Theories of Cognitive Development (CH 4) Flashcards

1
Q

What are the 3 advantages of knowing theories?

A
  • Provide framework for understanding important phenomena
  • Raise crucial questions about human nature
  • Lead to a better understanding of kids
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2
Q

What was Piaget’s theory?

A

-Cognitive development involves a sequence of 4 stages that are constructed through the process of Assimilation, Accomodation & Equilibrium

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3
Q

What were the 4 stages that Piaget described?

A
  • Sensorimotor (Birth- 2 yrs)
  • Preoperational (2-7 yrs)
  • Concrete Operational (7-12 yrs)
  • Formal Operational (12 & up)
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4
Q

What was Piaget’s view on the child’s Nature?

A
  • Constructivist= kids constructing knowledge for themselves in response to their experience
  • Involves 3 Constructive processes
  • Kids are motivated to learn
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5
Q

What are the 3 Constructive process that Piaget described?

A
  • Generating Hypothesis
  • Performing experiment
  • Drawing conclusions from observations
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6
Q

What role does Nature & Nurture play in Piaget’s theory?

A
  • Nature= maturing brain & body, ability to perceive/ act & learn via experience & to integrate observations into coherent knowledge
  • Nurture= Nurturing from parents, caregivers, & every experience encountered
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7
Q

What is the Assimilation Process of Piaget’s theory?

A

-The Incorporation of incoming info into concepts that they already understand

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8
Q

What is the Accommodation Process of Piaget’s theory?

A

-The improvement of their current understanding in response to new experiences

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9
Q

What is the Equilibrium Process of Piaget’s theory?

A
  • The balance of assimilation & accommodation to create a stable understanding
  • Consists of 3 phases= Equilibrium, Disequilibrium, Advanced Equilibrium
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10
Q

What is the Equilibrium phase of the Equilibrium Process of Piaget’s Theory?

A

-The satisfaction with understanding of particular phenomena

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11
Q

What is the Disequilibrium phase of the Equilibrium Process of Piaget’s Theory?

A

-The realization of short comings & not being able to create a superior alternative

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12
Q

What is the Advanced Equilibrium phase of the Equilibrium Process of Piaget’s Theory?

A
  • Having a more sophisticated understanding which eliminates short comings
  • Broader range of observations can be understood
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13
Q

Why is Piaget’s Theory considered to be discontinuous

A
  • His theory is depicted as stages
  • The transition between stages is a discontinuous intellectual leap from one coherent way of understanding to higher way
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14
Q

What are the 4 central properties of Piaget’s Theory?

A
  • Qualitative change
  • Broad applicability
  • Brief transitions
  • Invariant sequence
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15
Q

What is the Qualitative Change property of Piaget’s Theory?

A
  • Kids at different ages think qualitatively in different ways
  • Kids in the early development of cognitive development conceive morality in terms of consequences of behavior vs kids in the latter conceive it in person’s intent
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16
Q

What is the Broad Applicability property of Piaget’s Theory?

A

-Thinking characteristics of each stage influences thinking across diverse topics & contexts

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17
Q

What is the Brief Transitions property of Piaget’s theory?

A
  • Before entering a new stage is the brief transitions period
  • Fluctuate between characteristics of new & old stage & the thinking characteristics of the old one
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18
Q

What is the Invariant Sequence Property of Piaget’s theory?

A

-Every kid progresses though the same order of stages (no skipping)

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19
Q

What is the 1st stage of Cognitive Development according to Piaget?

A
  • Sensorimotor stage (birth-2 yrs)
  • Intelligence is expressed through sensory & motor abilities to perceive & explore the world around them
  • Infants construct rudimentary forms of fundamental concepts (space, time, etc)
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20
Q

What is the 2nd stage of Cognitive Development according to Piaget?

A
  • Preoperational stage (2-7 yrs)
  • Able to present experiences in language & mental imagery which helps them remember longer & in the formation of sophisticated concepts
  • They aren’t able to perform certain mental operations that consider multiple dimensions simultaneously which hinders them to form certain ideas
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21
Q

What is the 3rd stage of Cognitive Development according to Piaget?

A
  • Concrete Operational stage (7-12 yrs)
  • Kids can reason logically about concrete objects & events
  • BUT can’t think in purely abstract terms
  • Can generate systematic scientific experiments to test beliefs
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22
Q

What is the 4th stage of Cognitive Development according to Piaget?

