cognition and development

Question 1

Piaget’s theory of cognitive devlopment

Answer 1

Piaget (1926-1950) asserted that children do not just know less than adults, they actually think differently as well

Piaget suggested that the way children think changes through a series of stages

he also proposed that motivation plays an important role in learning and drives how learning takes place.

Question 2

what is the importance of schema in cognition and development

Answer 2

schema are units of knowledge - our knowledge of the world is represented in the mind and organized in schema

infants are born with a few motor schema but construct new ones right from the start, including the ‘me-schema’ in which all the childs knowledge about themselves is stored

cognitive development involves the construction of increasingly detailed schema for people, objects, physical actions and also for more abstract ideas like justice or morality.

Question 3

what motivates us to learn?

Answer 3

• disequilibrium

when a child cannot make sense of their world because existing schema are insufficient, they feel a sense of disequilibrium which is uncomfortable

to escape this, and adapt to the new situation, the child explores and learns more.
the result is a state of equilibrium.

Question 4

what is equilibration?

Answer 4

• the preferred mental state

equilibration is a pleasant state of balance and occurs when experiences in the world match the state of our current schema.

Question 5

what is assimilation

Answer 5

• interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

any new experience creates disequilibrium because, as of yet, it does not fit our existing schema

assimilation takes place when the new experience does not radically change our understanding of the schema so we can incorporate the new experience into our existing schema

for example, when a child with dogs at home meets another dog of a different breed, the child will simply add the new dog to their dog schema.

Question 6

what is accomodation

Answer 6

• modifying an old schema to fit a new object or problem

an experience that is very different from our current understanding of schema cannot be assimilated. accommodation involves the creation of whole new schema or major changes to existing ones

for example, a child with a pet dog may at first think of cats as dogs (because they have four legs, fur, and a tail) but then recognize the existence of a separate category of cats
- the accommodation will involve forming a new cat shema.

Question 7

One strength of piagets theory of cognitive development (research support Howe)

Answer 7

• research support

Howe et al put 12 year olds in groups in discuss how objects move down a slope. They found that the level of children’s knowledge and understanding increased after the discussion

crucially though, the children did not reach the same conclusions or pick up the same facts about movement down a slope

this means that the children formed their own individual mental representations of the topic - as piaget would have predicted.

Question 8

another strength of piagets theory of cognitive development + cp (revolutionised teaching / no firm evidence)

Answer 8

• his ideas revolutionized teaching

in 1960s, children sat copying text. in Piagets activity oriented classrooms children construct their own understanding e.g investigate physical properties of sand

at A level, discovery learning may be ‘flipped’ lessons where students read up on content, forming their own basic mental representation of the topic prior to teaching

this shows how piaget inspired approaches may facilitate the development of individual mental representations of the

cp:
there is no firm evidence to suggest Piagets teaching ideas are any more effective than others - the input from the teacher may be the key (Lazonder and Harmsen)

this means that the value of piagets theory to education may have been overstated.

Question 9

limitation of piagets theory of cognitive development (underestimated)

Answer 9

• he underestimated the role of other people

Piaget recognized that other people can be important in learning, for example as sources of information

however others e.g Vygotsky argued that knowledge first exists between the learner and someone with more knowledge. supported by evidence

this means that piagets theory may be an incomplete explanation for learning because it neglects the role of other people in learning.

Question 10

Piagets stages of intellectual development

Answer 10

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Question 11

four stages each with a different level of reasoning ability

Answer 11

Piagets theory explains how knowledge is acquired through schema and disequilibrium/equilibration

he also explained cognitive development as a set of stages, each categorized by a different level of reasoning ability

exact stages vary but all children go through the same sequence of stages.

Question 12

sensorimotor stage (0-2)

Answer 12

includes object permanence

a babys focus is on physical sensations and basic co-ordination between what they see and body movement

babys also develop object permanence (the understanding that objects still exist when they are out of sight:
- before 8 months, babies immediately switch their attention away from an object once it is out of sight
- after 8 months babies continue to look for it. this suggests that babies then understand that object continue to exist when removed from view.

