Cog Dev

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What did Piaget believe that we are all born with?
Basic mechanisms to allow cognitive development
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What were the 5 mechanisms that Piaget believed we were all born with?
Schema; Assimiliation; Accomodation; Equilibrium; Operations
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What is a 'schema'? (Piaget)
A self-constructed programme for dealing with the world
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What is 'assimilation'? (Piaget)
Occurs when existing schema is used on new objects or scenarios
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What is 'accommodation'?
Adopts schema to understand new information
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What will happen if the child cannot assimilate or accommodate the new object or situation?
They will be in a state of disequilibrium until they achieve equilibrium by discovering what to do with the new information
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What are 'operations'? (Piaget)
All of the schemas combine to form 'operations' which develop an understanding of logical mental rules, i.e. arithmetic
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In Piaget's theory of cognitive development, what do children encounter as they move through the process of maturation to enable them to develop more complex abilities?
Stages of development
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How many 'stages of development' are there in Piaget's theory?
5
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What are the stages of development in Piaget's theory?
Sensorimotor stage, 0-2 yrs, object permanence; Pre-oper stage, 2-7 yrs, egocentric, symbolisation, animism; Concrete oper stage, 7-11 yrs, conservation, decentration, operations; Formal oper stage, 11 yr, abstract thinking, moral reasoning, idealism
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Piaget believed in the process of maturation. What other similar approach did he believe in?
Readiness approach
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What was Piaget's Three Mountains Task?
Pre-oper children; small doll placed on mountain & gave children photos from various angles; "What can the doll see?"; results were egocentric as pre-oper children were unable to show the doll's viewpoint, explaining their own instead
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What is evidence for Piaget's 'object permanence'?
Sensorimotor stage infants; covered toy with cloth; as the children stopped reaching for it, this proved that they had no mental schema that things continue to exist even when they're out of sight
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What is evidence for Piaget's 'conservation'?
Pre-oper children failed to realise that the quantity of an object remains the same even if the appearance changes; water in beakers
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What is the cross-cultural similarity of Piaget's theory of cognitive development?
Studies suggest that children of all backgrounds reach developmental milestones at around the same time; supports 'process of maturation'
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What are criticisms/limitations of Piaget's theory?
Underestimated the ages at which chil progress from one stage to the next; ignored the influence of other people on a child's dev; $said that practice & teaching wouldn't speed up progression, said that language wasn't impor - all unlike Vygotsky!
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What is evidence that supports the criticism of Piaget that he underestimated the ages at which children progressed from one stage to the next?
Mcgarrigle & Donaldson 'Naughty Teddy'; showed that pre-oper children could understand the concept of conservation if it's presented in a context that is meaningful for children/drew on familiar situations
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What is evidence that supports Mcgarrigle & Donaldson's criticism of Piaget that his tasks lacked human sense & children would understand them better if they were presented in a familiar context?
Hughes; pre-oper children; 3D model of 2 intersecting walls with doll & policeman; "Put the boy where the policeman can't see him"; 90% of children did it correctly, even when Hughes added more dolls & walls
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What did Vygotsky believe all children are born with & what is this then transformed into?
Elementary mental functions (perception, memory); higher mental functions (decision-making)
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Vygotsky argues that the child learns best through problem-solving experiences... with who?
MKOs guide the child through the problem-solving until responsibility is transferred to child based on their capability - scaffolding
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Describe Vygotsky's scaffolding method.
MKOs guide the child through the problem-solving until responsibility is transferred to child based on their capability
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What is ZPD?
Zone of proximal developmentl; represents the gap between the child's actual knowledge, and their potential knowledge
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What was Vygotsky's view about language in cognitive development?
Driving influence; 3 stages of language
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According to Vygotsky, what are the 3 stages of language involved in cognitive development?
Pre-intellectual speech, egocentric speech, inner speech
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What is Vygotsky's pre-intellectual speech?
Shared dialogue between the adult and the child (pre-2 years)
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What is Vygotsky's egocentric speech?
Child's oral use of language to solve problems (2-7 years)
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What is Vygotsky's inner speech?
Begin to internalize speech to reflect on & solve problems, allowing them to move from simple to complex reasoning (7+); if an older person finds a task difficult, they may re-employ egocentric speech to exert greater control over their thoughts
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What is evidence for the success of Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development?
McNaughton & Leyland
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Describe McNaughton & Leyland's study as evidence for Vygotsky's theory?
Obs children work with mothers on jigsaw puzzle & obs them 1 week later on their own; children reached higher difficulty with their mothers than on their own; greatest teaching input occurred at edge of ZPD where the child copes but is challenged
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What is another study that supports Vygotsky's scaffolding method?
Wood & Middleton
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Describe Wood & Middleton's study as evidence for Vygotsky's theory.
