Cognitive Development

Question 1

Outline Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development (A01)

Answer 1

Piaget focussed on the importance of “building blocks” which provide the foundation to learning and how our thinking develops.

Question 2

Identify and define the 6 building blocks of Piaget’s theory.

Answer 2

Schema- Mental ideas about actions about actions, objects and situations.
Operations- A combination (group) of schemas.
Assimilation- Using an existing schema to deal with a new situation.
Equilibrium- A period of stability when an existing schema can be used through assimilation.
Accommodation- When an existing schema cant deal with a new situation and must b adapted.
Disequilibrium- A period of instability when an existing schema can not be assimilated.

Question 3

(A01) Piaget said that children’s cognitive development occurs in stages. Each of the stages is loosely linked to age and children must fully develop through each stage before proceeding to the next. Moving onto the next stage relies on the skills and knowledge acquired fro the previous. What are the 4 stages of intellectual development?

Answer 3

Sensory motor period (0-2 years)- Object permanence which develops at around 9 months.
Pre-operational stage (2-7 years) - Egocentric
Concrete operational stage (7-11 years)- Conservation
Formal operations ( 11+ years) - Abstract thinking

Question 4

Define object permanence

Answer 4

Knowing that an object exists even when out of sight.

Question 5

Define animism

Answer 5

Believing that objects,such as toys, have human feelings.

Question 6

Define egocentrism

Answer 6

The inability to see from others viewpoints.

Question 7

Define conservation

Answer 7

Knowing that quantities remain the same despite changes in appearance.

Question 8

Define class inclusion

Answer 8

Understanding how categories of objects relate to each other.

Question 9

Piaget’s theory is supported by finding from what 3 studies?

Answer 9

1. Toy and Blanket Study
2. Beakers Study
3. Three Mountains Study

Question 10

Outline Vygotskys Theory of Cognitive Development.

Answer 10

In contrast to Piaget, Vygotksy did not suggest children to develop the ability to think in specific, age related stages. Instead Vygotsky emphasised the importance of social interaction, context and culture, language and ZPD and scaffolding for cognitive development.

Question 11

Discuss social interaction, context and culture. (Vygotsky)

Answer 11

Cognitive development comes from the “interplay between spontaneous natural development and the social interaction of children with adults and peers”. Meaning cognitive skills develop as the child interacts with other people in everyday context such as at home, with family , siblings, friends and within school.

Question 12

Discuss language. (Vygotsky)

Answer 12

Vygotsky believed that children were born with elementary mental functions such as attention and memory which will develop into higher functions. He observed that young children often talk to themselves in monologues commenting on their actions as they are playing and carrying out different tasks etc. These monologues were called ‘egocentric speech’ as they have not yet developed internalised speech. At 7-8 speech becomes internalised known as intellectual speech (“inner voice”).

Question 13

Discuss ZPD and Scaffolding . (Vygotksy)

Answer 13

Scaffolding- The guidance of others for example helping someone with a jigsaw. Someone with more knowledge than themselves.
ZPD- The distance between the child’s current development level, measured by the tasks they were able to achieve on their ability when helped by another person who is more knowledgeable or experienced than themselves.

Question 14

Outline Wood and Middleton’s study which provides support for scaffolding.

Answer 14

Mothers (12) were asked to teach their own child how to put together a jigsaw/tower so that they could do it on their own. Sessions were recorded, taped and analysed. Types of support by the mothers were then categorised. identified 5 types of scaffolding which differed in the degree of help offered.

Question 15

What were the findings of Wood and Middleton on scaffolding?

Answer 15

Found that the most successful mothers as teachers were those who adjusted the help they offered subtly, depending on the child’s actions.

Question 16

What are the methodological and ethical issues of Wood and Middleton’s study?

Answer 16

Methodological issue- The use of video recording allows the play session to watched many times by researchers.
Ethical issues- Experiment was in own home with mothers, the experience would unlikely cause stress to the children.

Question 17

What is Baillargeons explanation of early infant abilities? (criticism of Piaget)

Answer 17

Research was aiming to discover the unsuspected abilities of new-born and young children. An apparent lack of ability may be due to motor difficulties rather than lack of mental ability. Baillargeon suggested that the reason infants did not search for objects that were out of sight is because they did not have the physical capability to do so she devised a technique called violation of expectation.

Question 18

Define violation of expectation.

Answer 18

A technique in which an expectancy of a physical event is created then an unexpected event happens. The method consists of infants using their surprise (expression) as a measure of whether what they see is not what they expect to see.

Question 19

Object permanence.

Answer 19

“Out of sight, out of mind”