Question 13

Piaget’s pre operational stage (2-7): Conservation

Answer 13

conservation = It is the understanding that certain properties of objects, such as volume, mass, and number, remain the same even when their appearance changes.
this was tested e.g pouring water from wider glass into tall, thin one and asking if the two glasses held the same amount of liquid
pre operational children said no because the two glasses looked different. the children were not able to understand that quantity remains constant even when the appearance of object changes.

Question 14

Piaget’s pre operational stage (2-7): ego centrism

Answer 14

egocentrism refers to a child’s inability to see situations from perspectives other than their own.

egocentrism was tested in the three mountains task (piaget and inhelder), each mountain had a different feature: cross, a house or snow

pre operational children tended to find it difficult to select a picture that showed a view other than their own.

Question 15

Piaget’s pre operational stage (2-7): class inclusion

Answer 15

refers to the understanding that a general category (or class) can include multiple specific subcategories.

class inclusion was tested e.g using a picture of five dogs and two cats “are there more dogs or animals”

pre operational children tended to respond that there are dogs. they cannot simultaneously see a dog as a member of the dog class and the animal class.

Question 16

concrete operational stage (7-11):

Answer 16

During this stage, children develop more logical and organized thinking, but their reasoning is still tied to concrete, tangible concepts rather than abstract ideas.

children have mastered conservation and are improving on egocentrism and class inclusion

however they are only able to reason or operate on physical objects in their presence.

Question 17

formal operations stage (11+):

Answer 17

Individuals can think abstractly and reason about hypothetical situations, moving beyond concrete, tangible concepts. They can use logic and consider possibilities that do not necessarily have a physical representation. children can now focus on the form of an argument and not be distracted by its content

for example, they can process syllogisms: ‘all yellow cats have two heads. I have a yellow cat called Charlie. how many heads does charlie have? answer is two but younger children are distracted by the fact that cats do not have two heads.

Question 18

limitation of piaget’s stages of intellectual development (flawed research)

Answer 18

• piaget’s conservation research was flawed

Piagets method may have led children to believe that something must have changed - or why would the researcher change the appearance and then ask them if it was the same?

McGarrigle and Donaldson used a ‘naughty teddy’ who accidentally rearranged the counters. 72% of children under 7 correctly said the number remained the same

this means that children aged 4-6 could conserve, as long as they were not put off by the way they were questioned.

Question 19

another limitation of piaget’s stages of intellectual development (class inclusion )

Answer 19

• class inclusion ability is questioned

Siegler and Svetina (2006) found that, when 5 year olds received feedback that pointed out subsets, they did develop an understanding of class inclusion

this was contrary to piagets belief that class inclusion was not possible until a child had reached the necessary intellectual development at 7 years of age

this again means that piaget underestimated the cognitive abilities of young children.

Question 20

another limitation of piaget’s stages of intellectual development + CP (underestimate egocentrism / unchallenged)

Answer 20

• the assertions about egocentrism are not supported

Hughes found that even at 3.5y a child could position a boy doll in a model building with two intersecting walls so that the doll could not be seen by a policeman doll

4-year-olds could do this 90% of the time when there were two police officers to hide from

this again suggests the manner of Piagets studies and tasks led him to underestimate children’s intellectual abilities

CP:
In all the studies outlined the criticisms relate to the age at which a particular ability appears. the sequence of the stages is not challenged and Hughes’ evidence shows that there is progression

therefore the core principles of Piagets stages remain unchallenged but the methods he used meant the timing of his stages was wrong.

Question 21

Vygotskys theory of cognitive development

Answer 21

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Question 22

Vygotskys theory of cognitive development: social processes matter

Answer 22

Vygotsky (1934) agreed with Piaget that children develop reasoning skills sequentially but believed that this process was mainly dependent on social processes
he claimed knowledge is:
- first intermental (between someone more expert and someone less expert)
- then intramental (within the individual).

