Cognitive development #1

Cognitive development #1

1. Piaget

   • Stages of cognitive development
     • 1) Sensory-motor stage (0-2yrs)
       • What?
         • Where a child learns to deal with their environment on the basis of what they experience through the senses e.g. touch, taste, smell, seeing, hearing.
       • According to Piaget
         • Children are unable to understand that things out of sight, still exist. But by the end of this stagem the child has learnt object permanence (being aware that objects exist even when they are no longer in view)
       • Baillargeon and Devos
         • Method (A01)
           • A screen was designed with a 'notched' at the top. 4 months of age pts
           • 1) Stage 1 - The short carrot was moved behind the screen from the left and reappears on the right
           • 2) Stage 2 - The tall carrot is moved similarly, but because its tall, it appears through the 'notch' in the screen as it passed from left to right
           • 3) Stage 3 - The tall carrot began to move from left to right but did not appear, as expected, through the notch in the screen
         • Findings (A01)
           • Infants in the expt looked for much longer in the 3rd impossible stage than another of the other stages once the carrot reappeared from behind the screen.
         • Conclusion (A02)
           • Infants did not understand that the carrot (even though out of sight) was still there - the infants' response showed that they were puzzled when the tall carrot did not appear through the notch
           • This is evidence that Piaget's earlier claim that object permanence was not possible until 8months was incorrect.
       • Baillargeon & DeVos (1991) - Evidence against Piaget
         • Method (A01)
           • Investigated the abilities of 3.5 and 4.5 month-old infants
         • Findings (A01)
           • Even very young children had object permanence
         • Implications (A02)
           • Suggests that how a study is carried out is crucial to whether or not a child understands object permanence.
     • 2) Pre-operational stage (2-7yrs)
       • According to Piaget
         • During this stage, the child is egocentric (they tend to see the world only from their own viewpoint) e.g. they have difficulty understanding why they have to share their toy or refrain from hitting another child.
         • Children tend to lack the ability to conserve (conservation is the understanding that even thought the appearance of something can change, the amount of substance there remains the same e.g. modelling clay from a ball to a sausage shape) during this stage.
       • Piaget - Conservation of numbers
         • Method (A01)
           • 1) 2 identical rows of 7 counters are laid out, closely spaced together
           • 2) Pointing at the rows, the child is asked "Which row has more counters, or are they both the same?"
           • 3) One row is then rearranged, spreading the counters out so that the row appears longer. Then the question is repeated to the children.
         • Findings (A01)
           • Children answered that the bottom row has more counters
           • Children tend to fail at conservation tasks because they don't yet understand that quantity can stay the same, despite changes in appearance e.g. coin task. This is because they can only focus on one aspect of a situation at a time (cent ration - such as height or length, but not both)
         • Methodological +/-
           • - Investigator bias: researchers may have affect the results due to hand gestures (pointing) or how they asked the questions
           • + Provides evidence that pre-operational stage children struggle with conservation tasks
       • Piaget and Inhelder (1952) - 3 mountains task
         • Method (A01)
           • 1) Child must say what the doll is able to see, from different positions
           • 2) The child must 'put themselves 'in the dolls shoes' (in order to do this correctly)
           • 3) Experimenter asks the child "What does the doll when seated at position A, or B, or C?" (In each case, the perspective of the doll changes)
           • 4) To complete the task successfully, the child must be able to imagine what the mountains look like from the doll's position.
         • Findings (A01)
           • Children in the pre-operational stage were not able to complete this task with satisfactorily
           • Concluded that this meant that the child was exhibiting 'egocentrism', an inability to see things from others' viewpoint
         • Methodological +/-
           • + Each child may have been positioned differently to one another (meaning that each child doesn't have a fair chance & may of had a different interpretation)
           • + Provides evidence that egocentrism does have an influence on ones perception
           • - Biased results?: Children that took part were only his own and those from a similar bringing up.
     • 3) Concrete operational stage (7-12yrs)
       • 1) Most children can successfully achieve conservation tasks e.g. liquid test, because they're able to mentally manipulate objects or situations
       • 2) For the liquid task, children need to be able to reverse the situation to deduce the answer
       • 3) At this stage, children need to be able to engage in transitivity.
         • Transitivity = Understanding the relation between elements. This helps them to solve mental thinking tasks.
     • Formal operational stage (12yrs onwards)
       • 1) A child's thinking becomes more complex, whereas the concrete O.S, they think in terms of rules.
       • 2) Abstract & hypothetical thinking is now possible to test and solve problems and think about concepts with no concrete reality e.g. they can debate such as "is there a god?"
       • 3) This kind of realistic thinking sometimes lacks a sense of realism, so that adolescents, especially, have difficulty seeing or accepting the practical limitations inherent in their views.

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