PSYC 110 Study Guide - Final Guide: Harry Harlow, Attachment Theory, Prenatal Development
Document Summary
Jean piaget: first convinced psychologist that children think much differently than adults. Everyone is born with the ability to organize the world meaningfully. Schemata: mental models of the world that we use to guide and interpret our experiences. People construct these mental models of the world. Schemata does no reflect the world accurately. (water experiment) if a cup of water is tilted, a child would draw a line indicating the water level parallel to the top and bottom of the cup. Children are able to use experience to build more sophisticated and correct mental models of the world. Cognitive development is guided by two adaptive psychological processes. Assimilation: the process through which we fit, or assimilate, new experiences into new schemata. A child who has been raised around cats assumes that the neighbor"s rabbit is a kind of kitty. The new experience, the rabbit, is assimilated into the child"s existing view of the world.
