Piaget: Cognitive Development

What is an example of accommodation?

Taking avain class inside rather than outside

What is an operation (or "mental operation")? What's an example? Can preoperational kids do this (hint: look at the name of the stage)?

- An operation is a mental representation of an action. - An example would be imagining pouring water into a tall glass and imagining that it is big enough to hold the water or not before the action occurs. - Preoperational kids cannot do these operations in their heads. They can only physically act out the movements in front of them.

What is symbolic thought? How can words and symbolic thought be used to take children out of the here-and-now?

- Symbolic thought starts in the sensorimotor stage and they can start to use symbols but can't think symbolically. - Around ages 2 to 7 years old, children are in the preoperational stage and have full symbolic thought. They can use words, symbols and pretend objects are other things. - They can use language to talk about the past and future, the possible and the impossible. They are no longer bound to the here and now.

What does it mean for an operation to be reversible (specifically, mentally reversible)?

A mental operation can be reversible. You can undo the operation by just imagining what occurred before.

What is an example of assimilation?

A new college student getting use to tables in classrooms as opposed to desks.

There are two processes of adaptation, or two ways we adapt our schemas when we encounter new information. What are these two processes?

Assimilation Accommodation

What is assimilation?

Assimilation is when you assimilate a new object or concept to a current schema

Explain Baillargeon's study with the car rolling down the track and the toy mouse? (possible and impossible event, etc). What concept did it test? What did it show that babies know about objects? What age "passed" this task? Why would that surprise Piaget, if he were alive to see it?

Basically, a screen is being pulled down so the babies can't see what is behind it, when the screen is up again the babies are shown nothing, and the car rolls down the ramp. All and all very boring; the experiment was conducted on 4 month old infants and they just like adults were bored. The experiment proved that infants as old as 4 months do have a sense of object permanence.

What is centrism? (this is also called centration)

Centralism is focusing on one element of a given situation and ignoring the others. This is found in problem solving and conservation tasks

What is classification? How is it tested? Do preoperational kids pass this? Do concrete operational kids pass?

Classification is when children do not understand the bigger picture and focus on the smaller details. It can be tested by asking about what state a child lives in. They might respond to Jacksonville and not understand that Jacksonville is in Florida. Preoperational kids do not pass classification Concrete can

What is conservation of quantity (or "conservation")?

Conservation is logical thinking ability, a certain quantity will stay the same despite adjustment

What two broad things did Piaget notice about children's cognitive development?

Constructivism & Shcemas

What is hypothetical reasoning?

Developing more logical and abstract ways to solve problems.

What is dialectical thinking & what age does it? What stage is this? Did Piaget come up with this stage?

Dialectical thinking the ability to come up with multiple well-thought concrete solutions to several problems. This skill is developed in the formal operational stage.

What is disequilibrium? What happens shortly after we reach disequilibrium?

Disequilibrium is when a person's current schemas no longer work with your environment. Once a person has reached disequilibrium they need to reorganize all of your schemas so that they are a more qualitatively different thinker than they were before, or move up a stage

What is domain-general development? How is it related to stage theories? What is domain specific development?

Domain-general development: changes in mental processes are broad, influencing children's thinking in several areas or domains. Stages theories take on a more domain-general approach. Domain-specific development:some domains, or concepts, changes in thinking occur faster than in other domains.

What is egocentrism? What task did Piaget use to show the egocentrism of Preoperational kids?

Egocentrism in preoperational kids means that they are innocent and naive. The children think that how they think and perceive things is the same as everyone else. Piaget uses the three mountain tasks to show egocentrism of preoperational kids.

Who consistently fails conservation of quantity tasks, whether of water, mass or number? (children in which stage)? Which stage is the first to pass these tasks?

Fail: Children in the preoperational stage 2-7 years old Pass: concrete operations state 7-11

What can kids in the sensorimotor period do?

Grab, feel, and dropping objects.

What are some things that Piaget got right?

He acknowledged that children are active participants in their own cognitive development - He also noted that children don't think like adults

What is the major achievement of the formal operations period?

Hypothetical Thinking

What is an example of an abstract rule?

If you give a child several examples of the rule, the child would be able to deduce the rule on their own

What is irreversibility?

Irreversibility is when you can't think back to a previous condition and separate it from what is currently occurring.

Who is the most influential theorist and researcher in cognitive development over the past century?

Jean Piaget

What is constructivism?

Knowledge is constructed through experience with the world

What is logic, and can preoperational kids do this?

Logic requires going from a specific example to a general principle. Kids in the preoperational stage are not logical. They cannot imagine anything differently from the way it already is.

What are the major achievements of the concrete operational stage?

Mental Operations Reversibility Decentration Classification Logic!

What is equilibrium? Where did Piaget get this term?

No change. New knowledge state matches current information/schema. Piaget adopted this term from biology

Did Piaget get a PhD in psychology? What was his PhD on?

No, for Piaget his PhD was based on the study of mollusks and how they adapted to their native environments.(in science not psychology)

How did Piaget's approach compare to the behaviorists' approach to development?

Piaget believed that children were actively interacting with their environment, while behaviorists' argue that children/people just passively respond to reinforcements and punishment of their environment, so, with behaviorists there was no free will

What are some critiques of Piaget? What is one way we modified his tasks to show that kids can pass these tasks earlier? What are some reasons we think Piaget's stage theory is too rigid?

Piaget underestimated children's abilities. The reason modern psychologists find Piaget's stage theory is too rigid is because conservation & classification emerge separately and training can advance children to the next 'stage.'

