Cognition and development Flashcards
(19 cards)
Schema definition
a mental structure of knowledge containing all the info we have about one aspect of the world
Equilibration-Piaget
Motivation to learn when our existing schema doesnt allow us to make sense of something new
-leads to unpleasant feeling (disequilibrum)
How learning occurs:-Piaget
Assimilatin:adding new information to an existing schema
Accommdation:Adding/changing schema
Evaluation of Piagets theory
+Supporting evidence:Howe et al conducted a study on children aged 9-12 who discussed objects moving up and down a slop and found that Piagets theory was correct
-Oversimplied theory:Vygotsky claimed that children learn largely from other people in a social process enabling them to learn more ideas
+Application to education:from this theory it has changed education eg led to more activity work and not as much copying from the board
Piagets stages of development
- Sensorimotor stage (0-2yrs)
- basic coordination+language development
- object permanence:children failing to undertsand objects still exist when they disappear - Pre operational stage(2-7yrs)
- conservation:quanity remains constant.Counter task
- can use language but lacks reasoning ability
- egocentrism:only see your perspective,3 mountain task
- lack of clash inclusion-classifications have subsets.5 dogs 2 cats. - Stage of concrete operations (7-11yrs)
- has basic logic
- perform better on class inclusion and egocentrism and now can conserve - Formal operation stage (11yrs)
- have all adult reasoning
Evaluation of piagets stages
-Piagets 3 mountain task is flawed .Hughe found that in a less complicated doll task children aged 3 1/2 could decentre.Suggests children can decentre younger and can see adult situations \+application to education -underestimated young children-found children could do class inclusion
Vygotskys theory
-children are born with mental functioms:attention,perception,sensation and memory
Zone of proximal development (ZPD)-Vygotsky
- Gap between current and potential abilities
- children are limited without help but with a teacher can learn alot more
Schaffolding-Vygotsky
-Help given by an expert,acts as a support structure
Wood et al 5 elements:
recruitment:Getting child enagaged
reduction in degrees of freedom:focusing learner on task
direction maitanence:motivating child
critical features:highlighting most important parts
demonstration
Evaluation of Vygotsky
+evidence:Conner +cross did longitudinal study across children st different ages as they got older mothers intevention decreased with simpler tasks
-individual differences:cant be applied to all children
+education:tutouring
Baillargeons theory
- suggests infants in the sensorimotor stage may have a better developed understanding of the world
- suggests it is due to lack of motor skills and that infants have an idea of object permance from under 3 months old
Selmans stages
Stage 0-socially egocentric (3-6yrs)
-child cant disguinish between their own emotions and others
Stage 1-social information role taking (6-8yrs)
-child can disguinish there point and others but only one at a time
Stage 2-self reflective role taking (8-10yrs)
-child can explain nd appreciate anothers view but only 1 at a time
Stage 3-mutual role taking (10-12yrs)
-child can consider their view and anothers view at the same time
Stage 4-social+convential system role taking
- child recognises that understanding another persons view is nit enough to reach an agreement
Evaluation of Selman
+research support :cross sectional +longitudnal study found that childrens ability improved with age and it wasnt to do with individual differences.Found positive correlation between age and persoective taking
-correlation isnt causation:means there still alot about perspective taking we dont know about
+Real world application.Some criminals may lack empathy.Social skill programmes help this.
