Cognitive Development

Question 1

Why is cognitive development crucial for humans? (4)

Answer 1

• Cognitive skill key feature of species
• Represent physical/mental states of ourselves and others
• Complex memory & reasoning systems = represent/think about abstract concepts
• Language

Question 2

What are the 4 main theories of cognitive development?

Answer 2

Piaget
* universal development
* domain general changes in thinking/knowledge = signature ways of thinking that are broadly applied across domains

Information processing
* based on computer processing

Core knowledge (Spelke)
* Specialised cognitive mechanisms for learning key areas important for adaptation and survival

Vygotsky
* Transmission of knowledge, skills etc. Of specific cultures through social interaction

Question 3

What are the 4 key assumptions/concepts of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 3

4 key developmental stages

Domain-general development
* All aspects of children’s cognition are assumed to develop across stages in an integrated fashion affecting all aspects of their thinking and reasoning

Stage invariance
* All children pass through the stages in the same order and no stage can be skipped (rate of progression varies due to individual and contextual factors)

Universal pattern of development
* Stages are universal to all children regardless of context/genetics

Question 4

What are schemes according to Piaget?

Answer 4

mental structures that capture the common properties of specific behaviours, objects and experiences
* dynamic and constantly updated through adaptation

Question 5

What are the 2 mechanisms of scheme adaptation according to Piaget?

Answer 5

Assimilation: new experience incorporated into existing scheme

Accommodation: new scheme created to deal with new experiences

Question 6

What are the 4 stages of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 6

Sensorimotor period

Preoperational period

Concrete operational period

Formal operational period

Question 7

Describe the 6 substages of Piaget’s sensorimotor period.

Answer 7

Substage 1: birth to 1MO
* Innate reflexes (sucking, grasping)
* Accommodation

Substage 2: 1-4MO
* Coordination of innate reflexes
* Primary circular reactions: accidental action that leads to positive outcome so is then repeated
* Limited to immediate sensory stimulation

Substage 3: 4-8MO
* Secondary circular reactions: encompasses outcomes that do not result in direct stimulation of baby’s body
* Object permanence developing (partially hidden objects)

Substage 4: 8-12MO
* Intentional behaviour
* Object permanence developing (fully hidden objects)
* A-not-B error: retrieve object from original placement where they last saw it not new location it was moved to while hidden
* Egocentric thinking

Substage 5: 12-18MO
* Vary behaviour to bring about novel outcomes
* Tertiary circular reactions: active experimentation with different actions to examine their effects on the physical and social environment
* Less egocentric conception of objects - no longer make A-not-B errors

Substage 6: 18MO-2YO
* Create mental representations independent to perceptual or motor experiences
* Semiotic/symbolic function: able to view objects as independent entities and remember this even when they can’t see the objects
* Deferred imitation: repetition of another’s behaviour following some time of not seeing it
* Symbolic/pretend play

Question 8

What are the key outcomes of primary, secondary and tertiary circular reactions according to Piaget’s sensorimotor stage?

Answer 8

Primary: If I do this then this will happen

Seconday: Learning about properties of the world by doing something

Tertiary: Modify ideas on how things work and then testing for variation

Question 9

What has more recent evidence shown regarding the accuracy of Piaget’s estimation of object permanence development?

Answer 9

Piaget
* takes 18months to develop
* A-not-B error task

Recent
* Piaget’s tasks to complex and require additional skills to complete
* simplification of task shows object permanence ability much earlier through both habituation-dishabituation tasks and A-not-B error

Question 10

Evaluate Piaget’s claims regarding imitation in the sensorimotor stage.
How does this evaluation highlight the importance of imitation for cognitive development?

Claims vs evidence

Answer 10

Piaget
* most basic form appearing 6-8MO

Evidence
* imitation of facial expressions present soon after birth
* deferred imitation present from 6MO

Importance
* shows children can represent and repeat an observed behaviour
* powerful tool for acquiring new skills and behaviours
* socially-mediated learning

Question 11

How does over-imitation differ between human children and Chimpanzees?

