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Cognition & development studies (Piaget (Evaluation (Dubious…
Cognition & development studies
Selman
Perspective-taking research
30 boys & girls, 20 aged 4, 20 aged 5 & 20 aged 6.
Given task (scenarios) to measure perspective-taking ability.
Example: Holly promised dad she won't climb trees, but comes across her friend's kitten stuck in a tree.
Describe & explain how each person would feel if Holly climbed/did not climb the tree.
Evaluations
Mixed evidence for importance of perspective-taking.
Valkenburg:
Negative correlation between age, perspective-taking & coerce behaviour.
Shows perspective-taking important in pro-social behaviour.
Gasser & Keller:
Bullies had no difficulty with perspective-taking.
Applications in understanding atypical development.
Marton et al:
Compared 50 8-12 year olds with ADHD & control group.
Those with ADHD did worse on perspective-taking tasks.
Evidence that perspective-taking gets better with age.
Selman's research found positive correlation between age & ability to take different perspectives in scenarios.
Gurucharri & Selman:
Longitudinal follow-up.
Perspective-taking develops with age
Proves earlier research not simply due to individual differences.
Piaget
Class inclusion:
Showed children pics of 2 cats & 5 dogs.
Children asked 'are there more dogs or animals?'
Evaluation
Ability to decentre.
Hughes
2 intersecting walls & 3 dolls, 2 policemen & 1 boy.
Child asked to put doll where policemen couldn't see.
From 3 1/2 years, child can do this 90% of the time with 1 policeman.
Child at 4 could do this 90% of the time with both policemen.
Dubious conclusion on class inclusion.
Siegler & Matija
100 Slovenia 5 year olds.
3 sessions of class inclusion tasks.
2 conditions.
Wrong: received explanation that there must be more animals than dogs because there were more animals than dogs.
Right: More animals as dogs are a subset of animals.
Scores from 3 tasks became better for latter group.
Dubious questioning in conservation
Child may think they are meant to say the quantity had changed, & is therefore confused by the question.
McGarrigle & Donaldson
Replicated original counters study.
Except with 'naughty teddy' that accidentally knocked counters closer together.
62% correctly stated same no. as before.
Egocentrism:
Children shown models of 3 mountains with either a cross, house or snow.
A doll placed so that it faces different angle to child.
Child asked to pick out the doll's view from series of photos.
Conservation
2 identical rows of counter.
Child asked if they are same amount.
One row pushed closer together.
Child asked again.
2 identical beakers with same volume of water.
Asked whether volumes were same.
One poured into thinner, taller vessel.
Asked again.
Vygotsky
Evaluation
Support for scaffolding
Conner & Cross:
Longitudinal.
Observed 45 children problem solving with help from mothers.
At 16, 26, 44 & 54 months.
Mother uses less direct intervention & more hints & prompts over time.
Applications in education.
Peer & Verhaeghe:
7 year olds tutored by 10 year olds + classes do better than controls.
Alzborz:
Teaching assistants effective at improving rate of learning.
Support for ZPD.
Roazzi & Bryant:
4-5 year olds asked to estimate no. of sweets in box.
2 conditions, one with older child & the other alone.
Most alone failed & most with expert help successfully mastered task.
Supports ZPD.
Mirror neurons
Evaluations
Difficulty studying mirror neuron activity in humans.
Scans doesn't allow measuring of individual neurons.
Ethically not possible to insert electrodes in a human brain.
Therefore activity in general parts of brain inferred to be mirror neurons.
Mixed evidence for abnormal mirror neuron function in ASD.
Hadjikhani (2007)
Scans show smaller average pars opercularis in ASD participants.
Not all findings replicated consistently.
Lack of reliable direct evidence.
Evidence for role of mirror neurons.
Haker et al (2012
)
Demonstrated area of brain believed rich in mirror neurons involved in contagious yawning.
fMRI used on participants when simulated to yawn by films of others yawning.
Activity in Brodmann's area, right frontal lobe.
Mouras et al (2008)
Pars opercularis in perspective-taking.
Male participants watched either fishing documentary or heterosexual porn.
Arousal measured by fMRI & pressure sensitive penis ring.
Pars opercularis activated before sexual arousal.
Discovery
Rizzolatti et al (2002)
Studying electrical activity in monkey's motor cortex.
A researcher leaned across to reach for his lunch.
Monkey's motor cortex activated in the same way as if it was reaching for food itself.
Baillageon
VOE Research
Occlusion study
24 infants, aged 5-6 months.
Possibles condition: tall rabbit seen passing through a window.
Impossible: tall rabbit not seen.
Infants looked for average of 33.07 seconds at impossible compared to 25.11 at possible.
Other studies include:
Containment
- when object enters container, it's expected to be there when container opens again.
Support
- object should fall when unsupported apart from being on a horizontal surface.
Evaluation
Hard to judge understanding of infants.
We don't know what an infant's reaction to an impossible event may be.
No. of other reasons that they look at impossible scenes for longer.
The PRS explains universality of physical understanding.
Without learning or differences in experience, we all have an understanding of physical rules.
Therefore this suggests it's innate.
Better test than Piaget.
Eliminates confounding variable for object permanence studies - that infants don't have the motor skills to look for object when out of sight, or simply loses interest.
ToM
False belief tasks.
Wimmer & Perner:
3-4 year olds told a story.
Maxi left chocolate in blue cupboard & went to playground.
Mum's used chocolate & left in green cupboard.
Asked where Maxi would look for chocolate when back.
Most 3 year olds answered incorrectly & 4 year olds correctly.
Baron-Cohen et al (Sally Anne):
Story where sally places marble in basket & leaves, Anne moves marbles to her box when Sally's unaware.
Child asked to work out where Sally looks for her marble.
20 ASD & 14 controls.
85% controls answered correct & 20% ASD answered correct.
Older children & adults
Baron-cohen et al:
Read emotions from eyes.
ASD struggled.
Intentional reasoning in toddlers.
Meltzoff:
18 months observed adults drop beads in jar.
One condition, adult drops beads.
Second condition, adults place beads in jar.
Toddler places beads in jar in both conditions.
Shows understanding of intention.
Evaluations
Low validity in false belief.
Other cognitive skills needed, e.g. Memory.
Children that can't do well can still enjoy pretend play.
Hard to distinguish ToM from perspective-taking.
Methods to study ToM can be applied to perspective-taking. e.g. Sally-Anne.
Partial explanation for ASD.
Studies useful in understanding ASD.
Though ASD associated with ToM, it may not be direct cause.
Other cognitive skills in ASD not explained.