Piaget's Cognitive theory

Question 1

Name the six substages of the sensorimotor stage in order

Answer 1

• Reflex stage
• Habit stage
• Single-action goal stage
• Sequence-action goal stage
• Tertiary reaction stage
• Symbolic stage

Question 2

At what ages does a child go through the pre-operational stage?

Answer 2

2-7 years

Question 3

Who the fuck is Borke and what did he do?

Answer 3

He’s a psychology guy. He carried out an experiment similar to the Three Mountains test but with Sesame Street characters and a turntable and found that children could see from another’s perspective at around 3-4 years

Question 4

What word is used to describe a state of cognitive imbalance that occurs when our understanding of the world is inconsistent with incoming information

Answer 4

Disequilibrium

Question 5

Who introduced Naughty Teddy into conservation experiments?

Answer 5

McGarrigle and Donaldson

Question 6

What is adaptation?

Answer 6

The process by which a child’s schemas are developed to fit with their experience of the world

Question 7

Definition of constructivism?

Answer 7

Piaget’s theory that a child’s understanding of the world is actively constructed through discovery learning

Question 8

At what ages does a child go through the concrete operational stage?

Answer 8

7-11 years

Question 9

Which of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development would a primary school infant be in?

Answer 9

The pre-operational stage

Question 10

Piaget describes himself as what?

Answer 10

A constructivist

Question 11

Which of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development would a primary school junior be in following their first birthday in juniors?

Answer 11

The concrete operational stage

Question 12

What is discovery learning?

Answer 12

The process in which a child actively explores and experiences new objects and situations in their environment in order to construct an understanding of the world

Question 13

During the sensorimotor stage, ‘knowledge’ consists mainly of what?

Answer 13

Simple motor reflexes

Question 14

What are the two substage sod the pre-operational approach?

Answer 14

The pre-conceptual period and the intuitive period

Question 15

What concept did Piaget believe to develop around the age of 8 months?

Answer 15

Object permanence

Question 16

What is object permanence?

Answer 16

The understanding that objects exist independently and continue to exist even if they cannot be seen

Question 17

What is reversibility?

Answer 17

The ability to perform reversible mental operations

Question 18

What is assimilation?

Answer 18

A form of adaptation in which a schema is applied to a new situation or new information is added to an existing schema

Question 19

Define animism

Answer 19

The belief that inanimate objects have feelings and intentions

Question 20

At what age does a child go enter the formal operational stage?

Answer 20

12 years old

Question 21

Define centration

Answer 21

The ability to cope with only one aspect of a situation at a time

Question 22

At what ages does a child go through the sensorimotor stage?

Answer 22

0-2 years

Question 23

What is a child able to do during the formal operational stage?

Answer 23

Understand and use abstract concepts including hypothetical thinking

Question 24

What two names are associated with the Three Mountains study?

Answer 24

Piaget and Inhelder

Question 25

Define conservation

Answer 25

The ability to understand that properties of objects and materials remain the same despite changes in outward appearance

Question 26

In what substage of the sensorimotor stage would a child deliberately vary their activity in trial-and-error testing?

Answer 26

The tertiary reaction stage

Question 27

What is a schema?

Answer 27

An evolving unit of knowledge which we use to understand and adapt to our environment

Question 28

A powerful internal schema that enables logical thought processes such as social ordering, adding, subtracting, and multiplying, is called what?

Answer 28

An operation

Question 29

What is egocentrism?

Answer 29

The inability to take another person's perspective

Question 30

What is transitivity?

Answer 30

Making inferences on the basis of information given. Also known as mental seriation

Question 31

Who carried out tests of conservation in volume, mass and number?

Answer 31

Piaget and Szeminska

Question 32

Name a study showing egocentrism

Answer 32

The Three Mountains study

Question 33

Rose and Blank criticised Piaget and Szeminska's test of conservation of volume for what reason?

Answer 33

It could be confusing for children because of the repeated question - they instead changed it to "same or different"

Question 34

Give one criticism of Piaget and Szeminska's wooden beads study

Answer 34

Questions were difficult (McGarrigle's sleeping cows)

Question 35

What is horizontal décalage?

Answer 35

Where a child can display characteristics of more than one stage at a time

Question 37

Who was responsible for the class inclusion study and what is it briefly about?

Answer 37

Piaget and Szeminska - 20 wooden beads, 18 brown and 2 white. - Are all the beads wooden? - Are the more white or brown beads? - Are there brown beads or wooden beads? Children under 7 answered the third question incorrectly

Question 38

Give one criticism of Piaget's concept of animism?

Answer 38

Children may be making use of their limited powers of expression OR Shields and Duveen study

Question 39

In response to Piaget and Szeminska's wooden beads experiment, McGarrigle did what?

Answer 39

A simplified version involving sleeping cows, finding that children as young as six could answer correctly

Question 40

In regards to the formal operational stage, what did Piaget and Inhelder do?

Answer 40

They Castries out the pendulum problem

Question 41

Give three positives of Piaget's theory

Answer 41

- Paved way for further research, making cognitive development a core aspect of developmental psychology - Enormous influence on early years education - Universality supported by Goodnow - Tests simple but innovative

Question 42

Give one positive and two negatives of Piaget's impact on education

Answer 42

👍 Child-centred approach to learning 👎 Suggests failure is the fault of the child - not the teacher 👎 Emphasis on readiness may exaggerate social inequalities

Question 43

Shields and Duveen were responsible for what?

Answer 43

Finding that children as young as three were able to determine which of a farmer, cow, tractor and tree could eat sleep, move on its own, talk and be angry

Question 44

What problem did Piaget give to test hypothetical thinking and what did he find?

Answer 44

Third eye problem - found that children aged 9 have conventional ideas (forehead) and children aged 11 gave more creative suggestions (hand)

Question 45

What are the ages for the pre-conceptual period and intuitive period of the pre-operational stage?

Answer 45

Pre-conceptual period =2-4 | Intuitive period = 4-7

Question 46

Name 3 cognitive errors typical of a child in the pre-operational stage

Answer 46

Animism, egocentrism and centration

Question 47

Name five mental operations a child is typically able to perform by the time they reach the concrete operational stage?

Answer 47

Conservation, compensation, serial ordering, transitivity, class inclusion

Question 48

What is accommodation?

Answer 48

A form of adaptation in which a schema is changed, or a new schema developed. in order to effectively deal with a new situation

Question 49

By which process is equilibrium restored?

Answer 49

Accommodation

Question 50

Give three criticisms of Piaget's methodology

Answer 50

- Clinical interview wasn't standardised - Small, unrepresentative sample - Assumed failure=lack of ability - Language, motivation, perceived intention - Underestimated children's ability

Question 50

Give three criticisms of Piaget's theory?

Answer 50

- Too vague - Too rigid (Horizontal D) - Sample didn't show universality. Supported by Goodnow - Vygotsky's argument - Martorano tested 12-18 year olds on formal operational stage problems and only had 2/20 succeed on all problems with 18 year olds varying 15%-95%