T2: Lecture 2

Question 1

What were Jean Piaget’s four stages of development?

Answer 1

1. Sensimotor Stage
2. Pre-ocupational Stage
3. Concrete Operations Stage
4. Formal Operations Stage

Question 2

What age range is the Sensimotor stage?

Answer 2

Birth-2yrs

Question 3

What’s the key description involved in the Sensimotor stage?

Answer 3

Cognition is tiedd to external stimulation

Question 4

What are the three components in Semsimotor stage?

Answer 4

1. Object Permanence
2. Schema Formation
3. Representational Thought

Question 5

What is Object Permenance?

Answer 5

Idea that objects don’t cease to exist when out of sight

Question 6

There are five stages in Object Permanence, describe the key ideas in each one

Answer 6

1. (Birth-3 months)
   - Looks at visual stimulus
   - Turns towards noise
   - NO eye tracking
2. (3 months)
   - Tracking object
   - Stares at spot where object disappeared
   - WILL NOT SEARCH for disappearing object
3. (5 months)
   - Grasps and manipulates objects
   - Anticipates future position of objects (seagull going behind the screen)
4. (8 months)
   - Searches for object
   - ‘A not B error’: searching in last successful place object was found not place of disappearance
5. (12 months)
   - Searches for place last saw object

Question 7

What is Schema Formation?

Answer 7

Mental representation/set of rules that defines a particular behaviour category
-Helps understand current/future experiences

Question 8

What are the two processes of Schema Formation?

Answer 8

1. Assimilation: process where new info is modified to fit an existing schema e.g. dog at park says “rabbit”
2. Accomodation: process where an existing schema is modified by new experience e.g. sees rabbit says “rabbit”

Question 9

What is Representational Thought?

Answer 9

Ability to form mental representations

Question 10

What are Mental Representations instrumental in?

Answer 10

• Imitation=same time as seeing
• Deferred Imitation=action seen prior
• Symbolic Play=uses one thing to represent another
• Use of words to represent objects

Question 11

What age range is the Pre-Ocupational stage?

Answer 11

2-7 years

Question 12

What’s the key description involved in the Pre-operational stage?

Answer 12

Ability to think logically as well as symbolically

Question 13

What’s is involved in the Pre-operational stage?

Answer 13

• Rapid development of language
• Categorisation and classification, counting, object manipulation
  1. Failure of Conservation
  2. Egocentrism

Question 14

What is Failure of Conservation

Answer 14

Failure to understand that specific object properties remain the same despite apparent changes/arrangement of the objects e.g. weight, volume, number

Question 15

What is Egocentrism?

Answer 15

Children’s belief that others see the world in the same way as they do

Question 16

What age range is the Concrete Operations Stage stage?

Answer 16

7-12 years

Question 17

What are the key developments in the Concrete Operations Stage?

Answer 17

• Ability to perform logical analysis
• Ability to empathise with thoughts/feelings or others
• Understanding of complex cause effect (play doe example)
• No abstract thinking or hypothesising

Question 18

What age range is the Formal Operations Stage stage?

Answer 18

12+yrs

Question 19

What are the key developments in the Formal Operations Stage?

Answer 19

• Ability to abstract reason

- Metacognition

Question 20

What is metacognition?

Answer 20

Ability to think about our thought processes

Question 21

What is the Formal Operations Stage apparently dependent on?

Answer 21

Exposure to scientific thinking