Cognitive Development

Question 1

Piaget

Answer 1

Criticisms of Piaget: That infants know a lot more, and know it sooner, than Piaget believed they did. It’s not that the infants are ‘smarter’ now rather, many researchers have found gaps in Piaget’s research methods and findings.
A further criticism of Piaget’s theory is that Piaget may have overestimated young children’s language ability, leading him to assume that wrong answers came from faulty thinking.

Question 2

Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)

Answer 2

Infants explore and learn about the world through their senses and motor activities. Early in life infants’ coordination between incoming sensory information and motor skills are lacking.
After three months infants begin to integrate sensory and motor information and can start to coordinate their behaviour to grasp an object or turn toward noise
*Object Permanence: The understanding that objects still exist even if they cannot be seen, heard, or touched.
Goal-orientated behavior: The ability to perform and successfully complete a sequence of actions with a particular purpose in mind. This ability becomes more sophisticated as an infant’s sensorimotor skills mature along with their coordination ability

Question 3

Pre-Operational Stage (2-7 years)

Answer 3

Children have moved past infancy and have undergone a significant amount of language acquisition whilst their thinking is also much more sophisticated
Children progressing through this stage become increasingly able to mentally represent objects and experiences; that is to think about and imagine something in their own mind.
-Symbolic Thinking: The ability to use symbols such as words and pictures to represent objects that are not physically present. E.g. pile of sand becomes a turtle, a box becomes a TV; further, this relates to imaginary friends
-Egocentrism: The tendency to perceive the world only from one’s own point of view. Children are only able to see the world from their point of view
-Animism: The belief that everything has some kind of consciousness. E.g. rusty tricycle may be though of as ‘sick’ or a tall tree may be ‘old’. What are other examples?
-Transformation: The understanding that something can change from one state (form or structure) to another. E.g. being able to understand that water can also be ice but not the process of it melting

Question 4

Concrete Operational

Answer 4

We become capable of true logical thought during this stage and can complete mental operations. Mental operations involve the ability to accurately imagine the consequences of something happening without it needing to happen
-Conservation: The understanding that certain properties of an object can remain the same even when its appearance changes. There is conservation of volume, mass, number, and length
-Classification: The ability to organise objects into categories based on common features that set them apart from other categories

Question 5

Formal Operations

Answer 5

Characterised by more complex thought processes and more sophisticated thinking which is linked to brain maturation and life experiences
-Abstract Thinking: A way of thinking that does not rely on being able to see, visualise, experience or manipulate to understand something

Question 6

Conservation

Answer 6

The understanding that certain properties of an object can remain the same even when its appearance changes. There is conservation of volume, mass, number, and length.