Cognitive Development & Evolution

What are Piaget's four stages of cognitive development?

Sensorimotor (0-2), Preoperational (3-6), Concrete Operational (7-11), Formal Operational (12+)

Define assimilation in Piagetian theory.

Incorporating the environment into existing cognitive structures.

Define accommodation in Piagetian theory.

Changing cognitive structures while assimilating new information.

What is cognitive morphogenesis?

The emergence of new forms of intelligence from interactions between existing abilities and the environment.

What are primary circular reactions?

Repetitive actions centered on the infant’s own body, 1-4 months.

What characterizes secondary circular reactions?

Repeating actions that produce interesting effects, 4-8 months.

What is the A-not-B error?

Searching for an object in its original location despite seeing it moved elsewhere.

What is object permanence?

Understanding that objects continue to exist even when not visible.

What does the habituation-dishabituation method measure?

Whether infants can discriminate between stimuli based on recovered attention.

What is core knowledge theory?

The proposal that infants possess innate systems for understanding objects, number, agents, etc.

What is crossmodal integration?

Recognizing that information from different senses refers to the same object.

At what age do infants show tactual-visual integration according to Streri & Spelke?

Around 4 months.

What did Wynn's 1992 study suggest?

Infants may possess primitive addition and subtraction abilities.

What is spatiotemporal object individuation?

Identifying objects based on their location and movement over time.

What is featural object individuation?

Identifying objects based on their properties or appearance.

When do infants typically integrate featural information for individuation?

Around 12 months.

What is a violation-of-expectation paradigm?

A method measuring infants’ surprise at impossible or unexpected events.

What is the class inclusion problem?

Understanding that a subclass is smaller than the superordinate class it belongs to.

What is implicit knowledge?

Procedural knowledge - knowing how to do something without being able to explain it.

What is explicit knowledge?

Declarative knowledge - being able to explain how and why something is done.

What does Piaget mean by 'operation'?

A mental activity organized according to an underlying logical structure.

What does 'domain general' mean in Piagetian development?

Each stage of intelligence applies across all domains of knowledge.

What is the constructivist view of development?

Intelligence develops through the child’s active interaction with the environment; not solely maturation or learning.

What is the sensorimotor stage defined by?

Practical intelligence through action, from 0-2 years.

What is the preoperational stage defined by?

Symbolic intelligence and egocentric thinking, 3-6 years.

What is the concrete operational stage defined by?

Logical operations applied to concrete objects, 7-11 years.

What is the formal operational stage defined by?

Abstract and hypothetical reasoning, 12+ years.

What characterizes sensorimotor Stage I (0-1 months)?

Reflexes such as grasping and sucking.

What characterizes sensorimotor Stage II (1-4 months)?

Primary circular reactions - repetitive actions focused on the infant's own body.

What characterizes sensorimotor Stage III (4-8 months)?

Secondary circular reactions - repetition of actions producing interesting effects.

What new skill emerges in Stage III regarding vision and action?

Coordination of seeing and grasping.

What characterizes sensorimotor Stage IV (8-12 months)?

Coordination of secondary schemes into means-end sequences.

What characterizes sensorimotor Stage V (12-18 months)?

Tertiary circular reactions - systematic exploration and trial-and-error problem solving.

What characterizes sensorimotor Stage VI (18-24 months)?

Mental combinations, insightful problem solving without needing trial-and-error.

What is Piaget’s view of object permanence development?

Infants construct object permanence across the 6 sensorimotor stages.

When do infants begin visually tracking disappearing objects?

Around 4 months, Stage II.

Why do 6-month-olds fail object retrieval tasks?

They lack the ability to mentally represent objects that are out of sight.

What is the A-not-B error caused by, according to Piaget?

A link between objects and the infant’s own actions; reliance on motor memory over perceptual memory.

What competing memories are involved in the A-not-B error?

Correct perceptual memory of the new location vs. outdated motor memory of the old location.

What is heterochrony in development?

Different sensorimotor subsystems developing at different rates.

What is habituation in infant research?

reduced looking time due to familiarity with a repeated stimulus.

What is dishabituation?

Increased attention when a new stimulus is detected.

According to Spelke, what innate knowledge systems do infants possess?

Core knowledge of objects, numbers, agents, and physical principles.

What did Baillargeon argue about infants’ object knowledge?

Infants have predispositions that help them quickly learn about objects but still need experience to form principles like object permanence.

What did Streri & Spelke (1998) show about 4-month-olds?

They can integrate tactual and visual information across senses.

What did Meltzoff & Borton (1979) find in 1-month-olds?

Infants match the shape of a dummy in their mouth to a visual image of it.

What does preferential looking measure?

Which of two stimuli infants look at longer, indicating interest or recognition.

What does habituation-based crossmodal testing measure?

Recognition of a matching or mismatching stimulus after familiarization.

What did Streri find in newborns (40 hours old)?

Newborns can recognize visually the object they touched, but not vice versa.

What did Starkey, Spelke & Gelman (1983) discover?

6-month-olds can discriminate small number differences (e.g., 2 vs 3).

