cognitive development

Question 1

what are the four stages of piaget’s theory

Answer 1

sensorimotor stage 0-2
pre operational stage 2-7
concrete operational stage 7-11
formal operational stage 12+

Question 2

sensorimotor stage?

Answer 2

object permanence
study: Piaget blanket
under 8 months didn't look for toy
over 8 months did, A not B problem
12+ object permanence

Bower and Wishart: turned lights off to show children could have object permanence as early as 3 months
Baillargeon: impossible events experiments

Question 3

evaluation of the sensorimotor stage

Answer 3

piaget could be measuring something different as children that young are hard to study properly
forbidden objects?
lost interest?
motor skills

Question 4

key points in pre operational stage?

Answer 4

egocentric: can’t see through others views
animism: applies emotions to objects
centration: coping with only one aspect of a situation at a time

Question 5

studies for pre operation stage: egocentrism

Answer 5

Piaget: 3 mountains experiment (correct view from dolls perspective)
decentre’s around 7 y/o

Hughes: policemen and walls
earlier 90% 3.5-5 y/o succeeded in hiding boy doll

Borke: sesame street
3-4 y/o could correctly identify

Question 6

evaluation of piaget’s egocentrism experiment

Answer 6

unfamiliar setting (as shown by borke and hughes)
pictures and 3d view are different

Donaldson thought piaget underestimated the cognitive ability of young children

Question 7

concrete operational stage?

Answer 7

lots of stuff happens here: conservation, class inclusion , compensation, serial ordering

Question 8

studies for concrete operation stage: conservation

Answer 8

Piaget + szeminska: asked pre and post transformation questions after altering shape/visuals of an object
younger children thought the mass/volume had changed

Piaget: beads and spacing

McGarrigle+Donaldson: naughty teddy alters spacing of beads: more right answers from younger children

Question 9

evaluation of Piaget’s conservation experiment

Answer 9

Rose + blank: only asking the post transformation question got more right answers from younger children.
It’s assumed the children thought their first answer was wrong so changed it.

language problems/wording of the answer ‘more’ could just mean taller?

Question 10

studies for concrete operation stage: class inclusion

Answer 10

Piaget: wooden beads study
superordinate level questions
subordinate level question
both levels together
younger children struggled

McGarrigle: cows and sleeping cows
more children were successful

Question 11

evaluation of Piaget’s class inclusion experiment

Answer 11

wording of question, language problems

McGarrigle’s study was easier to understand for children 9more black cows[some] or sleeping cows[all])

Question 12

formal operational stage?

Answer 12

abstract thinking, hypothetical thinking, systematic problem solving

Question 13

studies for formal operation stage: hypothetical thinking

Answer 13

Schaffer: third eye
9 y/o’s said forehead
11 y/o’s said more innovative things

Question 14

studies for formal operation stage: systematic problem solving

Answer 14

Piaget: pendulum problem

Question 15

evaluation of systematic problem solving experiment/formal operational stage

Answer 15

few adults demonstrate the thinking required for scientific reasoning even in industrialised societies
martano: 12-18y/o females - rates of 15-95% success

Question 16

(criticism) evaluation of piaget’s stage theory

Answer 16

too vague
suggested horizontal decalage as a substitute for the idea that his stages were too rigid and children could show multiple stage characteristics. (still thinks about qualitative learning)

Cultural: limited sample of just swiss children - the stages still happen universally but at different ages

Vygotsk’s guidance/scaffolding idea

Question 17

(praise) evaluation of piaget’s stage theory

Answer 17

-core aspect of developmental psychology
-has rich and detaield account of cognitive development from extensive clinical observations
-tests were innovative and creative yet really simple: engages with the age group target
-generally supported by cross cultural research
big influence on early years education

Question 18

how has piaget contributed to education

Answer 18

• child centered approach
• readiness approach: teacher should provide necessary materials as development is dependent on maturation and acquire new concepts when theyre ready

Question 19

problems with piaget’s child centered approach on education

Answer 19

Burman: makes the teachers position ambiguous

• emphasis on readiness may perpetuate and even exaggerate social inequalities eg resources
• assumption that failure must always be due to a problem with the child rather than fault of teaching
• social skills like cooperation and empathy are not encouraged or valued sufficiently

Question 20

what theory did vygotsky propose

Answer 20

sociocultural theory
culture plays a critical part in the development of cognition.
cognitive tools eg language, number systems and scientific concepts was a key aspect of cognitive development.

Question 21

how are cognitive skills acquired according to vygotsky and what has culture got to do with it?

Answer 21

in developed societies, necessary cognitive skills are reading, writing and being able to recall and use large amounts of information in examinatiosn and can use IT

largely culturally specific skills mean development is likely to be influenced more by social factors than by biological processes

Question 22

what is internalisation according to vygotsky’s theory

Answer 22

children learn through social experiences

example of pointing

Question 23

what is the zone of proximal development

Answer 23

• distance between what a child can achieve alone and with guidance
• he means that what a child can achieve with help today they can do by themselves tomorrow

Question 24

what is scaffolding

Answer 24

form of instruction in which the child is given a level of help and support which is gradually reduced as the child becomes more able

Question 25

study for scaffolding?

Answer 25

wood and middleton: parents helped children in block building various levels of parental support was noted: verbal, physical

Question 26

evaluation of wood and middletons study on scaffolding

Answer 26

children become more skills and are given less specific support not really a valid measure of cognitive development as its about how children acquire conceptual rather than routine task specific knowledge

Question 27

another study that supports cultural aspect of scaffolding

Answer 27

greenfield and lave: mexican girls and weaving

Question 28

what is guided participation?

