Other developmental theories Flashcards
Name three other developmental theories
Information processing theory - Core knowledge theory and socio cultural theory
Core knowledge theory description
Children are active learner - puts emphasis on cognitive abilities that have been evolutionary important: language, face perception.. view children as entering the world with a set of specialised abilities
In core-knowledge theories what are innate understandings?
Abilities thought to be innate in children, these are domain specifics, major domains such as language, space, numbers, relation to animals, plants..
Information processing theories description
children undergo continuous cognitive changes, metaphor of the child as a computing system which expends and grows gradually
Socio Cultural theories description
Sees development as continuous with quantitative rather than qualitative changes - Humans seen as unique - view many of the growing processes as similar in all societies BUT with different contents according to cultural environments
Theory of Mind is
Ability to understand that other people have their own minds, sets of beliefs and perspectives, tolerance ability
How do you test the theory of mind ?
Usually with false belief tasks or Unexpected transfer tasks. False belief tasks = the Salle and Anne test of Simon b Cohen - Unexpected transfer = child is shown a box of smarties, inside is a pencil. When asked what he thought was inside, a 3 yo would say “pencil” while a 5yo would say “smarties”
Who was Lev Vygotsky
Born in 1896 in Belarus, in 1913 accepted at Moscow university through a “jew lottery” to meet a 3% quota - died at 38 yo from tuberculosis.
What are the two levels of performance of lev vigotsky
1- The actual level, such as Piaget’s levels , and 2- Learning potential “zone of proximal development” social scaffolding
What is social scaffolding
Process where a more competent person provides temporary framework that supports children’s thinking at a higher level than they can manage on their own
What is zone of proximal development
Refers to the range of performance between what a child can do unassisted and what they can do with optimal support. Typically means providing younger children with more concrete instructions than older.
Developmental cognitive neuroscience 2 methods to analyse brain activity:
ERP(event related potential) methods: non invasive, painless, measures brain electrical activity, electrodes are placed on scalp surface or FMRI