Answer 11

Chimps
* repeat observed behaviour but skip needless steps when possible

Humans
* repeat all observed steps even when unecessary

Question 12

What is the purpose of over-imitation in humans thought to be?

Answer 12

Cultural transmission
* complex societies where function isn’t always obvious
* over-imitation thought to show that way an action is performed is more important than the fact it was performed

e.g. expert tool users and tool function isn’t always obvious so over imitation of use transmits cultural relevance

Question 13

What are the key features and limitations of Piaget’s preoperational stage of cognitive development?

Answer 13

Features
* symbolic play
* egocentrism (children only consider own perspective e.g. 3 mountain task)

Limitations
* egocentrism: difficulty understanding others’ views
* centration: focus on one aspect of problem at a time
* conservation: ealisation that the quantitative properties of an object remain the same despite changes in appearance
* Failure on conservation task shows limited understanding of reversibility (can’t imagine what would happen if a sequence of events was reversed)

Question 14

How has recent evidence criticised Piaget’s preoperational stage?

Conservation, egocentrism, Animism

Answer 14

Egocentrism
* simplification of 3 mountains task shows 3YO understand other person’s perspective is different from their own (Cat and dog paper)
* 2YO & 4YO passing ToM tasks by adjusting speech when talking to younger children

Conservation
* simplification of task and language used shows that 4-5YO able to conserve number
* studies show infants 5MO able to discriminate between numbers

Animism
* simplification of task shows 3YO able to determine animals could move up/down a hill but non-living things couldn’t

Question 15

What is animism?

Answer 15

mistaken belief that inanimate things have intentions

Question 16

What are the features and limitations of the concrete operational stage of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 16

Features
* solve class inclusion problems
* Developed ability to perform operations creating representations of the outside world and perform reasoning surrounding these creations

Limitations
* Difficulty dealing with the hypothetical and abstract but can process immediate/tangible problems

Question 17

What are the key features of the formal operational period of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 17

• Begin abstract reasoning (12-13YO)
• Hypothetico-deductive reasoning: ability to generate and test hypotheses through systematic observation
• Propositional thought: reason about abstract propositions - can evaluate logic of an argument without knowing the specific content

Question 18

What are the criticisms of the formal operational stage of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 18

• overestimates abilities of highschool and uni students in Western cultures
• measures not culturally universal and instead measure educational background and teaching of logic

Question 19

Explain the 4 key aspects of the current status of Piaget’s theory.

Answer 19

Competence vs performance

Training can aid development

Educational implications of Piaget’s theory - limitation of discovery learning

Concept of a stage - continuous and discontinuous process

Question 20

How has Piaget’s theory influenced developmental research and how have more recent theories developed from his original theory?

Answer 20

Influence
* useful framework for thinking about children’s cognition and development

Recent theories
* development is still stage like but underlying mechanisms differ

Question 21

What is development of self-concept and why is it important?

Answer 21

What: understanding that oneself exists as a physical and cognisant entity as distinct from others across space and time

Importance
* Understanding we’re our own person means we understand thoughts are private to ourselves
* Critical skill in ToM

Question 22

When does evidence show children develop a sense of self-concept?

Answer 22

Mirror self-recognition (MSR) test
* infants begin to pass at 15MO at differentiating themselves from other environmental objects
* mixed evidence on what the ability is actually measuring (just recognising objects or understanding that object is them)
* focused on face recognition

Leg MSR task
* showed that MSR task not dependent on face processing skills
* seems to show that children have an expectancy about what they look like which can be rapidly updated

Question 23

What is the significance of self-recognition?

Answer 23

• Self-recognition marks the beginning of the child’s ability to meta-represent – it represents an understanding that one thing can stand in a representational relation to something else
• This ability arguably underlies the development of many aspects of cognitive development

Question 24

What do the collective results from self-recognition MSR tasks suggest about children’s cognitive development? (5)

Answer 24

• Symbolic capacity (meta-representations)
• Appreciation that others can engage in joint symbolic activity
• representation of self as an entity distinct from others
• must acquire the conceptual basis for langugage conventions before use e.g. pronouns
• Ability emerges alongside social emotions like embarrassment and shame

Question 25

# Information Processing Approach What is the information processing approach to cognitive development?

Answer 25

Digital computer metaphor of development = expanding capacity and acquiring more complex routines

Question 26

# Information Processing Approach How is the computer analogy of information processing related to cognitive development? | Nature vs Nurture elements + overall logic

Answer 26

Hardware (nature): memory, processing speed Software (nurture): mental operations that are performed on the input that result in some behavioural outcome Logic * Greater connections = greater processing speeds * Software implements cognitive skills * 'changes in software' - development

Question 27

# Information Processing Approach What is the key feature of the information processing approach to cognitive development?

