Psych 155 Exam 2 chpt 6-9

How can Vygotsky's theory be applied to education?

- Use the child's ZPD in teaching - Use more-skilled peers as teachers - Monitor and encourage children's use of private speech - Place instruction in a meaningful context - Transform the classroom with Vygotskian ideas

What is mindfulness?

Being alert, mentally present, and cognitively flexible while going through life's everyday activities and tasks- is an important aspects of thinking critically.

What is intelligence?

Consists of the ability to sole problems and to adapt and learn from experiences. A key aspects of intelligence focuses on its individual variations. Traditionally intelligence has been measured by tests designed to compare people's performance on cognitive tasks.

What is the evidence for and against a behavioral view of language acquisition?

look in the book

What is the evidence for and against a biological view of language acquisition?

look into the book

What are the biological foundation of language?

-A substantial portion of language processing occurs in the brain's left hemisphere, with Broca's area and Wernicke's area being important left hemisphere locations. -Chomsky argues that children are born with the ability to detect basic features and rules of language. In other words they are biologically prepared to lean language with a prewired language acquisition device (LAD).

What are the environment aspects of language?

-Behaviorists' view of language development that children acquire language as a result of reinforcement has not supported. Adults help children acquire language through child directed speech recasting expanding and labeling. -Environment influences are demonstrated by differences in the language development of children as a consequence of being exposed to different language environments in the home. Parents should talk extensively with an infant, especially about what the baby is attending to. Social cues play an important role in language learning.

equilibration

A mechanism that Piaget proposed to explain how children shift from one stage of thought to the next. As children experience cognitive conflict in trying to understand the world, they seek equilibrium. The result is equilibration, which brings the child to a new stage of thought.

Constructivism

A philosophy of learning based on the premise that people construct their own understanding of the world they live in through reflection on experiences

What are some issues regarding the used and misuses of intelligence test?

Abuses of Intelligence Test: Intelligence test causes ill effects/misuses/abuses if used by naive testers. (i) Poor performance on a test is stigma to children which affects adversely to the performance. (ii) Test results may lead to discriminating practices from parents, teachers and elders.

How does metacognition change in adolescence and adulthood?

Adolescence have increased capacity to monitor and manage resources to effectively meet the demands of learning tasks, although there is considerable individual variation in metacognition during adolescence. Metacognition continues to improve in early adulthood and many middle aged individuals have accumulated considerable metacognitive knowledge. Older adults tend to overestimate their everyday memory problems.

How do language skills change during early childhood?

Advances in phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics continue in early childhood. The transition to complex sentences begins between 2 and 3 years and continues through the elementary school years. Fast mapping provides one explanation for how rapidly young children's vocabulary develops.

How much does intelligence change through childhood and adolescence?

Although intelligence is more stable across childhood and adolescence than are many other attributes many children' s and adolescents' scores on intelligence tests fluctuate considerably.

What are some key milestone in language development during infancy?

Among the milestone in infant language development are crying (birth), cooing (2 to 4 mths), understanding first word (5 mnth), babbling (6 mnths), making the transition from universal linguist to language specific listener (6 to 12 mths), using gestures (8 to 12 mths), detecting word boundaries ( 8mths), First work spoken (13 mnths), vocabulary spurt (18 months), rapid expansion of understanding words (18 to 24 mths), and two word utterances (18 to 24 moths)

What are crystallized intelligence?

An individual accumulated information and verbal skills, continues to increase throughout the lifespan.

How does the child's theory of mind change during the preschool years?

Awareness of one's own mental processes and the mental processes of others. Children begin to understand mental states involving perceptions, desires and emotions at 2 to 3 yrs and 4 to 5 yrs they realize that people can have false understanding mental states. Autistic children have difficulty developing a theory of mind. As adolescents experience more complex social worlds advances in their theory of mind skills occur in areas such as understanding another's intentions. For the most part theory of mind skills remain intact during most of adulthood but decline in older adults.

What do we know about the relation between language and reading?

Before learning to read, children learn to use language to talk about things that are nor present; their path to reading is eased. Children who begin elementary school with a small vocabulary are at risk of falling behind their peers in learning to read. Vocabulary development plays an important role in reading comprehension.

What makes people creative?

Creative people tend to be divergent thinkers but traditional tests measure convergent thinking. Five steps process: preparation, incubation, insight, evaluation and elaboration.

What is critical thinking?

Critical thinking involves thinking reflectively and productively and evaluating evidence. Recently mindfulness training has been implemented to improve many aspects of children's development including self control

What are some criticisms of the multiple intelligences concepts?

Critics maintain that multiple intelligences theories include factors that really aren't part of intelligence such as musical skills and creativity. Critics also say not enough research has been done to support the concept of multiple intelligences.

