CD 118

• in piagets theory, actions or mental representations that organize knowledge 
• as the child seeks to construct an understanding of the world the brain creates schemes

SCHEMES, ASSIMILATION, ACCOMODATION, ORGANIZATION AND EQUILIBRATION

piagetian concept of the incorporation of new information into existing knowledge

assimilation and accommodation

occurs when children adjust their schemes to fit new information and experiences

piagets concept of grouping isolated behaviors into a higher-order, more smoothly functioning cognitive system; the grouping or arranging of items into categories

• a mechanism that piaget proposed to explain how children shift from one stage of thought to the next. 
• the shift occurs as children experience cognitive conflict, or disequlibigrium, in trying to understand the world
• eventually they resolve the conflict and reach a balance or equilibrium of thought

• the first of piagets stages
• lasts from birth to about 2 yo
• infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences ( such as seeing and hearing) with motric actions

• Simple reflex
• first habits and primary circular reactions
• secondary circular reactions 
• coordination of secondary circular reactions 
• Tertiary circular reactions, novelty and curiosity 
• internaization of schemes

• birth to 1 month
• coordination of sensation and action through reflexive behaviors 
• ex: rooting, sucking, and grasping reflexes; newborns suck reflexively when their lips are touched

• 1-4 month 
• Coordination of sensation and two types of schemes: habits(reflex) and primary circular reaction(reproduction of an event that initially occurred by chance)
• main focus is still on infants body
• ex: repeating body sensations first experenced by chance( sucking thumb) then infants might accommodate actions by sucking their thumb differently from how they suck on a nipple

• 4-8 months
• infants become more object oriented, moving beyond self- preoccupation; repeat actions that bring interesting or pleasurable results 
• ex: an infant coos to make a person stay near; as the person starts to leave the infant coos again

• 8-12months 
• coordination of vision and touch- hand eye coordination; coordination of schemes and intentionality  
• ex: infant manipulates a stick in order to bring an attractive tow within reach

• 12-18months 
• infant becomes intrigued by the many properties of objects and by the many things they can make happen to objects; the experiment with new behavior 
• ex: a block can be made to fall, spin, hit another object and slide across the ground

• 18- 24 months 
• infants develop the ability to use primitive symbols and form enduring mental representations 
• ex: an infant who has never thrown a temper tantrum before sees a playmate throw a tantrum; the infant retains a memory or the event then throws one himself the next day

the piagetian term for one of an infants most important accomplishments: understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot directly be seen, heard or touched

occurs when infants make the mistake of selecting the familiar hiding place (a) rather than the new hiding place (b) as they progress into substage 4 in piagets sensorimotor stage

• states that infants are born with domain-specific innate knowledge systems, such as those involving space, number sense, object permanence and language 
• (nature vs nurture)

• internalized actions that allow children to do mentally what before they had done only physically 
• operations also are reversible mental actions

• the 2nd piagetian developmental stage 
• lasts from about 2-7 years 
• the child begins to represent the world with words, images and drawings 
• stable concepts are are formed 
• divided into two substages : symbolic function  and the intuitive thought substage

• the first substage of preoperational thought
• occurs  between ages 2-4
• the young child gainsthe ability to represent mentally an object that is not present

• an important feature of preoperational thought
• the inability to distinguish between ones worn and someone elses perspective

• a facet of preoperational thought 
• the belief that inanimated objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action

• the 2nd substage of preoperational thought
• 4-7yr
• children begin to used primitive reasoning

focusing attention on one characteritic to the exclusion of all others

the idea that altering an objects or substances apperance does not change its basic properties

• 7-11 years 
• when children can preform concrete operations, and logical reasoning replaces intuitive reasoning as a long as the reasoning can be applied to specific or concrete examples

piagets concept that similar ablities do not appear at the same time withn a stage of development

the concrete operation that involves ordering stimuli along a quatitavtive dimension( such as length)

• principle that says if arelation holds between a first object anda second object and holds between the second object and a third object then it holds between the first object and the third object 
• piaget argued that an understanding of transivity is characteritic or concrerete opertional thought

• pigets fourth and final stage 
• 11-15 yo
• when individuals move beyond concrete experiences and think in more abstract and logical ways

piget's formal operational concept that adolescents have the cognitive ability to develop hypotheses about ways to solve problems and can systematically deduce which is he best path to follow insolving problems

the heightened selfconsciousness of adolescents which is reflected in adolescents belief that oters are as interested in them as they are in themselves and adolesents sense of personal uniqueness and invulnerability

the aspect of adolescent egocentrism that involves attention getting behavior motivated by a desire to be noticed, visible  and onstage

the part of adolesent egocentrism that involves an adolescents snse of uniquenss and invicibilty