Developmental Psychology ERQ

Freund

Aim- To determine the difference between children who arranged doll house furniture with their mothers and children who did it without their mothers Procedure- Sample- children ages 3-5 Design/method- experiment- independent samples Summary- One group of children arranged doll house furniture on their own, one group arranged it with the help of their mothers Results- children assisted by their mothers performed better than the other children S- experiment so internal validity and controlled, assessed children on prior knowledge beforehand L- arranging doll house furniture may not be realistic, participant variability due to independent samples, can't control how much the mothers help the children

Hughes

Hughes Aim: To determine if egocentric thinking existed in children in the preoperational stage. Participants: children aged 3-5 years Design: quasi-experiment Procedure: an intersection of walls where the researcher placed a policeman doll at different parts and a boy doll at different parts and children were asked whether the policeman could see the boy, then they were asked to place the boy where the policeman couldn't see it. Results: children responded correctly in 92% of trials with no difference in ages S: high ecological validity, social nature makes it accessible to children L: no way to know how the children solved the problem, some children may not have understood the task- language issues

Evaluate/Discuss one or more theories of brain development.

Maturation theory Studies: Chugani and Giedd Discussion points: maturation and neuroplasticity are not solely responsible for development, issues with longitudinal studies

Piaget's Stage Theory

Saw children as "active scientists" who explored their environment Sensorimotor (0-2)- thinking is physical, object permanence begins to develop Preoperational (2-7)- can form but not transfer ideas, egocentric thinking Concrete operational (7-12)- can problem solve logically with image support, conservation develops Formal operational (12+)- abstract thought, problem solving is systematic

Evaluate/Discuss one or more social-cultural theories of developing as a learner.

Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development Studies: Freund and Nichols Discussion points: takes a more holistic approach to learning (language), failed to take into account emotional reasons that children may feel motivated to learn

Giedd

aim- To conduct MRI scans on children to determine brain activity design- Longitudinal, repeated measures participants- Healthy children ages 6 to 20 results- 95% of the brain structure is formed when the child is around five or six years old, areas in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) start growing again in adolescence; dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, which is important for controlling impulses, does not mature until the early 20s S- No participant variability because repeated measures, Biological aspects means it can be generalized L- Not possible to establish cause and effect, Only done on healthy children

Chugani

aim- to determine areas of brain activity, by measuring glucose metabolism in different brain regions design- Longitudinal, cross-sectional participants- Infants and young children results- Neural connections are developed back to front Glucose metabolism is lower in babies than adults 3-10 glucose metabolism is much higher than adults- time of highest neuroplasticity Strengths- Biological aspects means it can be generalized Limitations- Not possible to establish cause and effect Participant variability Participants were not looked at over a long period of time

Maturation theory

newborn is "preprogrammed" for development and then follows a developmental clock in which development happens sequentially- this is true for all neurotypical children across cultures- brain develops back to front

Vygotsky's Theory of Cognitive Development

states children learn through social interaction with people like a "more knowledgable other." proposed Zone of Proximal Development which is the gap between what a child can learn independently and with others. language and play important to development

Nichols

Aim- To test Vygotsky's theory that social interaction is important to learning in a natural environment. Sample- Highschool students Design/Method- natural experiment, repeated measures Summary- Students were split into two groups and a control. One group was given collaborative learning method first and the other was given individual learning method first. In the collaborative classroom, students worked on assignments in groups and were graded on achievement. For the other classroom, students were told to work individually and were given individual grades. They then switched conditions. Geometry skills were assessed by a pretest/posttest design and were given a questionnaire. Results- the collaborative condition showed better achievement than the control group. They also showed higher deep processing strategies, self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation. S- high ecological validity, controlled with the same teacher and learning tasks- internal validity L- difficult to study because the groups studied different content and the content got more difficult throughout the course, only one school and one teacher in this study- difficult to generalize

Li et al.

Aim: To replicate the study by Piaget and Inhelder to determine if their findings were accurate. Participants: Chinese students aged 9 to 17 that were either "average" or "high-achievement" Design: Quasi-experiment Procedure: Children were given the waterline test where they were shown a bottle of water that was then hidden behind a cloth and tipped. They were then asked to draw what the water would look like after tipping the bottle. Their success was measured based on the proportion of lines drarwn within 5 degrees of horizontal. Results: most 9-10 year-olds were not able to answer all questions correctly. 12 and 14 year olds could do it somewhat and 17 year olds were able to do it most of the time correctly. For the younger ages they were able to do it better if they were from the "high-achievement" group. S: highly standardized so high internal validity L: possibility of participant variability, no randomly allocated to conditions, cross-sectional so we don't know if children would have behaved with the pattern when they were different ages

Evaluate/Discuss research methods in the study of developing as a learner.

Chugani: correlational, cross sectional , quasi experiment; used PET scans and technology reduced causation to correlation Freund: true experiment using scaffolding to support Social-cultural aspect that influences learning

Discuss ethical considerations in the study of developing as a learner.

Chugani: undue stress and harm from PET scans Li: informed consent because the participants are kids

Contrast two theories of developing as a learner.

Piaget and Vygotsky Studies: Hughes and Freund Contrast points: nature of the theories they proposed, differ in how they view language and learning

Evaluate/Discuss one or more Cognitive theories of developing as a learner.

Piaget's stage theory Studies: Hughes and Li et al. Discussion points: consistently supported by research and has cross-cultural support, language dependent and ages for the stages have been challenged.