cognitive

Question 1

what are schemas

Answer 1

units of knowledge that can be understood as mental structures that represent a group of related concepts.
canbe behavioural or cognitive. some schemas are innate (eg baby grasping)
develop as result of an experience and interaction with an environment.

Question 2

what is adaptation

Answer 2

process of intellectual growth when an existing schema needs to be changed or a new one created. this happens through assimilation , accommodation and equilibrium.

Question 3

what is assimilation

Answer 3

process of fitting new info into existing schemas. doesn’t require any change to schemas

Question 4

what is accommodation

Answer 4

occurs when new info doesn’t fit into existing schemas. due to new object or situation. the existing schema needs to be adapted or a new one made to incorporate the new info

Question 5

what is equilibrium

Answer 5

occurs when info fits into an existing schema and the child can make sense of the world.

Question 6

what is disequilibrium

Answer 6

occurs when new info doesn’t fit into existing schemas and therefore aspects of the world don’t make sense. the child is motivated to explore the environment and relieve discomfort and maintain equilibrium

Question 7

evaluation of piagets theory of cognitive development

Answer 7

+ ideas have real life application. shows self discovery is important in learning. led to activity oriented classrooms where children were active learners. discovery learning has been criticised. BENNET found that children learning the traditional method got better results in maths and english. a counter argument to this evidence is that the child did better in core subjects that were studies because more time was spent on them. teachers need to be experienced to use this type of learning. application of the theory is the problem?
- limitation is that it doesn’t consider the role of language or other people in cognitive development. Piaget suggested that language is a cognitive ability that develops in line with other abilities. However other researchers like vygotsky argue that language is a crucial part of cognitive development so plays a part in cognitive development. Vygotsky also argues that other people play an important role in learning. the fact t5hat these two things are not included in the theory limits the validity.
- equilibrium is difficult to demonstrate. Piagets view that knowledge develops through equilibrium means self discovery is important during development . this lead to activity based classrooms that made the children active learners. equilibrium and accommodation are hard to operationalise so are hard to test. this weakens the validity of the theory.
+ strength is that there is research to support the idea that face schemas are innate. Fantz showed infants as young as four days old preferred a picture that looked like a face rather than the same features all jumbled up. the second face was a control as it was the same complexity. the ‘facial preference’ findings has been replicated in several studies . supports the idea that babies are born with different schemas and the fact studies have replicated findings show it is reliable. however infant preference was assessed by the amount of time the baby spent looking at the face and may have indicated interest rather than recognition of a ‘face’ due to an innate schema

Question 8

what are the four stages of intellectual development

Answer 8

sensor motor stage
pre operational stage
concrete operational stage
formal operational stage

Question 9

what is the sensor motor stage

Answer 9

age 0-2
-know the world through sensations and movements
learn about the world through basic actions such as sucking, grasping, looking and listening
-learn that things continue to exist even when the can’t be seen (object permanence) - develops at 8 months
realise they are separate beings from the people and objects around them
realise their actions cause things to happen in the world around them.

Question 10

what is the pre operational stage

Answer 10

ages 2-7
-begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent objects
-egocentric and struggle to see things from others perspectives
-get better with language and thinking but still tend to think in concrete terms
cant perform class inclusion (when something can be part of more than one group)

Question 11

what is the concrete operational stage

Answer 11

age 7-11
- begin to think logically about concrete events
-begin to understand the concept of conservation( ability to know something stays the same if if it changes physical appearance
- can perform class inclusion tsks
- thinking becomes logical and organised but still concrete- struggle with abstract
-use inductive logic

Question 12

whats the formal operational stage

Answer 12

ages 11+
-child begins to think abstractly
- think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social and political issues
- follow a line of argument
- us deductive logic
- complete syllogisms- type of arguement that needs reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on 2 or more propositions