What do IQ tests tell us about intelligence among people in different culture and ethic groups?

Cultures vary in the way they define intelligence. Early intelligence tests favored non-Latino White, middle socioeconomic status, urban individuals. Tests may be biased against certain groups that are not familiar with a standard form of English, with the content test or with the testing situation. Stereotype threat may produce ethic/ cultural bias that reduces intelligence test scores.

Describe memory's processes (e.g., encoding, storage, retrieval).

Encoding= The process by which information gets into memory. Storage= Information is maintained over a period of time retrieval= Obtaining information that has been stored in memory.

How does attention develop in infancy?

Even newborns can fixate visually on a contour but as they get older they can scan a pattern more throughly. Attention in the first year of life is dominated by the orienting/ investigative process. Attention in infancy often occurs through habituation and dishabituation. Joint attention plays an important role in infant development especially in the infant's acquisition language.

What is executive function and how does it develop?

Executive function and self-regulation skills are the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully.Advances in executive function An umbrella like concept that encompasses a number of higher level cognitive processes linked to the development of the prefrontal cortex occur in early childhood. Executive function involves managing one's thoughts to engage in goal directed behavior and to exercise self control. Executive continued to improve in adolescence and emerging adulthood, then declines in late adulthood.

What is attention?

Focusing of mental resources. Attention improves cognitive processing for many tasks. At any time though people can pay attention to only a limited amount of information.

How do language skills change during adulthood and aging?

For many individuals, knowledge of words and word meanings continues unchanged or may even improve in later adulthood. Decline in language skills may occur in retrieving words for use in conversation in understanding speech, in phonological skills and in some aspects of discourse. These changes in language skills in older adults likely occur as a consequence of declines in memory or in speed of processing information or as a result of disease.

What are ways that people allocate their attention?

Four ways that people can allocate their attention are selective attention, Divided attention, sustained attention and executive attention.

What evidence suggests genetic influences on IQ scores?

Genetic similarity might explain why identical twins show stronger correlations on intelligence tests than fraternal twins do.

What are some links between brain intelligence?

Has been stimulated by advances in brain imaging. A moderate correlation has been found between brain size and intelligence.

To what extent does intelligence change as adults age?

Horn argued that crystallized intelligence continues to increase in middle adulthood, whereas fluid intelligence begins to decline. Schaie found that when assessed longitudinally inductive reasoning is likely to decline and more likely to improve than when assessed cross sectionally middle adulthood.

What are the key processes in Piaget's theory of cognitive development?

In Piaget's theory, children construct their own worlds, building mental structures to adapt to their world.

How does language develop in middle and late childhood?

In middle and late childhood, children become more analytical and logical in their approach to words and grammar. Current debate involving how to teach children to read focuses on the whole language approach versus the phonics approach. Researchers have found strong evidence that the phonics approach should be used in teaching children to read but that children also benefit from the whole language approach.

How does memory develops in infancy.

Infant as young as 2 to 6 months of age display implicit memory which is memory without conscious recollection as in memory of perceptual motor skills. However many experts believe that explicit memory which is the conscious memory of facts and experiences, doesn't emerge until the second half of the first year of life. The hippocampus and frontal lobes of the brain are involved in development in infancy. Older children and adults remember little if anything from the first three years of their lives.

What is intellectual disability and what are its causes?

Intellectual disability is a condition of limited mental ability in which the (1) has a low IQ, usually below 70; (2) has difficulty adapting to the demands of everyday of like; and (3)has an onset of these characteristics by age 19. Most affected individuals have an IQ in the 55 to 70 range. Intellectual disability can have an organic cause or a cultural/familial cause.

What are the most important cognitive changes during adolescence?

Key changes in information processing during adolescence including processes involved in making decisions and exercising critical thinking.

How does language develop in adolescence?

Language changes include more effective use of words, improvements in the ability to understand metaphor, satire, adult literary works; and improvements in writing.

How did Vygotsky view language and thought?

Language plays a key role in cognition. Language and thought initially develop independently but then children internalize their egocentic speech in the form of inner speech, which becomes their thoughts. This transition to inner speech occurs between 3 and 7 years of age. V view contrasts with Piagets view that young children's self talk is immature and egocentric.

How are Vygotsky and Piaget similar? How are they different?

Like Piaget, V emphasized that children actively construct their understanding of the world. Unlike Piaget he did not propose stages of cognitive development and he emphasized that children construct knowledge through social interaction. V theory, children depend on tools provided by the culture which determine which skills they will develop. Some critics say that V overemphasized the role of language in thinking.

What are characterizes concept formation and categorization in infancy?

