COGS 120D Unit 4: Childhood Cognitive Development

dual representation

the degree to which we are able to view something as both its own object, but also a representation of something else

symbolic representation

the degree to which we know an object could represent another object; develops around 3 years of age

what did the study by deloache et, al. (1987) find about the onset of symbolic representation

when children were given a map/mini-replica of a room with a hidden object, then tasked with finding that object in real life, 3 year olds were able to complete the task, while 2.5 year olds were not

deloache et, al (1997)

did the same task where children had to find a hidden object in a room, but were given a shrunk down mini-replica of the room before being expanded, which caused the 2.5 year olds to view the replica and room as just objects, leading them to solve the task

2.5 year olds and implicit memory

in a study by preissler and bloom (2007), when asked to match items based on object and imagery-based language, participants were successful in both variations of the task, showing there is some form of implicit dual representation, as they can only hold object or representation in the mind at one time

preoperational stage (2-7 y/o)

stage of development proposed by piaget that involves the child becoming capable of mental representation, but not logical thought/operations

symbolic understanding

understanding that things can stand for/represent other things; forms the basis for pretend play (imaginary cognition)

benefits of pretend play

all of the above

egocentrism

inability to view other people’s perspectives

piaget and inholder (1975) on egocentrism

showed that since children could not imagine the view of another’s perspective of an object until 7 years old, children show egocentrism

animistic thinking

attributing human/alive qualities to inanimate objects, or reacting to inanimate objects as if they were alive

essentialism

the idea that all members of a category all have some kind of inner “essence” that is fixed as birth that causes them to be a member of that category, regardless of whether that member is surrounded by other members or not; “essence” has underlying structure that applies to all members of a category regardless of environment

piaget and cook on conservation

children lack conservation, as two equal objects will be perceived by children as unequal, even if there is only a slight change in how the objects are presented

why might children lack conservation

centration, and not understanding objects can be transformed back into its original state

centration

tendency to focus on one salient feature of an object and ignoring the others

5-7 year-olds and appearance-reality tasks

even when their perception/vision of an object is distorted, they are still able to accurately report what an object actually looks like in reality

3-4 year olds and appearance-reality tasks

even when they know what an object should look like in reality, when their vision/perception is distorted in some way, they will report what the object looks like based on distortions

future thinking

around 2-3 years old, children will begin to use words like “tomorrow” and “yesterday”

counterfactual reasoning

the ability to reason about events that could’ve occurred but didn’t; develops around 3-4 years old

executive functioning

skills that help us execute goal-directed future actions, including planning, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, future thinking, working memory, etc.

shallice (1982), borg and byrd (2002) - tower of london task

measured children’s ability to plan by showing them an ideal organization of objects, then tasking them to replicate that ideal example

atrance and meltzoff (2005) and future thinking

measured children’s ability to plan for the future by showing them an image, and presenting them with items and asking them to choose what they need based on the image; 5-year olds selected items to plan, while younger children selected items that semantically matched the image

episodic foresight task (atrance and meltzoff (2006))

3-5 year olds were given salty pretzels to eat, making them thirsty, then were asked what they wanted now versus tomorrow; participants wanted water for tomorrow, showing present wants can warp future desires

kramer et al (2016)

replication of episodic foresight task but with college-age adults; 70% of people selected water for tomorrow, and selecting pretzels for tomorrow (success) was related to one’s grade-point average and working memory

when making/perceiving timelines, do preschoolers have a preference for where past and future go (left/right, up/down, etc.)

no, they do not have a preference for which directions represent past and future

logarithmic thinking

large #s or amount of things far away seem closer than they already are; 5 year olds can distinguish between past/future, but not between past/near future

3-year olds and differentiating between past and future events

can differentiate between past events easily, but struggle differentiating between future events

5-year olds and differentiating between past and future events

able to differentiate between events, as well as correctly order future events

inhibitory control

ability to follow rules while inhibiting impulsess

stroop task

inhibitory control task where one has to say the color of the ink, rather than the word shown on screen; hardest when the word color and word aren’t congruent, but easiest when both are congruent, or when you can’t read the language the word is written in

gestardt et al (1994) and inhibitory control

task that involved saying “day” when shown the moon, and saying “night” when shown the sun; children participating in this class wanted to automatically say day/night when seeing the sun/moon, but had to stop and think about the rules of the task before answering, but still made frequent mistakes

cognitive flexibility

ability to adapt to changing rules

3-year olds and cognitive flexibility

experience difficulty adapting to a different ruleset

4-year olds and cognitive flexibility

able to adapt easily to different rulesets

marshmallow test

tested a child’s ability to delay gratification by giving them a marshmallow, and rewarding them with an extra marshmallow if they wait for the experimenter to return with another marshmallow

working memory

being able to hold multiple items in memory at once over a short period of time

working memory storage of adults

able to remember/keep 7 items in storage

working memory storage of 4 year olds

able to keep/remember 4 items in storage

when do adults do just as poorly as 4 year olds in working memory tasks

when the items that must be remembered are unfamiliar, as you must simultaneously process and remember those items