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Summary Knowledge Organiser for AQA A-Level Psychology Cognition and Development
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Key Ideas: EVALUATION:• cognitive development refers to the development of thought
• noticed that children think about things in a different way to adults Strengths:
• saw CD occurring through interactions with the environment (children are ‘little scientists’) Important Applications in Education
• saw this as a largely solitary process • knowledge develops through equilibration, and this means self-discovery is an important part of learning – true
understanding only occurs through process of making one’s own accommodations
Schema = a cluster of related facts usually based on previous experiences, used to generate future expectations • Piaget said, ‘each time one prematurely teaches a child something he could have discovered for himself, that
→ can be behavioural (such as grasping an object) or cognitive (such as classifying objects) child is kept from inventing it and consequently from understanding it completely’
• there has been some criticism of this ‘discovery learning’ approach
• when a child is born it already has a few schemas
• Bennett (1976): children taught via formal methods tended to do better in reading, maths, english
→ e.g. grasping reflex, mental representation of a face – from birth can distinguish human face from other objects → general lack of success for discovery learning may be due to fact teachers in formal classrooms spend more
• from birth onwards the infant’s schemas develop as a result of interacting with the environment time on core topics, and this is why children do better when assessed on core topics
→ new experiences lead to new schemas being developed → a further reason may be that discovery learning requires much more sensitivity and experience from
→ e.g. the infant learns separate schemas to distinguish between faces they know, between dogs and cats, etc teachers in knowing how and when to guide pupils
• suggests Piaget’s ideas are important in education, but for some topics formal methods are preferred
• schemas become more complex with assimilation and accommodation
There is Evidence Support the Existence of Innate Schemas
Assimilation = the process of fitting new experiences into existing schemas without making any change • Fantz (1961): infants as young as 4 days old show preference for a schematic face rather than the same features
→ a child acquires new understanding and can incorporate it successfully into an existing schema without making jumbled up
radical changes – occurs when an existing schema is used on a new object → shows it is unique face configuration rather than complex pattern that is preferred
• this ‘facial preference’ finding has been replicated in a number of studies, although none of the studies make it
• a child initially tries to understand any new information in terms of their existing knowledge about the world clear whether this is just due to a liking for things that are symmetrical
→ e.g. bird schema – has two wings and can fly • in general an innate face preference makes sense because a new born who can recognise and respond to its
own species will better elicit attachment and caring
• Equilibrium = when our schemas are able to describe the world around us
• this supports Piaget’s view that infants are born with innate schemas
→ e.g. seeing a new type of bird and accurately identifying it as such
A Comprehensive Theory
• Disequilibrium = when children unsuccessfully apply an existing schema to a new situation • Piaget produced the first comprehensive theory of children’s cognitive development
→ e.g. using a bird schema to incorrectly identify an aeroplane as a bird • the theory has been more extensively developed than any other
• it has changed our ideas about children and has had a general influence on education practice
Accommodation = adjusting or changing existing schemas because new, conflicting information creates disequilibrium • one strength of any theory is to generate research, and Piaget’s theory has certainly done so
• when disequilibrium occurs a child radically modifies existing schemas to take new information into account • his theory is also valued for its combination of nature (biological maturation) with nurture (Experience) to
→ this makes schemas more complex and advanced explain cognitive development
→ Piaget’s conception of ‘nurture’ is more focused on the physical environment, whereas Vygotsky
• e.g. inaccurately applying a bird schema to an aeroplane would create two distinct schemas emphasised the social environment
→ a bird: flies, has wings, has feather, has a beak, builds nests • therefore, his innovative theory provides many valuable insights to how children’s minds develop
→ an aeroplane: flies, has wings, is made of metal, has an engine, carries people
Limitations:
Equilibration = experiencing a balance between existing schemas and new experiences
There is Little Research to Support Piaget’s Ideas About the Effects of Disequilibrium
• the driving force beyond these changes or ‘adaptation’ is the principle of equilibrium • Barbel Inhelder et al (1974): showed children’s learning was helped when there was mild conflict -------------------
• the intellect strives to maintain a sense of balance (equilibrium) ---------------------- between what they expected to happen and what did happen
→ we are motivated to achieve equilibrium • HOWEVER, Bryant (1995) argues this wasn’t really the sort of conflict that Piaget was talking about
→ Piaget’s conflict was a more major dissonance between two things
• if an experience can’t be assimilated into existing schemas, then there is a state of imbalance which is experienced
• this is a general issue with Piaget’s theory – some aspects of the theory are not really testable because concepts
as an unpleasant state and the individual seeks to restore balance through the equilibration
(such as assimilation) are difficult to operationalise
→ this means if an existing schema does not fit a new situation we are not ok with this
• this leads to a driving force (equilibration) to create a new schema that better explains the new situation
→ cognitive development is the result of adaptation between the individual’s existing schemas and environmental
‘demands’ for change, such as new experiences which don’t fit existing schemas
, = there are 4 discrete stages that have to be passed through in order
STAGE 1: SENSORIMOTOR STAGE (0-2 YEARS) STAGE 3: CONCRETE OPERATIONAL (7-11 YEARS)
• the task for the infant is first to learn to co-ordinate sensory input (e.g. what they see and feel) with motor • children can perform mental operations (e.g. reversibility, addition, division) but only on actual things
actions (e.g. their hand movements and sensations) • at this stage children acquire the rudiments of logical reasoning – they are capable of thought
• the key cognitive skill object permanence develops in this stage • Piaget believed that conservation was the single most important achievement of the concrete operation stage
• children explore the world with their basic schemas (e.g. sucking and grasping schemas – two sub stages: because it provides evidence of the child’s command of logical operations
1. 0-8 months = child operates in the here and now • what children are lacking is the ability to think in the abstract
2. 8-24 months = child start to develop thought – actions become intentional, trial and error learning occurs • the key cognitive skill class inclusion is developed in this stage
• Object Permanence = child’s understanding that objects that are no longer visible nevertheless continue to exist • Class Inclusion = the relation between two classes where all members of one class are included in the other
→ young infants lose interest in objects when hidden behind a pillow because they assume it ceased to exist → being able to categorise things (and realising that some things are in more than one category
→ around 8 months they realise that objects that are out of sight still exist
KEY STUDY: MCGARRIGLE
KEY STUDY: PIAGET (1963) • Procedure: showed children 4 model cows on their sides (3 black and 1 white) and asked 2 questions
• Procedure: put a toy under a blanket while the child was looking → 1. are there more black cows or more cows?
