development Flashcards
(42 cards)
brain stem:
-connects brain to the spinal cord.
- carries messages via the spinal cord.
- function: controls autonomic functions in the body.
-highly developed at birth.
cerebellum:
-matures late.
-near top of spinal cord.
-function: coordinates sensory info and motor activity as well as movement (balance).
thalamus:
-deep inside the brain in each hemisphere.
-function: information hub - receives and sends signals around the brain.
cortex:
-divided in 2 hemispheres.
-outer covering of brain, very thin and folded.
-function: thinking and processing.
-frontal, visual, auditory, motor areas in each hemisphere.
roles of nature and nurture:
nature: inherited.
nurture: environmental influences on development.
smoking during pregnancy:
affects the size of the brain and body because nicotine slows down brain growth.
infection during pregnancy:
in the womb, german measles can cause brain damage (more specifically hearing loss).
voices during pregnancy:
- babies learn to recognise mother’s voices.
- brain is changing before you are born in response to external stimuli.
the interaction between nature and nurture:
- both aspects at the same time.
- brain forms due to nature (product of genes) but the environment has a major influence even in the womb.
outline Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
Theory:
-changes in thinking (cognition) over time (as we get older).
-children think differently from adults.
Stages:
-young children aren’t able to think logically about the world (brains aren’t mature enough).
-as the child gets older their brain develops and different kinds of thinking such as being able to think in abstract ways.
Schemas:
-the world is represented in the mind where knowledge is stored.
-as the child develops the construct more and more detailed and complex schemas.
-number of schemas increase as we grow older through assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation:
when we understand a new experience and add that new information to an existing schema.
Accommodation:
receiving new information that changes our understanding so a new schema is formed.
strength of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development:
*real world application
P- has real world application.
E- the theory has helped change classroom teaching so it’s now more activity based.
L- demonstrates it’s positive value (usefulness).
strength of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development:
*a lot of research
P- enormous amount of research (evidence) to test his ideas.
E- many studies have been conducted to test Piaget’s theory.
L- we can be more certain about what aspects of his theory need refining and which has helped improve our understanding of how children’s thinking develops.
conservation:
although appearance changes, quantity stays the same.
Piaget and conservation.
- Piaget showed that younger children can’t conserve quantities.
- showed children 2 identical rows of 6 counters each, equally spaced; the children correctly reasoned that each row had the same number.
- however when the counters in one of the rows were pushed together, the young children struggled to converse and usually said there were less counters.
- this is challenged by the naughty teddy study.
- they wondered if Piaget’s results were due to the fact that the children saw the counters being changed and may have thought this meant that there was an actually deliberate change in the number of counters.
outline the naughty teddy study.
*McGarrigle and Donaldson
A: aimed to see whether the child’s reaction would be different if there was no deliberate change in the row of counters.
M: 80 children aged 4/6 years old
-introduced to “naughty teddy” who could spoil their game.
-shown 2 rows of equal counters.
-teddy jumps out of box and pushes the counters in one row about, transforming display by making one row look smaller.
-child was then asked if the rows had the same amount of counters.
R: -deliberate change: 41% gave the correct answer (same number in each row).
-accidental change: 68% gave the correct answer.
-older children did better than younger children.
C: -Piaget’s method doesn’t show what children can do (nursery kids conserved quantity).
-older children did better than younger ones which supports Piaget’s idea that the way children think changes as they grow older.
weakness of the naughty teddy study:
*sample
P- primary children all came from one school.
E- primary kids may have done better than the nursery kids due to their educational backgrounds, may have coped better due to their better developed language/better educated families.
L- challenges validity of conclusions as other factors can explain the difference.
weakness of the naughty teddy study:
*distracted
P- the children’s better performance in the accidental condition may be because they didn’t notice any change had taken place.
E- the children may have been distracted by the teddy and didn’t realise anything had changed so they kept their original answer (that both rows were the same).
L- just means that the children weren’t looking, not conserving.
egocentrism:
to see the world only from there own point of view.
Piaget’s study on egocentrism:
Three mountains task
-a child is shown a model of 3 mountains with a doll place opposite.
-the child is asked to choose what the doll would “see” from a range of pictures.
-the children describe what they see and not what the doll would see.
-only children over 7 could consistently choose the correct picture.
—->challenged by the Policeman Doll Study —> he suggested that the children may have less difficulty if the task made more social sense.
outline Hughe’s policeman study.
A: aimed to create a task that would be more understandable than Piaget’s.
M: 30 kids- 3 1/2 to 5 year olds.
- children were asked to hide a boy doll from two policeman dolls on a model with different sections.
-practice was given beforehand.
R: -90% could hide the boy doll away from 2 policemen.
-with a more complex task (more sections) the 3 year olds had more trouble (60% correct), whereas the 4 year olds had 90% success.
C: -children aged 4 are mostly not egocentric.
-Piaget underestimated younger children’s abilities.
-correct that thinking changes with age.
strength of Hughe’s policeman study:
*made more sense
P- task made more sense to the children than Piaget’s version.
E- policeman task was more realistic and a similar to something they’d experience in everyday life, the children also had practice so they fully understood task.
L-more realistic test of their abilities/capabilities.
what is a weakness of Hughe’s policeman study:
*unintentional cues
P- researcher may have unintentionally hinted about the correct answer.
E- researcher may have unconsciously given cues (gazing in a certain direction) and influenced the child’s behaviour.
L- results may lack validity.
stages of cognitive development.
Sensorimotor Stage (0-2):
-learn to coordinate sensory and motor info.
-object permanence.
stages of cognitive development:
Pre-operational Stage (2-7):
-lacks reasoning ability.
-can’t think in a consistently logical way.
-lack of conservation.
-egocentric.