Answer 27

domain-specific explanation of cognitive processes – ISOLATIONIST STRATEGY

Question 28

# Information Processing Approach Explain the visual recognition example of the information processing approach to cognitive development

Answer 28

* Cognitive processes can be broken down into individual steps and each step can be studied in its own right so studies might only focus on specific aspects of cognition

Question 29

# Information Processing Approach How does information processing describe development?

Answer 29

changes at different crucial points in a given cognitive process

Question 30

# Information Processing Approach What is the process of the information processing approach to cognitive development?

Answer 30

Begins w/ analysis of particular cognitive processes involved in cognitive tasks and then examines how these processes change and develop with age

Question 31

# Information Processing Approach How is memory measured in infants according to the information processing approach?

Answer 31

Recognition memory * habituation-dishabituation: photo of adult faces * operant conditioning: leg kicking study

Question 32

# Information Processing Approach What are the features of infant memory? (5)

Answer 32

* no episodic or autobiographical memories * able to form auditory memories in utero * newborns appear primed to learn aspects of sensory environment * fragile memory w/ length of retention increasing w/ age * seems retrieval is the issue not encoding/storage

Question 33

# Information Processing Approach What are the 2 main types of attentional development? How does this compare across cultures?

Answer 33

Selective attention: studied through incidental learning tasks Sustained attention: ability to stay on task over a period of time * Longitudinal research suggests can determine attention disorders at early point of development Cross-cultural research * Long term cultural influence changed attentional abilities between American and Japanese children over 6YO * Japanese: better at tasks requiring focus on both task and context * American: better at tasks requiring focus on just task and not context

Question 34

# Information Processing Approach What are 3 features that contribute to memory development according to the IP approach?

Answer 34

* memory increase coincides with language development * general capacity and processing speed improvements (hardware) thought to explain some improvement * strategies can also contribute

Question 35

# Information Processing Approach What are the 3 types of strategies for memory?

Answer 35

Rehearsal: repeating material to yourself * Keeney et al (1967): space helmet experiment: 5YO rehearsed less than 10YO * 10YO spontaneously rehearsed content more than 5YO * Rehearsal through silent mouth movement of words had better memory Organisation: grouping items to be remembered into meaningful clusters * Strategies change across development * Fish, dish, plate, cup, dog, wish, dream * Young children: phonologically similarity (e.g rhyme) * Middle childhood: semantic categories, due to learning more about the world e.g. more about animals so are more likely to group them together as they're now more meaningful = efficient recall process Elaboration: standard mnemonic strategies (e.g. association of concepts)

Question 36

# Information Processing Approach How does expertise influence knowledge development?

Answer 36

Expertise changes the way that information is represented and the speed with which it is accessed Knowledge produces knowledge

Question 37

# Information Processing Approach Describe a study example showing the role of expertise in child memory.

Answer 37

Chi (1978) * 10YO chess buffs vs college novices * 10YO recalled chess positions better than adults * Adults better on serial recall of numbers * 10YO children had lower memory capacity in general but expertise in chess overcame that and led to better performance than adults * Software supplements hardware

Question 38

# Information Processing Approach Describe an example of culturally specific expertise of memory.

Answer 38

* Many traditional Aboriginal cultures have adapted to vast arid environments largely devoid of landmarks * Kearins (1981) 10-16YO had better spatial memory skills than age-matched Anglo-Australians * Culturally mediated: Urban Aboriginals do not show advantage

Question 39

# Information Processing Approach Where is implicit memory seen in memory development?

Answer 39

* unconscious processing e.g. incidental learning * memory seen in young infants * repetition priming paradigm

Question 40

# Information Processing Approach How does explicit vs implicit memory apply to the information processing approach to cognitive development?

