PSYC 251 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Egocentrism, Object Permanence, Cognitive Development
12 Mar 2014
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Page 188-220, 33 pages page 1 of 10. Basic principles of piaget"s theory: piaget investigated the nature and origin of knowledge by studying how children learned. Children are innately curious, like scientists creating theories to understand the world: constructivist theory emphasizes role of the active child, who are intrinsically motivated to learn, generating hypotheses, performing experiments, and drawing conclusions. Accommodation occurs when a child"s theories are modified based on experience: e. g. Sensorimotor stage: from birth to 2 years, the infant progresses from simple reflex actions to symbolic processing. It has 6 substages: 1) basic reflexes (0-1 month): basic responses of reflexes indicate some behavioural and cognitive abilities, which will be built upon to become more coordinated behaviours in subsequent substages. The reflex thus becomes more complex and intentional: 3) secondary circular reaction (4-8 months): occurs when an infant discovers repeated actions that involve an external object. Intentionally shake objects to see which produce sounds and which do not.
