Reading Activity Week #13 (Due Monday)

1a) The first thing I found interesting in this chapter was the section on ASsimilation and Accommodation: Piaget.

1b) Although this was review from previous courses I have taken, it still interests me because I love learning about the developmental portion of psychology and it is interesting to see how certain people think intellect is developed. Piaget believes that our cognitive development is based off of two principles. Organization refers to the nature of the mental structures that are used to explore and understand the world. Piaget believes the mind is structured in increasingly complex ways with the simplest being a scheme which become progressively integrated and coordinated throughout development. Adaption on the other hand consists of assimilation (process by which we take information from the outside world and assimilate it with our existing knowledge and behaviors) and accommodation (changing old schemes to process new information and objects in the environment).

2a) The next thing I found interesting was the section which critiques the Piagetian Perspective.

2b) This section was interesting because it builds off of the last idea I found interesting. I was convinced of the Piagetian view but after reading this section I am torn. It is fascinating how different researchers counteract each other all the time and often no one ever knows who is right. Jean Mandler questioned Piaget's views about the ability of thinking in young infants. Piaget believed they go through a period during which they cannot completely form thoughts, but Mandler thinks that they are able to and shows this using two different experiments one involving movies paired with fitting/nonfitting music, and also the pacifier test.

3a) The last section I found interesting was on memory and childhood amnesia.

3b) This section was interesting to me because childhood amnesia fascinates me since I can hardly remember anything from early ages, but also all of the descriptions of the experiments were interesting to learn about too. There has been much scientific evidence that infants have memory for events as well as the ability to form concepts. Babies can be shown stimuli and they demonstrate recognition of this. Also they are able to show imitation and habituation but all of these types of memories are not the same as adult memories. There have been many studies to trying to record the age at which people can remember their first memory: the average age being 39-42 months. One study shows that traumatic episodes are significant events that are likely to be recalled into adulthood even at the age of 2.

4a) The part of this chapter I found the most boring to read about was the section on neural development.

4b) To me, it is never fun reading about the anatomy of the brain. This structure is so complex, there are so many parts I still don’t know what they do, and reading about the changes during development is always just confusing and dull. I would rather learn about them in lecture, which I have many times but I just can’t seem to remember them because it doesn’t interest me all that much.

5) All in all I think that a wide variety of things learned in this chapter will be important down the road while learning cognitive psychology. I think understanding Piaget’s theory on intellect and some of it’s criticisms are important, along with knowing and understanding the cognitive changes associated with the different stages of development from infancy to elderly.

6) This chapter builds off of previous chapters in many different ways. All in all chapter 12 is about cognition across the lifespan, thus far we have learned about several different very specific concepts of cognition but now we are applying all of them in a larger sense to development at different ages. Also we touch more on facial attention which was brought up in the facial recognition chapter, we touch on memory again, chunking organization techniques are brought up again, and Alzheimer’s is mentioned too.

7a) I would like to learn more about childhood amnesia.

7b) I find this topic very interesting because I have a really hard time recalling events that happened in my lifetime even as early as age 5 so thinking that people can remember things from the age of 2 fascinates me and I would like to learn more about it.

8) As I was reading through this chapter I made a lot of connections from previous psychology courses I have taken and I kept thinking about learning about all the different stages of development in developmental psych. During the critique of Piaget I was wondering if they ever did experiments measuring intelligence on babies using different types of fMRI’s or EEG machines. Last during the memory section which talks about child amnesia I was wondering if there was anyone who didn’t have this who could remember everything from their childhood but perhaps were not superior rememberers in general just from their childhood.

9) Terms: assimilation, accommodation, Piaget, organization, adaption, Jean Mandler, Meltzoff and Borton Study, Spelke study, stages of development, infancy, elderly, facial attention, memory, chunking, Alzheimers, memory, imitation, habituation, Usher and Neisser, childhood amnesia, autobiographical memories.

