Chapter 3- Cognitive Foundations Flashcards
(105 cards)
1
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Changes over time in how people think, how they solve problems, and how their capacities for memory and attention change
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Cognitive development
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Influential swiss developmental psychologist, best known for his theories of cognitive and moral development
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Jean Piaget
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A period in which abilities are organized in a coherent, interrelated way
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Stage
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The organization of cognitive abilities into a single pattern, such that thinking in all aspects of life is a reflection of that structure
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Mental structure
A person who thinks within a particular stage in one aspect of life should think within that stage in all other aspects of life as well because all thinking is part of the same mental structure
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Approach to understanding cognition that emphasizes the changes that take place at different stages
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Cognitive-developmental approach
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Process by which abilities develop through genetically based development with limited influence from the environment
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Maturation
7
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How did Piaget’s emphasis on the importance of maturation contrast with the views of other theorists?
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Other theorists believed that there were no inherent limits to development or that environmental stimulation could override them. Piaget portrayed maturation as an active process in which children seek out information and stimulation in the environment that matches the maturity of their thinking, which contrasted with the views of other theorists such as behaviorists, who saw the environment as acting on the child through rewards and punishments rather than seeing the child as an active agent
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According to Piaget’s theory, a mental structure for organizing and interpreting information
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Schemes
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The cognitive process that occurs when new information is altered to fit an existing’s scheme
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Assimilation
Example: reading information in a text book that is familiar to you
10
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The cognitive process that occurs when a scheme is changed to adapt to new information
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Accommodation
Example: learning about adolescent development in other cultures in a textbook that does not fit with your current ideas about that culture
11
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What are Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development?
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Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, formal operations
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According to Piaget, the cognitive stage in the first two years of life that involves learning how to coordinate the activities of the senses with motor activities
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Sensorimotor stage
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According to Piaget, cognitive stage from ages 2 to 7 during which the child becomes capable of representing the world symbolically – for example, through the use of language – but is still very limited in ability to use mental operations
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Preoperational stage
14
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According to Piaget, cognitive stage from age 7 to 11 in which children learn to use mental operations but are limited to applying them to concrete, observable situations rather than hypothetical situations
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Concrete operations
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cognitive activity involving manipulating and reasoning about objects
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Mental operations
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According to Piaget, cognitive stage from 11 on up in which people learn to think systematically about possibilities and hypotheses
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Formal operations
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Piaget’s classic test of formal operations, in which persons are asked to figure out what determines the speed at which a pendulum swings from side to side
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Pendulum problem
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Piaget’s term for the process by which the formal operational thinker systematically tests possible solutions to a problem and arrives at an answer that can be defended and explained
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Hypothetical-deductive reasoning
19
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Thinking in terms of symbols, ideas, and concepts
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Abstract thinking
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Thinking that takes into account multiple connections and interpretations, such as in the use of metaphor, satire, and sarcasm
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Complex thinking
21
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The capacity for “thinking about thinking” that allows adolescents and adults to reason about their thought processes and monitor them
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Metacognition
22
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Approach to research that focusses on how individuals differ within a group, for example, in performance on IQ tests
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Individual differences
23
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What are the two limitations of Piaget’s theory of formal operations?
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Individual differences in the attainment of formal operations
The cultural basis of adolescent cognitive development
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Describe the limitation of Piaget’s theory: individual differences in formal operations
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Piaget’s theory puts a strong emphasis on maturation, and asserted that most people proceed through the same stages at about the same ages because they experience the same maturational processes.
