Lecture 13 - Cognitive Development - Core Knowledge Theories

Question 1

What is a key difference between Core Knowledge Theory and Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development?

Answer 1

Core Knowledge Theory looks sees the infant as being born with a certain set of domain-specific knowledge that they draw on to construct their knowledge.
Piaget sees the infant as constructing their knowledge from an empty slate.

Question 2

When does the cognitive ability of OBJECT PERMANENCE develop in infancy?

Answer 2

Around 6-9 months

Question 3

By the end of the sensorimotor stage (18-24 months) what is one of the key skills that an infant has?

Answer 3

They are able to create and retrieve enduring mental representations of events and knowledge.

Question 4

Why did Piaget think that OBJECT PERMANENCY was such an important milestone?

Answer 4

Piaget thought that if an infant had object permanency then it was reflective of them being able to “think”.

Question 5

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is a good DESCRIPTIVE model of infant and child development, but it is not a good model for…

Answer 5

EXPLAINING WHY AND HOW the development is taking place in that way.

Question 6

What are some limitations of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development?

Answer 6

Piaget underestimated the cognitive competencies of infants.
Piaget underestimated the influence of the social world/environment on infant/child development.
Piaget’s theory is descriptive, but does not explain why or how development occurs.

Question 7

What is Core Knowledge Theory in Development?

Answer 7

Core Knowledge Theory posits that infants have domain-specific knowledge in domains that have special evolutionary importance.

Question 8

All infants have the same Core Knowledge System across cultures.
What is an example of development that is not the same across cultures?

Answer 8

Motor skills and when they develop is different across cultures.

Question 9

What are some of the Core Knowledge Domains?

Hint: we looked in depth at 4, but 5 were mentioned.

Answer 9

1. Objects and their mechanical interactions.
2. Agents and their goal-directed actions
3. Number and magnitude
4. Spatial layouts and geometric relationshipts (we didn’t look at this)
5. Social partners/members (possibly)

Question 10

What are the key features of Core Knowledge Theory? We looked 4 key features.

Answer 10

1. Knowledge is DOMAIN SPECIFIC. This means the knowledge we have as infants are related to specific domains that are key for survival.
2. CKT understands the child as an ACTIVE CHILD that engages with their environment and builds upon their core knowledge based on engaging with the world around them. They are ACTIVE participants in their development.
3. CKT can either focus solely on the core knowledge that a child may have from birth that is domain specific, or look at the core knowledge as well as the general learning abilities of a child that interact with their core knowledge to develop the child’s cognitive skills (NATIVISIM VS/AND CONSTRUCTIVISM)
4. CKT sees learning and development as CONTINUOUS, as opposed to occurring in distinct stages.

Question 11

What are some ways in which researchers can study Core Knowledge in children/infants?

Answer 11

One way to study whether infants can distinguish between objects or are interested in objects is by measuring where they are looking and how long they are looking at something (the longer they look the more interested they are assumed to be in the object).
HABITUATION refers to the tendency of an infant to not look as long at an object if they are familiar with it.

Question 12

In regards to preferential looking in infants what does HABITUATION refer to?

Question 13

Studies have found that infants have some sense of possible and impossible events in regards to objects and how they behave. One key study was Renee Baillargeon and colleagues.
How was this studied and what does it mean for Core Knowledge Theory?

Answer 13

Infants appeared more interested in a plank passing through a box (an impossible event) than they were in a plank being stopped by a box (possible event). Interest was based on how long infants looked at objects.
This suggests that the infants were surprised by the impossible event, even though they did not play with or touch the objects before observing them.
This suggests that infants have some innate sense/core knowledge of how objects behave, as opposed to developing this sense of object behaviour by having experiences with those objects. This is evidence to support CKT.

Question 14

Studies have shown that infants have core knowledge around numbers.
What is a study that looked at this idea and what did it mean for CKT?

Answer 14

Researches placed 2 bunny toys behind a screen. When the screen came down there was either two bunnies behind it (possible event) or one bunny behind it (impossible event).
Infants looked longer at the impossible event than the possible event, suggesting that they were surprised by the event. According to CKT this reflects that infants have core knowledge about numbers, and that the impossible event conflicts with the infants core knowledge about numbers.

Question 15

Infants often imitate adults/social agents’ actions.
According to Core Knowledge Theory what does this mean?

Answer 15

The fact that infants imitate actions of the older people around them suggests that they have some innate or core knowledge/belief that the actions of adults have a purpose and or goal.

Question 16

What are some of the Core Knowledge Domains?

Question 17

What was an experiment that looked at whether infants imitate useless actions by adults and what does this mean for Core Knowledge Theory?

Answer 17

Researches set up an experiment where an adult showed a child how to open a box containing interesting things. They opened the box with a blue stick, but before they opened it they wipe the stick across the box in a particular way and then open the box.
When the child is then given the stick they do the same wiping action before opening the box.
The researches suggest that this implies that infants and children attribute meaning and purpose to adults’ actions even if they don’t serve a purpose.
This, researches suggest, means that infants have Core Knowledge/beliefs that the actions of those older than them have purpose and are goal-oriented and therefore they should imitate them.

Question 18

What does research into “Social Partners” look like and what does it suggest for Core Knowledge Theory.

Answer 18

Infants show a preference for people who speak the language they have been around/spoken by their caregiver as well as showing an increased propensity to learn from those who speak the language they are surrounded by.
Language is a key way of showing group membership and so researchers suggest that the above patterns suggest that infants have core knowledge about the importance of belonging to a group as well as having a preference for members of their group.
However, whether this is indeed core knowledge is still up for debate.

Question 19

Are Core Knowledge Systems of an infant independent or interdependent?

Answer 19

Core Knowledge Systems appear to be independent. So, a child can have an impairment in one of their core knowledge systems, such as an inability to understand numbers and amounts, which can later lead to dyscalculia, but have fully intact systems for the other areas of core knowledge.

Question 20

Core Knowledge Theorists posit that VIOLATION OF EXPECTATION is one of the key drivers of learning.
Explain what VIOLATION OF EXPECTATION is and how it drives learning and development from a Core knowledge perspective.

Answer 20

VIOLATION OF EXPECTATION occurs when something happens that “violates our expectation”, that is, something happens that we did not expect to happen.
Infants express surprise and interest in novel objects and events and “impossible events”. CKT suggests this is because they have core knowledge around what should happen. This surprise and interest that they show is what drives them to explore their environment and learn new things.

Question 21

What is a key similarity between Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and Core Knowledge Theory?

Answer 21

In both Piagetian theory and CKT the infant is an ACTIVE participant in their learning and development.

Question 22

What are some key differences between Piagetian theory and CKT?

Answer 22

Piaget sees development as occuring in invariant, discontinuous stages, whereas CKT sees development as being continuous.
PT sees learning and development starting from scratch at birth, whereas CKT sees the infant as having core knowledge in specific domains that they build upon by exploring their environment. Violation of expectation is what drives curiosity and exploring.