Chapter 6 - Cognitive Development Approaches

schemas

a pattern of thought/behavior that organizes categories of information 

Ex: a chair being something you can sit on, usually having four legs, some roll, some don’t

assimilation

interpret new information in terms of EXISTING schemas

accommodation

modifying existing schemes to fit new information

discontinuous theory of cognitive development (Piaget)

Sensorimotor (0-2) – infants construct understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical motoric actions

Preoperational (2-7) - children begin to represent the world with words, images, etc.

Concrete operational (7-11)

Formal operational (11-15)

postformal thought

an addition to Piaget’s theory; a more qualitative stage of development that follows the formal operational stage

thinking is reflective, relativistic, and contextual

object permanence

understanding that objects exists even when they are not inside

develops in sensorimotor stage

a-not-b

when infants make the mistake of selecting the familiar hiding place (a) of an object rather than its new hiding space (b) as they progress

develops in sensorimotor stage

seriation

concrete operation that involves ordering stimuli along a quantitive dimension; sorting objects according to their dominant features

developed in concrete operational stage

conservation

the awareness that altering the appearance of an object does not change its basic properties

failing the conservation test is an indicator a child is still in the pre operational stage of development

occurs in concrete operational stage

centration

focusing attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others

happens in pre operational stage

imaginary audience

the belief that a person is under constant, close observation by peers, family, and strangers

most common in adolescence

zone of proximal development

range of a child’s development that they can get to with support from a more skilled member in their culture (teacher, sibling, etc.)

guided participation/scaffolding

slowly removing support as a child develops/learns

private speech

when a kid talks to themselves; the internal language we use to guide ourselves; the step between guidance from adults (spoken out loud) and internal self-guidance. Early reliance on private speech → later problem-solving skills

criticisms of Piaget

• underestimate young minds, overestimate some older

• stage focus ignores inconsistent performance and continuous change

• description but not explanation

• if you reduce tasks and add familiarity, there are different findings

criticisms of Vygotsky

• over emphasis on language

• lacked age specifications

• what if facilitators/parents are too helpful and do not do scaffolding?

  • kids become too dependent on

• lazy children?