Paper 3 - Cognition and Development Flashcards

Question

Vygotsky claimed knowledge is first... then ....

Answer 1

First intermental (between someone more expert and someone less expert) then intramental (within the individual)

Answer 2

Yes Vygotsky believed that reasoning abilities are acquired via contact with those around us and as a result there will be cultural differences in cognitive development because we all grow up and learn about the world surrounded by cultural values and beliefs.

Answer 3

A theoretical area in which children learn more quickly The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is the gap between * What a child knows or can do alone and * What the child is capable of, following interaction with someone more expert. Vygotsky claimed that the role of a teacher was to guide the child through this gap to as full a level of understanding as the child's developmental ability would allow.

Answer 4

The specific support measures to aid children to work through the ZPD

Answer 5

Recruitment - Engaging learners interest Reduction in degrees of freedom - focusing the learner and getting started Direction maintenance - motivating learner to persevere

Answer 6

Wood et al Also identified progressive strategies that can be used to scaffold learning. For example, prompts might be (from the most to the least help): * Demonstration (e.g. mother draws an object with the crayons) * Preparation for child (e.g. mother help child hold the crayon) * Indication of materials (e.g. mother points to crayons) * Specific verbal instruction (e.g. mother says how about using the green crayon) * General prompt (e.g. mother says now Draw Something else)

Answer 7

Research support by Bryant et al (1998) 4-5 year olds asked to guiess number of sweets in a box, condition one worked alone and condition 2 worked with a MKO offering guidance on how to reach a closer estimate. They found that most children who worked alone failed to give a close estimate. This supports Vygotsky’s prediction that children develop more advanced reasoning skills when working with more expert people, increasing the reliability of the ZPD as a developmental concept.

Answer 8

Research support from Ramirez (1969) found that children of potters who worked with clay could conserve with clay mass quicker than any other culture, emphasising the role of culture and social processes when understanding context, rather than just interacting with the environment as Piaget suggested.

Answer 9

Lots of techniques such as peer support, teaching assistance and collaborative learning come from his ideas that learning depends on more knowledgeable others. These fundamental changes to the education system motivated an emphasis on quality scaffolded teaching OFSTED created 1992 which generally checks these systems)

Answer 10

It is limited in its application as it doesn't help explain why some children do not progress even when learning is scaffolding.

Answer 11

Not all individual differences are acknowledged. Both Piaget and Vygotsky assume that processes of learning are essentially universal. However, not all children may learn effectively in a social situation. The personality of the learner and style of processing may differ and need to be taken into account in explaining their cognitive development

Answer 12

Baillargeon suggested that infants in the sensory motor stage may have better developed understanding of the physical world than proposed by Piaget. She suggested the infants do not reach for a hidden object because they lacked an understanding of object permanence. She suggested it might be because they didn't have the necessary motor skills.

Answer 13

The idea that infants will look for longer at things that they have not experienced before (novel situations). The VOE allows her to compare infant’s reactions to an expected and unexpected event and thus was able to make inferences about the infant's cognitive abilities.

Answer 14

2012 Suggested we are all born with a PRS to enable us to learn details of the physical world more easily. We have a primitive awareness of the physical properties of the world which becomes more sophisticated as we learn from experience One aspect of which is object persistence (similar to Piaget's object permanence)

Answer 15

24 infants, aged 5-6 months old, were shown a tall or a short rabbit passing behind a screen with a window: Possible condition - the tall rabbit can be seen passing the window, but the short one cannot. Impossible condition - neither rabbit appeared at the window.

Answer 16

The infants looked for an average of 33 seconds at the impossible event compared to 25 seconds in the possible condition. (statistically significant) This could be interpreted as meaning that infants were surprised by the impossible condition. This demonstrates an understanding of object permeance.

Answer 17

Pei et al (2007) Found the infants can use crude patterns to judge distance from an early age but that more subtle texture differences require more experience. Distance perception therefore appears to be another innate system that becomes more sophisticated with age like the PRS. Therefore, the fact that other abilities develop in the same way as VOE is supportive of Baillargeon’s PRS theory.