Question 23

cultural differences in cognitive abilities:

Answer 23

reasoning abilities are acquired via contact with those around us and as a result there will be cultural differences in cognitive development because we all grow up and learn about the world surrounded by cultural values and beliefs

children pick up the mental ‘tools’ that are most important for life from the world they live in.

Question 24

what is the ZPD

Answer 24

zone of proximal development is the gap between a childs current and potential ability:
- what a child knows or can do alone and
- what the child is capable of, following interaction with someone more expert

the role of the teacher is to guide the child through this gap to as full a level of understanding as the childs developmental ability will allow.

Question 25

advanced reasoning ability:

Answer 25

for vygotsky cognitive development was not just about acquiring more facts about becoming more skilled at reasoning the most advanced (formal) reasoning can only be achieved with the help of experts, not simply through exploration.

Question 26

experts use scaffolding to help learner cross the ZPD:

Answer 26

the process of helping a learner cross the ZPD and advance as much as they can, given their stage of development typically the level of help given in scaffolding declines as the learner crosses the ZPD.

Question 27

what are the progressive scaffolding strategies:

Answer 27

Wood et al (1976) identified progressive strategies that can be used to scaffold learning: - demonstration e.g mother draws an object with crayons - preparation for child e.g mother helps child hold crayons - indication of materials e.g mother points to crayons - specific verbal instructions e.g mother says 'how about using the green crayon?' - general prompts e.g mother says 'now draw something else'.

Question 28

one strength of vygotskys theory (sweet support)

Answer 28

- support for the ZPD Roazzi and Bryant (1998) asked one group of 4-5 year olds to estimate the number of sweets in a box. most failed to give a close estimate a second group of 4-5 year olds were guided by older, expert children and most then mastered the task this means that children can develop more advanced reasoning with help from a more expert individual.

Question 29

another strength of Vygotsky's theory (mothers)

Answer 29

- support for the idea of scaffolding conner and cross (2003) observed 45 children at age 16,26,44 and 54 months, finding that mothers used less direct intervention as children developed the mothers also increasingly offered help when it was needed rather than constantly this means that adult assistance with children's learning is well described by the concept of scaffolding.

Question 30

another strength of Vygotskys theory + CP (teaching and tutor / china)

Answer 30

- Real world applicatons of Vygotskys ideas educational techniques such as group work, peer tutoring and individual adult assistance are all based on Vygotskys ideas. increasingly used in the 21st century Van Keer and Verhaeghe (2005) found that 7 year olds tutored by 10 year ols, in addition to their whole class teaching, progressed further in reading than a control group who only had class teaching this means that his theory has real world value in education CP: In china classes of 50 children learn effectviely in lecture style classrooms with dew individual interactions with peers or tutors (Liu and Matthews) this means that Vygotsky may have overestimated the importance of scaffolding in learning.

Question 31

Baillergeon's explanation of infant abilities

Answer 31

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Question 32

Baillergeon's explanation of infant abilities: object permanence is due to poor motor skills

Answer 32

Piaget suggested that babies don't reach for a hidden object because they lack an understanding of object permanence Baillergeon suggested babies have a better understanding of the physical world than Piaget proposed. Their behaviour might be better explained by poor motor skills or being easily distracted.

Question 33

Baillergeon's explanation of infant abilities: VOE research

Answer 33

Baillergeon (2004) developed the violation of expectation technique to compare babies' reactions to an unexpected and expected event and thus was able to make inferences about the infants' cognitive abilities.

Question 34

Baillergeon's explanation of infant abilities: innate PRS gives infant a basic world understanding

Answer 34

Baillergeon et al proposed that we are born with a physical reasoning system to enable us to learn details of the physical world more easily Baillergeon referred to object persistence - the understanding that objects do not disappear.

Question 35

An example of prs

Answer 35

From birth, babies identify event categories (ways that objects interact) e.g occlusion events when one object blocks another since babies know about object persistence they quickly learn that one object can block another (occlusion).

