Term
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Definition
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•Swiss zoologist
•Lived from 1896 – 1980
•Published his first professional paper at age 11
•Became interested in epistemology or the study of the origin of knowledge
•Worked for a short while with Binet who developed the first IQ test
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Term
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Definition
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•Cognition is the activity of knowing, and the processes through which knowledge is acquired
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•Cognitive development refers to the changes that occur in mental abilities over the lifespan
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Term
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Definition
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•How humans gain knowledge: schemes and processes
–Schemes are
•organized
•inter-related memories, thoughts, and strategies
•which organize behavior to respond to the environment
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–Two types of schemes
•action schemes
•mental schemes, which are called operations
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Term
| Adaptation (of schemes) allows adjustment to the environment |
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Definition
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•Assimilation--incorporation of elements in the environment into existing schemes
•e.g., child has a scheme for what birds are, and calls blue jays and sparrows birds
•e.g., child sees a bat and calls it a bird
•Accommodation--modification of existing schemes due to environmental demands
•e.g., child sees a bat, calls it a bird, is corrected, and now calls them bats
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Term
| Four Stages of Cognitive Development: Sensorimotor |
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Definition
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•Sensorimotor (birth-2):
–Progression from reflexive action at birth to the beginning of symbolic thought
–Understanding of the world is constructed by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions
•Initial insights from observation of his own three children
•His wife, Valentine, also contributed
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Term
| Four Stages of Cognitive Development: last 3 |
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Definition
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•Preoperational (2-7):
–Children begin to represent the world with words and images
–These words and images reflect increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the connection of sensory information with physical action
•Concrete operations (7-11 or 12):
–Children can now reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different sets
•Formal operations:
–Adolescents reason in more abstract and logical ways; thought is more idealistic
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Term
| Sensorimotor Stage: Development of Problem-Solving Abilities |
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Definition
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Composed of six sub-stages
1.Simple reflexes undergo modification with experience (birth - 1 month)
2.Primary circular reactions (1-4 months); centers on own body
•e.g., opening and closing fist
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3.Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months): centers around objects in the environment
•e.g., accidentally kicks mobile and repeats kicking while observing movement
4.Coordination of secondary schemes (8-12 months)
•e.g., uses a pattern of action to achieve a goal--by pushing an obstacle away to get a toy; clear intention
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5. Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months)
•repeats actions to observe effect--moving a pillow with hands, feet, head
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clearly experimenting through trial
and error
6.Emergence of symbolic thought (18-24 months)
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ability to represent or symbolize actions or events without having to act the
m out
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Term
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Development of Object Permanence
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Definition
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•Objects continue to exist even when they are not directly observed
•Progression of development
–looks for object only when directly available
–looks at location where object disappeared
–looks for object where hidden, but not if displaced more than once
–looks for objects through multiple displacements
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Object permanence appears at about 8-12 months
•Object permanence completed by about 18-24 months
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Term
| Preoperational Stage (2-7 years) |
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Definition
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•Essential characteristic--treat objects as symbolic of other things, e.g., pushes a block as if it was a car
•Uses language
•Called “pre-” because child doesn’t have some “operations”
•Beginning to acquire the operation of conservation
–Does not realize that properties of objects do not change just because appearance changes
–To do so requires the ability to
•“decentrate” (look at properties simultaneously)
• “reverse” actions (mentally undo action)
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Term
| Types of conservation tasks |
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Definition
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•number
•mass
•length
•liquids
•area
•weight
•volume
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Term
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Definition
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•Preoperational child doesn’t understand relational terms --thinks absolutely, not relatively
–For example, will interpret “darker” as meaning very dark, rather than darker as compared to darkness of something else
–Concepts like taller than, bigger than are difficult
Doesn’t have mental representation of series of actions or events
–For example, 4 year old can walk three blocks to friend’s house, but can’t draw picture--knows turns,
but can’t mentally represent the route
•Have difficulty with class inclusion, which is reasoning simultaneously about a part of the whole and the whole
–For example, if you give a child 8 pink candies and 3 chocolate and ask “are there more pink candies, or candies”, child
will say “pink”
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Preoperational child lacks ability of serialization, i.e., arrangement of objects in order of some quantified dimension,
e.g., length, size
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Term
| Preoperational Thought has Two Substages |
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Definition
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•Preconceptual stage (2-4 years)
–uses language to help develop concepts
–tries to use new linguistic forms to help control behavior, more or less successfully
•e.g., child says “too much water--I’ll spill” and spills it
–Can classify objects on basis of one conspicuous feature, but can’t classify on more than one variable
•For example, give children red trucks, green trucks, red cars, and green cars, they can classify into 2, but not 4 groups
–Noted for animistic thinking (examples?)