Research indicates that these claims were inaccurate, especially for formal operations:
- there are a great range of individual differences in the extent to which people use formal operations, some use it in a wide range of situations; other use it selectively; and others not at all or rarely. A large proportion of people use formal operations either inconsistently or not at all
- those with the capacity for formal operations tend to use it selectively for problems and situations in which they have the most experience and knowledge – for example, chess players and those with experience working on cars
- specific kinds of experiences (education in science and math) are important for the development of formal operations. Adolescents with education in math and science are more likely than other adolescents to exhibit formal operational thought
- Piaget underestimated how much effort, energy, and knowledge it takes to use formal operations. Most tasks require concrete operations, and people often will not use formal operations even if they have the capacity to do so because they are more difficult and taxing
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Describe the limitation of Piaget's theory: culture and formal operations
In the 1970s, numerous studies indicated that cultures vary widely in the prevalence with which their members displayed an understanding of formal operations on the kind of tasks that Piaget and others had used to measure it – scholars believed that in many cultures formal operational thought does not develop, especially those cultures that did not have formal schooling
Piaget responded – suggested that even though all persons reach the potential for formal operational thinking, they apply it to areas in which their culture has provided them with the most experience and expertise. If you use materials and tasks familiar to the people in different cultures and relevant to their daily lives, they will likely display formal operational thinking under those conditions
Now there is widespread support among scholars for the proposition that the stage of formal operations constitutes a universal human potential, but the forms it takes in each culture are derived from the kinds of cognitive requirements people in the culture face
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Type of thinking beyond formal operations, involving greater awareness of the complexity of real life situations, such as in the use of pragmatism and reflective judgement
Postformal thinking
Piaget believed that cognitive maturation was complete once formal operations was fully attained at age 20. However, research indicates that cognitive development often continues in important ways during emerging adulthood, inspiring theories of cognitive development beyond formal operations- postformal thinking
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Two of the most notable aspects of postformal thinking in emerging adulthood concern advances in:
Pragmatism and reflective judgement
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Type of thinking that involves adapting logical thinking to the practical constraints of real-life situations
Pragmatism
These theories propose that the problems faced in normal adult life often contain complexities and inconsistencies that cannot be addressed with the logic of formal operations
According to Labouvie-Vief, cognitive development in emerging adulthood is distinguished from adolescent thinking by a greater recognition and incorporation of practical limitations to logical thinking – adolescents exaggerate the extent to which logical thinking will be effective in real life, whereas emerging adults have a growing awareness of how social factors and factor specific to a given situation must be taken into account in approaching most of life's problems
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Describe how formal operational thought can be found among in Inuit adolescents
Until recent decades, Inuit children and adolescents had never attended school, if they had tried to perform the tasks of formal operations, they probably would have done poorly
However, adolescent boys would have used formal operations when hunting by themselves. They would have used hypothetical-deductive reasoning to figure out why their hunt was unsuccessful on a particular outing
Adolescent girls who had to tan hides by themselves at the age of 14, may have ruined a hide and had to ask where in the process did she go wrong, working her way back through the various steps in the process, trying to identify her error – this is also a formal operational thinking, considering various hypotheses in order to identify a promising one to test
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Type of thinking that develops in emerging adulthood, involving a growing awareness that most problems do not have a single solution and that problems must often be addressed with crucial pieces of information missing
Dialectical thought
A theory presented by Michael Basseches
For example, people may need to decide whether to quit a job they dislike without knowing whether their next job will be more satisfying.
Some cultures may promote dialectical thinking more than others – for example, it has been proposed that Chinese culture traditionally promotes dialectical thought by advocating an approach to knowledge that strives to reconcile contradictions and combine opposing perspectives by seeking a middle ground. In contrast, the European American approach tends to apply logic in a way that polarizes contradictory perspectives in an effort to determine which is correct
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The capacity to evaluate the accuracy and logical coherence of evidence and arguments
Reflective judgement
A cognitive quality that has been found to develop in emerging adulthood. One influential theory of reflective judgement in emerging adulthood is proposed by William Perry.
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Cognitive tendency to see situations and issues in polarized, absolute, black-and-white terms
Dualistic thinking
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Cognitive approach entailing recognition that there is more than one legitimate view of things and that it can be difficult to justify one position as the true or accurate one
Multiple thinking
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Cognitive ability to recognize the legitimacy of competing points of view but also compare the relative merits of competing views
Relativism
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Cognitive status in which persons commit themselves to certain points of view they believe to be the most valid while at the same time being open to reevaluating their views if new evidence is presented to them
Commitment
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Describe William Perry's theory of the development of reflective judgement in emerging adulthood according to his studies of college students in their late teens and early 20s
Adolescents and first year college students tend to engage in dualistic thinking – situations and issues are in polarized terms – they lack reflective judgement
Reflective judgement begins to develop for most people in their late teens:
First a stage of multiple thinking takes place – two or more sides to every story, difficult to justify one position as the true or accurate one – people tend to value all points of view equally.
