Lecture 4: Learning about the Physical World Flashcards
questions of cognitive development researchers
- How do children’s knowledge and thinking change as they grow?
- What factors influence their thinking?
Jean Piaget
- Father of the field of cognitive development
- In 1920, he worked at the Binet Institute on intelligence tests
- Piaget was intrigued by children’s wrong answers on adult intelligence tests
Piaget’s proposals
- Children’s thinking is qualitatively different from adults’ thinking
- Cognition grows and develops through a series of stages
Properties of Piaget’s stage theory
- Outlines 4 stages of children’s cognitive development
- Children at different stages think in qualitatively different ways
- Thinking at each stage influences thinking across diverse topics
- Brief transitional period at the end of each stage
- The stages are universal (not culturally dependent) and the order is always the same
4 stages of children’s cognitive development with ages
- sensorimotor stage (birth-2)
- preoperational stage (2-7)
- concrete operational stage (7-12)
- formal operational stage (12+)
properties of the sensorimotor stage
- Infants live in the here-and-now
- They gain knowledge about the world through movements and sensations
subdivisions of the sensorimotor stage
- 1-4 months
- 4-8 months
- 8-12 months
- 12-18 months
- 18-24 months
1-4 month-olds (Piaget)
- interact with the world via reflexes and repeat pleasurable actions
- Indicates interest in their bodies
4-8 month-olds (Piaget)
- repeat actions towards objects to produce a desired outcome
- Indicates interest in the world, beyond their own body
- Allows for the formation of connections between their own actions and consequences in the world
8-12 month-olds (Piaget)
- combine several actions to achieve a goal
- Indicates that actions are clearly intentional
- The emergence of object permanence
12-18 month-olds (Piaget)
- trial-and-error experiments to see how outcomes change
- Allows for greater understanding of cause-effect relations
18-24 month-olds (Piaget)
- mental representation
- Fully developed object permanence
- Indicated by deferred imitation
- Allows for symbolic thoughts
object permanence
Knowing that objects continue to exist even though they can no longer be seen or heard
when does object permanence develop
around 8 months
how is object permanence tested
by seeing how a baby reacts to an object being hidden
- If the baby doesn’t look for the object or get upset, they don’t have object permanence
- If they look for the object, they have object permanence
A-not-B-error
the tendency to reach for a hidden object where it was last found rather than in the new location where it was last hidden
what does the A-not-B-error demonstrate
that inital object permanence is fragile
when does the A-not-B-error disappear
around 12 months
main characteristics of the preoperational stage
- symbolic thought
- egocentrism
- centration
symbolic thought
the ability to think about objects or events that are not within the immediate environment
benefits of symbolic thought
- enables language acquisition
- enables symbolic representation (ability to engage in pretend play adn drawing)
egocentrism
perceiving the world solely from one’s own point of view
examples of egocentrism
difficulties taking another person’s spatial perspective & egocentric speech
egocentric speech
taking turns speaking, but providing one’s own monologue