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)

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)

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

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!”

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!”

Piaget’s stages involve Discontinuous (qualitative) change Invariant sequence –Stages are never skipped

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

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

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

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

–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

Between 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

General Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory: Underestimates the role of specific experiences in affecting cognitive development –Ex: Certain experiences (like formal schooling) may promote conservation and other abilities

Doesn’t explain HOW cognitive development occurs –Concepts (i.e., schemes, organization, adaptation) are vague –Better description than explanation of children’s cognitive development

Portrays children’s thinking as being more consistent than it really is –Cognitive development occurs more gradually and shows more variation within children than Piaget’s theory allows Ex: Children can typically solve some conservation problems sooner than others

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

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

–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

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

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

Based on findings using the violation-of- expectation 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

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

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

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)

Why does young infants’ behavior differ from older children’s behavior? –Ex: If young infants have object permanence, then why don’t older infants search for hidden objects, make the A-not-B error, etc.?

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

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

–Comparisons between information processing of humans and that of computers: Computer’s 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Content Knowledge –Greater knowledge increases children’s 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