Question 13

evaluation of Piaget’s intellectual stages of development

Answer 13

+ strength is that it has important implications on education. implies that children are not biologically ready to be taight certain concepts until they are a certain age and if taught too young would result in superficial understanding- lead to major changes in primary school education.
- limitation is that piaget may have overestimated the intellectual development at the formal operational stage. it is argued that this is a difficult skill and thinking in an abstract way is something not everyone can achieve- Dasen claims only a third of adults every reach this stage and if they do its past adolescence
+ evidence does still show there are clear changes in a Childs intellectual development as they grow so the stages still might be a useful measure
- methodology used was flawed. developed many ways to test but his research lacked rigour and were unnecessarily confusing
- he used his own children for the experiments this could create bias an he could interpreted his results to what he wanted and what he thought should have happened, not objective and reliable

Question 14

what is vygotskys theory of cognitive development

Answer 14

focuses on social processes
believed a childs development was driven by a Childs biologicals maturation but a product of a childs interaction with others and the culture they are brought up in.
piaget saw the child as a scientist and vygotsky saw them as an apprentice

Question 15

what the influence of culture

Answer 15

vygotsky believed that child are born with basic mental functions such as memory and perception. these are biological forms of natural development. they are then transformed into higher mental functions exclusive to humans. there will be cultural differences because we learn about the world surrounded by different cultures and enviroments.

Question 16

what is the zone of proximal development and the role of experts

Answer 16

vygotsky
the zpd is the gap between what a child can do alone and what a child is capable of following an interaction with an expert. this could be a parent, teacher ect. expert is anyone that knows more than the child. the zpd is where cognitive development takes place. expert assistance allows the child to cross the zpd and understand as much as they are capable but are still limited by their developmental stage. one way to assist is through scaffolding

Question 17

what scaffolding

Answer 17

aims to support a learner when absolutely necessary
-recruitment- engaging the childs interest
- direction maintenance- encourging the child in order to keep them motivated and continue to complete the task.
-making critical features- highlighting the most important parts of the task

Question 18

what is the role of language in vygotskys theory of development

Answer 18

semiotics- using signs and symbols to create meaning, the main way is through language development. this is how cultures and ideas are transmitted from expert to child. at 3-7 yrs the child might think to thereselves and talk out loud. then self talk becomes silent and language is only used for communication. the inner voice is important for development and problem solving

Question 19

evaluate vygotskys theory

Answer 19

+ connor and cross in a lognitudinal study followed 45 children observing them in engaging in problem solving activities with the help of their mother at various ages from 15-54 months. they found the mothers used less and less direct intervention and more hints and prompts as the child gained experience. they increasingly offered help only when it was needed and not constantly. shows scaffolding works
+ roazzi and bryant conducted a study where they gave 4 5yrs the task of estimating the sweets in a box. one condition they worked alone and in another they worked with an older child. children who worked alone didnt give a accurate estimate whereas children who worked woth the older child did
- vygotsky and piaget bioth assumed the process of learning are essentially universal. however not all children learn in a social situation. personality and processing styles may be a factor in cognition development. may be individual differences.
-howe et al contradicts- found 9-12 yr olds who had group discussions about the movement of objects down a slope showed better understanding after a discssion but not all picked up the same facts. so even when the children have the same experience/ interaction they dont necessarily have the same level of cognition development- suggest individual differences

Question 20

what did baillargeon research

Answer 20

found alternative research methods have suggested that younger babies have a better developed understanding of the physical world than previously thought. she developed the violation of expectation to investigate infant understanding of the world

Question 21

what is the violation of expectation study

Answer 21

used to test object permenance. infant will typically see two or more events where objects pass out of sights. in a control condition the objects behave as as a person with object permenance would expect
showed 24 infants ges 5-6 months a tall and short rabbit pass behind a screen with a window. first infants are shown familirisation event until they look away showing they have lost interest
then shown two conditions:
possible condition- tall rabbit can be seen passing the window the short one cant
impossible- neither rabbit appeared
the infants looked away on averge after 33 seconds at the impossible events but only 25 seconds for the possible event- interpreted the child was surprised at the impossible vent so must have thought it wasnt right
she concluded this surprise on the infants part must be becuse the expectation of the behaviour had been violate d