Question 36

Baillargeon and Graber (1987) VOE study: procedure

Answer 36

24 babies, ages 5-6 months, were shown a tall or short rabbit passing behind a screen with a window - expected condition = the tall rabbit can be seen passing the window but the short one cannot - unexpected condition = neither rabbit appeared at the window.

Question 37

Baillargeon and Graber (1987) VOE study: findings & conclusions

Answer 37

The babies looked for an average of 33.07 seconds (unexpected condition) compared to 25.11 seconds (expected condition) this was interpreted as meaning that the babies were surprised at the unexpected condition this demonstrates an understanding of object permanence at less than 6 months of age.

Question 38

One strength of Baillergeon's explanation of infant abilities + CP (confounding variables / not understanding)

Answer 38

- the validity of the VOE technique Piaget made a flawed assumption that loss of interest in an object means the baby thinks it has ceased to exist. but the baby may have just been distracted Baillergeon's VOE method controls for this because distraction would not affect the outcome This control of a confounding variable means the VOE method has greater validity CP: Piaget claimed that acting in accordance with a principle is not the same as understanding it. Understanding involves being able to think about it consciously this means that babies' responses to unexpected conditions may not represent a change in their cognitive abilites.

Question 39

One limitation of Baillergeon's explanation of infant abilities (interesting)

Answer 39

- the assumption that response to VOE = unexpectedness A methodological issue is that babies' response may not be to the unexpectedness of the event. All VOE shows is that babies find certain events more interesting we are inferring a link between this response and object permanence. actually, the different levels of interest in the two different events may be for any number of reasons this means that the VOE method that the VOE method may not be a valid way to study a very young child's understanding of the physical world.

Question 40

Another strength of Baillergeon's explanation of infant abilities (universal)

Answer 40

- PRS can explain why physical understanding is universal We all have a good understanding of the physical world regardless of culture and experience. So if we drop a key ring we all understand that it will fall to the ground this universal understanding suggests that a basic understanding of the physical world is innate. otherwise we would expect cultural and individual differences this means that Baillergeons PRS appears to be a good account of infant cognitive abilities.

Question 41

Selman's Levels of Perspective Taking

Answer 41

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Question 42

Selman's levels of perspective taking: domain-general versus domain specific

Answer 42

Selman disagreed with Piagets domain-general approach to development and proposed that social perspective-taking develops separately from other aspects of cognitive development.

Question 43

perspective taking research:

Answer 43

Selman's assessment procedure involved asking children to take the perspective of different people in a social situation and consider how each person felt one scenario featured a child called Holly who has promised her father she will no longer climb trees, but who then comes across her friend whose kitten is stuck up a tree the child participant was asked to explain how each person (Holly, her friend and her father) would feel if Holly did or did not climb the tree to rescue the kitten.

Question 44

Selman's stage theory

Answer 44

Selman found that children of different ages responded in different ways. He used these differences to build a stage theory of how thinking about social situations changed.

Question 45

stage 0 (3-6 years):

Answer 45

- egocentric stage a child cannot distinguish between their own emotions and those of others nor explain the emotional states of others.

Question 46

Stage 1 (6-8 years): Social information role-taking

Answer 46

- Social information role-taking children can distinguish and identify differences between their own POV and someone else's, however they can only take on one perspective at a time.

Question 47

stage 2 (8-10 years):

Answer 47

- self-reflective a child can explain the position of another person and can appreciate their perspective but can still only consider one point of view at a time.

Question 48

stage 3 (10-12 years)

Answer 48

- mutual a child is now able to consider their own point of view and that of another at the same time (simultaneous).

Question 49

Stage 4 (12+ years)

Answer 49

- social and conventional system a child recognizes that understanding others' viewpoints is not enough to allow people to reach agreement. social conventions are needed to keep order.

Question 50

what 3 key elements did Selman identify:

Answer 50

interpersonal understanding = this is what Selman measured in his earlier research interpersonal negotiation strategies = having to develop other skills e.g learning to negotiate and manage conflict awareness of personal meaning of relationships = being able to relate social behaviour to the particular people we are interacting with.

