Psychology: Piaget’s cognitive development

Question 1

Define cognitive development

Answer 1

• One of the most influential developmental psychologists of the 20th Century
• Developed his theories of cognitive and intellectual development through studying his own children

Question 2

Why was Piaget so influential in the way we see children?

Answer 2

• Was the first to realise that children do not just know less than adults, but instead think in a completely different way
• Led to him dividing childhood into stages characterised by certain cognitive abilities

Question 3

How did Piaget suggest that we learn?

Answer 3

This theory of cognitive development is concerned with the role of motivation in development + how knowledge develops (not linear - in stages)

Question 4

Define schema

Answer 4

• A ‘package’ of beliefs & expectations on a topic that come from prior experiences
• Our representation of the world –> gets more complex as we develop through experience
• They are useful by helping us to take shortcuts in thinking, and organise and interpret information - prevent cognitive overload

Question 5

What schema are we born with?

Answer 5

Born with simple motor (movement) schema for innate behaviours e.g. grasping and sucking that allow them to interact with the world

Question 6

What is a me-schema or self-schema?

Answer 6

Me-schema constructed early in infancy - knowledge about oneself

Question 7

How does our schema develop as we learn?

Answer 7

According to Piaget, learning is just adapting our schema to a new situation so we can understand it

Question 8

What are the two ways that we build our schema according to Piaget?

Answer 8

• Assimilation (add)
• Accommodation (changing)

Question 9

Define assimilation

Answer 9

We add more information to our schema that we did not previously have before. Fits into current schema

Question 10

Define accommodation

Answer 10

Having to adopt or change schema as a result of dramatically new information

Question 11

Explain how we become motivated to learn. You must use the term equilibration

Answer 11

• We then adapt to new situation bu developing our understanding and schema –> equilibrium
• We are pushed to learn when is state of disequilibrium (state of discomfort) - our existing schema does not help us to decode an unfamiliar object / situation (uncomfortable feeling)
• Needs to happens through active exploration of our environment –> discovery learning

Question 12

What research support does Piaget’s theory of cognitive development have?

Answer 12

Howe (1992) studied children aged 9-12 who were put in groups of four to investigate the movement of objects down the slope. She found that all students improved their understanding but left the task with very different levels of understanding + had reached different conclusions

Question 13

What real-life application has Piaget’s theory of cognitive development got?

Answer 13

Schools have now taken on the idea that children learn through active exploration of their environment and have largely discarded the old-fashioned idea of teaching where students sit silently rote learning. Instead the value of lots of engaging activities and learning through discovery has been recognised and implemented into most classrooms

Question 14

How could you countercriticise this real-life application? Why is this a limitation of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development?

Answer 14

Lazonder + Harmsen’s (2016) review found that discovery learning is only useful when there was considerable input from teachers

Question 15

Compare Piaget with Vygotsky. Which theory of cognitive development may be better? Why?

Answer 15

Comparison with Vygotsky: Piaget underestimated the role that other people play in learning - saw it ultimately as an individual process and others are just sources of information. Vygotsky recognised that learning is a more social process that relies on the support - supportive evidence

Question 16

How can you criticise Piaget’s theory of cognitive development using individual differences?

Answer 16

Individual differences: the disequilibrium idea central to Piaget’s theory as this explains motivation to learn but how can this explain why there are so many individual differences in how motivated children are to learn when we are all born with the innate desire to learn?

Question 17

Evaluate the sample Piaget used. Why is this a limitation of his theory of cognitive development?

Answer 17

Narrow sample: middle class children from university professors

Question 18

How did Piaget underemphasise the role of language? Why is this a limitation?

Answer 18

Under-emphasised role of language: research shows this is not a cognitive ability learnt like any other –> uniquely distinct

Question 19

Define Piaget’s stages of intellectual development

Answer 19

• Piaget’s theory that we develop our intellectual abilities through going sequentially through 4 stages. Each stage characterised by different levels of reasoning ability (exact ages of stages differ)
• Each stage is characterised by gaining particular mental abilities

Question 20

What are the four stages of intellectual development and their ages?

Answer 20

1. Sensorimotor stage = 0-2 years
2. Pre-operational stage = 2-7 years
3. Stage of concrete operations = 7-11 years
4. Stage of formal operations = 11+

Question 21

Give the key features of the sensorimotor stage

Answer 21

• Focus on physical sensations
• Develop basic co-ordination of physical actions (go from working out how to move own body to moving other ojects)
• Understands other people as separate objects
• Acquires basic language (motor skill) (Have to co-ordinate to speak)

Question 22

What is object permanence and how did Piaget test for it? (How do we know when children have developed this ability?)

Answer 22

• Understanding of object permanence: ability to realise an object still exists when out of sight (8 months)
• Before this children lose interest as soon as object disappears (assumption they think it no longer exists) so will not reach outside of visual field (won’t happen after this stage)

Question 23

What are the key characteristics of the pre-operational stage?

