9. Cog. Dev't on Preschoolers Flashcards
Which os Piaget’s stages covers the preschool years?
Preoperational
2-7
What is the Preoperational Stage?
In Piaget’s theory, it is the stage of cognitive development
- from 2-7 years
- characterized by use of symbols to represent objects and events
What symbols do children become proficient at in the preoperational stage?
Words, gestures, graphs, maps, and models.
What are the 3 main limits in preoperational-stage thinking?
- Egocentrism
- Centration
- Appearance as reality
What is egocentrism?
What experiment shows this?
Seeing the world primarily from the perspective of self, rather than of other people.
- the mountain experiment
What is centration?
What experiment shows this?
Narrowly focused thought - a child concentrates on one aspect of a problem and ignore other, equally-relevant aspects.
- conservation experiments (focus on level of liquid, not width of container)
What is animism?
Crediting inanimate objects with life and life-like properties.
What is “appearance as reality”?
Difficulty distinguishing appearance from reality / believing that an object’s appearance tells what the object itself is really like.
- especially prevalent in the early P-O stage
Does early training mean better performance later?
Not necessarily - more mature children can catch up faster because of more advanced developmental qualities.
Example of egocentrism
A child gestures during a phone conversation, assuming the listener will know.
Example of centration
A child focuses on the height of the liquid and ignores the width of the beaker.
Example of appearance as reality
Child thinks a person in monster costume is a real monster.
What 5 elements are included in many naive theories of biology in preschoolers?
Movement Growth Internal parts Inheritance Healing
Describe the naive theory of movement
Animals can move but inanimate objects can not.
Describe the naive theory of growth
Animals get bigger and more complex, but inanimate objects do not.
Describe the naive theory of internal parts
Insides of animate objects contain different parts than insides of inanimate objects.
Describe the naive theory of inheritance
Only living things have offspring that resemble the parents.
Describe the naive theory of healing
When injured, animate things heal by regrowth, whereas inanimate things need to be fixed by people.
Theory of mind
A person’s ideas about connections between mind and behaviour.
What is the first stage of theory of mind?
Understand that they and other people have desires, which are linked to behaviour.
- around age 2
What is the second stage of theory of mind?
Can distinguish the mental from physical world.
- by age 3
- emphasize desires as driving behaviour
- simple lying
What is the third stage of theory of mind?
Mental states are central to understanding own and others’ actions.
- age 4
- understand that actions are based on beliefs, even if those beliefs are wrong
Define executive functioning
a set of cognitive abilities that enable intentional, self-regulated behaviour.
- include attention, concentration, planning, organizing, introspection
False-belief task
In which the subject knows something that another player does not.