Psychology 2040A/B Chapter 7: chapter 7 - page 1

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2040A/B
• Professor: Folino

Document Summary

Cognition: the activity of knowing and the mental processes by which human beings acquire and use knowledge to solve problems. Cognitive development: the changes that occur in children"s mental abilities over the course of their lives. Genetic epistemology: the experimental study of the development of knowledge, developed by. Intelligence: in piaget"s theory- a basic life function that enables an organism to adapt to its environment. All intellectual activity is undertaken with one goal in mind: to produce a balanced relationship between one"s thought processes and the environment piaget calls this a cognitive equilibrium. Imbalances (cognitive disequilibria) between children"s modes of thinking and environmental events prompt them to make mental adjustments that enable them to cope with new experiences and therefore restore cognitive equilibrium. Constructivist: one who gains knowledge by acting or otherwise operating on objects and events to discover their properties.