Cognition And Development

Question 1

How does Piaget think children’s thinking develops?

Answer 1

Through schemas

Question 2

Schemas

Answer 2

Innate evolving units of knowledge in which we use ti understand and respond to situations. Schemas develop through age and encountering different situations

Question 3

Adaptation

Answer 3

The process in which a child’s schemas are developed to fit with their experience of the world 2 types, assimilation and accomodation

Question 4

Accomodation

Answer 4

Changing an existing schema or creating a new one, occurs when info doesn’t fit into an existing schema

Question 5

Assimilation

Answer 5

Information being added to an existing schema

Question 6

Equillibrium

Answer 6

Piaget states that motivation is essential for learning, equilibrium drives our need for adaptation. If an experience cannot be assimilated it creates an unpleasant imbalance. People attempt to reinstate equilibrium (motivation to learn) so that info can be dealt with

Question 7

Piaget’s theory A03- teaching

Answer 7

P: Piaget’s research has revolutionised teaching
E: activity oriented learning is widely used across classrooms as well as children being involved un actively constructing their knowledge. In particular, early years classrooms use Piaget’s research to focus learning on play
E: this is a strength because his theory has had a positive impact on education as teachers continue to provide active learning opportunities

Question 8

Piaget’s theory A03- vygotsky

Answer 8

P: Piaget underestimated the role of other psychologist’s research
E: Piaget believes that teachers are important to aid discovery, however Vygotsky argues that learning is a more social process and other children are essential to an individual. He also suggest that advances in learning is only accessible with experts helping
E: this challenges Piaget, suggesting his explanation is limited

Question 9

Piaget theory A03- equillibrium

Answer 9

P: the role of equilibrium may be overemphasised.
E: Piaget believed that children are motivated to remove disequilibrium. However, he only studies children from middle class families who may have had more motivation.
E: his theory lacks validity as equilibrium is central to his theory and may not apply to all children

Question 10

Sensorimotor stage

Answer 10

0-2 years, key schema of object permanence formed at around 8 months

Question 11

Object pernamence

Answer 11

Knowing an object still exists when not in view, which requires the ability to form mental representations objects

Question 12

Piaget research object pernamence vs critical research

Answer 12

Piaget:
Toy hidden under blanket while child was watching and they observed whether child would look for the toy, he found that children would search at 8 months
Bower and Wishart:
They turned light out so toy was not visible and watched on infrared camera. The children (1-4 months) searched for up to 90 seconds after, showing Piaget underestimated abilities

Question 13

Pre-operational stage

Answer 13

2-7 years, develop class inclusion and are egocentric

Question 14

Class inclusion

Answer 14

The ability to understand an object can belong to more than one category

Question 15

Egocentrism

Answer 15

Only seeing the world from your point of view

Question 16

Piaget research egocentrism vs critical research

Answer 16

Piaget:
Three mountains task, child given pictures from different points of view and a doll was sat at one end of the table. The child was asked which perspective the doll would see. They found that 4 year olds picked their own view of the model, 6 year olds picked a different point of view but not always correctly, and 7 year olds correctly selected the photo, showing they decentered at the end of this stage.
Donaldson:
There was a 4 wall cross model, and the policeman doll was placed in different positions as well as a boy doll. The child was asked if the policeman could see the doll, and 90% of 3.5-5 year olds correctly understood both viewpoints

Question 17

Piaget research class inclusion vs critical research

Answer 17

Piaget:
Showed a picture of dogs and cats and asked ‘are there more dogs or animals in the photo’ and they could’t answer correctly until concrete operational
Donaldson:
Said Piaget’s task was hard to understand, when he showed 6 year old children 4 cows, 3 black 1 white all on their side asleep. When asked if there were more black cows or sleeping cows 48% answered correctly

Question 18

Conservation

Answer 18

The ability to understand that redistributing material does not affect its mass, number or volume

Question 19

Piaget research conservation vs critical research

Answer 19

Piaget:
Child shown two rows of 6 beads of equal length and asked if the rows have the same number of beads in them. They are then spread out and question repeated, preoperational child will say spread out row has more beads
Mcgarrigle and Donaldson:
Naughty teddy destroyed one of the rows and 60% of 6y/o could answer correctly

Question 20

Conrete operational stage

Answer 20

7-11 years old, can conserve and decentre. These are all concrete operations, they can only be applied to real physical objects. They cannot think about abstract ideas.