Answer 23

• HAs language + is mobile
• Lacks reasoning errors in three key areas:
• Conservation (can’t do)
• Egocentrism (are egocentric - unable to decentre)
• Class-inclusion (can’t do)

Question 24

What is conservation? Give two examples of how Piaget tested for conservation abilities

Answer 24

Mathematical understanding that quantity remains the same even the appearance of the object changes
- Awareness of conservation of different develops at different develops at different ages e.g. liquid, area, weight etc
- Children typically cannot understand conservation at this age - stage more water in one glass than other (Piaget, 1964)
- Pennies and make they more spaced out

Question 25

What is egocentrism? How did they test whether children are egocentric at this age?

Answer 25

The ability to only see the world from our own point of view - Piaget + Inhelder (1956) three mountains task to show evidence of egocentrism: they were unable to describe what the doll would see (instead detailing what they see) even when they has previously seen from doll's angle

Question 26

What is class-inclusion? Give one way they can test for class-inclusion in pre-operational stage children

Answer 26

The ability to recognise that classes of objects have subcategories - an advanced categorisation skill - Children in pre-operational stage recognise things fall into classes (categories) - Pre-operational children cannot generally show class inclusion - they are unable to place things in more than one class simultaneously - Piaget + Inhelder (1964) 7-8 y/o's "are there more dogs or animals?" respond dogs (5 dogs, 2 cats)

Question 27

What are the key characteristics of the concrete operational stage?

Answer 27

- Can perform conservation + class-inclusion tasks - Improved reasoning abilities when externally verifiable --> concrete operations - collect physical evidence (from their world) to find answer - Still struggle with abstract ideas or image objects/situations they cannot see - e.g. link ideal world as this is not the world they are physically in. Can't understand philosophical ideas

Question 28

What are the key characteristics of the formal operational stage?

Answer 28

- Become capable of formal reasoning - can reason through the form of an argument rather than being distracted by content - Think philosophically - Can research through things in a scientific (logical) way + test out hypotheses (measured using Pendulum test) - Can reason through abstract ideas e.g. tested through syllogisms (scenario)

Question 29

Example of formal operational stage?

Answer 29

- "all yellow cats have two heads. I have a yellow cat called Charlie. How many heads does Charlie have" (Smith et al, 1998) - Following structure of argument - <11 y/o answer 1- become distracted by the fact it isn't grounded in reality (cats can't have two heads) >11 y/o answer 2

Question 30

What contradictory research is there for object permanence? Why is this important?

Answer 30

Challenged by Baillargeon: found children can show object permanence much younger than 8 months --> challenges validity of AGE we develop object permanence (had object permanence just could grab object)

Question 31

What contradictory research is there for conservation? Why is this important?

Answer 31

McMarrigle + Donaldson (1974) replicated conservation + had another condition where 'naughty teddy' came in + moved counters by accident - 72% (of children in pre-operational stage) gave correct answer showing they did have conservation abilities - When research moved counters themselves most children answered incorrectly

Question 32

Contradictory Research - Conservation: Why is this important?

Answer 32

- Shows impact of researcher bias - children assume researcher wouldn't ask unless they had changed something so it was the way of questioning, not the task that led to the children's answers - Suggests Piaget's age of conservation is incorrect - validity of method to test conservation lacks validity

Question 33

What contradictory research is there for egocentrism? Why is this important?

Answer 33

- Hughes (1975) used similar task to three mountains with intersecting walls, a boy and two police officers (more real-life) - Once familiar with task children age 3 and a half able to put boy in position out of sight of 1 police officer 90% of time - Children age 4 able to put boy in position out of sight of 2 police officers 90% of time

Question 34

Contradictory Research - Egocentrism: Why is this important?

Answer 34

Able to decentre much earlier than Piaget gave credit for when scenario is more sensible --> reduces the validity of method of testing Ecocentrism

Question 35

What contradictory research is there for class inclusion? Why is this important?

Answer 35

- Siegler + Svetina (2006) found children can understand class inclusion. 100 5 y/o from Slovenia tested on 10 class-inclusion tasks with explanation after each session - CONDITION 1: told more animals than dogs because 7 animals but 5 dogs - CONDITION 2: told more animals because dogs are a subcategory (true explanation) - Scores improved significantly more for condition 2 --> showed real understanding of class inclusion

Question 36

Contradictory Research - Class Inclusion: Why is this important?

Answer 36

Children < 7 y/o can understand class inclusion - Piaget underestimated their abilities + the importance of others --> reduces the validity of method of testing class-inclusion

Question 37

How could you counteract the criticism of several aspects of the pre-operational stage having contradictory research? Why is this important?

Answer 37

Core Principle Unchallenged: just methodology was incorrect - all contradictory research is contradicting the age at which children develop these abilities, not the characteristics of the stage - still used to day

Question 38

How might we explain Piaget seemingly getting the ages of each stage wrong?

Answer 38

Sample used (own children and professor's children) highly intelligent sample --> more likely to gain these abilities earlier

Question 39

How did Piaget get it wrong regarding domain-specific vs domain-general cognitive development?

Answer 39

Cannot explain why he underestimated their abilities but sample may have been too narrow to draw full conclusions because they were professors kids we would have thought he would have underestimated development (young) but he went to old