Lecture 3

Question 1

Pragmatic (constructivist) theories of development

Answer 1

• Focuses on action

- Children are active learners

Question 2

Piaget’s main ideas = Genetic epistemology

Answer 2

• Interactionist between nature and nurture
• Pragmatist
• Cognitive development goes through series of set stages = universal
• Each stage characterised by different way of thinking about the world
• Motor actions –> abstract thought –> interaction with the environment

Question 3

Processes of cognitive development

Answer 3

• Equilibration = assimilation = Piaget says this is how development occurs
• Schema
• If info inconsistent with schema, it enters dis-equilibrium = accommodation (update and modify world view)

Question 4

Piaget’s stages of development

Answer 4

1. Sensorimotor stage
   2/3. Pre-operations and concrete operations
   4.Formal operation stage

Question 5

First stage = sensorimotor stage

Answer 5

• Rougly age 0-2
• Lack of symbolic function, reliance of movement and sensation
• Between 5-7 months if object hidden, infant stops searching
• Between 8-9 months infants begin to search for hidden object
• A not B tast = test for object permanence:
• ->Hide object in box A, infant recognises object is missing and finds it in box A
• ->When repeated and object in box B, infant still looks in box A
• -8-12 months = Find objects in A but not B
• -12-18months = Seeks object in location B
• -18-24months = Flexible searching/locating

Question 6

Stage 2 and 3 = pre-operations and concrete operations

Answer 6

• Stage 2 = 2-7 years
• Stage 3 = 7-12 years
• Conservation = changes in appearance vs. alteration of reality (stage 3) e.g. conservation task like mass of dough
• Class inclusion = knowing objects belong to categories and can belong to more than one
• Transitive inference = use relationship between 2 variables to make prediction about a third variable

Question 7

Conservation errors

Answer 7

• Errors of concrete operations are due to:
• -> Egocentrism = world perceived in terms of self
• -> Centration = focus on one aspect of a situation/object
• -> Reversibility = inability to mentally reverse a series of actions/events

Question 8

Stage 4 = formal operation stage

Answer 8

• Adolescence
• Hypothetico-deductive reasoning at end point of cognitive development –> can reason about abstract ideas
• Pendulum problem:
• -> Adolescent given varying lengths of string and weights on pendulum device
• -> Have to work out how to make pendulum swing fastest
• -> Looked out how they approached the problem
• -> If reached FOS will vary variables systematically

-Task criticised = Dasen (1972) looked at task done outside of western world and low socio-economic groups –> task rarely passed so can’t be universal stage

Question 9

Criticisms of Piaget’s theory

Answer 9

• Theory was domain general but may be domain specific
• Development occurs in concepts of concepts that relate to specific area of cognition
• Evidence against domain general accounts = Goldschmid (1968) group of 6-7 year olds and gave range of conservation tasks = only moderately correlated with each other = each child performs differently on tasks
• Eval: Piaget responded by creating term horizontal declare = inconsistency in how children perform, but over time become consistent

Question 10

Criticisms of Piaget’s method -

Marovitch and Zelazo

Answer 10

• Marovitch and Zelazo:
• -> Meta analysis of A-not-B task on infants 7-47 months
• -> Found length of delay influences performance
• -> If you do more A tasks the child does worse on B task
• -> If distance between hiding location is narrow children do worse
• -> Criticises Piaget as he doesn’t take into account task related factors

Question 11

Criticisms of Piaget’s method - McGarrigle and Donaldson (1974)

Answer 11

• -> 2 conditions: 1st = adult knocks over coins and spreads them out. 2nd = naughty teddy bear spreads coins out
• -> Found when teddy responsible for change 63% of 5 year olds passed task where as when adult was responsible only 16% passed
• -> Shows extra linguistic features can influence interpretation

Question 12

Criticisms of Piaget’s method - Renee Baillargeon

Answer 12

• Argues shouldn’t use motor tasks as children skills are underdeveloped
• She developed object permanence test that involves just looking times
• Child watches draw bridge going back and forth
• Half children see draw bridge stop when draw bridge put in way
• Other half see draw bridge go through solid object
• Found they looked longer in second condition –> showing they don’t have object permanence