By the early 20s, multiple thinking develops into relativism – able to recognize the legitimacy of competing points of view and attempt to compare the merits of each of view.
By the end of the college years, many emerging adults reached a stage of commitment where they commit themselves to certain points of view they believe to be the most valid and also open to reevaluate if new evidence is presented.
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An approach to understanding cognition that seeks to delineate the steps involved in the thinking process and how each step is connected to the next
Information-processing approach
Views cognitive development as continuous, or gradual and steady, in comparison to Piaget's theory which saw cognitive development as discontinuous and separated into distinct stages.
Usually does not have a developmental focus and a focus on how mental structures and ways of thinking change with age, but on the thinking processes that exist at all ages.
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A view of development as taking place in stages that are distinct from one another rather than as one gradual, continuous process
Discontinuous
Example: Piaget's theory of cognitive development
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A view of development as a gradual, steady process rather than as taking place in distinct stages
Continuous
Example: the information-processing approach
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Description of the information-processing approach to cognition, indicating that it involves breaking down the thinking process into its various components
Componential approach
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The ability to focus on relevant information while screening out information that is irrelevant
Selective attention
One aspect of selective attention is the ability to analyze a set of information and select the most important parts of it for further attention and – you may monitor information presented in class according to your judgement of the information's importance. Also a key part of problem-solving – must decide first where to direct your attention
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The ability to focus on more than one task at a time
Divided attention
Example: reading a book and listening to music at the same time. Adolescents are more adept than preadolescents at these kind of tasks. But divided attention may result in less efficient learning than if attention were focussed entirely on one thing
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Memory for information that is the current focus of attention
Short-term memory
Has a limited capacity and retains information for only a short time, usually about 30 seconds or less
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Memory for information that is committed to longer-term storage, so that it can be drawn upon after a period when attention has not been focussed on it
Long-term memory
The capacity is unlimited, and information is retained in definitely
Both short-term and long-term memory improves substantially between childhood and adolescence
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An aspect of short term memory that refers to where information is stored as it is comprehended and analyzed
Working memory
A mental workbench where you keep information as you are working on it. It is where you analyze and reason about information in the course of decision making, solving problems, and comprehending written and spoken language. The information may be new, or it may be called up from long-term memory, or some combination of the two
Working memory is highly correlated with overall intelligence
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Memory strategies
Mnemonic devices
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Describe how long term memory improves in adolescence
Adolescents are more likely to use mnemonic devices, such as organizing information into coherent patterns.
Adolescents have more experience and more knowledge than children do, and these advantages enhance the effectiveness of long-term memory. Having more knowledge helps you learn new information and stored in long-term memory
What makes it easier is that you already have information in your memory that you can use to form associations with the new information, which makes it more likely that the new information will be remembered
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What are three aspects of information processing that advance in adolescence?
Speed, automaticity, and executive functioning
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Degree of cognitive effort a person needs to devote to processing a given set of information
Automaticity
Adolescents show greater automaticity of processing in a variety of respects, compared with Preadolescent children. Automaticity depends more on experience then on age alone – for example in chess players.
Also closely related to speed and working memory capacity – the more automatic a cognitive task is, the faster you are able to do it – the more automatic a task is, the less working memory capacity it takes, leaving room for other tasks
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The ability to control and manage cognitive processes. Allows you to combine cognitive abilities such as attention, memory, planning, and reasoning into coherent thoughts and actions
Executive functioning
More advanced in adolescents than in young children – for example, driving an automobile or working as a clerk in a retail store
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Breaking up a phenomenon into separate parts to such an extent that the meaning and coherence of the phenomenon as a whole becomes lost
Reductionism
A limitation of the information-processing approach according to critics
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What are two limitations of the information-processing approach according to critics?
