PS275 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Genetic Epistemology, Cognitive Development
Document Summary
The activity of knowing and the mental processes by which human beings acquire and use knowledge to solve problems. Changes that occur in children"s mental abilities over the course of their lives. Mismatches between internal mental schemes and external environment stimulate intellectual growth. Termed by piaget, the experimental study of the origin of knowledge. Used to discover how different aged children solve various problems. Basic life function that enables an organism to adapt to its environment. A form of equalibrium toward which all cognitive structures tend. All intellectual activity is undertaken to produce a balanced relationship between thought processes and the environment (cognitive equilibrium) Piaget says children are active explorers and cognitive disequilibria prompts children to make mental adjustments to enable them to cope. An individual who acts on novel objects and gains understanding of their essential features. Childrens constructions of reality depend on the knowledge they have available to them. How we gain knowledge: cognitive schemes and processes.
