exam 2

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Flexible question-and-answer technique used to discover how children think about problems.

Assimilation

Process of interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schemes or cognitive structures.

Accommodation

Process of modifying existing schemes to better fit new experiences.

Schemes

Set of rules or procedures that can be repeated and generalized across various situations.

During their _______ year, children develop symbolic schemes.

Second

4 Main Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, formal operations.

Sensorimotor stage

Birth to 2 years.

Simple reflexes age range

Birth to 1 month.

First habits and primary circular reactions age range

1 to 4 months.

Secondary circular reactions age range

4 to 8 months.

Coordination of secondary circular reactions age range

8 to 12 months.

Tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity age range

12 to 18 months.

Internalization of schemes age range

18 to 24 months.

Simple reflexes example

Grasping and sucking; newborn suck reflexively when their lips are touched.

First habits and primary circular reactions example

Repeating a body sensation first experienced by chance, then accommodating to that action differently.

Secondary circular example

An infant coos to make a person stay near; when they leave, the baby coos again.

Coordination of secondary circular reactions example

Infant uses stick to bring attractive toy within reach.

Tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity example

A block can be made to fall, spin, hit another object and slide across the ground.

Internalization of schemes example

An infant who has never thrown a tantrum sees another infant throw a tantrum and throws a tantrum the next day.

A not B error

Occurs when infants select a familiar hiding place (A) rather than a new hiding place (B) as they progress into substage 4 of the sensorimotor stage.

Preoperational Stage

Ages 2 to 7 years.

Symbolic Function substage

Child gains ability to mentally represent an object that is not present; ages 2 to 4.

Egocentrism

Associated with the preoperational stage; inability to distinguish between one's own perspective and someone else's perspective.

Intuitive Thought substage

Child uses primitive reasoning and wants to know the answers to many questions; ages 4 to 7.

Major task/Conservation

The idea that certain properties of an object do not change when its appearance is altered.

Why preoperational children are unable to conserve

Centration and static thought.

Centration

Tendency to center attention on a single aspect of a problem.

Static thought

Thought that is fixed on end states rather than changes that transform one state into another.

Concrete Operational Stage

Ages 7 to 11 years.

Class Inclusion

Logical understanding that the parts are included in the whole.

Formal Operational Stage

Ages 11 years and onward.

Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning

Develop hypotheses and systematically deduce the best path to follow in solving a problem.

Imaginary Audience

Feeling one is the center of attention and sensing one is on stage.

Personal Fable

Sense of personal uniqueness and invincibility.

Vygotsky

Proposed the sociocultural perspective; cognitive development varies from society to society.

Zone of Proximal Development

Gap between what a learner can accomplish independently and what they can accomplish with the guidance of a more skilled partner.

Scaffolding

Structured help provided by a more skilled person to a less-skilled learner.

Private Speech

Speech to oneself that guides one's thought and behavior.

Adult Cognition

Adults are likely to use formal operations in a field of expertise.

Post-formal Thought

More complex than the formal-operational stage.

Memory

Ability to store and later retrieve information.

The Memory System

Sensory register -> working memory (short term memory) -> long term memory.

Two types of long-term memory

Explicit (declarative) and Implicit (nondeclarative).

Explicit long-term memory

Includes episodic, semantic, autobiographical memory.

Implicit long-term memory

Includes priming, skills, habits, and classical conditioning.

Types of assessments for explicit memory

Free Recall, Cued Recall, Recognition.

Free Recall memory

Requires active retrieval without the aid of cues.

Cued Recall memory

Recall with hints.

Recognition memory

Recognition among the options presented.

Damage to hippocampus

Causes significant impairments in creating new episodic memories.

Anterograde Amnesia

Inability to form new memories.

Retrograde Amnesia

Loss of memory of information and events that happened prior to damage.

Infantile Amnesia

Retention of very few autobiographical memories from the first few years of life.

Reasons why memory increases

Changes in basic capacities, memory strategies, increased knowledge about memory, world, and increased use and accuracy of memory strips.

Adulthood/Aging

Involves developing expertise, memory loss, forgetfulness, and slower retention of information.

Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT) phenomenon

Experience of being temporarily unable to recall a familiar word.

Learning

Acquisition of knowledge and skills from experience.

Classical Conditioning

Associating a neutral stimulus with a naturally occurring stimulus, learning by association.

Classical conditioning should be associated with ___

Pavlov.

Operant conditioning should be associated with ___

BF Skinner.

Operant Conditioning

Learner's behavior becomes more or less probable depending on the consequences; rewards increase behavior, punishments decrease behavior.

Social Learning Theory

Learning by observing the behavior of other people.

Social cognitive theory

Humans learn behaviors through observation and interaction with others.

Ways of assessing memory in infancy

Habituation, operant conditioning, imitation.

Habituation

Learning not to respond to a repeated stimulus.

Operant conditioning (Rovee-Collier – mobile studies)

2-3 month old infants demonstrating memory, remembering best with repeated exposures and cues.

Deferred Imitation

Ability to imitate a novel act after a delay, which clearly requires memory ability.

When does deferred imitation happen?

Early as 3 months, clearly present at 6 months.

Adolescence

Perform cognitive operations faster than children; have a greater functional use of working memory.

What improves during adolescence?

Metacognition / Metamemory.

Metacognition

Knowledge of the human mind and the range of cognitive processes.

Metamemory

Knowledge of memory and the process of memory.

Expertise

Typically develops during adulthood.

Intelligence Testing

Original tests created to assess those who could benefit from formal education.

Mental Age (MA)

Individual's level of mental development relative to others.

Chronological Age (CA)

The age from birth.

IQ

Intelligence quotient.

Average IQ is

100 at every age.

Extremes of IQ

Intellectual disability (IQ of 70 and below) and Giftedness (IQ of 130 and above).

Intellectual disability

Disease or disorder affecting cognitive ability.

Giftedness

Not linked to mental disorders; genius is typically considered an IQ of 145 and above.

Wechsler Intelligence Scales

Includes WISC-V, WAIS-IV, WPPSI-IV.

WISC

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children.

WAIS

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.

WPPSI

Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence.

Flynn Effect

Generational increase in IQ scores observed over the 20th century.

Garner’s Multiple Intelligences

Includes 8 subtypes: verbal/linguistic, mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist.

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Includes analytical, creative, and practical intelligence.

Creativity

Ability to think about something in novel and unusual ways and to devise unique, good solutions to problems.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

Focuses on interpersonal, intrapersonal, and practical aspects of successful functioning.

Crystallized intelligence

Acquired through schooling and other life experiences.

Fluid intelligence

Ability to use one's mind actively to solve novel problems.

Language

Consists of the words used by a community and the rules for varying and combining them.

Noam Chomsky

Linguist who proposed that humans are biologically prewired for language.

LAD (Language Acquisition Device)

Born with it; enables detection of rules of language, such as syntax.

Aphasia

Caused by damage to Broca's area, resulting in loss or impairment of language processing.

Broca’s area

Located in the left frontal lobe near temporal area.

Wernicke’s area

Located in the left temporal lobe near the occipital area.

Phonology

Sound system of the language; includes sounds and combinations.

Phoneme

Basic unit of sound in a language.