Question 21

Formal operational stage

Answer 21

11+ years can apply operations to hypothetical and abstract situations

Question 22

Piaget’s stages A03- underestimating OP

Answer 22

P:Piaget has often been criticised for underestimating children’s abilities.
E:There has been critical research to suggest this, which entailed turning a light out as opposed to hiding a toy and using infrared cameras to see if they looked for the toy. This method was used because it was suggested that children were believed that they were forbidden from using the toy.
E:This research found that children did acquire object permanence earlier than Piaget theorised. This shows that object permanence could occur earlier than suggested

Question 23

Piaget’s stages A03- unfamiliar task

Answer 23

P:This research study has been accused of being a confusing and unfamiliar task for children, which may have presented a co-founding variable for the results.
E:The policeman doll study was set up to determine whether Piaget yet again underestimated. There was a 4 wall cross model, and the policeman doll was placed in different positions as well as a boy doll. The child was asked if the policeman could see the doll, and 90% of 3.5-5 year olds correctly understood both viewpoints.
E:This contradicts Piaget’s idea that children in this stage are egocentric and shows that children can decentre at an age where they understand the situational.

Question 24

Piaget’s stages A03- autism

Answer 24

P:Piagets idea that stages are universal and that development is a single process can be criticised. E:Studies that include children with autism suggests that children with this disorder may develop independently as many autistic children are very egocentric, however they develop language and reasoning normally.
E:This suggests that Piagets theory that stages are one universal development may lack validity.

Question 25

Vygotsky- what did his theory focus on

Answer 25

Cognitive development being a social process of learning from others with experience

Question 26

Zone of proximal development (ZPD)

Answer 26

The gap between what a child can do alone and what they can do with assistance from others. Different children have different ZPDs, if it is bigger they require more help.

Question 27

Scaffolding

Answer 27

All types of help that a child can be given to help reduce the ZPD. It is decreased over time as the ZPD decreases. Eg peer tutoring or working through egs Varies culturally, the tools relate to the social and work environments of that specific culture

Question 28

Peer tutoring

Answer 28

Where children with more knowledge (expert) help a child with a larger ZPD (novice). Most effective when ZPDs are similar

Question 29

Vygotsky A03- roazzi and bryant

Answer 29

P: research evidence for the ZPD E: Roazzi and Bryant found that 4-5 year olds performed better on a ‘number of sweets’ challenge when working with peers offering support than alone. This demonstrated that children can develop more advanced reasoning skills when working with more expert people. E: this therefore supports the ZPD as a developmental concept

Question 30

Vygotsky A03- conor and cross

Answer 30

P: research evidence for scaffolding E: conor and cross observed 45 children at intervals between 16-54 months, finding mothers used less direct intervention as children developed. This shows how the level of help given by an expert declines over time by the process of scaffolding E: this supports vygotsky’s claim that scaffolding is a good description of the process by which children move through the ZPD

Question 31

Vygotsky A03- assumes learning is universal

Answer 31

P:vygotsky assumes that the process of learning is universal amd the same for all children. E: Some children may not effectively learn through social situations, and the personality/ and disorders a child may have should bne taken into account to explain their different cognitive development. This may be due to cultural differences in social cues or interaction, or a child with autism may struggle more in social learning environments due to being more egocentric. E:This means vygotskys therot may not be applicable to all children.

Question 32

Baillargeon’s explanation of early infant abilities initial belief

Answer 32

Suggested infants in the sensorimotor stage did not reach for the toy because they didn’t have the motor skills to pursue a hidden object or just lost interest. Baillargeon believed Piaget underestimated

Question 33

Physical reasoning system

Answer 33

The innate capacity to understand the physical world that becomes more sophisticated over time. Object persistence is one of the abilities of the PRS

Question 34

Violation of expectation (VOE)

Answer 34

An approach to investigating infant knowledge of the world. The idea is that if children understand how the physical world operates then they will expect certain things to happen in particular situations.

