Psychology AQA A level
Notes - Paper 3 - Cognition
and Development
Cognitive development - The way our perception, language, memory and thinking
change throughout the human lifespan
Social cognition - Our ability to understand how to behave in social situations
Accomodation - Changing or making a new schema to fit new information that would
not fit into old schema
Assimilation - Adding new information into a pre-existent schema, to make that
schema more complex
Class inclusion - The ability to categorise different objects into different groups
simultaneously
Conservation - The ability to understand an object retains the same qualities in spite
of the object appearing differently- quantity remains the same regardless of
appearance
Egocentrism - The idea that the only perspective that exists is one's own perspective
i.e. whatever the child learns, the child assumes everyone else knows
Equilibration - When a schema matches the environment because new information
has been accommodated or assimilated
Object permanence - The ability to understand that an object still exists when it's not
in the visual field, developed around 8 months
Piaget's theory of cognitive development - Learning through interaction with the
environment and developing schema from experiences to avoid disequilibrium
Sally-Anne study - A study to test the 'theory of the mind' in children. A child was to
observe two dolls- Sally and Anne- and watch one doll remove or hide an object
Notes - Paper 3 - Cognition
and Development
Cognitive development - The way our perception, language, memory and thinking
change throughout the human lifespan
Social cognition - Our ability to understand how to behave in social situations
Accomodation - Changing or making a new schema to fit new information that would
not fit into old schema
Assimilation - Adding new information into a pre-existent schema, to make that
schema more complex
Class inclusion - The ability to categorise different objects into different groups
simultaneously
Conservation - The ability to understand an object retains the same qualities in spite
of the object appearing differently- quantity remains the same regardless of
appearance
Egocentrism - The idea that the only perspective that exists is one's own perspective
i.e. whatever the child learns, the child assumes everyone else knows
Equilibration - When a schema matches the environment because new information
has been accommodated or assimilated
Object permanence - The ability to understand that an object still exists when it's not
in the visual field, developed around 8 months
Piaget's theory of cognitive development - Learning through interaction with the
environment and developing schema from experiences to avoid disequilibrium
Sally-Anne study - A study to test the 'theory of the mind' in children. A child was to
observe two dolls- Sally and Anne- and watch one doll remove or hide an object
