cognitive Flashcards
(40 cards)
what are schemas
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.
what is adaptation
process of intellectual growth when an existing schema needs to be changed or a new one created. this happens through assimilation , accommodation and equilibrium.
what is assimilation
process of fitting new info into existing schemas. doesn’t require any change to schemas
what is accommodation
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
what is equilibrium
occurs when info fits into an existing schema and the child can make sense of the world.
what is disequilibrium
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
evaluation of piagets theory of cognitive development
+ 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
what are the four stages of intellectual development
sensor motor stage
pre operational stage
concrete operational stage
formal operational stage
what is the sensor motor stage
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.
what is the pre operational stage
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)
what is the concrete operational stage
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
whats the formal operational stage
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
evaluation of Piaget’s intellectual stages of development
+ 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
what is vygotskys theory of cognitive development
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
what the influence of culture
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.
what is the zone of proximal development and the role of experts
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
what scaffolding
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
what is the role of language in vygotskys theory of development
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
evaluate vygotskys theory
+ 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
what did baillargeon research
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
what is the violation of expectation study
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
evaluation baillargeon
+ 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
what is selmans level of persepctive taking
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.
what was selmans research
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