• Findings: from 8 months children would look under the blanket for the toy (showing object permanence) → 2. are there more black cows or more sleeping cows?
→ if the toy was moved to a second hiding place, infants would only look in the correct place from 12 months
• Findings: 2% got question 1 right, 48% got question 2 right
• Bower and Wishart (1972) = Piaget may have underestimated the age at which object permanence occurs
→ this demonstrates that children can develop class inclusion at an earlier age if the task is made easier
→ children may have been confused by the fact that the toy was moved
→ they turned out the lights while children were playing with a toy
→ 1-4 month olds would search for it for up to 90 seconds STAGE 4: FORMAL OPERATIONAL (11+ YEARS)
• children can perform operations on both concrete and abstract situations - can now solve abstract problems
STAGE 2: PREOPERATIONAL (2-6/7 YEARS) • they can solve problems using hypothetico-deductive reasoning, thinking like a scientist – for example,
• term ‘operations’ is used to describe internally consistent logical mental ruled, such as the rules of arithmetic developing hypotheses and testing them to determine causal relationships
• children have a kind of logic, but it can’t be used as a basis for understanding how the world really works • children also display idealistic thinking – they are no longer tied to how things are but are able to imagine how
→ logic is not well reasoned – they rely overly on what they see things might be if certain changes are made (e.g. thinking about an ideal world)
• for example, a very young child believes most things are alive (the table, the moon, etc) • the key cognitive skill hypothetical thinking is developed
• operations are consistent logical rules, is two sub stages: • the key cognitive skill idealistic thinking is developed
1. preconceptual period (2-4 years) = can use words and symbols to represent things, are egocentric, and ------
----------------------------------------------- show evidence of centration KEY STUDY: INHELDER AND PIAGET (1956) – THE FOUR BEAKERS
2. intuitive period (4-7 years) = egocentrism starts to diminish but conservation is not demonstrated • Procedure: children were given a liquid (g) and four flasks of clear liquid
→ they had to figure out which combination would produce a yellow liquid
• Egocentrism = seeing things from your own perspective, and being unaware of other possible viewpoints
• Conservation = the ability to distinguish between reality and appearance, e.g. to understand that quantity is not ---- • Findings:
---------------------changed even when a display is transformed → children in preoperational stage mixed the liquids at random
→ this lack of logic-based reasoning means that children rely on what they see – they rely on appearance rather → concrete operational children operate by trial and error but stop when they solve the problem
than reality (demonstrated this in his conservation tasks) → formal operational children systematically try all possible combinations
• Centration = the tendency of children in the preoperational stage to attend to one aspect of a problem, object, ------
------------- or situation at a time, to the exclusion of others
EGOCENTRISM RESEARCH: PIAGET AND INHELDER (1965) – THE ‘THREE MOUNTAINS’ TASK
EGOCENTRISM RESEARCH: HUGHES (1975)
• Procedure: children were shown a model of three mountains – a doll was sat on the other side
• Procedure:
→ they has to say which picture represented what the doll could see
→ 4 year olds = demonstrated egocentrism by always choosing their view → stage 1 = a policeman doll was placed at various points, or the child had to say if they could see the doll
→ 6 year olds = chose a different perspective but not always the right one → stage 2 = the child had to hide the doll from the policemen
→ 7-8 year olds = chose the correct picture • Findings: 90% of 3.5-5 year olds managed to do this, demonstrating a lack of egocentrism, this suggests
→ However, Hughes argued the three mountains task was too hard and didn’t make much sense (e.g. why was Piaget underestimated children’s cognitive abilities
the doll so far away?)
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