1. Information-processing is guilty of reductionism, Breaking up a phenomenon into separate parts to such an extent that the meaning and coherence of the phenomenon as a whole becomes lost – this approach loses the holistic perspective that characterized Piaget's work and fails to consider how human cognition works as a whole rather than a set of isolated parts. Argue that humans are not computers, which have no capacity for self reflection, and no awareness of how their cognitive processes are integrated, organized, and monitored
2. Computers lack emotions, which must be taken into account when considering cognitive functioning. Adolescents emotions tend to be more intense and more variable then either pre-adolescent children or adults emotions
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Thinking that involves not merely memorizing information but analyzing it, making judgements about what it means, relating it to other information, and considering ways in which it might be valid or invalid
Critical thinking
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Describe three ways that cognitive development in adolescence provides the potential for critical thinking
1. A wider range of knowledge is available in long-term memory, across a variety of domains so the ability to analyze and make judgements about new information is enhanced by previous knowledge for comparison
2. The ability to consider different kinds of knowledge simultaneously is increased, which makes it possible to think of new combinations of knowledge
3. More metacognitive strategies are available for applying or gaining knowledge, such as planning and monitoring one's own comprehension – makes it possible to think more critically about what one is learning
However, critical thinking skills do not develop automatically or inevitably- requires a foundation of skills and knowledge obtained in childhood, along with an educational environment that promotes and values critical thinking
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Theory of decision-making that describes the decision making process as including (1) identifying the range of possible choices; (2) identifying the consequences that would result from each choice; (3) evaluating the desirability of each consequence; (4) assessing the likelihood of each consequence; (5) and integrating this information
Behavioural decision theory
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Describe the five steps of the decision-making process in the behavioural decision theory
1. Identifying the range of possible choices
2. Identifying the consequences that would result from each choice
3. Evaluating the desirability of each consequence
4. Assessing the likelihood of each consequence
5. Integrating this information into a decision
Competence in this process varies substantially with age. Compared with preadolescent children, early adolescents generally identify a wider range of possible choices, are better at anticipating the consequences of the possible choices, and are better at evaluating and integrating information, but early adolescents are less skilled than late adolescents or emerging adults
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Most studies comparing adolescents and adults have found few differences between them in the decision-making processes they use. Why are adolescents so much more likely than adults to take risks such as driving while intoxicated or trying illegal drugs?
May be that adolescents and adults make different evaluations about the desirability of possible consequences and may evaluate these consequences differently. They may also evaluate the potential consequences as less negative than adults would.
The dual processing theory proposes that adolescent decision making is based on two different cognitive systems – analytic and uses the reasoning of formal operations, and heuristic based on intuitive factors such as past experience, emotions, and unconscious motivations. Heuristic factors continue to affect decision-making and do not necessarily improve, adolescents tend to accept an argument based on questionable analytical reasoning if they have intuitive reasons for excepting the argument
Also, some argue that differences in decision making abilities between adolescents and adults should be divided into two broad categories: cognitive factors and psychosocial factors. Mature decision making would be viewed as the product of the interaction between both factors, with competent decision making potentially undermined by a deficiency in either area
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Term applied especially to cognitive development, meaning that cognitive development affects all areas of thinking, no matter what the topic
Organizational core
Cognitive development in adolescence functions as an organizational core that affects all areas of thinking, no matter what the topic. This means that the cognitive concepts we have discussed in relation to the physical world can be applied to social topics as well
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How people think about other people, social relationships, and social institutions
Social cognition
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The ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others
Perspective taking
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Stage of perspective taking, often found in early adolescence, in which persons understand that their perspective-taking interactions with others are mutual, in the sense that each side realizes that the other can take their perspective
Mutual perspective taking
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Realizing that the social perspectives of self and others are influenced not just by their interaction with each other but by their roles in the larger society
Social and conventional system perspective taking
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Promoting the well-being of others
Prosocial
Perspective taking abilities in one study were found to predict sympathy and prosocial behavior, behaviour that is kind and considerate. Adolescents who are good at perspective taking would also be good at making friends
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The ability to attribute mental states to one's self and others, including beliefs, thoughts, and feelings
Theory of mind
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Describe Robert Selman's theory of how perspective taking develops through a series of stages, from early childhood through adolescence
Used mainly interviews and provided children and adolescents with hypothetical situations and asked to comment on them.