A
  • Formal Operational (12 & up)
  • Able to think deeply about concrete, abstract, & purely hypothetical situations
  • Able to preform systematic scientific experiments to test beliefs
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23
Q

What behaviors are demonstrated during birth to the first month in the Sensorimotor stage according to Piaget?

A
  • Flailing, sucking, grasping

- Then they start to have the ability to modify their reflexes to make them more adaptive & effective per situation

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24
Q

What behaviors are demonstrated during the first few months to the middle of their first year in the Sensorimotor stage according to Piaget?

A
  • Organization of separate reflexes to larger behaviors that are mostly centered around body
  • Then they’re are increasingly curious about the world & they shift to repetitions of actions that bring pleasure/ interesting results
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25
Q

What behaviors are demonstrated during 8 months to the end of the first year in the Sensorimotor stage according to Piaget?

A
  • Lack object permanence
  • Then they start to look for hidden objects bc they mentally represent the objects continuing presence
  • May have A-not-B error which is where they reach for the place where the object was last shown rather than looking at the new location
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26
Q

What behaviors are demonstrated during the last 18-24 months in the Sensorimotor stage according to Piaget?

A

-They’re able to form enduring mental representations which is the first sign of Deferred Imitation

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27
Q

What behaviors are demonstrated in the Preoperational Stage according to Piaget?

A
  • Development of symbolic representations= the use of an object, word, though to stand for another
  • Kids rely more on conventional symbols
  • Egocentricism
  • Centration= limitation in thinking where kid focuses in on a single perceptually striking feature & ignoring the rest
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28
Q

What behaviors are demonstrated in the Concrete Operational stage according to Piaget?

A
  • Kids are starting to reason logically about concrete features of the world
  • Development of conservation concept
  • Still can’t think in hypothetical terms which in term causes difficulty in performing unsystematic experiments & drawing incorrect conclusions
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29
Q

What behaviors are demonstrated in the Formal Operational stage according to Piaget?

A
  • They’re able to think abstractly & reason hypothetically
  • Able to create systematic experiments
  • THIS STAGE IS NOT UNIVERSAL
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30
Q

What are the weaknesses of Piaget’s theory?

A
  • It’s vague about mechs that give rise to kid’s thinking & that the mechs that produce cognitive growth
  • Infant’s & younger kids are actually more cognitively competent than what Piaget thought
  • It understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development
  • The stage model depicts kid’s thinking as being more consistant than it actually is
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31
Q

What are Information Processing Theories?

A
  • They emphasize precise characteristics of mechs that give rise to the child’s thinking & that produce cognitive growth
  • They’re a class of theories that focus on structure of the cognitive system & mental activities that are used to deploy attention & memory to solve problems
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32
Q

What is Task Analysis?

A

-A researching technique that’s used to identify goals, relevant info in the environment & potential processing strategies for a problem

33
Q

How does Information Processing Theories view the kid’s nature?

A
  • Cognitive development occurs continuously in small increments
  • Happens at different ages on different tasks
  • Child has limited capacity of processing systems
  • Child as problem solver
34
Q

How is the child limited according to Information Processing Theories?

A

-Their thinking is limited by memory capacity, speed of thought, availability of useful strategies & knowledge

35
Q

How does a child surpass processing limitations according to Information Processing Theories?

A
  • Expanding amounts of info that is processed at one time
  • Increasing processing speeds
  • Acquiring new strategies & knowledge
36
Q

Why does Information Processing Theories view the child as a problem solver?

A
  • Children are active problem solvers
  • Problem-solving involves strategies for overcoming obstacles & attaining goals
  • Kid’s flexible cognitive helps them attain their goals
37
Q

What are central to Information Processing Theories?

A

-Distinguish Working Memory, Long Term Memory, Executive Functions

38
Q

What is Working Memory?

A
  • Actively attaining to gathering, maintaining, processing info
  • Limited capacity & length of time where it can retain info in an active state w/o updating activities (varies w/ age)
39
Q

How does Working Memory Function in a child’s brain & what parts of the brain mature?

A
  • The capacity of WM increases during childhood, infancy & adolescence bc of the increases knowledge of content
  • Maturational changes in the brain also influence this increase (Prefrontal C, Frontal L, Primary Motor C, Parietal L, Hippocampus, Occipital L, Cerebellum, Temporal L)
40
Q

What is Long Term Memory?

A
  • Knowledge that people accumulate over their lifetime
  • Retains unlimited amount of info for unlimited amount of time
  • Includes factual, conceptual, attitudes, reasoning, strategic knowledge
41
Q

What is Executive Function?