Question 22

evaluation baillargeon

Answer 22

+ carefully controlled. samples were less biased as used birth announcement in the paper- higher population validity. controlled the parents as they had their eyes shut. used double blind where the observers didnt know that it was impossible or possible reducing bias
- difficult to understand whether the child looking at the rabbit longer is an accurate measure. infants may look longer at the condition because some features may be more interesting- lowers internal validity
+ the VOE provides a better understanding of infants and shows infants can understand object permenance earlier than expected. piaget thought that when an infant no longer searched for an object they no longer thought it existed. baillargeon controls this confounding variable beacuse it measure how long they look at a situation. more valid account
+ some research to show there is a physical reasoning system that is innate and contains some basic understanding of the world form birth - evidence shows that infants judge distance form young age but take longer to figure out subtle texture differences

Question 23

what is selmans level of persepctive taking

Answer 23

involves social cognition which is when and inxividual becomes aware how they fit into a social world. perspective taking is our ability to appreciate a social situation from the POV of other people. selmans approach is domain specific as he belived social cognition develops seperately from other cognitive abilities.

Question 24

what was selmans research

Answer 24

investigatred the childs perspective taking abilities byb using a series if interpersonal dilemma. the dilemmas require the individual to take someone elses perspective.
procedure:
30 boys and 30 girls took part in the study. 20 four year olds 20 five year olds and 20 six year olds. all were individually given a task designed to measure role taking ability. involved asking them how each person felt in each scenario. one scenario featured holly who promised her father she would no longer climb trees but her friends cat is stuck in a tree. they were asked questions about the scenario
findings
analysed resposnes and found there was a definate pattern related to the reasoning at different ages. proposed 5 different stages of cognition development moving from children being egocentric to children seing othes POV

Question 25

what were selmans 5 stages of cognition development

Answer 25

stage 0- egocentric viewpoint
stage 1- social informational perspective taking
stage 2- self reflective perspective taking
stage 3 mutual perspective taking
stage 4- societal perspective taking

Question 26

what was stage 0 of selman stages

Answer 26

egocentric viewpoint
age3-6 yrs
a child can label other peoples obvious feelings
cannot distinguish between their own emotions and those of others
struggle to explain the emotion of others
HOLLY
hollys father will not be mad because he thinks the same as she does

Question 27

what was stage 1 of selmans stages

Answer 27

social informative perspective taking
ages 6-8 yrs
children are aware that others perspectives can be different
children assume others may have different viewpoints because other people have different info
can only focus on one persepctive at a time
HOLLY
hollys father will not be mad as if holly shows him the kitten he will change his mind and have the same information as her

Question 28

what is stage 2 of selmans stages

Answer 28

self reflective perspective taking
8-10 yrs
children can explain the position of another person
children can view their own thoughts and feelings from someone elses perspective
understand others can do the same
can still only focus on one perspective at a time
HOLLY
hollys father will not be mad as he will understand why holly saved the kitten and holly realised she can see his viewpoint

Question 29

what is stage 3 of selmans stages

Answer 29

mutual perspective taking
10-12yrs
child can consider their own perspective as well as someone elses at the same time
can step out of a two person situation and see how a third impartial party might see it
HOLLY
hollys father will now not be mad because he can see both holly and shauns viewpoint

Question 30

what is stage 4 of selmans stages

Answer 30

societal perspective taking
12-15+ yrs
child realises society has a view and a set of values that should be obeyed
the social conventions are needed to keep society in order
HOLLY
the ethical concept that animals should be protected justifies hollys actions

Question 31

evluation od selmans stages of perception

Answer 31

+ used standardied methods of testing when conducting his interviews gave him good data and supported his ideas
+ applied to real life society. lead to pair therapy. therpaist acts as a guide for the childs emotions. helps th child with perspective taking and helps them negotiate and comprimise.
+ longnitudinal studies with follow ups of the same individuals show that pperspective taking develops with age in each individual child. the longitudinal research involved following the same pps over time. no individual differences. selmans theory is valid
- cultural differences in perspective taking ability Wu and Keysar found that young chinese pps did better in perspective taking than americans. more to perspective taking than just maturity.

