Transcript Jean Piaget
Employed to develop french versions of questions on english intelligence tests Became intrigued with the reasons children gave for wrong answers. He believed wrong answers revealed important differences between the thinking of adults and children. 1st psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development Before piaget’s work, the common assumption was that children were merely less competent thinkers than adults. Piaget showed that young children think in very different ways compared to adults. According to Piaget children are born with a very basic mental structure It is concerned with children, rather than all learners It focuses on development, rather than learning per se, so it does not address learning information of specific behaviours It proposes discrete stages of development, marked by qualitative differences, rather than gradual increase in number and complexity of behaviours, concepts, and ideas. 1) Schemas: ( building blocks of knowledge) ▪ A way of organizing knowledge. Think ▪ Think of them as units of knowledge each relating to one aspect of the world ▪ When a child’s existing schemas are capable of explaining what it can perceive around it, it is said to be in a state of equilibrium ▪ A schema can be defined as a set of linked mental representations of the world, which we use both to understand and to respond to situations. ▪ For example, a person might have schema about buying a meal in a restaurant. The schema is a stored form of the pattern of behaviour which includes looking at a menu, ordering food, eating it and paying the bill. Whenever they are in a restaurant, they retrieve this schema from memory and apply it to the situation. As a child gets older their schemas become more numerous and elaborate. Believed that newborns have some innnate schemas ( innate reflexes) sucking reflex Assimilation: which is using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation Accommodation: this happens when the existing schema ( knowledge) does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or situation A 2 year old child sees a man who is bald on top of his head and has long frizzy hair on the sides. To the father’s horror, the toddler shouts “ clown, clown” In the clown incident, the boy’s father explained to his son that the man was not a clown and that even though his hair was like a clown’s, he wasn’t wearing a funny costume and wasn’t doing silly things to make people laugh. With this new knowledge, the boy was able to change his schema of “ clown” and make this idea fit better to a standard concept of “clown” A child’s cognitive development is about a child developing or constructing a mental model of the world. Believed children go through 4 universal stages of cognitive development. Development is therefore biologically based and changes as the child matures. Cognition therefore develops in all children in the same sequence of stages. Each child goes through the stages in the same order, and no stage can be missed out One of most important accomplishments here A child’s understanding that objects continue to exist even though they cannot be seen or heard Peek a boo Blanket and ball study 0-2 years old Centred on the infant rying to make sense of the world. Knowledge limited to his or her sensory perceptions and motor activities Behaviours are limited to simple motor responses caused by sensory stimuli Use skills they were born with like looking, sucking, grasping and listening to learn more about environment 2-7 years old Language development is one of the landmarks here Unable to take the point of view of others Become increasingly adept at using symbols, as evidenced by the increase in playing and pretending Pretending a broom is a horse, role playing ( mommy or daddy) Three mountain task Children asked to choose a picture that showed the scene they had observed. Most children are able to do this with little difficulty. Next, children are asked to select a picture showing what someone else would have observed when looking at the mountain from a different viewpoint Children almost always choose the scene showing their own view of the mountain scene. According to Piaget, children experience this difficulty because they are unable to take on another person’s perspective Equal amounts of liquid are poured into 2 identical containers. The liquid in one container is then poured into a different shaped cup, such as a tall and thin cup or a short and wide up. Children are then asked which cup holds the most liquid Despite seeing that the liquid amounts were equal, children almost always choos the cup that appears fuller 7-11 years old Gain a better understanding of mental operations Begin thinking logically about concrete events, but have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts Awareness that actions can be reversed 12-adulthood Develop ability to think about abstract concepts. Skills such as logical though, deductive reasoning, and systematic planning Abstract thought and problem solving develop