A
  • Involves the control of cognition which is located @ Prefrontal Cortex
  • Increases during preschool & early elementary years
  • Inhibits habitual responses
  • Related to benefits that children derive from instruction in order for them to gain other skills
  • 3 Functions overall
42
Q

What are the 3 functions of the Executive Function?

A
  • Inhibiting rising temptations
  • Enhancing WM= selectively attending to most important info
  • Cognitively flexible= gives kids the ability to imagine someone else’s perspective in an argument even if they’re different
43
Q

What are the 3 types of capabilities of Memory Development?

A
  • Basic processes
  • Strategies
  • Current knowledge
44
Q

How does the Basic Processes ability help with Memory Development?

A
  • Associating events w/ one another
  • Recognizing objects as familiar
  • Recalling facts/ procedures
  • Generalizing from one instance to another
  • Encoding!
45
Q

What plays a key role in Memory Development and why?

A
  • Improved processing speed bc it helps with problem solving, learning
  • Improved processing speed increases more rapidly at young ages & continues to increase in adolensence
46
Q

What happens in the brain when processesing time is imrpoved?

A

-Myelination & increased connectivity amoung brain regions which allows for more direct transmissions

47
Q

How do Strategies help in Memory Development?

A

-Ages between 5-8 being to use memory strategies like rehearsal

48
Q

How does Current Knowledge help with Memory Development?

A
  • Improves recall of new material by making it easier to integrate it w/ exisiting understanding
  • Improves memory through improving encoding
  • Content knowledge indicates what is/ is not useful & guides memory in useful directions
49
Q

What is the Overlapping Waves Theory?

A
  • It’s the informational Processing approach that emphasizes the variability in children’s thinking & problem solving in wide range of contexts (arithmetic, time-telling, reading, spelling, scientific experimentation, biological understanding, tool use)
  • Most kids use 3 different strategies
50
Q

How do the strategies of Overlapping Waves Theory progress at the child gets older?

A

-Youngest children will use the simplest strategy (1) but sometimes use 2 or 3
-W/ age & experience strategies that produce more effective outcome will be used regularly
By mid age, strategies 3 & 5 are added but 1 is no longer used

51
Q

How does planning Improve Problem Solving?

A

-Prefrontal Cortex along w/ experiences that reduce overoptimism lead to increases in frequency & quality of planning

52
Q

What are Core Knowledge Theories?

A
  • Approaches that show kids as having some innate knowledge in domains of special evolutionary importance
  • Also in domain specific learning mechs for rapidly & effortlessly aqcuiring aditional info in those domains
53
Q

How do Core Knowledge Theories view kid’s nature?

A
  • Depicts kids as active learners
  • Come into this world w/ general learning abilities but w/ also specialized learning mechs/ structures
  • This allows them to quickly & effortlessly acquire info of evolutionary importance
54
Q

What does Piagetan & Information Processing Theories have in common?

A
  • Agree that children enter the world equipped w/ only general learning capabilities
  • These allow them to slowly increase their understanding of all types of content
55
Q

What basic understandings do children have according to Core Knowledge Theories?

A
  • They’re domain specific (limited to particular area)
  • Allows them to distinguish between living & non living things, know that inanimate objects are stationary & know that animals move on their own
56
Q

What is the Theory of Mind Module?

A
  • Produces learning about ones own & other people’s mind
  • Different mechs for learning about faces, language, movement, etc
  • These different mechs produce development in each domain
57
Q

Who are Nativists?

A

-Those that emphasize INNATE knowledge

58
Q

Who are Constructivists?

A

-Those that emphasize the generation of increasingly sophisticated domain-specific theories on top of innate foundation

59
Q

What are the 4 Core knowledge systems of Nativism?

A
  • The representation of inanimate objects & their mechanical interactions
  • The representation of minds of people & other animals are capable of goal-oriented actions
  • Represents #s of objects & events
  • Represents spatial layouts & geometric relations
60
Q

What is Language Acquisition device?

A
  • Specialized learning mechs that enables kids to rapidly master complicated systems of grammar rules in human language
  • Since it’s universal it is a characteristic of domains that are important
61
Q

What does Constructivism emphasize?

A
  • Kids actively organize their understanding of most important domains into informal theories
  • So they’ll have naive theories about physics, biology, psychology all of which share important characteristics w/ formal scientific theories
  • Of course these theories grow more compex w/ age & experience
62
Q

What characteristics do the naive theories that kids develop have in common with formal theories according to Constructivism?