Answer 18

Hespos et al (2012) Point out that basic physical properties are understood by almost everyone e.g. if you drop something it will land on the floor. The fact that this understanding is universal suggests that it is innate. If it were not innate, we would expect cultural differences which have not been found. Baillargeon argued that the PRS was innate, and this is well supported.

Answer 19

One limitation is that it is hard to judge when an infant understands. Using the VOE technique we are predicting how a baby might behave if a violation of expectations occurred. However, infants might look for different lengths of time at different events just because they see them as different not necessarily because they have recognised them as impossible. This raises questions about the validity of the VOE for investigating infant understanding.

Answer 20

Social perspective taking is about understanding what someone else is feeling/thinking rather than physical perspective taking as seen in Piaget’s 3 mountain task

Answer 21

Selman looked at changes that occurred with the age in children’s responses to scenarios in which they were asked to take the role of different people in a social situation.

Answer 22

Selman (1976) found that children of different ages responded in different ways. He used these differences to build a stage theory of how thinking about social situations changes with age

Answer 23

Stage 0 (3-6 Years ) Socially egocentric A child cannot distinguish between their own and others emotions

Answer 24

Stage 1 (6-8 Years) Social information role-taking Can distinguish between their own POV and others but only focus on one other perspective at a time

Answer 25

Stage 2 (8-10 years) Self- reflective role-taking Can explain the position and feelings about another perspective but only perspective at a time

Answer 26

Stage 3 (10-12 years) Mutual role-taking A child is now able to consider their own point of view and that of another at the same time.

Answer 27

Stage 4 (12+ years) Social and conventional system role-taking A child recognises that understanding others’ viewpoints is not enough to allow people to reach an agreement. Social conventions are needed to keep order.

Answer 28

1 Interpersonal understanding 2. interpersonal negotiation strategies 3. awareness personal meaning of relationships

Answer 29

Pair therapy Helps children to develop perspective taking and negotiation skills which are appropriate to their age. But it could be argued that Selman’s theory over emphasises the cognitive aspects of social interactions; perspective taking is not the only aspect needed for good social interactions and so this would need to be taken into account for pair therapy to work in the best way possible.

Answer 30

In the research looking at the answers children gave to dilemmas, which may not correlate to their level of perspective taking in a real scenario to real people

Answer 31

Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to the ability to understand that others have their own thoughts, beliefs, desires, and emotions that may differ from our own

Answer 32

No, ToM develops over time and is not present at birth

Answer 33

ASD is a Complex developmental disability that typically develops early in life which affects: - Social Interaction – difficulty with social relationships - Social Communication – difficulty with verbal and nonverbal communication, not understanding facial gestures and difficulty in the development of interpersonal play and imagination. - Repetitive and stereotyped behaviours – rigid inflexible routines. Can lead to Deficits in Theory of Mind

Answer 34

Theory of mind has to be measured differently at different ages

Answer 35

Meltzoff (1988) Showed that toddlers (18 months) can understand an adult’s intentions. Two conditions who either watched adults successfully put beads in a jar, or a condition watched them try to put beads in a jar but failed. the children imitated the behaviour and in both conditions placed beads in the jar, they understood the intentions rather than what they actually saw .

