Cognitive Development Flashcards
What are the Basic Assumptions of cognitive development
- Cognition develops from action
- logical reasoning emerges from a “logic of action”
- Human intelligence is the most differentiated and equilibrated form of biological adaption of an organism to the environment
What are the 4 Basic Concepts of cognitive development?
- Schema
- Assimilation
- Accommodation
- Equillibration
What is Schema?
pattern of thought or behaviour to grasp an object or event
- are behavioural or symbolic
- example; reaching of objects, mental concepts
What is Assimilation?
interpretation of a new event or objects in terms of an existing scheme
What is Accommodation?
modifying existing scheme to new experience
What is Equillibration?
Reaching balance between thought processes and
environment
- process and aim of development
What are the 4 Stages of Cognitive Development?
- Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)
- Pre-operational stage (3-6 years)
- Concrete operational stage (7-11 years)
- Formal-operational stage (from 12 years)
Characteristics of the Sensorimotor Stage
(0-2 years)
- Intelligence is in action, not in manipulating cognitive representations and
symbols
- Most important achievement: Object permanence
Characteristic of the Pre-operational stage
(3-6 years)
- Ability to cognitively represent objects and events
Characteristics of the Concrete operational stage
(7-11 years)
- Reversibility and theability to pay attention to thinking allows for: conservation, mental seriation, hierarchical classification
- Concrete operational thought limited to real objects, events, situations
Features
- Reversibility: actions can be mentally reversed
Decentration: simultaneous consideration of multiple aspects/dimensions
Tasks to study concrete operational thinking
- Conservation of number, mass, volume
- Mental seriation
- Hierarchical classification
Piaget’s assumption: Solving different tasks requires the same structure of thinking
- they all indicate the same stage
Characteristics of the Formal-operational stage
(from 12 years)
Theoretical endpoint of cognitive development
- However, not all
individuals reach final stage
Adolescents are able to think hypothetically about any possible events and situations
- Allows for systematic scientific investigations
Thought process is not limited to real objects or events
- allows for hypothetical reasoning, regardless of personal experience
- makes it possible to draw correct causal conclusions for events that may have multiple causes
- Children achieve the ability to use hypothetical deductive reasoning and abstract thought
- “scientific reasoning
- syllogisms
What is Piaget’s Theory of Object Permanence
- Object permanence develops over six substages
- Object permanence is fully developed around the age of 18 months
- Newborns have no mental representation of objects: Objects only exist in actions
- Increasing differentiation between world of objects, and actions we perform on them
- Intermediate phase: A-not B error
- Full differentiation between objects and actions, objects considered in temporal spatial relations
What are the Substages of Object Permanence
Substages 1 and 2 (1-4 months)
- tracks moving objects, tries to grasp objects
- ignores objects when they disappear from sight
- “out of sight out of mind”
Substage 3 (4-8 months)
- searches fir partly concealed objects
Substage 4 (8-12 months)
- clear signs of emerging object concepts, searches for concealed objects
- A not B error
Substage 5 (12-18 months)
- searching for object where they visibly have been disappeared
- no understanding of invisible displacements
Substage 6 (18+ months)
- full object permanence
What is Conservation?
Certain properties of objects remain unchanged when objects’ appearances
are altered
Reason for conservation judgment
- nothing was taken away or added (Identity)
- when you put the water back it will be the same level in the container (Negation)
- the sausage is longer but also thinner (Compensation)
What is Mental Seriation?
an object is bigger AND smaller than others