WEEK 4--> COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Question 1

Cognitive Development

Answer 1

• Social cognition→ children’s friendships change as their understanding of themselves, others and relationships develop
• Self concept→ organised view of ourselves, or way of representing info about the self
• Around age 8→ kids begin to define themselves based on internal, psychological attributes as much as obviously perceptible qualities/appearance
• From early childhood until age 8→ kids tend to focus on relatively simple attributes of other people (e.g. way they look, or roles they perform)
• Perspective taking→ Ability to understand other people’s viewpoints or perspectives
• Development of a theory of mind→ implicit set of ideas about the existence of mental states (such as beliefs and feelings in oneself and others)

Question 2

Gender Identity

Answer 2

Ability to categorise - themselves and others as either male or female

Question 3

Gender Stability

Answer 3

When children understands that their gender remains constant over time

Question 4

Gender Constancy

Answer 4

When children learn that a person’s gender cannot be altered by changes in appearance or activities

Question 5

Gender Schemas

Answer 5

Mental representations that associate physiological characteristics with each sex

Question 6

Cognitive Development

Answer 6

Construction of thought processes; including remembering, problem solving, decision making from childhood through adolescence and adulthood

Question 7

Piaget Overview

Answer 7

• Argued that children develop knowledge by constructing reality out of their own experience
• Considered child to be organism adapting to its environment and as a scientist constructing its own understanding of the world
• Interested in how intelligence changes as a child grows (genetic epistemology)
• There is an orderly sequence of cognitive development in infancy and childhood

Question 8

Piaget said: All children pass through the same 4 stages in the same sequence

Answer 8

Hierarchical
Distinct
Invariant
Universal

Question 9

Piaget Schema

Answer 9

• Set of linked mental representations of the world which we use both to understand and to respond to situations; the assumptions is that we store these mental representations and apply them when needed.
• Basic building blocks of intelligent behaviour/knowledge.
• E.g. sucking reflex in baby- triggered by something touching the baby’s lips→ piaget assumed that a baby has a sucking schema as a baby will suck a nipple, dummy or a person’s finger

Question 10

Piaget Assimilation

Answer 10

The meshing of new info to existing info; original schema is changed to fit new additional knowledge; but knowledge is consistent with the existing schema and the existing schema is used to make sense of it (e.g. a child calls a horse doggie because it has four legs)

Question 11

Piaget Accomodation

Answer 11

Modification of existing schemas to include new info; occurs when a child tries to fit new knowledge into pre-existing schema but the new info, action or experience doesn’t fit; so a new modified schema is created to fit the new info (e.g. instead of calling a horse doggie; they realise it has different characteristics so create a new schema for the horse

Question 12

Piaget from assimilation to accommodation

Answer 12

When new info does not fit into existing schema the child experiences disequilibrium (e.g. child realises not all animals with 4 legs are doggies→ confusing and unsettling→ so child wants to return to state of equilibrium where they have a schema to explain everything

Question 13

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development

Answer 13

Sensorimotor intelligence (0-2 years)
Preoperational (2-7 years)
Concrete operational stage (7-11)
Formal operational stage (11- late adolescence)

Question 14

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development: Sensorimotor intelligence (0-2 years)

Answer 14

• Infants think with their senses; gather info from world around them by using their 5 senses; e.g. baby touching things and putting them in mouth
• Motor is active- exploration and movement
• Object permanence develops→ infants don’t realise that things they can’t see still exists (e.g. take you away)

Question 15

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development: Preoperational (2-7 years)

Answer 15

• Operational= mental operations
• Thought is characterised by the representation of the world within words, images and drawings= symbolic representation
• Child influenced by how things ‘look’ rather than logic
• Involves 2 substages
  1→ preconceptual (2-4)
  2. → intuitive thought (4-7)
• Develop and engage in pretend play
• Begin to use symbols to represent things
• Speech develops
• Egocentric→ don’t understand that others have different points of view from their own
  Don’t understand conservation concept

Question 16

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development: Concrete operational stage (7-11)

Answer 16

• Logical reasoning replaces intuitive reasoning; as long as the reasoning is applied to real, concrete objects
• Increasing ability to understand physical properties of objects to focus on more than one physical property at a time
• Primary characteristics of operation though include
• Conservation of mass, volume, number etc
• Reversibility of thought
• Classification of objects
• Mental operations
• Idea of conservation understood (e.g. experiments with glasses of water)

Question 17

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development: Formal operational stage (11- late adolescence)

Answer 17

• Reasoning about abstract concepts
• Mentally manipulate several concepts at once
• Consequences of actions
• Use hypothetical reasoning to mentally work through a problem
• Think about the changes that come with time
• Hypothesise logical sequences of events
• Detect logical consistency or inconsistency in a set of statements
• Think in relativistic terms about self, others and the world
• Sophisticated moral reasoning begins
• From adolescence onwards, Piaget expected formal operations to dominate adult thinking and reasoning
• Marks the start of abstract thought and deductive reasoning; skills necessary for adult life

Question 18

Criticism of Piaget’s theory

Answer 18

• Underestimated abilities of younger children
• Egocentristic has been found to be inconsistent
• It has been found that there is diversity in thinking across tasks
• Underlying cognitive processes are ignored
• Role of social factors and a child’s environment are largely ignored

Question 19

Vygotsky’s- sociocultural theory of cognitive development: Overview

Answer 19

• Child development is a product of social interaction and cultural influences
  Social interaction and cognition
• Expresses a positive view of the child as learner and the role of parents and educators to provide positive learning experiences for the child to extend his/her learning

Elementary mental function in babies
Memory
Attention
Sensation
Perception

Question 20

Vygotsky: Zone of proximal development

Answer 20

• Where children are most sensitive to instruction of guidance; transition phase to new knowledge, expand learning
• Learn by watching or being helped by others; they need to try it as well
• If task is too difficult→ they need guidance assistance

Question 21

Vygotsky: Language

Answer 21

• Main means by which adults transfer knowledge to children (tool)
• Accelerator to thinking and understanding
• Children who engage in large amounts of private speech (out loud) helps them plan and organise- are more socially competent than children who don’t
• Language becomes internalised as we age; thought and self talk

Question 22

Criticisms of vygotsky’s theory

Answer 22

• Lacks a strong scientific base
• Processes of learning aren’t addresses e.g. memory, attention
• Impact of emotional factors not discussed
• Underestimates the individual ‘prototype child’

Question 23

Vygotsky: MKO

Answer 23

More knowledgeable others (MKO)

Higher level of understanding than learner (e.g. parent or teacher)