Principles of Piaget’s Theory
- child is a scientist
- children are naturally curious and create schemas
- believed all children pass through stages in the same order
assimilation vs accommodation (ex: dogs)
-the way we think about a new experience- try to assimilate our experience into what we already know.
-accommodation- modify your schema to make the new experience fit
(usually in balance/equilibrium)
Stage Theory (Piaget)
Cognitive development is how you process experiences. Combination of nature and nurture. Cognitive happens first, then learning is passive.
-Children need to rethink their world 3 times in their life, going from one stage to the next.
Scheme
when children form theories. They organize both ideas and actions.
Object Permanence
Before- “out of sight out of mind”
- understanding objects exist independently.
- initial recognition: 8-9 months
- full recognition: 18 months+
Preoperational Stage
2-7 years
- use symbols with errors (act before they think)
- egocentrism- your favorite color is pink because my favorite color is pink
- animism- the sun is sad because the clouds are out
- centration- can not pick out both small and blue rectangles, only either or.
- confuse appearance with reality- boogyman
- magical thought- cardboard box can be anything
- irreversibility- unable to reverse operations
egoccentrism
children see the world only from their perspective and so does everyone else (pink)
Centration
unable to work out two parts of a problem, only one (rectangles)
Concrete Operational Stage
7-11 years
- form more complex schemas using logical thinking and inductive reasoning
- operations CAN be reversed
- focus on real and concrete, NOT abstract
- inductive reasoning (drawing general conclusions from experience/knowledge)
Formal Operational Stage
11 years-adulthood
- can think hypothetically
- can use deductive reasoning to draw conclusions from fact
- hierarchical classification- biggest to smallest vise-versa
- Interpersonal vs Intrapersonal
Intersubjectivity
“2 heads are better than 1”
paired/group learning. Kids don’t learn independently, someone must know more than them to learn.
Private Speech vs Inner Speech
comments intended to regulate own behavior vs thought
Scaffolding
cognitive. A teaching style that matches assistance to learner’s needs. (Pairing someone of a lower level with someone of a higher level)
Sociocultural Perspective (Vygotsky)
- children are products of their culture
- intersubjectivity
- guided participation
- zone of proximal development
- scaffolding
- fading
- egocentric speech
- private speech
- inner speech
Child development research methods
-Descriptive: systematic observation (naturalistic-playground/school and structured-can control
variables)
-Correlational: positive and negative correlation.
-Experimental: cause and effect. independent and dependent variables. (quasi-experimental: when you can’t randomly assign)
-Longitudinal: same people are tested repeatedly over days or weeks.
-Cross-sectional: children of different ages are tested one time.
-Longitudinal-sequential: studies are hybrids of longitudinal and cross-sectional.
Positive and negative correlations
the direction the sign is. Pos- the more sleep a child gets, the more focused they are in school (the amount the child studies and their grade). Neg-the more TV a child watches, the lower their grade is. (amount of TV watched and their grade). *can never say cause and effect- too many factors.
Independent vs dependent variables
Independent variable is the variable that is being manipulated.
Dependent variable is the behavior measured.
Reliability vs validity
Reliable- consistency- can be reliable, but not valid (consistently wrong). To measure- test repeatedly
Valid- measures what you say it is supposed to measure
Single-gene
- different forms of genes- alleles
- can be homozygous (the same) or heterozygous (different)
- Dominant allele: AA
- Recessive allele: aa
- Incomplete dominance: Aa
Polygenic
- involves many genes.
- twin studies: monozygotic twins vs. dizygotic - identical twins vs. fraternal twins.
- Hereditary is more influential than environment.
Assessing the newborn
Use the Apgar Scale APGAR- Activity, Pulse, Grimace, Appearance, Respiration.
10 is the highest score. 6 or lower, there’s concern. 4 or lower is critical.
The developing brain
- cell body at center of the neuron contains the biological machinery that keeps the neuron alive.
- the receiving end of the neuron, the dendrite, looks like a tree with many branches.
- the tube-like structure at the other end of the cell body is the axon, which sends information to other neurons.
- the neutral plate develops into the brain stem.
Hemispheric Specialization
information is typically received axon to dendrite, but the axons can receive information as well.
Left brain/Right brain/Mixed
Left- (90% of people) language, analysis, math
Right-(5%) intuition, creativity, art/music, spatial perception.
Mixed- (< 5%) all mixed