Question 35

Baillargeon and Graber VOE research

Answer 35

Method- 24 infants aged 5-6 months were shown a short or tall rabbit passing the window. Two conditions, possible and impossible condition. Possible was the tall rabbit can be seen passing the window but not short. Impossible was neither rabbit appeared. Results- infants in impossible looked for mean of 33.07s but 25.11 in possible. This was interpreted as the infants being suprised at the impossible condition which is why they looked longer. Conclusion- shows children have an understanding of OP at 6months

Question 36

Baillargeon A03- better than Piaget

Answer 36

P: baillargeon’s VOE research was a better way to test infant understanding than Piaget’s E: Piaget’s investigated OP through recording if they reached for a toy that had been covered. However, failure to reach may have indicated losing attention or thinking it was forbidden rather than a lack of OP E: Baillargeon’s research removed these cofounding variables so we can be more confident in the validity of her findings

Question 37

Baillargeon A03- used inference

Answer 37

P: Baillargeon’s VOE research used inference to judge infant’s understanding E: she inferred/assumed that looking longer at the impossible event showed surprise because what they expected to happen did not happen. There may have been other reasons they looked longer E: this means Baillargeon’s conclusions about infant’s understanding of the physical world may be incorrect

Question 38

Baillargeon A03- research support

Answer 38

P: additional research evidence to support Baillargeon’s explanations of infant’s physical reasoning E: Gibson and Walk found 92% of babies aged 6-14 months refused to cross a ‘visual cliff’ suggesting they understood depth perception E: this backs up the idea that infants have a better understanding of the physical world than was previously believed

Question 39

How does Selman challenge Piaget’s theory of cognitive

Answer 39

Social cognition is separate to domain-general cognitive development unlike Piaget’s suggestion that it all occurs at the same time

Question 40

Social cognition

Answer 40

Describes mental processes we make use of when engaged in social interaction, eg making decisions on how to behave based on our understanding of a social situation.

Question 41

Social perspective-taking

Answer 41

Understanding what someone else is thinking/feeling, being able to appreciate a social situation from someone else’s point of view.

Question 42

Selman’s perspective taking research

Answer 42

30 boys and girls, 20 aged each 4,5 and 6. He asked the children to take different roles in the social situation and consider how each person felt. One scenario involved a child (Holly) who promised her father that she won’t climb trees, but she comes across a friend whose kitten is stuck up a tree. The ppts were asked to explain how each person would feel if Holly did not climb the tree. Selman found stages of roles

Question 43

Stage 0- egocentric or undifferentiated perspective

Answer 43

3-6 years, children are unaware of any perspective other than their own. Cannot distinguish between their own emotions from others

Question 44

Stage 1- social-informational role taking

Answer 44

6-8 years, children recognise that others have perspective that differ from their own and recognise that others have different perspectives only because they have received other info

Question 45

Stage 2- self-reflective role taking

Answer 45

8-10 years, children know that their own and other’s points of view may conflict even when they receive the same information, cannot consider more than one viewpoint at a time

Question 46

Stage 3- mutual role taking

Answer 46

10-12 years, children can consider their own and another’s points of view and the other person can do the same. Child can assume perspective of a disinterested third person and how they will react to the viewpoint of others

Question 47

Stage 4- social and conventional role taking

Answer 47

12+, child can understand another person’s perspective through comparing it to the society in which they live. Chid expects others to take viewpoint of most of the people in their social group to keep order.

Question 48

Selman A03- research evidence Selman

Answer 48

P: there is research evidence that perspective taking gets better with age E: Selman gave perspective taking tasks to 60 children and found a significant positive correlation between age and ability to take different perspectives. Longitudinal follow up studies have shown that perspective taking develops with age for each child E: strength because Selman’s ideas are supported by different types of research

Question 49

Selman A03- applications in atypical development

Answer 49

P: there are applications in understanding atypical development E: research has shown that children with ADHD or autism have problems with perspective taking. Eg Morten compared 50 8-12 year old children with a diagnosis of ADHD with a control group on performance on perspective taking tasks like the ones that Selman used. Those with ADHD did worse identifying different feelings for the people involved. E: strength because it shows it is helpful in understanding issues with social cognition in atypical development

Question 50

Theory of mind definition

Answer 50

Understanding what others are thinking or feeling. Researchers are concerned with what age we develop this

Question 51

What age is it thought we develop ToM

Answer 51

4-5 years old

Question 52

Methods to test ToM- intentional reasoning tasks definition

Answer 52

Test whether children sucessfully understand and can explain the motives, beliefs and thoughts which cause others to perform certain actions

Question 53

Intentional reasoning tasks- Meltzoff

Answer 53

18 month old children observed adults placing beads into a jar Experimental condition: adult struggled to place beads in the jar and dropped them. Control condition: adults placed beads into jar sucessfully, when children were asked to place beads into the jar, they dropped no more beads than in the experimental condition Shows they were imitating what the adult intended to do, showing early age ToM

Question 54

Eyes task

Answer 54

Baron-Cohen: involved reading complex emotions of faces by just showing their eyes. Cohen found adults with high functioning autism and Asperger’s struggled with the eye task. This supports ToM as a possible cause of ASD

