Exam 1 (50 points)

1

• Exam 1 (50 points)
• Essay 1 15 points (5, 5, 5)
• Essay 2 15 points
• Short Answer 1 6 points (2, 2, 2)
• Short Answer 2 4 points (2, 2)
• Short Answer 3 4 points
• Short Answer 4 6 points (2, 2, 2)

2

• Schemes Knowledge structures
• Simplest schemes are organized patterns of
  behavior, including reflexes
• Ex sucking scheme looking scheme grasping
  scheme
• Become more complex with age and become
  mental/internal
•  Children play an active role in the development
  of schemes through their interactions with the
  environment (constructivist)

3

• Mechanisms of Cognitive Development
• Organization Inherited predisposition to
  combine physical or psychological schemes into
  more complex systems
• Ex infants combine looking and grasping into a
  reaching scheme

4

• Adaptation involves assimilation and
  accommodation
• Assimilation Interpret new experiences in terms
  of existing schemes
• Ex Newborns and young infants try to suck many
  things, regardless of their suckability
• Ex Child sees a camel at the zoo and yells
  horse!

5

• Accommodation Modify schemes to fit new
  experiences
• Ex Infants learn to modify their sucking
  depending on the object
• Ex Child sees a camel at the zoo and yells
  Lumpy horse!

6
(No Transcript)
7

• Piagets stages involve
• Discontinuous (qualitative) change
• Invariant sequence
• Stages are never skipped

8

• Sensorimotor Stage (birth-2 years)
• Newborns have reflexes and basic perceptual
  abilities
• Refine these innate responses (accommodation)
  during the first month of life

9

• Gradually become capable of repeating satisfying
  behaviors that initially occurred by chance

10

• First learn to repeat actions involving their own
  body (primary circular reactions)
• Ex thumb sucking
• Then learn to repeat actions involving objects
  (secondary circular reactions)
• Ex shaking rattle

11

• Object Permanence Understanding that objects
  continue to exist when they cannot be perceived
  directly
• Infants have some understanding of object
  permanence at around 8 months (according to
  Piaget)
• Will search for a fully occluded (covered) object
  if they observe it being hidden

12

• A-not-B error Tendency to reach where objects
  have been found before, rather than where they
  were last hidden
• Infants make this error until about 12 months of
  age
• According to Piaget, the A-not-B error occurs
  because infants do not have a full understanding
  of the permanent existence of the object
  independent of its spatial location and their
  actions on the object

13

• Between 18-24 months, final stage of object
  permanence emerges
• Invisible displacement problems One object
  serves as a symbol for a second object that is
  hidden from view

14

• General Criticisms of Piagets Theory
• Underestimates the role of specific experiences
  in affecting cognitive development
• Ex Certain experiences (like formal schooling)
  may promote conservation and other abilities

15

• Doesnt explain HOW cognitive development occurs
• Concepts (i.e., schemes, organization,
  adaptation) are vague
• Better description than explanation of childrens
  cognitive development

16

• Portrays childrens thinking as being more
  consistent than it really is
• Cognitive development occurs more gradually and
  shows more variation within children than
  Piagets theory allows
• Ex Children can typically solve some
  conservation problems sooner than others

17

• Underestimates the cognitive competence of
  infants and young children
• Ex Object permanence??

18

• Core Knowledge Theories
• Some types of knowledge are innate
• Ex Knowledge about object properties such as
  solidity and continuity
• two objects cannot occupy the same space
  objects follow continuous paths through space

19

• Infants/young children develop naïve theories
  in certain domains (areas) based on this innate
  knowledge
• Ex theory of physics (knowledge of physical
  properties of objects)
• Domains in which infants have core knowledge
  are adaptive for survival from an evolutionary
  perspective
• Exs knowledge of people, knowledge of living
  things, knowledge of objects

20

• Violation of Expectation Method
• Based on assumption of infants preference for
  novel stimuli
• Habituate infants to a possible physical event
• Habituation Decrease in response due to
  repeated presentation of a stimulus
• Present a possible and impossible event
• Measure infants looking time to each event
• Pits novelty of a stimulus against impossibility
  of an event

21

• Baillargeon, Spelke, Wasserman (1985)
• Infants were habituated to a screen rotating up
  and then down 180 degrees
• Test trials Object was placed behind the screen
  to block its path
• Screen rotated 112 degrees (possible event) or
  180 degrees (impossible event)
• Infants looked longer at impossible event, even
  though possible event was (arguably) more novel

22

• Based on findings using the violation-of-expectati
  on method with very young infants, core knowledge
  theorists claim that some types of object
  knowledge are innate or emerge very early without
  direct experience with objects