Recorded mothers teaching child to put together a tower; diff types of support ranging from general suggestions to physical demonstrations; successful MKOS were those who adjusted help subtly, stepping up & backing off according to child's capability
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What is a technique that Vygotsky used as an example of the importance of the role of others in a child's cognitive devleopment?
Peer mentoring
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What study supports the role of peer mentoring in a child's cognitive development?
Tzuriel & Shamir; seriation tasks; those who experienced class on scaffolding made more improvement than the control group; mismatch of cognitive abilities also helped
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What did Berk find out about the use of egocentric speech & what do the results show about the role of language in Vygotsky's theory?
Students who used egocentric speech did better in a maths problem, supporting the notion that language is a cognitive tool
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What are criticisms to Vygotsky's theory?
Too formal & teacher-oriented; based on role of MKOs; could lead to focusing too much on child's future attainments & exerting pressure on them to start complex reasoning, ignoring the growth of imagination
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What is an example of a Vygotskian-inspired approach that failed?
Soviet schools; little room for collaborative learning & the teacher was the sole transmitter of knowledge rather than peers
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What is a key factor of the development of a child's sense of self?
Self-recognition
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Explain self-recognition in the development of a child's sense of self.
Birth, turns its head in response to person touching their cheek rather than if they do it themselves; 4 mon, prefer to look at videos of other people; 9 mon, will look into mirr w no recog; 15 mon, rub red dye from its nose if it sees it in mirror
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What is the development of a sense of self also sensitive to?
The social world
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What is a crucial feature of the social world in the development of a child's sense of self?
Language, learns to distinguish themselves from others through the use of personal pronouns
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What is developed through the social world in the development of a child's sense of self? (CLUE: ToM)
Theory of mind, understanding the link between beliefs of people & their behaviour, predicts what they will do because of this
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What is evidence for the development of a child's sense of self & theory of mind?
False belief tasks; Wimmer & Perner
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Describe Wimmer & Perner's study as support for the development of a child's sense of self.
Used two dolls - Maxi & mother - to assess whether child understands that other people hold diff beliefs/false beliefs; chlid is asked where Maxi will look for chocolate; children under 4/children over 4 SO ToM by 4 years old
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What is a strength of Wimmer & Perner's study?
Based on a story that children can understand
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What is a limitation of Wimmer & Perner's study?
Linguistically ambiguous, children could misinterpret as "Where SHOULD Maxi look for the chocolate?"
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What study solved the issue of linguistically ambiguous tasks by using gestures that children mirror?
Repacholi & Gopnik
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What was Repacholi & Gopniks study based on?
Desire reasoning
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Describe Repacholi & Gopnik's study into the development of a child's sense of self & ToM.
Experimenter showed disgust at eating one kind of food, and then pleasure at eating another; 14 mon responded egocentrically & chose the food that they preferred, whereas 18 mon determined when the exp's desires differed from their own
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How was research about the development of a sense of self been applied to autism?
Baron-Cohen used variation of Wimmer & Perner false belief task but used typically & atypically developing children; Sally and Ann, moved marble; DS and typical children answered correctly, only 20% of autistic children answered correcty
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What percentage of autistic children answered Baron-Cohen's false belief task correctly?
20%
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Why do researchers believe that the development of a sense of child is a matter of both nature & nurture?
Baron-Cohen suggests that autism is extreme manifestation of male brain, effect of fetal testosterone; evidence that ToM can be taught to people through interventions in order to help them learn to recognise feelings of others
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What are the 3 important ways of applying Piaget's theory of cognitive development to education?
Readiness (occurs as a result of maturation); stages of development (concept of readiness); motivation to learn (cognitive growth comes from desire to resolve disequilibrium caused by cognitive conflict - discovery learning)
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What are the 3 important ways of applying Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development to education?
Collaborative/guided learning; peer tutoring; scaffolding
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What is evidence for Piaget's theory to education?
Danner & Day; students aged 10-13 were tutored on 3 formal oper tasks & showed no improvement, but 17 yrs improved because they were mature enough; practice made no difference & when it did, child was just repeating, NOT learning
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What is evidence against Piaget's theory to education?
Bryant & Trabasco; pre-oper children could be trained to solve logical tasks, when pre-oper children practiced solving simple problems & built up to complex problems, they coped; Piaget underestimated them
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What are 2 criticisms of Piaget's theory to education?
Underestimated children; downplayed role of language
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What is evidence for Vygotsky's theory to education?
Wood & Middleton (scaffolding); Tzuriel & Shamir (peer mentoring
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What are 2 criticisms of Vygotsky's theory to education?
Practical diffs, assessing ZPD of all children in class is time-consuming; over-emphasis on social/cultural factors while ignoring biological factors
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What are Kohlberg's stages of moral development?
