Lecture 5: Cognitive Development and Theory of Mind

Preoperational thought occurs during _______ years

Preschool (2-6)

Preoperational thought is considered the ______ period in cognition

Transitional

Preoperational thought (defined)

Time when child overcomes limitations in their thinking that stand in the way of true mental operations (adult like reasoning)

Why do children still make reasoning errors while in preoperational thought?

Centration

Define centration

Inability to focus attention on more than one aspect of an object or event at a time; the tendency to focus on surface appearance

What property characterizes preoperational thought?

Centration

Define conservation

Realization that certain qualities of objects are conserved across changes in appearance

Piaget created many _____ to test preoperational children’s ability to conserve object properties

Conservation tasks

What are the four conservation tasks?

1. Number

2. Liquid / volume

3. Mass

4. Length

Describe conservation of number

Six pennies is still six pennies regardless of the amount of space between each penny

Describe conservation of liquid/volume

8 oz of water is still 8 oz of water regardless of the size/shape of cup it is in

Describe conservation of mass

A 2 oz ball of clay is the same amount of clay as a 2 oz flattened piece of clay

Describe conservation of length

2 ten-inch lines are the same length regardless of their positioning relative to each other

Describe the class inclusion task

9 wooden beads; 7 brown; 2 white “are there more wooden beads or brown beads?”; preoperational children will fail to consider both dimensions simultaneously

Define egocentrism

Tendency to center on oneself, consider the world entirely from one’s own point of view

What are examples of egocentrism?

Three mountain problem, collective monologue

Centration is characterized by:

1. Failing conservation tasks

2. Failing egocentrism tasks

3. Fail three-mountain task

What are the two broad phases of preoperational phases?

• Ages 2-4: consistently preoperational

• Ages 5-6: giving way to true operations

  • Gradual improvements in conservation and egocentrism tasks

The theory of mind is a form of ______ cognition

Social

Theory of mind involves (3 things):

1. recognizing self and others as “things which think, believe, desire, imagine and intend”

2. assigning mental states to self and others

3. using mental states to explain action/behavior

Describe false belief

Different people have different beliefs, and these can be wrong; we can create false beliefs through lying

How can you asses theory of mind (2 ways)

1. False belief tasks

2. Unexpected contents tasks

Describe false belief tasks

Ask a child to distinguish between reality and a person’s beliefs about reality

Give an example of the unexpected contents task

Box appears to contain chocolate candy but actually contains straws

Define “unexpected contents task”

Contrasting erroneous mental impression with a known reality

When asked, “what did you think was in the box when you first saw it?” a preoperational child would say….

Straws