–Egocentricity-view world from own perspective; trouble recognizing other’s point of view
Intuitive stage
(4-7 years)
–dominated by linguistic system, not perceptual field, e.g., successfully uses language to solve problems
–can now form multiple classifications
–difficulty still with seriation, and some forms of conservation
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Term
Concrete Operations (7-11 years)
(Concrete Operations, 1:46) |
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Definition
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•Thinking is more flexible because of
–More sophisticated thinking about reversibility of operations
–Decreased centration
–Decreased egocentricity
•Use internal mental activity to modify symbols to reach a logical conclusion
•Forming concepts of space and time
•Yet, still tied to the “immediate” world, solving problems for which components are physically available
•Can use multiple classification, even when there are subtle distinctions
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Term
| Formal Operations (Abstract/hypothetical, 1:49) |
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Definition
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•Characteristics
–possibility dominates reality
–deals with abstract propositions, not only objects
–can hypothesize and systematically test hypotheses
–thinking is combinatorial
•several factors may operate to produce an effect
•For example, examine combinatorial thought by asking children to solve the following problem:
•“Here are four clear liquids. Here is another liquid (also clear), which we’ll call ‘g’. I want you to see what combination of liquids will produce a yellow color.”
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Term
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Definition
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•Important difference is systematic approach
•Concrete operational children
– haphazard in creating combinations
– fail to remember what combination produced a particular result
•Formal operational thinking is
–Flexible
–Deal with problems in several ways
–Not overwhelmed by unexpected results
These characteristics allow for
–proportions, ratios, probability
–e.g., concrete operational child will answer differently to the question “which do you think will show up next--heads or tails” after being told that heads has shown up 4 times in a row
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Term
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•Formal operational thinking extends to many areas of life
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Definition
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–Ability to consider abstract and theoretical topics, e.g., political, philosophical, religious/spiritual
–Think about what is possible
–Questions others
–Obtained a stable identity
–“The possible and the ideal captivate both mind and feeling”
•Some adolescents and adults do not seem capable of formal operations
–Possible reasons for observed lack of universality
•unstimulating environment
•may only be used in situations that are viewed as “interesting” or “important”
•limited observation procedures
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Term
| Contributions of Piaget’s theory |
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Definition
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First researcher to suggest that children actively “construct” their own knowledge
•Described the processes of development
•Descriptions of the general sequence of development are fairly accurate
•Theory prompted much research into cognitive development
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Term
| Critique of Piaget’s theory |
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Definition
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•Didn’t distinguish between competence and performance
•Assumed that lack of performance indicated a lack of underlying ability
•Problem with the broad, holistic stages
–Little evidence for consistencies in cognitive development across domains
•Descriptions may underestimate the impact of social and cultural influences on cognitive development
May have underestimated young children’s abilities and overestimated older children’s abilities
•The theory is a wonderful description of cognitive development
The descriptions of the processes that actually produce cognitive
change are somewhat vague
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Term
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Definition
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•Much impact on education-- preschool and early elementary levels
–Discovery learning through spontaneous interaction with the environment
–Sensitivity to readiness to learn—there is no need to speed up development
–Acceptance of individual differences—same sequence at different rates
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Term
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Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Perspective
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Definition
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•Focused on the social origins of early cognitive competencies
–Many discoveries active learner make occur in collaborative interaction with someone more knowledgeable in a particular domain
–Emphasis was on the potential for intellectual growth
•Cognitive development occurs because of the zone of proximal development
•Zone of proximal (or potential) development (Zone of proximate development)
–Range within a task that a child can not do alone, but can with help of adults or more skilled peers
–Children can perform at a step above their assessed competence when under the guidance of a more experienced partner
–Intellectual development occurs through social interaction with more sophisticated partners–
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