
• Cognitive flexibility – to switch attention

Question 23

Metacognition

Answer 23

thinking about thinking

Question 24

Metamemory

Answer 24

understanding how memory works & how to use it effectively

Question 25

What is object play?

Answer 25

• Playing with a physical object

Question 26

What is pretend play?

Answer 26

* Symbolic * e.g: Pretending to be a doctor. Child is holding an image of what it is like to be a doctor & is acting out this notion of being a doctor.

Question 27

What is Vygotsy's sociocultural perspective on cognitive development?

Answer 27

Who we are is based on our culture and on the context.

Question 28

What is zone of proximal development?

Answer 28

* Vygotsky | * Suggests that the zone of proximal development is what the child could do only with assistance.

Question 29

What is conservation?

Answer 29

Understanding only the basic quanity

Question 30

What is centration?

Answer 30

Focusing on only 1 detail at a time.

Question 31

What is animism?

Answer 31

Giving human like characteristics to objects.

Question 32

What is the mountain task?

Answer 32

* Piaget & Inhelder * Developed to examine cognitive development at different stages * Examines egocentricity: egocentric child believes that the teddy bear sees the same view the child sees.

Question 33

What are some differences between piagets model & the information processing model?

Answer 33

*  Piaget focused on genetic epistemology | * Information processing: Brain & environmental experiences = cognitive development

Question 34

What are some similarities between piagets model & the information processing model?

Answer 34

* study of cognition * theoretical * some use of stages

Question 35

What are the 4 principles of Information Processing?

Answer 35

1. Attention 2. Memory 3. Executive functioning 4. Metacognition

Question 36

What is elaboration?

Answer 36

Creating extra connections to tie information together

Question 37

What is the structure of information processing?

Answer 37

1. Sensory 2. Working memory 3. Long term memory