Mandler argues that it isn't until about 7 to 9 months of age that infants form conceptual categories although we don't know precisely when concept formation begins. Infant's first concepts are broad. Over the first two years of life these broad concepts gradually become more differentiated. Many infants and young children develop an intense interest in particular category (or categories) of things.

What are different types and aspects of memory?

Memory is the power of the brain to recall past experiences or information. In this faculty of the mind, information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. In the broadest sense, there are three types of memory: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

What is memory?

Memory is the retention of information over time. Psychologist study the process of memory; how it is found or retrieved for a certain purpose later. People construct and reconstruct their memories. Schema theory states that people mold memories to fit information that already exists in their minds

Do people have multiple intelligences or one intelligence?

Multiple intelligences approaches have broadened the definition of intelligence and motivated educators to develop programs that instruct students in different domains.

What gains occur in thinking during adulthood and what challenges does aging present?

One aspect of cognition that may improve with aging in expertise. Many aspects of executive function decline in late adulthood but individual differences occur as well. There has been increased interest in the cognitive neuroscience of aging that focuses on links between aging the brain and cognitive functioning. This field especially relies on fMRI and PET scans to asses brain functioning while individuals are engaging in cognitive tasks. One of the most consistent findings in this field is a decline in the functioning of specific regions is the prefrontal cortex in older adults and links between decline and poorer performance on tasks that involve complex reasoning working memory and episodic memory

How does memory change in childhood? How can we account for improvement in children's recall over childhood?

One method of assessing short term memory is with a memory span task on which there are substantial development changes through the childhood years. Working memory is linked to children's reading comprehension and problem solving. Increasing interest has been shown in children's autobiographical memories and these memories change developmentally. Young children can remember a great deal of information if they are given appropriate cues and prompts. Strategies can improve children's memory and older children are more likely to use these than younger children. Imagery and elaboration are two important strategies. Knowledge is an important influence on memory.

What evidence suggests environment influences on IQ scores?

Parents talk with their children in the first three years of life is correlated with the children's IQs and that being deprived of formal education lowers IQ scores. Ramey's research revealed the positive effects of educational child care of intelligence.

What is involved in constructing memory? Can new information alter memories

People construct and reconstruct their memories. The process is guided by schemas, mental frameworks that organize concepts and information, Schemas influence the way people encode, make inferences about, and retrieve information. Often when we retrieve information, we fill in gaps. Ex: Teacher tells a story about two women who were involved in a train crash in France, students who won't remember every detail of the story and will reconstruct the story with their own particular stamp on it. One student might reconstruct the story by saying that people died in a plane crash, another might describe three men and three women, another might say the crash was in Germany and so on.

What makes people gifted?

People who are gifted have high intelligence (IQ of 130 or higher) or some type of superior talent. three characteristics of gifted children are precocity marching to their own drummer and a passion to achieve mastery to their domain. Giftedness likely a consequence of both heredity and environment. A current concern is the education of children who are gifted.

What are language's five main systems?

Phonology: is the sound system of a language including the sounds used and the sound sequences that may occur in the language.,Morphology: refers to units of meaning in word formation., Syntax: is the way words are combined to form acceptable phrases and sentences., Semantics: involves the meaning of words and sentences., and Pragmatics: is the appropriate use of language in different contexts.

How can Piaget's theory be applied to educating children?

Piaget wasn't an educator, but his constructivist views have been applied to teaching. These applications include an emphasis on facilitating rather than directing learning, considering the child's level of knowledge, using ongoing assessment, promoting the student's intellectual health and turning the classroom into a setting exploration and discovery.

assimilation

Piagetian concept in which children use existing schemes to incorporate new information.

organization

Piagetian concept of grouping isolated behaviors and thoughts into a higher-order, more smoothly functioning cognitive system.

accommodation

Piagetian concept of incorporating new experiences into existing schemes.

How does processing speed change developmentally?

Processing speed increases across childhood and adolescence. Processing speed slows in middle and late adulthood. Strategies that people learn through experience can compensate to some degree for age related decline in processing speed.

How does attention develop in childhood and adolescence?

Salient stimuli tend to capture the attention of the preschooler. After 6 or 7 years of age there is a shift to more cognitive control of attention. Selective attention improves through childhood and adolescence. Multitasking is an example of divided attention and it can harm adolescents' attention when they are engaging in a challenging task.

Describe the 6 substages and the concept of object permanence.

Simple reflexes, primary circular reactions, secondary circular reactions, coordination of secondary circular reactions, tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity, and internalization of schemes.

What is scaffolding?

Teaching technique in which a more skilled person adjusts the level of guidance to fit the child's current performance level. Dialogue is an important aspect of scaffolding.

What is intelligence assessed during infancy?