Counter this-> excuses criminals for their actions
+Application in understanding Atypical development:Marton et al->compared 8-12 years diagnosed with ADHD +compared with control group in perspective taking tasks.Found those with ADHD did worse in scenarios.Helps patients
development of social cognition-Mirror neurons
social cognition:cognitive processes that underlie human interactions
MIRROR NEURON SYSTEM:
-consists of special brain cells (mirror neurons).Distributed in several areas of the brain
Implicated in the development of perspective taking+ theory of mind:
-fire both in response to personal action and in response to action on the part of others
-allow us to interpret intention+emotion of others
Shaping evolution:
-Ramachandran suggests that mirror neurons have shared the direction of human evolution by allowing us to live in large groups with roles and rules
Broken mirror theory:
-Autism is associated with problems related to social cognitive abilities EG-perspective taking,ToM
-Happens due to neurological deficits.Included dysfunction in mirror neuron system EG-young children mimic adult behaviour less than children with no diagnosis
evaluation of development of social cognition
Mirror neurons
+research support:Helene Haker et al found that an area of the brain is believed to be rich in mirror neurons is involved in contagious yawning (human empathy)through FMRI scans-> supports as shows area of the brain activate for human empathy
-difficulties involved studying the system of humans-> can measure activity in certain areas if the brain but not in individual brain cells.Therefore evidence is based on inferences from measuring general activity
Social cognition
Selmens levels of perspective taking
perspective taking:ability to appreciate something from the perspective of other people
STAGE 0-SOCIALLY EGOCENTRIC
3-6 years
-child can’t distinguish between their own emotions and those of others
STAGE 1:SOCIAL INFORMATION ROLE TAKING
6-8 years
-child can distinguish between their own point of view and of others.But can only see one perspective at a time
STAGE 2:SELF REFLECTIVE ROLE TAKING
8-10 years
-child can explain the perspective of another person+appreciate their perspective but can still only see one perspective at a time
STAGE 3:MUTUAL ROLE TAKING
10-12 years
-child is now able to consider their own point of view and of another at the same time
STAGE 4:SOCIAL+COMVENTIONAL SYSTEM ROLE-TAKING
12+
-child recognises that understanding someone else perspective is not enough to let people reach an agreement.Social conventions are needed to keep order
THREE MOUNTAIN TASK:EGOCENTRISM
ability to see the world from own point of view
-child is presented of 3 mountains with a doll sat next to them.Child identifys what the doll would see by choosing an image shown to them->pre operational children found this difficult
social cognition
evaluation of Selmens levels of perspective taking
+Research support
Selmans cross sectional study compared 4,5,6 year olds on their perspective taking abilities and found a positive correlation between age and perspective taking
-Correlation doesn’t mean causation
As much as research has been done can’t be 100% sure they are correlated.Still a lot that we don’t know about
+real world application
social skill training programmes have been introduced to help people with perspective taking skills.Helps people to stop reoffending
+application in understanding atypical development
Marton et al tested ADHD children with a control group.Found ADHD children did worse on identifying and understanding feelings of others involved.->research has identified key social cognitive issues in this group of people.Supports usefulness of this theory.
social cognition development
Theory of mind
theory of mind:ability to mind read
develops around 3-4years
SALLY-ANNE TASK
children told a story about two dolls
Sally puts her ball in her basket and then goes away.Anne moves her ball into her box.Children are then asked where will Sally look for her ball?
Theory of mind demonstrated in children with autism:
Cohen et al:used sally anne task to test 20 children with autism ,14 with down syndrome and 27 without.
Found 85% of control group could correctly identify where sally would look for her ball compared to 20% of ASD group.ASD is involved with theory of mind
social cognitive development
Evaluation of theory of mind
+evidence that ASD is linked to theory of mind
Sally ann task done shows there is a link.Cohen et al believes that ASD is caused by caused by a failure of innate theory of mind module->help with treatment for ASD
COUNTER:correlation doesn’t mean causation
-low validity of false belief tasks
false belief tasks require other cognitive abilities EG-memory for theory of mind.Children who haven’t performed well on false belief tasks still enjoy pretend play which required ToM-> challenges validity
-cultural bias
Cohens research was aimed at western cultures and only used British participants.Reason for high rates of autism in western cultures could be because it’s symptoms aren’t considered abnormal in other cultures ->lack of social interaction is a key feature of autism may be western rather than cultural
-is it different from perspective taking
suggested that methods used could measure perspective taking and that perspective taking task can distinguish between ASD children and others->if it’s basically the same then it’s concepts are unuseful