Question 55

False belief tasks

Answer 55

Developed to test whether children can understand that people can believe something that is not true

Question 56

Sally-Anne experiment

Answer 56

Procedure: 20 children with autism in experimental group and in control group was 14 with down syndrome and 27 with no diagnosis. They were told a story about 2 dolls and asked ‘where will sally look for the marble’ Results: 85% of control group said correctly but only 20% in experimental group This suggests deficits in ToM may explain ASD disorders

Question 57

Evaluations of Sally-Anne

Answer 57

- cannot explain desireable characteristics of ASD suffers such as advanced numerical reasoning. Limited explanation - if the test is through acting, visual learners may have an advantage over auditory or kinaesthetic learners

Question 58

A03 ToM- low validity for false belief tasks

Answer 58

P: low validity of false belief tasks E: children may fail false belief tasks like the Sally-Anne study, not only due to deficits of ToM but also other cognitive reasons eg forgetting the story. (Eye study - in real life we use other cues such as facial expressions and body language to understand ToM) E: this suggests false belief tasks may not be the best way to assess ToM

Question 59

A03 ToM- partial explanation for autism

Answer 59

P: it is a partial explanation for autism E: ToM has been useful in helping us understand deficits associated with autism. However it cannot explain other characteristics associated with autism, such as superior visual attention or LTM E: this suggests ToM cannot explain all features of autism

Question 60

A03 ToM- we do not know how ToM develops

Answer 60

P: there is no clear understanding of how ToM develps E: there are a number of theories around to account for how we develop our ToM, for example vygotsky says is learnt, Piaget says it is innate E: there is no clear explanation of which one is correct

Question 61

The mirror neurone system

Answer 61

Consists of special brain cells caused mirror neurones distributed in several areas of the brain. These fire in response to action on the part of others.

Question 62

Rizzolati- discovery mirror neurones

Answer 62

Studied electrical activity in monkey’s motor cortex (controls movement). One researcher reached for his lunch (in the monkey’s view) and the monkey’s motor cortex became activated the same way as it did when it reached for food itself. They called these mirror neurones distributed

Question 63

Mirror neurones and perspective taking

Answer 63

They are important in social cognition, eg ToM and perspective taking. If they fire in response to others’ actions and intentions, they may give us neural mechanism for experiencing and understanding people’s perspectives

Question 64

Mirror neurones and ASD

Answer 64

Ramachandran et al found evidence for neurological deficits involving mirror neurones as a potential explanation for ASD - a faulty mirror neurone system (they named it broken mirror neurone hypothesis) - this leads to problems in social communication, awkwardness and manifests itself as adults who struggle to ‘read’ others and mimic less adult behaviour. Researchers have found children who are later diagnosed with ASD typically mimic adult behaviour less than children with no diagnosis. This may indicate issues with the mirror neurone system

Question 65

A03 mirror neurones- Haker yawning

Answer 65

P: There is research evidence to support the role of mirror neurons. E: Haker et al. (2012) demonstrated how an area of the brain that is rich in mirror neurons is involved in contagious yawning (an example of human empathy). Participants' brain activity was measured using MRI, while they watched a film showing other people yawning. When they yawned in response, the Brodmann's area, (an area in the right frontal lobe and believed to be rich in mirror neurons) was activated. E: This supports the idea that mirror neurons are involved in social cognition

Question 66

A03 mirror neurones- hard to study

Answer 66

P:A criticism of motor neuron research is it is difficult to study them in humans. E: Evidence for mirror neuron activity comes from brain scans, such as MRI. These techniques do not allow us to measure activity within individual brain cells and for ethical reasons it is not appropriate to insert electrodes into the human brain to measure activity on the cellular level. E: This is a significant weakness of mirror neuron research as researchers are often measuring activity in a part of the brain and inferring that this is linked to activity in mirror neurons. This may not be correct

Question 67

A03 mirror neurones- evidence for ASD

Answer 67

P:There is research support for mirror neurons explaining autism. E: Mirror neuron abnormalities may explain why people with autism generally have deficits in social cognition like TOM. For example, Dapretto et al. (2006) used brain-scanning techniques to observe parts of the brain used by autistic and non-autistic children when observing faces that displayed anger, fear, happiness, sadness or no emotion. The only difference identified was that the participants with autism showed reduced activity in areas the brain that have been identified as part of the motor neuron system. E: However, not all research findings in this area are clear.