Question 51

one strength of Selman's Levels of Perspective Taking (research support)

Answer 51

- research support for stages in perspective-taking Selman tested 60 children aged 4-6 (cross-sectional study) and found positive correlations between age and the ability to take different perspectives this is supported by longitudinal follow up studies (e.g Gurucharri et al) which confirm that perspective taking develops with age this means that Selman's stages have support from different lines of research.

Question 52

One strength of Selman's Levels of Perspective Taking + CP (grocery / bullies)

Answer 52

- support for the importance of perspective taking Valkenburg et al observed child parent interactions in shops when parents refused to buy things their child wanted the researchers found both negative correlations between both age/perspective-taking and coercive behaviour i.e trying to force parents to buy them things this suggests that there is a relationship between perspective taking abilities and healthy social behaviour CP: not all research supports the link between perspective taking and social development. Gasser and Keller found that bullies displayed no difficulties in perspective taking, in fact scoring higher than victims this suggests that perspective taking may not be a key element in healthy social development.

Question 53

another limitation of Selman's Levels of Perspective Taking (cognitive)

Answer 53

- they are overly cognitive Selmans theory looks only at cognitive factors whereas childrens social development involves more than their developing cognitive abilities for example, internal factors e.g empathy and external factors e.g family atmosphere are important and it is likely social development is due to a combination of these this means that Selman's approach to explaining perspective taking is too narrow.

Question 54

Theory of mind

Answer 54

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Question 55

what is Theory of mind? (ToM)

Answer 55

-The ability to mindread - ability to understand peoples thoughts, feelings & emotions it is tested via different methods depending on age.

Question 56

Testing ToM in toddlers - beads in a jar

Answer 56

Meltzoff (1988) allowed children to observe adults placing beads into a jar - experimental condition - adults appeared to struggle with this and dropped some of the beads outside the jar - control condition - adults successfully placed the beads in the jar In both conditions toddlers successfully placed the beads in the jar, suggesting that they were imitating what the adult intended to do rather than what they actually did, demonstrating ToM.

Question 57

Using ToM using a false belief task:

Answer 57

Wimmer and Perner (1983) told 3-4 year olds a story in which: - Maxi left his chocolate in a blue cupboard in the kitchen - After Maxi's mother had used some of the chocolate in her cooking she placed the remainder in a green cupboard the children had to say where Maxi would look for his chocolate. most 3 year olds incorrectly said that Maxi would look in the green cupboard, whilst most 4 year olds correctly identified the blue cupboard, demonstrating ToM.

Question 58

Lack of ToM demonstrated in children with ASD

Answer 58

Baron Cohen et al used the Sally Anne task to test 20 high-functioning children diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and control groups of 27 children without a diagnosis and 14 with Down Syndrome 85% of children in the control group correctly identified where Sally would look for her marble but only 20% of the children with ASD did, suggesting that ASD involves a ToM deficit.

Question 59

Testing ToM using the Eyes Task:

Answer 59

Older children with ASD can succeed on false belief tasks, despite problems with empathy, social communication, etc. This questions whether ASD can be explained by ToM deficits Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) developed the Eyes Task as a more challenging test of ToM and found that adults with high functioning ASD struggled. This supports the idea that ToM deficits might be the cause of ASD..

Question 60

one limitation of theory of mind theory (false belief)

Answer 60

- the reliance on false belief tasks to test the theory Bloom and German (2000) suggest that false belief tasks require other cognitive abilities e.g visual memory as well as ToM, so failure may be due to a memory deficit and not ToM furthermore, children who cannot perform well on false belief tasks still enjoy pretend play, which requires a ToM this means that false belief tasks may not really measure ToM meanings ToM lacks evidence.

Question 61

one limitation of theory of mind theory: (distinguish)

Answer 61

- it is difficult to distinguish ToM from perspective taking perspective taking and ToM are different cognitive abilities. it can be very difficult to be sure we are measuring one and not the other for example, in intentional reasoning tasks a chid might be visualising the beads task from the adult perspective rather than expressing a conscious understanding of their intention this means that tasks designed to measure ToM my actually measure perspective perspective taking.