Did Piaget view development as qualitative or quantitative? Continuous or discontinuous?

Qualitative & Discontinuous

What is qualitative development?

Qualitative implies stages or discontinuous development, a butterfly

What is quantitative development?

Quantitative development is adding more to something, for example, a tree as time goes on you get more tree.

What is a major limitation of the concrete operations stage?

Reasoning

What are reflexes? How are habits related to reflexes?

Reflexes are involuntary actions. Habits are reflexes that no longer have an original stimulus.

What is the conservation of number task? Who passes this task? Who fails this task (which stage)? How does centrism relate to children's performance on this task? how does reversibility relate to children's performance on this task?

Researchers will line up two rows of quarters or checkers and ask which row has more. The kid will say they have the same. Then, in full view of the kid, they will bunch one group up into a pile and ask the same question. The kid will point to the longer one and say it has more because it's longer. Children in the preoperational stage 2-7 years old

What is a schema? What are some examples? What is meant by the term adaptation?

Schemas are knowledge structures that tell the child how to act on the world. One example of a schema is a traditional classroom. The term adaptation means a person has adjusted to their schema to a new environment

What do I mean when I say that schemas at the beginning of this stage are behavioral? What's an example?

Schemas at the beginning of the sensorimotor stages are behavioral because children are reacting to their environment.

What is coordination of secondary circular reactions? What is the main difference in this substage?

Secondary circular reactions are learning that they are able to move things, coordination is learning how to control their senses and motor skills. The main difference is that they become more intentional about their actions.

What are Piaget's 4 stages of cognitive development (in order)?

Sensorimotor (0-2) Preoperational(2-7) Concrete Operational (7-11) Formal Operational(11+)

What is reversibility?

Similar to mental operation

What is the conservation of mass task? Who passes this task? Who fails this task (which stage)? How does centrism relate to children's performance on this task? how does reversibility relate to children's performance on this task?

The conservation of mass task is when two balls of the same sized playdough is shown and they know that they are the same. Next, when it is rolled into a snake and the other a ball, the kids will say that the snake is bigger since it is longer.

What is the conservation of water task? Who passes this task? Who fails this task (which stage)? How does centrism relate to children's performance on this task? how does reversibility relate to children's performance on this task?

The conservation of water task is when there are two of the same sized glasses with the same amount of water in them. This obviously has the same amount of water and the kids will report that so. Next, there will be the same glass and a tall skinny glass, with the same amount of water in it. The preoperational kid will say that the tall skinny glass has more water in it. This is because the water line is higher than the other due to the glass shape.

What's object permanence?

The understanding that objects continue to exist even if we can't pick it up with our senses.

What is a mental operation?

They can do things forwards and backwards.

What is object permanence? Explain the task that Piaget does that tests this. What age passes object permanence tasks? What age fails?

This is being able to know an object exists without actually seeing it in that moment. The task done to test this is hiding the toy the baby wants under a blanket, there are two blankets, one with the toy under it and one without it. The researcher will take turns hiding it under one blanket for multiple times in the row until the baby successfully retrieves it. The age that passes this is around year 1 and anything much younger than this will usually not pass.

What is the primary limitation of the sensorimotor period (symbolic thought)? How is using symbols different from thinking symbolically? Can kids in the next stage do this? What is the next stage?

This is being able to pretend to use the telephone but not being able to think symbolically enough to pretend a banana is a telephone. - Yes, in the preoperational stage(ages 2-7).

What is the A not B error? Explain the task that Piaget does that tests this. What age passes object permanence tasks? What age fails? What are some reasons that they fail this task?

This is passing the test of being able to know objects exist because they have seen them before and can look for them when they know they are hidden

What does it mean to internalize a schema?

This is when babies are able to form mental representations, we know this because it is their ability to do deferred imitation.

What are tertiary circular reactions? Give an example.

This is when babies start experimenting with the objects in their environment. For example, realizing they can drop objects from the height of their high-chair. Once realizing this they do it again, and again.

What are primary circular reactions? What do they involve? Give an example.

This is when children figure out they can control something in their body and then repeat it intentionally. For example, an infant kicking one leg and then realizing they are able to do that and control that so they want to do it again.

What is deferred imitation? How does it demonstrate that kids at the end of the sensory motor period are capable of mental representations?

This is when the baby sees an action and repeats it themselves. For example if dad turns a toy on with his nose, the baby then does the same. This shows that when children observe they are able to process it into their own actions

What is decentration? Who can do it (what stage children)?

This is when they are able to focus on multiple aspects of something at a single times - concrete operations state 7-11

What are secondary circular reactions? What do they involve? Give an example?

This is when they explore the world around them. For example finding a rattle and shaking it and realizing it makes a noise so they repeat these actions.

What's violation of expectation? How do we test it in babies? What's the impossible condition? The possible condition? (examples) How would adults react to each? If babies respond in the same way, what does that tell us about what's going on in their heads?

Violation of expectation, being shown a normal event and then being surprised by the outcome. Impossible condition, unexpected outcome and possible condition,an expected outcome. Adults would be more bored than the babies because they can predict what is going to happen next.

What is classification? Who can do this?

When children cannot differentiate differences between things - concrete operational

according to Piaget what happens to make a child move up to the next stage in development?

When your current schemas do not work for your environment, you have maxed out their potential so you need to organize and move up a stage.

How can words be used as symbols?

Words can be used as symbols because they represent something, for example, the word "piano".

What is accommodation?

accommodation is specifically accommodating an old schema to new experience

What characterizes the sensorimotor stage of development?

infants use their senses and motor abilities to understand the world.