Answer 40

* Explicit uses software ontop of existing hardware * Implicit is innate and solely uses hardware

Question 41

# Core knowledge approach What does the core knowledge approach believe about ToM in children?

Answer 41

Children are able to understand the mind states of others as they're evolutionarily set up to do so

Question 42

# Core knowledge approach What are the 3 domains of core knowledge and what is theorised to be the reason for these structures?

Answer 42

* Physics: knowledge about inanimate objects in space * Biology: knowledge about living things * Psychology: knowledge about the minds of others Reason: * Early or innate understanding of these domains because of adaptive/evolutionary significance

Question 43

# Core knowledge approach What is a challenge of ToM measurement according to the core knowledge approach?

Answer 43

imperfect correlation between what people do and what they're actually thinking in mind state – true feelings often masked due to social situations/pressures

Question 44

# Core knowledge approach What are the 3 variations of a ToM task for children? What are the key features of each?

Answer 44

Sally Anne task * doll moved w/o Sally's knowledge * memory & dual representations required to pass task Unexpected contents task * shown unexpected contents of smarties box * asked what another person would think was in the box without seeing the contents * requires memory and understanding of reality Unexpected object task * same procedure as unexpected contents task * sponge that looks like a rock but only discover this when touch it

Question 45

# Core knowledge approach How does ToM evidence vary across studies and ages?

Answer 45

* reliable results across 100s of studies * 3YO consistently fail then performance improves w/ most 5YOs passing

Question 46

# Core knowledge approach What does failure of a ToM task indicate and what does development of this ability show?

Answer 46

* Suggests that young children think that their own belief captures reality * Develpoment represents a shift from a situationist to a representational understanding of mind

Question 47

# Core knowledge approach How does the Core Knowledge Approach explain children's ToM?

Answer 47

Children's early (or core) ToM equates to a desire psychology – a theory of persons based on an initial, simplified understanding of 3 internal states * Emotion * Perception * Desire

Question 48

# Core knowledge approach How does ToM develop in children according to this approach? (3 steps)

Answer 48

Starts with joint attention - shared attention with another on the same object Social referencing - using other people's reactions to unfamiliar or threatening events as a guide to their own responses Understanding false beliefs: another person may have a belief about the world that you know isn't true

Question 49

# Core knowledge approach How do false belief tasks demonstrate the development of mind state understanding?

Answer 49

Young children * snack task w/ adults * 18MO provide adult w/ snack they said they preferred * shows understanding that desires are subjective Older children * once ToM tasks passed no way to further test nuance of development * 2nd order ToM: chocolate task

Question 50

# Socio-cultural approach What does this approach emphasise in terms of cognitive development?

Answer 50

* Emphasises the role of significant and competent others in learning through interaction * Argues that dynamics of child-other interaction drive development

Question 51

# Socio-cultural approach Explain the importance of cultural tools in this model.

Answer 51

* artifacts used as models/references to guide children's cog dev  * Important as cultural influence shapes cognitive development and ability

Question 52

# Socio-cultural approach How does cognitive development vary across cultures?

Answer 52

ToM: Japanese vs German children * Japanese children have higher ToM Attention: Japanese vs American children * difference in how we're taught to pay attention to our surroundings

Question 53

# Socio-cultural approach What did Vygotsky claim about language's role in cognitive development? What about private speech?

Answer 53

Most powerful tool that humans have for transmitting knowledge Private speech * form of cognition in which children talk to themselves often as a way of guiding them through new tasks * first overt self-talk slowly becoming inner-speech

Question 54

# Socio-cultural approach What were the benefits and limitations of Vygotsky's theory?

Answer 54

Benefits: * Highlights importance of social and cultural context where development occurs * Broadened study to include parents' teaching strategies and importance of providing instruction that can assist children to learn new tasks and skills by building on current ones Limitations * Interaction of social factors and development unclear * Lack of explanation of mechanisms producing individual differences in ZPD