Question 32

what is the theory of mind

Answer 32

not a normal theory. theory refers to a persons theory that we develop about what other people are thinking, what they know and what they are feeling. in normal children ToM develops around 4 yrs of age- suggests it is biologically driven.

Question 33

early development and ToM

Answer 33

early evidence of childrens understnading of others is seen in a study by meltzof and moore who found that infants as young as 3 days old imitate facial expressions
next children need to have an understanding of intentions of another person. infants as young as 3 months old will follow a persons gaze to nearby objects which shows an understanding of someones intentions to communicate with them
however for social intercaction to be successfull ToM is required

Question 34

assessing ToM

Answer 34

ToM can be assessed in 3-4 yr olds using a false belief task. in older children and adults advanced ToM has been tested with eye task which participants judge complex emotions with minimal info about the facial expressions.

Question 35

what is the false belief tasks

Answer 35

these were developed to test whether children can understand that people can believe something that is not true
wimmer and perner
they told 3-4 yr olds a story where maxi left his chocolate in a blue cupboard in the kitchen and the went to the playground. later maxis mother used some of the chocolate in her cooking and put it in the green cupbord. the children were asked where maxi would look for the chocolate. most three year olds incorrectly said the green cupboard howvwer most four year olds said the blue cupboard. suggest ToM becomes more advanced at 4
sally anne
used to test ToM of people with autism

Question 36

evaluation of ToM

Answer 36

-limitation is that it doesnt take inot account individual differences. for some children ToM can appear much earlier especially in large families. too simplistic and cant be generlised.
+ strength practical application to austism. helps adults communicate with children who have autism eg using visual aids. useful in society
- issue with using it to explain autsim is the cause and effect. it may not be the case that lacking ToM causes lack of social interaction for people with ASD. it could be the lack of social skills causes a lack of ToM.
- research is flawed. false beliefs require memory as well as ToM. child could have a well developed ToM but fail the false belief tasks. validity is lowered

Question 37

what is the mirror neuron system

Answer 37

since ToM people have tried to find biological evidence
Rizzolati et al were studying electrical activity in a monkeys motor cortec when one of the rerchers reached for his lunch. the monkeys motor cortex became activated liek it did when the animal reached for food itself. further investigation revealed that the same brain cells that fired when the monkey reached otself or someone else reached. called these mirror neurons.

Question 38

explain mirror neurons and intention

Answer 38

research has found that mirror neurons explain how one individual imitates another but there is more research.
mirror neurons represent hte intentions in humans and how they respond to intentions behind their behaviour. we need to understand intentions of others in order to interact socially. research on mirror nerons show that we actually simulate the actions of others in our own brains. suggested that these mirror neurons ahve shaped evolution.

Question 39

mirror neurons and ASD the relation

Answer 39

broken mirror theory
suggested ASD develops due to dysfunction in the mirror neuron system which prevents children from understanding and imitating social behaviour in others.

Question 40

evaluate mirror neurons

Answer 40

• mirror neurons evidence comes from brain scanes which can only measure activity on regions of the brain, not individual brain cells . inserting electrodes to measure brain cells would not be ethical. therefore research is based on inferneces rather than direct evidence
  + ASD and mirror neuron links are supported by research finsing a smaller thickness of the par opeculis in ASD patients. fMRI scans have found lower activity in brain areas associated with mirror nuerons in pps that have ASD. not all findings have been replicated so reliability is low
  -Hickok questions whether mirror neurns exist. controversial. argues we only know mirroe neruons by their functions and have faied to identify their individual cells.
• hickok also questioned the role of mirror neurons with social cognition, even if the do exist. some suggest their role may be to do with other behaviour to plan our own. suggests there is still work to do in this area before firm explanations cane be made about the role of mirror neurons in social cognitons