Cognitive development: L3

Question 1

How do we conceptualise cognitive development

Answer 1

thinking, reasoning, problem-solving

Question 2

what are the roots of cognitive development

Answer 2

biological/neurological, social/cultural, general/specific

Question 3

Plato: developmental psych (2)

Answer 3

1. emphasised self control
2. children born with innate knowledge

(nature)

Question 4

Aristotle: developmental psych (2)

Answer 4

1. knowledge comes from experience
2. infants mind is a blackboard with nothing written on it

(nurture)

Question 5

Piaget 2 key ideas + define

Answer 5

1. Qualitative changes in children’s thought
   - > operations of thought qualitatively (qualities or quality) differ at different ages
2. Invariant sequence in patterns of thought
   - > thinking is dominated by the stage the child is in

= children are unable to conserve the identity of information across a transformation

Question 6

sensorimotor stage

• age
• 9 months + have a sense of..?

Answer 6

• 0-2 y/o

- object permanence

Question 7

Preoperational thought stage

• age
• develops…?
• example

Answer 7

• 2-7 y/o
• mental representations (& operational thought)
• operational thought: perspective taking

Question 8

Concrete-operational stage

• age
• develops…?
• example

Answer 8

• 7-12 y/o
• manipulate mentally internal representations
• liquids, mass, number, volume - Shaffer 2002

Question 9

Piaget problems (4)

Answer 9

1. focused on inabilities rather than abilities
2. ignored social context
3. focused on decontextualised rather than everyday problems
4. little about language development

Question 10

Information processing accounts of development (3)

Answer 10

1. focused on factors that support thinking
2. memory, attention, language development
3. focused on quantitative (amount) changes with age

Question 11

describe the information processing model

Answer 11

sensory store -> short term memory -> long term memory

Executive processor

Question 12

define:
1. developmental discontinuity (what model)
2. developmental continuity
(what model)

Answer 12

1. Piaget’s model, stages of development/progression, qualitative
2. information processing model, fluid + arched progression, quantitative

Question 13

Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development

1. emphasis on
2. importance of…?

Answer 13

“marxist” psychologist

1. socialisation in children’s intellectual development via language
2. social-cultural, linguistic bases of intellectual development

Question 14

Vygotsky’s theory:
- define ZPD

(social construction of thought)

Answer 14

• zone of proximal development
• relationship between self and other (peer, parent etc)
• importance of relationship between child + teacher, no relationship = little learning
• importance of cultural practice, language and cognition