Pre-conventional, understands issues of right & wrong imposed by adults, do things that are reward & avoid those that are punished; conventional, moral rules of social group are internalised; post-conventional, moral decision according to own values
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What is evidence for Kohlberg's theory of moral understanding?
MJI; Heinz dilemma, part asked to comment on & justify, results showed that children demonstrated progress through states as they predicted
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What is another piece of evidence for Kohlberg's theory of moral understanding?
Colby; longitudinal; interviewed Kohlberg's part every 3 yrs over a 20 yr period; most reached stage 2 by 10 years, stage 3-4 by 22; provides validity to Kohlberg's study
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What is a strength of Kohlberg's theory/MJI?
Cross-sectional & longitudinal that meet the same conclusion, so adding validity; unstructured interview builds complex image
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What is a limitation of Kohlberg's theory/MJI?
Hypothetical situation; gender bias
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What is a challenge to Kohlberg's theory in relation to gender bias?
Gilligan; Kohlberg is wrong to suggest the moral understanding of women is inferior to men, it's just different; socialisation produces a different voice based on caring rather than justice; w reach s3 (pleasing others) while m reach s4 (authority)
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What are Selman's 5 stages in the development of children's understanding of others (perspective-taking)?
Egocentric - governed by own perspective; social-informational, believe diff perspectives bc of diff info; self-reflective, can't consider 2 perspectives at same time; mutual; societal
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What is Selman's evidence for the development of children's understanding of others?
Selman's role-taking dilemma; Holly hurts herself falling off of a tree, her father makes her promise not to do it again, friend's cat gets stuck in a tree, Holly wants to get the cat but she knows she'll be punished
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What is the debate surrounding the development of children's understanding of others?
Separate modules - develop at diff times, e.g. autistic children can understand intentions of others but don't develop TofM; OR interdependent continuum, e.g. children with sensory impairments slow down dev & in turn slow down TofM
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What are 3 criticisms of Selman's development of children's understanding of others?
Lack of validity due to hypothetical dilemmas; perspective-taking is more complex than 5 stages; Selman's stages aren't able to explain new kinds of rel with new tech where normal social exchanges don't apply SO limited usefulness
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What is evidence for Selman's development of children's understanding of others? (which also links to Piaget)
Keating & Clark; rel between stages of cog dev, e.g. pre-oper utilised first Selman stage, formal oper utilised final Selman stage SO perspective-taking might be incl in process of maturation
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What are 3 biological explanations of social cognition?
Pre-frontal cortex; limbic system; mirror neuron system
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Describe the pre-frontal cortex as a biological explanation of social cognition.
Involved in a range of high level cognitive functions, e.g. decision-making, planning, inhibiting inappropriate behaviours, social interaction, enabling us to understand others
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Describe the limbic system as a biological explanation of social cognition.
Involved in emotion processing, enables us to recognise & interpret facial emotions in others, organises emotional responses, gives reward feeling to enjoyable social exp & taking risks
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Describe the mirror neuron system as a biological explanation of social cognition.
N fire when animal makes meaningful movement & when it obs another animal making same movement; humans, the n involved in prod facial expre fire when facial expre are obs in others; the foundation of our abilities to empathise & understand others
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What is evidence for the importance of the pre-frontal cortex in social cognition?
Blakemore; grey matter in pre-frontal cortex declines after puberty, explains diff between adult part and part in late adoles on pers-taking tasks
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What is an example of a Blakemore perspective-taking task that explains the importance of the pre-frontal cortex in social cognition?
When asked to take into account the pers of a 'director' when moving objects in a comp sim task, part aged 14-17 perform less well than adults, SO adoles think diff to adults bc their brains, part p-f cortex, are not at the same stage of bio maturat
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According to Blakemore, social development is a product of both...?
nature/nurture
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What is evidence for the presence of mirror neurons in social cognition?
Mukamel; activity from neurons was recorded as brain surgery patients obs and perf grasping actions & facial gestures; the neurons fired both when the ind perf a task & when they obs a task
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What is a strength of Mukamel's study of mirror neurons in social cognition?
Offers direct evidence for the presence of neurons which are active both when an action is carried out & when it is observed
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What is a limitation of Mukamel's study of mirror neurons in social cognition?
Has not been replicated; cannot be sure how widespread mirror neurons are in the brain & how important in social cognition
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How can research into mirror neurons be applied to autism?
Broken mirror hypothesis suggests that abnormalities in the way mirror neurons work is a fundamental cause of autism - shown in brain patterns of autistic children
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What is a limitation of the broken mirror hypothesis as an explanation of autism?
Complex; evidence for the importance of mirror neurons & how they interact generally, let alone in autism, is weak
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Card 2

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What were the 5 mechanisms that Piaget believed we were all born with?

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Schema; Assimiliation; Accomodation; Equilibrium; Operations

Card 3

Front

What is a 'schema'? (Piaget)

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What is 'assimilation'? (Piaget)

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What is 'accommodation'?

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Preview of the front of card 5
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