Answer 36

Simon Baron-Cohen – Sally-Ann Test * There are two dolls, sally takes the ball and hides it in her basket. When she is away (and therefore unknown to her) Anne takes the ball out of Sally’s basket and puts it in her own box. * Sally returns and the child is asked the key question * “Where will Sally look for her ball?” Autistic condition got the correct answer 20% of the time, down syndrome and neurotypical children got the right answer 85% of the time

Answer 37

Baron-Cohen et al (1997) – Adults - The Eyes Task Quasi Experiment - All participants were matched on age and had normal intelligence 25 photos of eyes (male and female) which were taken from magazines and standardized. Each 15 x 10cm black and white, all of the same region of the face, shown for 3 seconds. Participants then had to select between two mental state terms, one correct and one foil term printed under each picture (some were basic e.g. sad and some were complex (reflective, scheming). ASD scored worse than atypical participants

Answer 38

Important implications for education and therapy beyond academic interest. For example social skills training and interventions to improve perspective-taking. For example, video modelling and role-playing help children with ASD recognize emotions and intentions, improving social interactions. However, does not cure ToM deficits highlighting the complexity of ASD and the need for multi-faceted support.

Answer 39

Oversimplify the cognitive abilities of children with ASD. Some researchers argue that these tests rely heavily on verbal communication, which could disadvantage autistic children who struggle with language rather than ToM itself. High functioning autistic individuals may pass but still struggle with social interactions. Suggests alternative non verbal measures should be explored.

Answer 40

Nature vs Nurture Simon Baron Cohen suggests a neurological basis as ToM deficits appear consistency, brain imaging studies support this linking ToM to specific areas e.g. the amygdala. However, social factors also play a role in delaying ToM, emphasizing the importance of both biology and early conversational experience. This suggests an interaction between nature and nurture, making ToM development more flexible than previously thought.

Answer 41

Most ToM research, including Baron-Cohen’s studies, has been conducted in Western cultures, where individual thoughts and beliefs are emphasized. However, in collectivist cultures, social understanding may develop differently, focusing more on group intentions rather than individual false beliefs. Cross-cultural studies have found that children in some non-Western societies pass false belief tasks at later ages, suggesting that cultural upbringing influences ToM development. This raises questions about the universality of ToM research due to the ethnocentric nature of the studies and whether current methods accurately reflect social cognition worldwide.

Answer 42

Mirror neurons are specialised brain cells which are involved in our ability to empathise. They are unique because they fire both in response to personal action and in response to the action on the part of others. These neurons may be involved in social cognition allowing us to interpret intention and emotion in others

Answer 43

Rizzolatti (2002) In 2002 he was studying electrical activity in a monkey's motor cortex—the region of the brain responsible for movement—when he observed that the motor cortex became activated when one of the researchers reached for their lunch, as if the monkey was reaching for the food himself.

Answer 44

They respond not just to observed actions but also intentions behind behaviour, so we can interact socially.

Answer 45

If mirror neurons fire in response to other’s actions and intentions this gives us a neural mechanism for experiencing, and hence understanding, other people’s perspectives and emotional states

Answer 46

Ramachandran (2001) suggested that mirror neurons are so important they have shaped human evolution, in particular how we have evolved as a social species. Mirror neurons are fundamental requirements for living in large groups with complex social roles and rules that characterise human culture.

Answer 47

ASD is associated with problems related to social cognitive abilities, such as difficulty with perspective taking, understanding intention, emotion and ToM. It follows that people with ASD might have poor mirror neuron systems.

Answer 48

Ramachandran and Oberman (2006) have proposed the broken mirror theory of ASD. According to this theory, ASD develops due to neurological deficits including dysfunction in the mirror neuron system

Answer 49

Mouras et al (2008) found that sexual arousal coincided with increased levels of activity in the pars opercularis (measured using fMRI scans) as participants watched heterosexual pornography. Therefore, this suggests that increased mirror neuron activity had allowed participants to increasingly take on the perspective of the actors within the porn and experience their intentions/emotions, thus leading to increased sexual arousal. Therefore, there is a role for mirror neurons in social cognition.

Answer 50

Correlational not causational - where increased activity in one brain area upon completing a task is assumed to be mirror neurons. This means that mirror neurons have only ever been indirectly studied, with some researchers even questioning their existence at all Hickock suggested that if they do exist, their role has been misunderstood and understanding intentionality is very different to simply using observed motor actions in others.

Paper 3 - Cognition and Development Flashcards

(74 cards)