Cogntive Development (LECTURE 6)

Question 1

Children’s intuitive theories

Answer 1

Children’s conceptual understanding of how the world works

Question 2

Children’s intuitive theories may or may not be _____, but they are definitely ________ by our innate core knowledge, experience, and what others tell us

Answer 2

Accurate, influenced

Question 3

Children have intuitive theories in domains e.g. (3)

Answer 3

1. Physics
2. Biology
3. Psychology

Question 4

What are examples of children’s intuitive theories for physics? (4)

Answer 4

1. Object permanent task
2. Continuity task
3. Support task
4. Solidity task

Question 5

Jean Piaget believed that children ages - years were in the “pre operational stage” that is marked by misunderstandings like (4)

Answer 5

2-6 years

1. Egocentric
2. Animistic
3. illogical
4. Unable to understand cause and effect

Question 6

Egocentric

Answer 6

Unable to take the perspective of others

Question 7

Animistic

Answer 7

Attributing life to inanimate objects

Question 8

Today however, unlike Piaget we know that the bulk of children’s early theories about the world are developing during ages - years old and that they show remarkable understanding of key concepts

Answer 8

2-6

Question 9

Piaget underestimated children’s understanding standing because he noticed limitations in 4-5 year olds ______ _______

Answer 9

Physical reasoning

Question 10

Piaget’s conservation task makes it seem like the child doesn’t understand that number is conserved but how might the child’s performance on this task underestimate their competence?

Answer 10

Changing “pragmatic” social cues —> putting a teddy bear instead of a person!

Question 11

Do infants (6 months) perceive cause and effect? One study did an experiment where one ball hits the other. What did they find?

Answer 11

Infants notice if you change the cause vs effect! But they won’t notice if you reverse the non-causal event, which means that infants seem to perceive and remember causality

Question 12

There is a certain detector that was given to children to see if children can reason beyond perceptual cues about causality! What machine did they use?

Answer 12

The blicket detector!

Question 13

The blicket detector

Answer 13

Some blocks are blicket, which make the blicket detector light up and play music

Question 14

How do children learn what makes the blicket detector work?

Answer 14

They test!

Question 15

The ability to learn about cause and effect relationships is really important for developing ________ theories. And not just about physical objects but also (3)

Answer 15

Intuitive

1. Biology: growth/illness
2. Physical principles: force
3. Social word: desires, goals, beliefs

Question 16

Children care about understanding the ______ structure of the world more than just mere novelty!

Answer 16

Causal

Question 17

Children can notice _______ regularities and _______ in their environment

Answer 17

Statistical, patterns

Question 18

What is the double-edged sword of pedagogy?

Answer 18

Teaching comes at a cost

Question 19

Direct instruction

Answer 19

Telling a child how something words

Question 20

Direct instruction helps the child figure out the relevant hypotheses to experiment with but at a cost….what is it?

Answer 20

Children explore less and are less likely to discover things that weren’t included in that direct instruction

Question 21

When teachers presented children with a novel toy with four hidden properties. What happened when there was direct instruction vs accidental demonstration vs baseline?

Answer 21

1. Direct instruction: Children only played with the part they saw how to play it in
2. Accidental demonstration: Children discovered more functions of the toy!