PSY 302 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Object Permanence, Active Child, Lev Vygotsky
29 Mar 2016
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Cognition: the mental processes through which we acquire and use knowledge to solve problems. Before piaget there was no such thing as the study of cognitive development. Worked with binet and gave iq tests and recognized all the children the same age made the same mistakes. Created genetic-epistemology (original term for cognitive development) Used the clinical method to study children. Intelligence = a basic life function that helps an organism adapt to its environment. The goal of all intellectual activity is cognitive equilibrium. Children are actively trying to figure out their world. Children are a constructivists, they are constructing their knowledge and understanding of the world, they are also scientists by generating hypotheses, performing experiments and then drawing conclusions which occur primarily on their own. Children are intrinsically motivated to learn new things. Depending on their level of cognitive development they will come up with different explanations for things. Nature and nurture interact to produce cognitive development.