The Bayley scales are widely used to asses infant intelligence. The Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence, which assesses how effectively infants process information is increasingly being used.

What are fluid intelligence?

The ability to reason effectively, begins to decline in middle adulthood.

What are the main characteristics of the pre-operational stage? What are some limitations that characterize pre-operational thought?

The beginning of the ability to reconstruct at the level of thought what has been established in behavior. It involves a transition from a primitive to a more sophisticated use of symbols. In preoperational thought, the child does not yet think in an operational way.

What are the main characteristics of the sensorimotor stage?

The first of Piaget's four stage, the infant organizes and coordinates sensations with physical movements. The stages lasts from birth to about 2 years of age.

What is the information processing approach, and how can it be applied to development?

The information processing approach analyzes how individuals encode information, manipulate it, monitor it, and create strategies for handling it. Attention, memory, and thinking are involved in effective information processing. The computer has served as a model for how humans process information. In the information processing approach, children's cognitive development results from their ability to overcome processing limitations by increasingly executing basic operations, expanding information processing capacity and acquiring new knowledge and strategies.

How does an interactionist view describe language?

The interactionist view emphasizes the contributions of both biology and experience in language development.

What is the main theme of Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development?

The major theme of Vygotsky's theoretical framework is that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition.

What are the main individual tests of intelligence?

The two main individual intelligence tests are the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test and the Wechsler tests, i.e. Wechsler Intelligence Test for Children (WISC) and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) for adults. The individual intelligence tests require one-on-one consultation.

How are Sterberg's theory characterize intelligence?

There are three main types of intelligence: analytical, creative and practical.

What is the Flynn effect? What does it imply?

There has been a considerable rise in intelligence test scores around the world- called the Flynn effect-and this supports the role of environment in intelligence.

What is metacognition? How does metamemory typically changes during childhood?

Thinking about thinking or knowing about knowing. Metamemory is one aspect of metacognition that has been studied developmentally. By 5 to 6 yrs of age children usually know that familiar items are easier to learn than unfamiliar ones and that short lists are easier to remember than long ones. By 7 to yrs of age, children better appreciate the importance of cues for memory.

What is thinking

Thinking involves manipulating and transforming information in memory.

·What are the main characteristics of the formal operational stage? Describe adolescent egocentrism.

Thought appears between 11 and 15 years old. Formal operational thought is more abstract, idealistic, and logical than concrete operational thought. A special kind of egocentrism that involves an imaginary audience and a personal fable about being unique and invulnerable.

What does the stage approach imply about Piaget's view of the way change occurs?

To Piaget, cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience. Children construct an understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment.

What theories of multiple intelligence have been developed?

Verbal skills, mathematical skills, spatial skills, bodily kinesthetic skills, musical skills, interpersonal skills, intrapersonal skills, naturalistic skills,

What are some key contributions and criticisms of Piaget's theory?

We are indebted to piaget for establishing the field of cognitive development. He was a genius at observing children, and he gave us a number of masterful concepts. Critics, however, question his estimates of competence at different development levels, his stage concept, and other ideas. Neo Piagetians emphasize the importance of information processing.

What is wisdom and how can it characterized?

Wisdom is expert knowledge about the practical aspects of life that permits excellent judgment about important matters. Baltes and his colleagues have found that high levels of wisdom are rare factors other than age are critical for a high level of wisdom to develop and personality related factors are better predictors of wisdom than cognitive factors such as intelligence.

What memory changes occur during adulthood?

Younger adults have better episodic memory than older adults do. Older adults have difficulty retrieving semantic information. Working memory decreases in older adults but has some plasticity. Explicit memory is more likely to decline in older adults than is implicit memory. Source memory- remembering where one learned something declines with age. Controversy surrounds the question of whether prospective memory, which is remembering to do something in the future, declines as adults age.

What is the zone of proximal development?

Zone of proximal development (ZPD) is Vygotsky's term for the range of tasks that are too difficult for children to master alone but that can learned with guidance and assistance of more skilled adults and peers.

What is language?

a form of communication, whether spoken, written, or signed, that is based on a system of symbols. Language consists of all the words used by a community and the rules for varying and combining them. Infinite generativity is the ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules.

schemes

actions or mental representations that organize knowledge. Behavioral schemes (physical activities) characterize infancy, Whereas mental schemes (cognitive activities) develop in childhood.

What are the main characteristics of the concrete operational stage?

concrete operational thought occurs roughly from 7 to 11 years of age. During this state, children can perform concrete operations, think logically about concrete objects, classify things, and reason about relationship among classes of things. Concrete thought is not as abstract as formal operational thought.

Disequilibrium

describes any price or quantity not at equilibrium; when quantity supplied is not equal to quantity demanded in a market