lecture 4

A collection of flashcards designed to aid in the study of cognitive development as outlined in the lecture notes.

Cognitive Development

The development of thinking and reasoning processes in individuals.

Jean Piaget

The father of modern developmental psychology; known for his theory of cognitive development in children.

Ontogeny

The development of an individual organism, which Piaget believed mirrored the evolutionary history (phylogeny) of the species.

Assimilation

The process of taking in new information and fitting it into existing cognitive frameworks.

Accommodation

The adjustment of cognitive frameworks to incorporate new information that doesn't fit into existing schemas.

Equilibration

The process of balancing assimilation and accommodation to maintain cognitive stability.

Disequilibrium

A state of cognitive imbalance caused when new information cannot be assimilated into existing schemas.

A, not B error

A common error in infants where they search for an object where they first found it rather than where it was last hidden.

Symbolic Thought

The ability to use symbols or representations in thought; develops in the sensorimotor stage.

Egocentrism

A stage in child development where a child cannot understand that others have different perspectives.

Concrete Operational Stage

The stage in Piaget's theory where children begin to think logically about concrete events.

Formal Operational Stage

The stage in Piaget's theory where individuals develop the ability to think abstractly and logically.

Zone of Proximal Development

Vygotsky's concept of the range of tasks that a child can perform with the help of a knowledgeable other.

Scaffolding

A teaching method that involves providing support to students as they learn new concepts.

Implicit Memory

Unconscious memory for skills and tasks, developed early in life.

Explicit Memory

Conscious memory for facts and events that requires verbalization.

Meta-memory

Awareness of one's own memory capabilities and strategies for learning.

Elaboration

A learning strategy that involves connecting new information to existing knowledge to enhance retention.

Jean Piaget Influenced by 

Theodore Simon, leading to a focus on child psychology.

Children’s innate motivation to learn

Piaget believed that children learn naturally through self-discovery and experimentation.

Motivation is intrinsic, not reliant on external rewards or punishments.

Processes of Development

Information acquisition leads to reorganization of existing knowledge.

This process mirrors evolutionary adaptation: the best-fit ideas prevail over time.

New information challenges existing beliefs, leading to…

assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration

Metamemory

Involves understanding one's memory capacity and ability to recall.

Memory Development

Children recall routine events easier than memorable unique occurrences.

Fostering elaboration and connections enhances memory retention abilities.

Early Learning

Learning begins in utero and continues through infancy.

Preference development occurs before birth, influencing post-natal cognitive biases towards familiar stimuli.

Phylogeny

The evolutionary history and development of a species or group of organisms, which Piaget believed mirrored individual development (ontogeny).

Theory of Mind (ToM)

The ability to attribute mental states (beliefs, desires, intentions) to oneself and others, and to understand that others' mental states may differ from one's own.

Meta-attention

The conscious awareness and regulation of one's own attentional processes, including the capacity to monitor and control attentional focus.

Memory Testing

Procedures used to assess various aspects of memory, such as encoding, storage, and retrieval capabilities through tasks like recall or recognition.

Recognition memory test

A memory assessment method where individuals identify previously encountered information from a set of options that includes both old and new items.

Recall

A memory retrieval process where an individual reproduces previously learned information from memory without specific cues.

Recall facility

Refers to the ease and speed with which an individual can retrieve information from long-term memory.

Frequency effects (in memory)

The phenomenon where items encountered more frequently are generally recalled and recognized more easily than rarely encountered items.

Metacognition

Higher-order thinking processes that involve monitoring and controlling one's own cognitive activities, such as planning, evaluating comprehension, and problem-solving strategies.

Cognitive performance

A measure of how effectively an individual carries out mental processes such as reasoning, attention, memory, and problem-solving.