Cognition + Development

• Topics: Piaget’s theory, Piaget’s stages, Vygotsky’s theory, Baillargeon’s explanation, Selman’s levels of perspective taking, Theory of Mind, Mirror Neurons
• Our understanding of the world in units


  Schema
• The motivation to learn and develop our schemas. The desire to maintain a balance between our schemas and the world


  Equilibrium/Disequilibrium
• Acquiring new knowledge and developing our existing schemas, adding similar knowledge to build a more complex schema


  Assimilation
• Acquiring significant new knowledge that cannot be added to our existing schemas, requiring the building of a new schema


  Accommodation
• Howe et al

  Interviewed 113 9-12 year old children on what they knew about slopes. The children were then split into groups of 4 and talked about everything they knew about slopes. They found that when they were interviewed again, all 113 children had increased their knowledge of slopes. However, they all had slightly different conclusions about slopes. This supports the idea of personal schemas
• Piaget’s theory has an significant impact on education. For example, children in a science lesson doing a biodiveresty test. Instead of being told that biodiversity exists, they learn it themselves, which applies the idea that “the child is a scientist”
• Piaget’s theory may have underestimated the role of others in learning. Piaget said that another person was not essential to learning, however Vygotsky said that the role of others is essential to learning and information alone is not enough
• Piaget said ”the child is a scientist”. Vygotsky said “the child is an apprentice“
• Understanding that an object still exists even if it is not visible


  Object Pernamence
• Understanding that even if an object changes shape or size, it is still the same quantity


  Conservation
• Inability to differentiate between yourself and others


  Egocentrism
• Understanding that objects can belong to more than one class or subclass


  Class Inclusion
• Piaget’s Stages

  Stage 1: Sensorimotor stage. 0-2 years. Babies interact with the world using physical touch. They also develop object permanence at around 8 months
• Piaget’s Stages

  Stage 2: Preoperational stage. 2-7 years. Children before this stage are egocentric
• Piaget’s Stages

  Stage 3: Concrete operational stage. 7-11 years. At this age children were able to show an understanding of conservation
• Piaget’s Stages

  Stage 4: Formal operational stage. 11-adulthood. At this point, children are able to hold abstract ideas in their head without seeing physical objects in front of them
• Piaget’s object permanence

  Child plays with toy, researchers takes toy and hides it under a piece of cloth while child is watching, measure child’s response. They found that as soon as the child couldn’t see the toy anymore they lost all interest in it, and became interested again once they could see it again
• Bower + Wishart (1972)


  Use infrared camera to detect whether an infant reaches for an object once the lights were turned off and they could no longer see it. They found that infants as young as 4 months reached for an object, which suggests that object permanence occurs at much younger than 8 months
• Piaget’s object permanence

  Lacks internal validity as it seems like it is measuring object pernamence but it is actually measuring physical ability
• Piaget’s 3 mountains

  3 mountains of varying heights with objects placed around them. “What can you see?” [switch seats] ”What can you see?” “What can I see?”. A 3 year old would be egocentric, and when asked what the researcher can see they would describe what the child can see. A 5 year old wouldn't be egocentric, and when asked what the researcher could see they would describe what the researcher can see
• Piaget’s conservation

  2 pots full of the same amount of water. One is swapped for a different size but with the same amount of water. This was also done with other objects, such as coins. “Does this one have more?” “Does this one have more?” “Or are they the same?”. A child would say the 2 same pots have the same amount of water, but they would say the 2 different pots have a different amount of water