Cognitive Development

Question 1

Historical Theories of CD

Answer 1

Plato - All knowledge is innate

Aristotle - All knowledge comes from experience

Question 2

Piaget’s Stages

Answer 2

Sensorimotor (up to 2 years)
	Object permanence
Pre-operational (up to 5 years)
	Beginning of mental representations
Concrete operational (up to 12 years)
	Manipulation of mental representations
Formal operational

Question 3

Piaget’s Takeways

Answer 3

Developmental discontinuity (qualitative change)
Fixed and consistent sequence
Focuses on inabilities rather than abilities
Infants and young children more competent than Piaget recognised

Question 4

Vygotsky

Answer 4

Children extract social meanings from situations and internalise learned principles
ZPD - What a child can do with or without help

Question 5

Sensory Abilities in Infancy

Answer 5

Poor visual
Affinity for mother’s voice and scent
Sensitive to temperature change
Preparedness for language (Eimas and Jusyck)

Question 6

Importance of Social Exposure

Answer 6

Spitz (1995)

37% infants placed in an orphanage died shortly after and almost all others had delayed development

Question 7

Attachment

Answer 7

Ainsworth et al (1978)
Secure
Anxious Resistant
Anxious Avoidant
Disorganised

Question 8

Information Processing Models

Answer 8

Cognitive development arises from quantitative gains in information processing

Question 9

Reflexes

Answer 9

Inborn, Automatic responses to different forms of stimulation; indicators of neurological status

Question 10

Core Knowledge Theories

Answer 10

Spelke and Kinzler (2007) suggest innate knowledge and theories are domain specific, innate and task specific
Baillargeon (1987), impossible event experiment

Question 11

Changes in Middle Childhood

Answer 11

Decline in egocentrism
Decentration and reversibility
Transformation
Classification
Seriation
Deductive reasoning

Question 12

Categorisation

Answer 12

Three early categories (inanimate objects, people, living things)
Later 3 levels of hierarchy (Superordinate, basic, subordinate)

Question 13

People vs Nonliving Things

Answer 13

Poulin Dubois (1999) 
Infants surprised by inorganic movement

Question 14

Definitions of intelligence

Answer 14

Single trait (g)
2 types of intelligence: fluid and crystallised
Multiple processes: Thurstone's 7 primary mental abilities
Integrated model: Caroll's 3 stratum theory

Question 15

IQ as a Predictor

Answer 15

Predicts academic, economic and occupational success

More valid than SES

Question 16

Family Influence on IQ

Answer 16

HOME (Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment) positively correlated with IQ

Question 17

Alternative Perspectives of Intelligence

Answer 17

Gardner’s multiple intelligence ability - at least 8 partially independent types

Question 18

Academic Disabilities

Answer 18

Differences in ability tend to be stable over time
5-10% in US affected by dyslexia
8% affected by dyscalculia