Early Brain Development and Piaget's Stages

Flashcards about early brain development, Piaget's stages of cognitive development, Dweck's mindset theory, and Willingham's learning theory.

Forebrain

The anterior part of the brain, including the hemispheres and the central brain structures.

Midbrain

The middle section of the brain forming part of the central nervous system.

Hindbrain

The lower part of the brain that includes the cerebellum, pons, and medulla oblongata.

Cerebellum

Connects the upper brain to the spinal cord and controls automatic responses.

Involuntary response

A response to a stimulus that occurs without someone making a conscious choice; automatic, such as reflexes.

Neural connections

Links formed by messages passing from one nerve cell (neuron) to another.

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The cerebellum (little brain) can be seen in the foetus at about weeks and a year after birth the cerebellum is three times the size.

Cerebellum

Controls physical skills which develop a lot over this time, possibly accounting for the growth of the cerebellum and is also involved in responses such as fear, and in functions such as processing sense information.

Medulla Oblongata

Is in the hindbrain in front of the cerebellum, and connects the rest of the brain to the spinal cord.

Medulla Oblongata

Controls involuntary responses such as sneezing and breathing, as well as heart rate and blood pressure.

Object permanence

Knowing something exists even if it is out of sight.

Symbolic play

Children play using objects and ideas to represent other objects and ideas.

Egocentrism

Unable to see the world from any other viewpoint but one’s own.

Animism

Believing that objects that are not alive can behave as if they are alive.

Centration

Focusing on one feature of a situation and ignoring other relevant features.

Irreversibility

Not understanding that an action can be reversed to return to the original state.

Morality

General principles about what is right and wrong, including good and bad behavior.

Schema/Schemata(s)

Mental representations of the world based on one’s own experiences.

Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years)

In this stage, infants will use their senses to learn things about both themselves and their environment and stimulation helps children engage with the word and build schemas or ideas, which is how they learn.

Pre-operational stage (2 to 7 years)

Children are thinking at a symbolic level but are not yet using cognitive operations and they need a lot of experience to extend their understanding as they focus on just one part of a problem at a time.

Symbolic function stage (2 to 4 years)

Children start imitating others and can use objects as symbols.

Intuitive thought stage (4 to 7 years)

This is the start of reasoning, children ask a lot of questions as they realize that they know a lot and want to know more.

Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 12 years)

Teachers can ask children to concentrate on more than one aspect of an issue.

Formal operational stage (12+ years)

Adolescents gain the ability to think in an abstract manner by manipulating ideas in their heads, without any dependence.

Adaptation

Using assimilation and accommodation to make sense of the world.

Assimilation

Incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.

Accommodation

When a schema has to be changed to deal with a new experience.

Equilibrium

When a child’s schemas can explain all that they can experience; a state of mental balance.

Fixed Mindset

Believing your abilities are fixed and unchangeable.

Growth Mindset

Believing practice and effort can improve your abilities.

Working memory

Has different parts for processing information coming in from our senses, including visual and sound data, and also involves a decision-making part.

Short-term memory

Our initial memory store that is temporary and limited.

Rehearse

Repeat information over and over to make it stick.

Long-term memory

A memory store that holds potentially limitless amounts of information for up to a lifetime.

Motor skills

Actions that involve muscles and brain processes, resulting in movement.

Decentration

Being able to separate yourself from the world and take different views of a situation, so not being egocentric.

Social learning

Learning by observing and copying others.

Self-regulation

Limiting and controlling yourself without influence from others.

What are the 3 main parts of Willingham’s Learning Theory?

1. Knowing factual knowledge precedes (comes before) skill 2. the importance of practice and effort and 3. strategies to support development

Willingham’s learning theory

Suggests that factual knowledge precedes (comes before) skill.

What are the 3 key types of development, according to willingham?

1. Cognitive development , 2. physical development, 3. Social development

data that is descriptive, not numbers, such as words or pictures

What is qualitative data?

the consistency of an outcome or result of an investigation (a measure).

What is reliability?

a model of three mountains, ten pictures, three pieces of card, wooden doll

What were the 4 pieces of equipment in the Piaget and Inhelder Study?

a belief that behaviour or ability results from a person’s nature

What is entity theory/motivational framework?

a belief that effort drives behaviour and ability, which can change

What is Incremental theory/motivational framework?

the extent to which the findings still explain the behaviour in real life situations

What is ecological validity?

the extent to which the results of a study represent the whole population, not just the sample used

What is generalisability?

Piaget’s (1932) theory of moral development

According to whose theory, from about 5 to 10 years, a child believes rules cannot be changed?

Gunderson et al.

According to whose theory a clear relationship was found between parents’ use of process praise and a child’s later use of an incremental motivational framework (ability being changeable)?