What method did Wynn (1992) use to test infant arithmetic?

Violation-of-expectation looking time with adding/subtracting dolls.

What did Wynn conclude?

5-month-olds detect impossible arithmetic outcomes (primitive arithmetic abilities).

What problem did Simon, Hespos & Rochat (1995) notice?

Infants track number without tracking identity-object individuation issues.

What is featural (property-based) individuation?

Using object appearance to track different objects.

What is spatiotemporal individuation?

Using location and movement continuity to track objects.

When do infants reliably use featural information?

Around 12 months.

When do infants rely solely on spatiotemporal cues?

Around 10 months.

What is the indexing interpretation of infant number reasoning?

Infants track objects using mental indexes rather than true arithmetic.

What improvement did Donaldson & Salter observe with a 'naughty teddy'?

4-5 year-olds show better number conservation when transformations seem accidental.

What did De Neys et al. (2014) find about non-conservers?

6-year-olds often feel uncertain about their incorrect conservation judgments.

What did Lozada & Carro (2016) discover?

Children conserve better when they perform the transformations themselves.

What does the class inclusion problem test?

Understanding hierarchical categories such as class vs. subclass.

How did Markman & Seibert improve class inclusion performance?

Using collection terms like 'all the grapes' to highlight categories.

What is U-shaped development?

Performance improves, then worsens, then improves again during cognitive change.

How do 4-, 6-, and 8-year-olds differ in block balancing tasks?

4-year-olds succeed via hands-on strategies; 6-year-olds use flawed explicit rules; 8-year-olds apply correct explicit theories.

What does research on chimpanzees suggest about object statics?

They rely on procedural strategies and lack explicit physical theories.

What is the main driver of cognitive development according to Piaget?

The interaction between the child’s existing cognitive structures and the environment.

What are schemas in Piagetian theory?

Basic mental structures that represent a type of action or thought pattern.

What is equilibration?

The process by which children balance assimilation and accommodation to achieve cognitive stability.

What is disequilibrium?

A cognitive conflict that motivates children to adjust their thinking.

In Stage II, what makes primary circular reactions 'primary'?

They involve the infant's own body rather than external objects.

What is an example of a secondary circular reaction?

Shaking a rattle repeatedly because it makes an interesting sound.

What is an example of a tertiary circular reaction?

Dropping objects from different heights to see how they fall.

What marks the transition from Stage V to Stage VI?

Switch from physical trial-and-error to mental problem solving.

Why is Stage VI considered the beginning of mental representation?

Infants can plan solutions internally before acting.

Why did Piaget believe infants in early stages do not have object permanence?

They fail to search for hidden objects and do not treat objects as existing independently.

At what sensorimotor stage does object permanence begin to emerge?

Stage III (4-8 months), with incomplete understanding.

At which substage does the A-not-B error typically appear?

Stage IV (8-12 months).

Why is the A-not-B error evidence of incomplete object permanence?

Infants act as if searching makes the object reappear.

What physical principle do infants understand in Spelke’s research on moving rods?

Objects move as connected wholes when parts move together.

What violation-of-expectation pattern shows infants expect solidity?

Infants look longer when objects pass through solid barriers.

Why is core knowledge considered domain-specific?

Each system deals with a particular kind of information, like number or physics.

Why is crossmodal matching in newborns surprising?

It shows multisensory integration before motor coordination develops.

What sense combination did Streri find newborns cannot match?

Visual-to-tactile; they cannot identify by touch an object previously seen.

What does early crossmodal integration suggest about the brain?

It may have innate structures linking sensory modalities.

What is subitizing in infant number research?

The ability to perceive small numbers (1-3) without counting.

What number ratios are infants sensitive to at 6 months?

They can discriminate large numbers only if ratio is at least 1:2.

Why does identity tracking matter in infant arithmetic tasks?

Infants must distinguish whether two seen objects are the same or different.

Why do 10-month-olds fail featural individuation tasks?

They cannot use object properties alone to infer that two objects must exist.

Why do 12-month-olds succeed at featural individuation?

They can link object features to mental indexes of distinct objects.

What does spatiotemporal individuation rely on?

Continuous tracking of object movement and location.

What is centration in preoperational children?

Focusing on one aspect of a situation while ignoring others.

Why do children fail conservation tasks according to Piaget?

They focus on perceptual changes rather than underlying properties.

What is reversibility in Piagetian theory?

Understanding that actions can be mentally reversed.

What did Donaldson argue about young children’s failures?

Tasks are often too disconnected from real-life contexts.

Why do 6-year-olds fail block-balancing tasks they previously succeeded at?

They adopt a flawed explicit theory that all blocks balance at their midpoint.

What does U-shaped development show about learning?

More advanced reasoning can temporarily impair performance.

What did Mendes, Rakoczy & Call find about ape individuation?

Apes use featural and spatiotemporal cues, like human infants after 12 months.

Why do chimpanzees struggle with box stacking?

They rely on proprioception and lack explicit understanding of balance.

What method measures infant surprise at impossible events?

Violation-of-expectation looking time.