The research indicates that until adolescence, children's capacity for perspective taking is limited in various ways. Young children have difficulty separating their own perspective from those of others. Age 6 to 8- begin to develop perspective-taking skills but have difficulty comparing perspectives. Preadolescence, ages 8 to 10 – can understand that others may have a point of view that is different from their own and realize that taking another's perspective can assist in understanding others intentions and actions.
Early adolescence, ages 10 to 12 – children become capable for the first time of mutual perspective taking – understand that their perspective-taking interactions with others are mutual, just as you understand another person has a perspective that is different from your own, you also realize that the other persons understand that you have a perspective that is different from theirs. Early adolescence have also begun to be able to imagine how their view and the view of another person might appear to a third person.
Late adolescence – social cognition develops further into social and conventional system perspective taking – adolescents come to realize that their social perspectives and those of others are influenced not just by their interactions with each other but also by the roles in the larger society
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Type of egocentrism in which adolescents have difficulty distinguishing their thinking about their own thoughts from their thinking about the thoughts of others
Adolescent egocentrism
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Belief that others are acutely aware of and attentive to one's appearance and behaviour
Imaginary audience
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A belief in one's personal uniqueness, often including a sense of invulnerability to the consequences of taking risks
Personal fable
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The tendency to assume that accidents, diseases, and other misfortunes are more likely to happen to other people than to one's self
Optimistic bias
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Attempt to understand human cognition by evaluating cognitive abilities using intelligence tests
Psychometric approach
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French psychologist who developed the first intelligence test in the early 20th century, which later became known as the Stanford-Binet
Alfred Binet
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Widely used IQ test developed by Alfred Binet and revised by scholars at Stanford university
Stanford-Binet
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A measure of a persons intellectual abilities based on a standardized test
Intelligence quotient
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Intelligence test for children ages 6 to 16, with six verbal and five performance subtests
Wechsler intelligence scale for children (WISC-IV)
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Intelligence test for persons ages 16 and up, with six verbal and five performance subtests
Wechsler adult intelligence scale (WAIS – IV)
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In the Wechsler IQ tests, subtests that exam and verbal abilities
Verbal subtests
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In the Weschler IQ tests, subtests that examine abilities for attention, spatial perception, and speed of processing
Performance subtests
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In IQ tests, performance results compared to those of other persons of the same age
Relative performance
Relative performance on IQ tests is very stable – people who score higher than average in childhood tend to score higher than average as adolescents and adults, and it is the same for people who score lower than average
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In IQ tests, performance results compared to those of other persons, regardless of age
Absolute performance
Some interesting patterns of change occur in absolute performance from mid adolescence through young adulthood. For example, absolute scores on the verbal subtests generally improved from age 16 to 38, whereas absolute scores on the performance subtests tended to peak in the mid-20s and then decline
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Technique for developing a psychological test, in which a typical score for each age is established by testing a large random sample of people from a variety of geographical areas and social class backgrounds
Age norms
The Weschler IQ test has established age norms
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In a distribution of scores, the point at which half of the population scores above and half below
Median
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Type of reliability that examines whether or not persons' scores on one occasion are similar to their scores on another occasion
Test-retest reliability
The Weschler IQ test has high test-retest reliability
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Mental abilities that involve speed of analyzing, processing, and reacting to information
Fluid intelligence
The kind of ability tapped by the performance subtests in the Weschler IQ tests. This kind of intelligence peaks in emerging adulthood
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Accumulated knowledge and enhanced judgement based on experience
Crystallized intelligence
Subtests like information, comprehension, and vocabulary assess this kind of intelligence. Scores on these tests tend to improve through the 20s and 30s
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In longitudinal research, the ability of a variable at a time 1 to predict the outcome of a variable at time 2
Predictive validity
IQ tests have reasonably good predictive validity – high IQ scores in adolescence predict relatively high educational attainment in emerging adulthood and occupational success in young adulthood and beyond and are also predictive of positive outcomes in adulthood on related to education and occupation, for example lower likelihood of divorce or alcoholism
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Describe the research on adoption studies and IQ
In adoption studies that follow children from birth through adolescence, in early and middle childhood, a substantial correlation in IQ exists between adopted children and their adoptive parents. However, by the time adopted children reach adolescence, the correlation between their IQs and the IQs of their adoptive parents has declined, even though the number of years they have all been in the same family has increased
Why?
