Cognition & Development
Cognition & Development (7)
Kohlberg was influenced by Piaget’s theory of moral development. He believed, like Piaget, that the moral reasoning of children changes over time. He also used moral dilemmas to gather insight into the types of reasoning used by people as they mature. The most famous of Kohlberg’s dilemmas concerns whether Heinz was right to steal a drug to help his sick wife. Kohlberg (1984) gave the dilemmas to 72 boys from Chicago when they were aged between 10 and 16. It was a longitudinal study; Kohlberg tested participants' reasoning every three years for 20 years.
Published in
Development of Moral Understanding
Piaget's theory of moral understanding was formulated using similar research methods to his Cognitive Development theory: he used open ended clinical interviews to question 5 to 13 year old Swiss children on the rules of marbles and posed moral dilemmas so that he could examine their moral reasoning. Here is an example of one of Piaget's dilemmas:
Published in
Development of Moral Understanding
Vygotsky criticised Piaget’s emphasis on the child’s interaction with the environment, claiming that Piaget ignores the role of social interaction. Vygotsky, in contrast, sees the child as an apprentice who learns through interacting with others rather than as a scientist acting alone.Vygotsky claims that children experience abrupt changes in their ability to solve problems. This is the result of being taught culturally specific mediators by others which then allow them to think at a higher level.
Published in
Cognitive Development
Piaget believed that there is a qualitative as well as a quantitative difference in the intelligence of young children, compared with older children and adults. There is a quantitative difference because adults have more knowledge of the world and there is a qualitative difference because children do not use the same logic in their thinking as adults do. Children's logic changes as they develop though the four stages (see below).
Published in
Cognitive Development
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There are a number of research methods that have been used to investigate the relative importance of genes and environment in the development of intelligence:
Twin and family studies
Genetic studies
Enrichment Studies
Published in
Development of Measured Intelligence
Typically, IQ tests measure:
Spatial ability
Visualisation and mental manipulation of shapes or objects
Mathematical ability
Logic and problem solving
Language ability
Vocabulary – sentence completion
Memory ability
Storage and retrieval of information
Published in
Development of Measured Intelligence
IQ stands for Intelligence Quotient, which is a number that represents how intelligent a person is. It is calculated by comparing a person’s mental age (MA) with their chronological (actual) age (CA) using the following formula:
IQ = MA/CA ×100
Mental age is calculated by giving tests to thousands of people of different ages, this makes it possible to see how the average 12 year old, for example, performs on the test. Someone who performs at the same level as a 12 year old would have a mental age of 12. Likewise, someone who performs at the same level as a 24 year old would have a mental age of 24.
Applying the formula: if a 12 year old has a mental age of 12 they have a normal IQ of 100, but a 24 year old with a mental age of 12 would have an IQ of 50 and would be considered to have learning difficulties.
Published in
Development of Measured Intelligence