Question 62

Another strength of theory of mind theory + CP (autism application / not complete)

Answer 62

- its application to understanding autism People with autism find ToM test difficult which show they do have problems understanding what others think this is turn explains why people with autism find social interaction difficult - because they dont pick up cues for what others are thinking and feeling this means that ToM research has real-world relevance CP: ToM does not provide a complete explanation for autism. Not everyone with autism experiences ToM problems, and ToM problems are not limited to people with autism (Taber Flusberg) This means that there must be other factors that are involved in autism, and the association between autism and ToM is not as strong as first believed

Question 63

The mirror neuron system

Answer 63

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Question 64

The mirror neuron system: mirror neurons respond to motor activity of others

Answer 64

Rizzolatti et al noted that the same neurons in a monkey's motor cortex became activated when: - the monkeys observed a researcher reaching for his lunch - the monkey itself reached for food.

Question 65

The mirror neuron system: experiencing the intentions of others

Answer 65

Gallese and Goldman suggested that mirror neurons respond to not just observed actions but to intentions behind behaviour we need to understand the intentions of others in order to interact socially. research on mirror neurons suggests we actually stimulate the action of others in our brains and thus experience their intentions through our mirror neurons.

Question 66

perspective taking and ToM:

Answer 66

- Mirror neurons give us a neural mechanism for experiencing and hence understanding other people's perspectives and emotional states - This underlies perspective-taking and ToM.

Question 67

Human social evolution:

Answer 67

Ramachandran (2011) suggested that mirror neurons have shaped human evolution, in particular how we have evolved as species mirror neurons enable us to understand intention, emotion and perspective. these are fundamental requirements for living in large groups with the complex social roles and rules, both of which characterise human culture.

Question 68

understanding of autism (ASD)

Answer 68

ASD is associated with problems related to social cognition abilities, such as difficulty with perspective taking, understanding intention, emotion and ToM It follows that people with ASD might have a poor mirror neuron system.

Question 69

The 'broken mirror' theory of ASD is based on mirror neurons:

Answer 69

Ramachandran and Oberman 2006 have proposed the 'broken mirror' theory of autism. according to this theory, autism develops due to neurological deficits, including dysfunction in the mirror neuron system. Such dysfunction prevents a child imitating and understanding social behaviour in others researchers have observed that, in infancy, children who are later diagnosed with autism typically mimic adult behaviour less than children with no diagnosis. this may demonstrate innate problems with the mirror neuron system.

Question 70

one strength of the mirror neuron system (brain scan)

Answer 70

- research support for the role of mirror neurons Haker et al 2013 demonstrated using brain scans that Brodmann's area 9 (part of the brain rich in mirror neurons) is involved in contagious yawning (a simple example of human empathy) Mouras et al found that when men watched heterosexual pornography, activity in the pars opercularis was followed by sexual arousal. presumably mirror neurons allowed the viewer to experience what they were watching (perspective taking) this means that mirror neurons may have a role in empathy and perspective taking.

Question 71

one limitation of the mirror neuron system (no direct evidence)

Answer 71

- the difficulties involved in studying the system in humans studies where electrodes are inserted in animal brains are not ethical in humans and the animal findings do not generalise to human cognition brain scanning e.g Hasker et al can be used but doesnt measure individual cells therefore there is no gold standard for measuring mirror activity in humans, and no direct evidence for mirror neuron activity in humans.

Question 72

one strength of the mirror neuron system + CP (scanning / unreliable)

Answer 72

- The application to explaining autism researchers reported that the pars opercularis (linked to perspective taking) had a smaller than average thickness in people with autism scanning has also shown lower activity levels in regions of the brain believed to be associated with high concentrations of mirror neurons compared to neurotypical brains this suggests that a cause of autism may be related to the mirror neuron system CP: these findings are not reliable - according to a review of 25 studies by Hamilton (2013) evidence in this area is highly inconsistent this means there may not be a link between autism and mirror neuron activity after all.