Maybe due to a gradual decline with age in the influence of the immediate family environment on intellectual development, and a gradual increase in active genotype-environment interactions, that is, in the degree to which children choose their own environmental influences. In early and middle childhood parents have a great deal of control over the children's environment, such as how much homework they do, however in adolescence children make many of these decisions for themselves
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The adoption of children of one race by parents of a different race
Transracial adoption
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Howard Gardner's theory that there are eight separate types of intelligence
Theory of multiple intelligences
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A technique for measuring brain functioning during an ongoing activity
fMRI
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A technique for assessing ongoing brain functioning, in which a chemical that emits positrons is injected into the body, and detectors measure their activity levels in various parts of the brain
PET scans
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Describe the research on transracial adoption involving black children who have been adopted by white parents
African-Americans and Latinos generally score lower than whites on the most widely used IQ tests from childhood through adulthood and. Scholars disagree over the source – whether it be due to genetics or or cultural.
Studies have found that when black children are raised in adoptive white families, their IQs are as high or higher than the average IQ for whites. This indicates that overall differences in IQ between whites and African-Americans are due to cultural and social class differences rather than to genetics
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Describe Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, including the eight types of intelligence
1. Linguistic
2. Logical-mathematical
3. Spatial- The ability to think three-dimensionally
4. Musical
5. Bodily kinaesthetic – the kind that athletes and dancers excel in
6. Naturalist – ability for understanding natural phenomena
7. Interpersonal – ability for understanding and interacting with others
8. Intrapersonal – self-understanding
Gardner believed that only the two intelligences, linguistic and logical mathematical, are evaluated by intelligence tests
As evidence for the existence of these different types of intelligence, argued that each involves different cognitive skills that can be destroyed by damage to a particular part of the brain, and that each appears in extremes in geniuses as well as an idiots savants
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The point of transmission between two nerve cells
Synapse
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Cells of the nervous system, including the brain
Neurons
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A rapid increase in the production of synaptic connections in the brain
Overproduction or exuberance
Scientists have learned that a considerable thickening of synaptic connections occurs around the time puberty begins, ages 10 to 12. It had been known for decades that over production occurs during prenatal development and through the first 18 months of life, but now it turns out that a new period of overproduction occurs in early adolescence as well
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The outer layer of the brain, where most of the growth in brain cells occurs during overproduction in adolescence
Gray matter
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The part of the brain immediately behind the forehead. Known to be involved in higher brain functions such as planning ahead and analyzing complex problems
Frontal lobes
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Following overproduction, the process by which the number of synapses in the brain are reduced, making brain functioning faster and more efficient but less flexible
Synaptic pruning
Between the ages of 12 and 20 the average brain those at 7% to 10% of its gray matter through synaptic pruning. Use it or lose it seems to be the operating principle
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Process by which myelin, a blanket of fat wrapped around the main part of the neuron, grows. Myelin serves the function of keeping the brains electrical signals on one path and increasing their speed
Myelination
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A structure in the lower brain, well beneath the cortex, long thought to be involved only in basic functions such as movement, now known to be important for many higher functions as well, such as mathematics, music, decision-making, and social skills
Cerebellum
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Russian psychologist who emphasized the cultural basis of cognitive development
Vygotsky
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The gap between how competently a person performs a task alone and when guided by an adult or more competent peer
Zone of proximal development
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The degree of assistance provided to the learner in a zone of proximal development, gradually decreasing as the learner's skills develop
Scaffolding
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The teaching interaction between two people, often an adult and a child or adolescent, as they participate in a culturally valued activity
Guided participation
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Approach to human psychology emphasizing that psychological functioning cannot be separated from the culture in which it takes place
Cultural psychology