Answer 28

can be seen as an apprenticeship refers to the transmission of cultural practices where children actively engage in cultural activities whilst adults model, encourage and regulate performances

Question 29

how does language affect cognitive development?

Answer 29

language helps and shapes culture - shapes the way children think cognitive development arises through conversation with parents monologues help children plan and direct their behaviour

Question 30

study for guided participation?

Answer 30

Rogoff girl scout cookies - girls learnt from older ladies and improved themselves cognitive and external environment are inseperable so understanding develops as a result if guided participation in shared activity

Question 31

how has vygotskys ideas been applied in education by Smith

Answer 31

peer tutoring collective argumentation (group discussion) community of inquiry (teachers and learners both research together to solve problems)

Question 32

other notable psychologists views on vygotskys ideas (bruner )

Answer 32

Bruner: sociocultural influences and languages are key to cognitive development

Question 33

general Evaluation on vygotskys theory

Answer 33

- accelerate childs development, conflicts with piagets readiness - over instruction may cause a child to become dependent on others and less initiative in problem solving - vygotskys thinks adults will always have an enhancing effect on development =/= adults may cause confusion for children eg topics on sex and death

Question 34

differences between vygotsky and piaget?

Answer 34

sociocultural interaction and experience VS inbuilt tendence to adapt to new experiences learning through instruction and guidance VS self discovery Knowledge is acquired through internalisation of what adults understand(indirect) VS direct experiences accelerated learning VS readiness Language turns into inner thoughts VS language happens as a result of inner thoughts/cognitive development

Question 35

what is the biological approach for cognitive development known as? what does it believe?

Answer 35

Nativist - baillargeon | any developmental changes are due to genetic predispositions

Question 36

Language and nativist explanation

Answer 36

chomsky - innate ability to use and understand language - Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

Question 37

what nativists found with knowledge of the physical world (depth perception) in babies

Answer 37

Bower: babies have a sense of depth perception as they tried to move out of the way of the object that loomed into the babies faces this shows we are born with some innate cognitive ability such as depth perception

Question 38

how does depth perception in babies conflict with piagets views?

Answer 38

piaget believe babies only had the ability to assimilate and accommodate new information and cognitive development occurred as a result of direct experience piaget underestimated young childrens understanding of the physical world

Question 39

what did baillargeon work on? explain the impossible event?

Answer 39

studied babies understanding of object permanence using the impossible event study showed the big carrot and small carrot go past a screen and then showed an impossible event (big carrot passing through small screen unseen) 3 month: shows object permanence because they were more interested in the impossible event

Question 40

what is the information processing approach?

Answer 40

neo piagetian approach as it is similar to piaget since it specifies key changes in the way information is processed. they see QUANTITIVE changes that increase cognitive efficiency not QUALITATIVE

Question 41

what four changes occurs with age in our cognitive development?

Answer 41

increased processing capacity (including memory) increased processing efficiency rules for solving problems meta cognition (awareness of own cognitive abilities)

Question 42

Flavell's study.

Answer 42

children were shown a set of pictures and then asked to recall hardly any 5 year olds used verbal repetition half of the 7 y/o and all 10 y/os did children who used verbal repetition remembered more differences in memory performance with age occur because of the use of verbal repetition/strategies

Question 43

evaluation of flavells study

Answer 43

younger children who are taught methods of rehearsal can recall as well as older children (supporting vygotsky too) which suggests older children just have better efficiency levels than younger children and memory is not necessarily better children may have rehearsed internally/covertly - Mcgilly and seigler did the same study except interviewed the children afterwards too and reported the ones who did not use overt strategies did infact rehearse knowing memory strategies require effort - doesnt mean individuals will use it

Question 44

sieglers study

Answer 44

balance scale task for children aged between 5 - 17 -predict which side was heaviest 1) side with more weights 2) "" but if the same, whichevers furthest from middle 3) consider no of weights and distance but if one has more weights and other is further, guess 4) multiple weights by distance and choose the biggest younger children (5) used option 1 aged 9 option 2/3 9+ used option 3 and some used 4 strategies become mroe complex with age and develop a sequence

Question 45

discuss sieglers research into problem solving strategies

Answer 45

cognitive development involves the acquisition of a set of rules or strategies for solving problems with age, the rules become more complex and can be used for a range of problems this is supported by sieglers weights study

Question 46

what is the overlapping waves theory

Answer 46

children have various problem solving strategies they can use and apply all these strategies to problems until they find one they can use effectively some strategies are proven to be more useful/adaptive and will be used more often, similar to the theory of evolution feedback is an important element to this process as it enables the child to decide about the effectiveness of each strategy

Question 47

evaluation of sieglers research

Answer 47

when children are given more practise and feedback, they will use more sophisticated strategies - this depends on a child's individual experience than age sieglers work is high scientific as it uses rigorous methods and systematic hypothesis testing unlike piagets clinical interview procedure

Question 48

evaluation of the information process approach to cognitive development (positive)

Answer 48

components of cognitive functioning such as memory and attention have been analysed in detail numerous experimental studies have yielded extensive insights into how cognitive processing changes with age leading to new teaching techniques useful in researching with studies of the psychophysiological changes that occur with age - memory capacity and brain changes

Question 49

evaluation of the information process approach to cognitive development (negative)

Answer 49

findings are sometimes disparate(unable to compare) and do not seem to offer a coherent, rounded theory of child's cognitive development like piagets computer analogy means focusing on the logical effects and not emotional, creative and social aspects lacked any details of moral development (piaget did)