Child Psych Exam 2

piaget

• most influential developmentalist of 20th century

• framed the questions and provided precursors to many methods we use today

piaget’s theory

basic assumptions:

• active child

• child learns on their own, not just from others

• child is intrinsically motivated to learn

schemas

psychological structures that organize experience into mental categories of related events, objects, and knowledge

change constantly

assimilation

taking in info compatible with what is already known, incorporating into existing schemas

e.g: child sees porpoises swimming in large tank of water, intepreted with the general concept of “fish”

accomodation

changing existing knowledge based on new knowledge; modifying schemas based on experience

e.g: “butterfly” originally bug with big wings, but when learning months, find out that butterflies are a bug with colorful wings

equilibration

balancing assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding; reorganizing schemas to achieve balance → moves child to next stage

stage theories

these are all characteristics of ______ theories:

• discontinuous (qualitatively different)

• invariant sequence

• hierarchal

• domain general: broad applicability

domain general

cognitive processes, learning mechanisms, or skills that apply broadly across diverse types of information and content areas, rather than being restricted to a single specialized task

sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

four stages of Piaget’s theory (in order)

sensorimotor

stage where intelligence is expressed through sensory and motor abilities

integration of motor movements with sensory experiences

six substages of sensorimotor stage

1. modification of reflexes

2. organize separate reflexes into larger behaviors—centered on own body, repetitive

3. enviornment is included in rxns

   1. infants lack object permanence

4. intentional, coordinated behavior

   1. infants gain object permanence

5. actively explore how objects can be used

6. mental representations and combinations

preoperational

stage where children gain symbolic representation: both words and objects

• egocentrism

• centration

egocentrism

part of piaget’s preoperational stage:

difficulty seeing world from others point of view

Piaget’s three mountain task

centration

part of piaget’s preoperational stage:

narrowly focused thought; focus on a single, salient feature of object or event, ignoring other features

• e.g problems with conservation (idea that quantities of objects are conserved)

deferred imitation

part of sensorimotor substage: mental representations and combinations

reproducing previously observed action after a delay (from hours to weeks)

A-not-B error

part of sensorimotor substage:

a common cognitive mistake made by infants around 8 to 10 months old where they look for a hidden object in a familiar spot (Location A) instead of a new spot (Location B)

concrete operational

stage where egocentrism declines

• logical reasoning

• ability to attend to multiple dimensions

  • no abstract or hypothetical

formal operational

stage where child is able to think abstractly and hypothetically

able to reason systematically about all possible outcomes: e.g → mixing diff. liquids to obtain a blue liquid

not obtained universally (though other stages are)

information processing

alternative theory to piagetism

emphasizes precise characterization of the processes underlying thinking and its development

focuses on: structure of cognitive system and mental operations that underlie behavior

mental hardware

information processing:

built in mental and neural structures that allow mind to operate

• e.g. memory, processing efficiency

mental software

information processing:

mental “programs” that are the basis for performing particular tasks

• e.g. learning and memory strategies, knowledge

attention

mental process that determines which info an individual processes further

• orienting response

• habituation

orienting response

when individual views an unexpected or unfamiliar stimulus, she orients to it

habituation

after repeated exposure, individual becomes unresponsive to stimulus

memory

how info is encoded, stored, and retrieved

working (short term) memory

moment to moment

involved in actively attending to, gathering, maintaining, storing, and processing info

e.g. taking notes in lecture

long term memory

autobiographical memory → coherent set of memories about one’s life

e.g. how you spent the summer after HS

executive functioning

control of cognition:

• inhibiting tempting actions that are counterproductive

• enhancing working memory thorugh strategies (like repeating phone #)

• being cognitively flexible (switch b/w concepts; adapt behavior in response to changes)

overlapping waves theory

children do not think or solve problems using just a single strategy at a time → they use a variety concurrently. strategies fall/rise over time

sociocultural theory

mainly associated with Lee Vygotsky

children are social learners and advance most when they collab with others more skilled than them

zone of proximal development

different between what children can do with assistance vs. alone

social scaffolding

more competent people provide a temporary framework that support's children’s thinking at a higher level than children would manage alone

intersubjectivity

often referred to by contemporary theorists

mutual understanding that people share during communication

joint attention

often referred to by contemporary theorists

shared focus of two or more people on same object/event/activity

dynamic systems theory

theory that development is dynamic, it doesn’t progress in stable stages

children are a complex system composed of many individual elements integrated in more or less stable ways

actions shape cognition: e.g. infants own reaching helps them understand others’ reaching actions

concepts

general ideas that organize objects, events, qualities, or abstractions on the basis of some similarity

• infinite number of possible ones

• allows us to generalize from prior experiences

• help us understand the world and act effectively in it

inanimate objects, people, other animals

children typically divide objects into 3 categories, which are:

perceptual categorization

grouping objects by appearances

category hierarchies

beyond infancy, children form ___________

= categories organized in set-subset relations (animal → dog → bichon)

superordinate, basic, subordinate

category hierarchy tiers:

from most general to most specific

basic

in the categorical hierarchy, usually the ____________ is learned first → parents generally label here

baillergeon

disproved Jean Piaget's theory that infants lack object permanence until 8–9 months of age. By utilizing an innovative methodology, she demonstrated that infants as young as 3 to 5 months old already understand that hidden objects continue to exist.

yes

infants understand that objects are solid and cannot pass through one another

yes

do babies understand gravity

yes

do babies believe that things that move togehter are connected?

no

does naive physics complete in infancy?

blicket detector

children are introduced to a custom-built box—the "detector"—that lights up or plays music only when specific objects, labeled as "blickets," are placed on top of it. Researchers place various combinations of uniquely shaped blocks on the machine to show the child which combinations trigger the effect and which do not.

studied casual reasoning and “miniature scientists”

essentialism

the view that living things have an essence inside them that makes them what they are

growth

Internal process, proceeds in one direction until old age

healing

Animate things heal by re-growth; inanimate things must be fixed by humans

no

are preschoolers theories complete?

naive psychology

common sense understanding of other poeple and oneself

theory of mind

understanding that others have mental states that drive their actions

intentions, desires, beliefs

we understand others’ behaviors in terms of (3):

goal directed, prediction

by 6mo, babies understand others behavior is _________, and by 11mo, can _________ the goal

rational imitation

= a cognitive and developmental concept in psychology where infants and young children do not blindly copy every action an adult performs

Gergely et al: infants turned light on with head when hands were free, but when hands were occupied, turned on with hands

3, 4

in the sally anne test, typically a _yo will fail, but a _yo will pass