23

• Issues
• If infants are not fully habituated initially,
  may show a preference for the familiar stimulus
  during test trialsthe more familiar stimulus is
  also the impossible event
• Some evidence indicates the presence of
  familiarity effects

24

• Other factors may also be confounded with the
  possible and impossible events
• Ex Degree of movement

25

• Should infants looking behavior be attributed to
  higher-order cognitive processes or does it
  reflect more basic perceptual processes (e.g.,
  preference for novelty or familiarity)?
• Perception and knowing are not the same thing. .
  . A person can regard an event as odd without
  knowing why (Haith, 1998)

26

• Why does young infants behavior differ from
  older childrens behavior?
• Ex If young infants have object permanence,
  then why dont older infants search for hidden
  objects, make the A-not-B error, etc.?

27

• Conclusions (Cohen Cashon, 2006)
• Evidence is mixed and has been used both to
  justify core knowledge theories and more
  traditional Piagetian explanations of object
  knowledge
• Researchers should focus on understanding the
  process of acquiring object permanence, rather
  than treating it as an all-or-none phenomenon

28

• Information Processing Theories Common Features
• Cognitive development is viewed as gradual
  (continuous, quantitative) rather than abrupt
  (discontinuous, qualitative)
• Children are viewed as active problem solvers
• Problem solving Process of attaining a goal by
  using a strategy to overcome an obstacle
• Focus is on specifying mechanisms of cognitive
  change
• Task Analysis Identification of goals, relevant
  information in the environment, and potential
  processing strategies for a problem

29

• Comparisons between information processing of
  humans and that of computers
• Computers ability to process information is
  limited by its
• Hardware (e.g., memory capacity, speed/efficiency
  of operations)
• Software (e.g., strategies, information
  available)
• Individuals thinking is limited by
• Memory capacity
• Speed/efficiency of thought processes
• Availability of relevant strategies and knowledge

30

• Development of Memory
• Components of the Memory System
• Sensory memory Fleeting retention of raw
  sensory input information is moved to short-term
  memory or is lost
• Can hold a moderate amount of information for a
  fraction of a second
• Capacity is relatively constant over much of
  development
• Short-term (working) memory Workspace in
  which information from sensory memory and
  long-term memory is brought together and actively
  processed
• Can hold and operate on between 1 and 10 items
  (words, numbers, etc.) for periods of a few
  seconds to a minute
• Capacity and speed of operation increases greatly
  over the course of childhood and adolescence

31

• Long-term memory Information retained on an
  enduring basis
• Can hold an unlimited amount of information for
  unlimited periods of time
• Includes knowledge and skills
• Long-term memory increase greatly with
  development

32

• Explanations of Memory Development
• Basic Processes
• Simple, most frequently used mental activities
• Exs associating events with each other
  recognizing objects as familiar recalling facts
  and procedures generalizing from one instance to
  another encoding
• Encoding Process of representing in memory
  information that draws attention or is considered
  important

33

• Speed of processing increases most rapidly during
  childhood but continues to increase through
  adolescence
• Biological factors
• Increased myelination promotes faster neuronal
  transmission
• Increased connections among brain regions
  promotes increased processing capacity and speed
• Familiarity/Learning

34

• Strategy Use
• Strategy A general plan or set of plans
  intended to achieve a goal

35

• Specific Memory Strategies
• Rehearsal Repetition of information
• Spontaneous use of this strategy emerges around
  age 5
• Repeat an item as it is presented
• Younger children do not typically use cumulative
  rehearsal (repeating all items in a list each
  time a new item is added)
• Cumulative rehearsal is associated with the
  primacy effect
• Improved recall for items at the beginning of a
  sequence or list
• When younger children are instructed to use
  cumulative rehearsal, memory performance improves

36

• Organization Grouping items on the basis of
  similarity
• By approximately 10-11 years, children tend to
  recall related items together
• When younger children are instructed to use
  organization, memory performance improves

37

• Elaboration Creating a meaningful relationship
  between two items (verbally or visually)
• Typically tested using paired-associates
  procedure
• Two words are paired (e.g., bear-blanket)
• Test One word is presented and participant must
  recall other word
• Children rarely use elaboration spontaneously
• If instructed to use visual or verbal
  elaboration, memory performance improves

38

• Content Knowledge
• Greater knowledge increases childrens ability to
  remember new information because they can relate
  it to information they already know
• When children know more about a topic than
  adults, their memory for new information about
  the topic is often better than that of adults
• Ex Chi (1978)
• Tested memory for novel chessboard arrangements
  in child chess experts and novice adults