A
  • Identification of fundmental units for dividing relevant objects & events into few basic categories
  • Explaination of many phenomena in terms of fundemental principles
  • Explaination of events in terms of unobservable causes
63
Q

What are Socio Cultural Theories?

A
  • Emphasize that much of cognitive development takes place through direct interactions between kids & others who want to help kids gain skills, knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, valued by their culture
  • Emphasize guided participation, intersubjectivity, social interaction= social scaffolding
64
Q

What is Guided Participation?

A

-Process where older/ more knowledgable people organize activities in ways that allow less knowledable people to learn

65
Q

What are Cultural Tools?

A

-Symbol systems, artifacts, skills, values, & many other ways in which culture influences our thinking

66
Q

How does Socio Cultural Theories view kid’s nature?

A
  • Potray kids as social learners intertwined w/ people who help them gain skills & knowledge
  • Emphasizes gradual continuous changes
  • View language & thought as internally integrated
  • 3 phases of its role in the development of kids ability to regulate their behavior
67
Q

What are the 3 phases of the kid’s regulation of their own behavior according to Socio-Culture Theories?

A
  • Behavior is controlled by other’s statements
  • Behavior is controlled by own private speech (they tell themselves what to do)
  • Behavior is controlled by internalized speech (thought, mostly occurs 4-6 yrs)
68
Q

Why are children considered to be teachers & learners according to Socio-Culture Theories?

A
  • They start to have an inclination to teach as young as 1 yrs old
  • Inclination to learn & carry on culture & survive
69
Q

How are children a product of their own culture according to Socio-Cultural Theories?

A
  • The processes that produce development are the same across all cultures BUT the content that are being taught to them (skills, values, systems, etc) are different
  • Kid’s memories of their own experiences reflect their culture
70
Q

What is Intersubjectivity?

A
  • Mutual understanding that people share during communication
  • Evident as early as 6mos bc they start to learn behaviors by observation
  • Involves Joint-Attention
  • Infants @ 8-18 mos often tend to imitate & learn new labels from competent adults
  • This continues to develop beyond infancy= increased ability to consider perspectives, teach & learn of other people
71
Q

What is Joint Attention?

A
  • Process where social partners intentionally focus on common referent in external environment
  • So infants would look @ objects that are targets of their social partners gaze
  • Contributes to increased abilty to learn language, evaluate competence of others & who to imitate
72
Q

What is Social Scaffolding?

A
  • More competent people provide framework that supports kid’s thinking @ a higher level
  • Higher quality of S.S = Increased learning
  • Involves EXPLICIT instruction & explanation vs in guided participation where adults organize activities so that kids take on roles
  • Help’s kids w/ autobiographical memories (explicit memories of events that took place @ specific times & places)
73
Q

What are Dynamic Systems Theories?

A
  • Focus on how changes in actions occur over time in complex physical & biological systems
  • “Dynamic”= depict development as a process where change is the only constant
  • All points in development, thought, action change from moment to moment in response to current situations &childs immediate past as well as longer term history in similar situations
74
Q

How do the Dynamic Systems Theories view child’s nature?

A

-Emphasize child’s innate motivation to explore environment, develop precise analysis of problem-solving, focus on infants & toddlers early competence, formative influences of other people

75
Q

What is Motivators of Development according to Dynamic Systems Theories?

A
  • Infancy & onwards kids are strongly motivated to learn more about the world around them
  • INSIST on practicing new skill even if they already possess a more effective skill
  • Interest in social world is a crucial motivator of development bc @ 10-12 mos they’re already apparent on the emergence of intersubjectivity
76
Q

What is the Centrality of Action according to Dynamic Systems Theories?

A
  • Actions contribute to development throughout life (reaching & grabbing in infancy)
  • Actions influence categorization
  • Actions effect vocab acquisition & generalization of memory
  • Thinking shapes actions, actions shapes thinking
77
Q

What are the 2 issues of Dynamic Systems Theories?

A
  • Self Organization

- Mechanisms of change

78
Q

What is Self Organization according to Dynamic Systems Theories?

A
  • View development as process of self organization
  • Integrates attention, memory, emotions, actions needed to adapt to continous changing enviornment
  • Soft-Assembly= components & their organization must change from moment to moment
79
Q

What are the Mechanisms of change according to the Dynamic Systems Theory?

A
  • Changes occur through mechanism of variation & selection that are analogous= produce biological evolution
  • Variation= use of behaviors to pursue same goal
  • Selection= increasingly frequent choice of behaviors that are effective in meeting goals
  • Both variation & selection= influenced by successes, efficiency, novelty