Cognition and Development Key Terms Flashcards
Cognitive Development
A general term describing the development of all mental processes, in particular thinking, reasoning and our understanding of the world
Schemas
Contain our understanding of an person, object or idea. They become increasing complex during development as we acquire more information about each object or idea
Assimilation
A form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information or a more advanced understanding of an object, person or idea. When new information does not radically change our understanding, we can assimilate it into an existing schema
Accommodation
A form of learning that takes place when we acquire new information that changes our understanding of a topic to the extent to which we need to either form new schemas or radically change existing ones
Equilibration
Takes place when we have encountered new information and built it into our understanding of a topic.
Stages of Intellectual Development
Identified by Piaget, they are four stages characterised by a different level or reasoning ability
Object Permanence
The ability to realise that an object still exists once it passes out if the visual field
Conservation
The ability to realise that quantity remains the same even when the appearance of an object or group changes
Egocentrism
The child’s tendency to only see the world from their own point of view
Class Inclusion
An advanced classification skill in which we recognise that classes of objects have subsets are themselves subsets of larger classes
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
The gap between a child’s current level of development, defined by the cognitive tasks that can perform unaided, and what they can potentially do with the help from another person
Scaffolding
The process of helping a learner cross the ZPD and advance as much as they can, given their stage of development
Knowledge of the Physical World
Refers to the extent to which we understand how the physical world works
Violation of Expectation Research
An approach to investigating infant knowledge of the world. If children understand how the physical worlds operates they will expect certain things to happen in situations. If these do not occur, the children react accordingly
Social Cognition
Describes the mental processes we make use of when engaged in social interaction
