Development Flashcards
Who was Jean Piaget?
Swiss psychologist, who studied and theorized about child development for more than half a century.
Name the four major Piaget´s stages of development.
1) Sensory-motor stage
2) Preoperational stage
3) Concrete-operational stage
4) Formal-operational stage
Characterize the sensory-motor stage.
-the first 2 years
of life
- development of schemes for thinking about
the physical world (object permanence)
Characterize the preoperational stage.
-from 2 to 7
years of age
-ability to engage in internal thought about the world, but these mental processes are intuitive and unsystematic
Characterize concrete-operational stage.
-7 to 11 years of age
-development of a set of
mental operations that allow children to think about the physical
world in a systematic way
-major limitations on their capacity to reason formally about the world
Characterize formal-operational stage.
-from 11 years of age onward
-emergence of capacity
-adult cognitively
-capable of scientific reasoning — the paradigm case of mature intellectual functioning
What does the term “conservation” mean?
It most generally refers to knowledge of the properties of the world that are preserved under various transformations. A child’s understanding of conservation develops as the child progresses through the Piagetian stages.
What was the A-not-B experiment about?
If an object is put under cover A, and then, in front of the child, removed and put under cover B, the child will often look for the object under cover A.
-Piaget argues that this shows that the child does not understand that the object will be found under cover B
At what age do infants develop an understanding of object permanence?
They develop a concept of it during the first year.
What did the conservation experiment with checkers reveal about the way children in the preoperational stage perceive quantity?
Children in the preoperational stage (typically 2 to 7 years of age):
-do not yet understand the concept of conservation—the idea that quantity remains the same despite changes in the arrangement or appearance of objects
-say that the expanded row has more checkers
-if asked to count the two groups of checkers, they express great surprise that they have the same number
What did the conservation experiment with checkers reveal about the way children in the concrete-operational stage perceive quantity?
Children in the concrete-operational stage (typically 7 to 11 years of age):
-understand the concept of conservation
-say that the expanded row has the same amount of checkers
-if asked to count the two groups of checkers, they think that it is silly to count the objects in order to confirm this
Why do preoperational children believe that the taller, thinner beaker holds more liquid after it is poured from an identical beaker? (Liquid-conservation task)
Preoperational children are distracted by the irrelevant physical characteristic of the height of the beaker and do not relate having seen the milk poured from one beaker into the other to the unchanging quantity of liquid.
How do formal-operational children understand and think about conservation?
Their understanding reaches new levels of abstraction and they are able to understand concepts such as the conservation of energy and the conservation of momentum.
Why do younger children often do worse than older children and adults on memory tasks?
Experience and strategies.
Young children are novices at most things (universal novices), and increased knowledge of topic is critical to memorization. Much more critical than age or general ability level are.
Why do older people perform worse, in reasoning problems that rely on working memory?
The amount of information that can be maintained in working memory is controlled by the speed of information processing. Older people process information slower.
Why does age correlate positively with crossword puzzle performance?
While crossword performance does involve reasoning ability (which declines with age from the peak in the twenties), it relies much more on accumulated knowledge.
What part of the brain is particularly susceptible to cell death with age?
The Hippocampus which is important to memory. It loses about 5% of its cells every decade. Other cells in hippocampus also shrink and atrophy, but sometimes also new cells and neurons grow to compensate a bit in this area.
How did Chomsky criticize Skinner’s behaviourist theory of language learning?
Chomsky argued that language acquisition relies on innate abilities to generalize and understand syntax, which cannot be explained solely through conditioning and stimulus-response associations.
What are the two primary factors that contribute to cognitive development in children?
“Know better” (gaining more facts, experiences, and better strategies) and “Think better” (improvements in basic cognitive processes and possibly holding more information in working memory).
What key neural changes occur during the first two years of life?
The brain undergoes significant “hardware” development, including a rapid increase in synapses, or connections between neurons.
What is synaptic pruning, and when does it occur?
Synaptic pruning is the process of reducing unnecessary synaptic connections, and it occurs mainly after the age of two.
What is neuronal pruning, and how is it different from synaptic pruning?
Neuronal pruning, which happens before the age of two, reduces the number of neurons, while synaptic pruning reduces redundant synaptic connections later on, enhancing brain efficiency.
What role do glial cells play in brain development, especially after age two?
Glial cells support neurons, and many provide myelinated sheaths around axons, which speed up signal transmission in the brain.
By what age does the brain reach approximately 80% of its final size, and why is this significant?
By age two, the brain reaches about 80% of its final size, suggesting that cognitive development afterward relies more on knowledge and experience rather than further physical growth.