1a) What did you find interesting?
Jean Piaget.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
Piaget interested me because much of what we still know today about developmental psychology has been based on his work. Piaget was a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher who is best known for his theory of assimilation and accommodation. Piaget believed that intelligence like all of our other biological functions is due to an evolutionary adaptation. Piaget argued that the only way to fully understand the nature of the adult mind was to follow it from birth. Piaget believed that adaptation was a process of assimilation and accommodation. We must first take in information from the outside and assimilate it with our existing knowledge. The accommodation occurs when we need to change or adapt the new information in our environment.
2a) What did you find interesting?
Stages of cognitive development.
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive development that occur throughout an individual’s lifetime. The first stage he proposed was the sensorimotor stage which lasts from birth to about 2 years old and is characterized by the here and now. During this stage there is little to no understanding of objective reality, no language and no thought. The second stage of development is the preoperative stage that lasts from 2-7 years old. In this stage the child is commonly exhibiting cognitive thought, however they are usually unable to organize these thoughts. Another characteristic of this stage is the child may have difficulty differentiating between their perceptions and the perceptions of others. The third stage of Piaget’s theory is the concrete operation stage that lasts from 7-11 years old. This stage is characterized by a growth in the ability to conserve, classify, seriation and transitivity. All of these cognitive processes require higher functioning and involves grouping and categorizing similar objects. The last stage of Piaget’s theory is the formal operations stage which lasts from age 11 and up. This is the stage at which children begin to have the ability to formulate and tests hypotheses against reality.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Early neural development.
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
I was first interested in this because I wanted to know more about the brain development during the gestation period and how many synapses we lose over time. Around the beginning of the second trimester the cerebral cortex or the “new” brain begins to develop separately from the spinal cord. Development of the brain begins to occur more rapidly after this point, by 7 months the lobes are being formed and at 9 months each is distinguishable. What is most interesting is the amount of synaptic formations that develop but then begin to shed themselves from the brain. The amount of synapses within the brain increases until about age 2 when we begin to lose about 50 percent until age 16.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
Memory.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
This section was the least interesting to me mostly because we have spoken about memory and the different phases of it many times in class but also in many other classes. While memory can give many clues to our cognitive abilities in adolescence and adulthood I found the section to be a little repetitive.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?
Cognition, like the title of the chapter says, is something that occurs across one’s lifetime and understanding where those points of understanding and change begin will be very influential to anyone who plans on having children or study developmental psychology. There are still many questions we have about our cognitive abilities and how we develop some of the strange phenomenon that we do, this chapter did a good job of explaining many of the lifecycle changes.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter builds on the previous chapters by explaining when and how many of the things we have learned in the previously sections like, our understanding of knowledge, vision, hearing and language develop.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
Dementia.
7b) Why?
My grandfather had dementia and I know very little about the condition, other than the fact that it affects many elderly people. I was also surprised when I read in the book that memory systems remain largely intact in people with dementia.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
This chapter reminded me a lot of my baby cousin who is almost 3 and is entering into Piaget’s stage known as preoperative. She has already has so much personality and is a very happy little girl but I find it fascinating how her understanding of the world around her in continually changing.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
-Piaget, assimilation, accommodation, adaptation, sensorimotor, preoperative, concrete operation, formal operation

The first section I enjoyed was the one on Vygotsky's opinion on the stages of development that were first created by Piaget. Vygotsky believed that the general principle was correct, but that there were a few changes that needed to be made. Vygotsky disagreed that development occurred before learning and believed that it was, in fact, the other way around. He also believed that egocentric speech was social in origin, whereas Piaget believed that it started out as a way to verbalize a person's thoughts and then turned into something social later on. Vygotsky believed that all verbalization, including cooing and babbling, is social in nature and is done to communicate with others. I found this section interesting because I do not always agree with Piaget's theories and it is good to hear that someone else felt the same way. I also find the idea that children are born trying to communicate with others very interesting.

Another section I found interesting was the one on early neural development. The brain begins developing in the womb and goes through many stages of growth before birth even occurs. Before birth the lobes of the brain begin to form and become differentiated. Cognitive development begins during the gestational period and is not completed until a person is in their mid-twenties. Synapses increase in number until about two years of age; from then on they begin to decrease and almost half of them are lost by the age of sixteen. This section interested me because so much goes on with our bodies and minds before we are even born. We change so much in such a short period of time, and these changes occur not only physically, but cognitively as well. I also always think it is interesting to learn how long it takes for the brain to fully develop. People often think that by their teenage years they are fully developed mentally, that we stop growing cognitively when we stop growing physically. This is not the case, and cognitive development often takes another ten years to fully develop.

One last area I found interesting was the section on intelligence. One way to study intelligence is to look at twins. Monozygotic, or identical twins, and dizygotic, or fraternal twins are both studied. Twins are useful to study because they have as similar of an upbringing and environment as is possible. The Colorado Adoption Project is one twin study in which more than 200 adoptive children and their adoptive parents were studied. Scores for identical twins are much more similar than those for fraternal twins. This is true for the entire life span and shows that much of intelligence is genetic and not environmental. Birth mothers often have similar scores to their children as well. Genetic factors are thought to contribute to about fifty percent of verbal ability and forty percent of spatial ability. I found this section interesting because parents often wonder if there is something they can do to increase their child's intelligence. Specialty products are often marketed as being able to make dramatic increases to intelligence, and parents often swear by different teaching methods. It is interesting to realize that most of intelligence is genetic. This is comforting to me, because I have high intelligence and my parents and brother do as well. This gives me hope that even if I don't do everything perfectly for my child it will still likely have above average intelligence.

One thing I found least interesting was the section on Piaget's principles in cognitive development. The main two are organization and adaptation. Organization in this context means the mental structures that are used by humans to understand the world around them. The simplest form of organization in the human mind, according to Piaget, is the scheme. This is the mental representation of an action that can be performed, such as walking. Adaptation is made up of two other processes, assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is when we take new information and incorporate it into our existing knowledge. Adaptation is when we change our knowledge or perceptions based on new information. These processes occur the most during the early years of life, when a child is frequently encountering new things, but can occur later on in life whenever something new is being experienced. I found this section the least interesting because I have learned this information in my developmental psychology class. I do not enjoy Piaget and his theories. I think that his theory was too linear and that it does not encompass all of the possibilities.

I think that understanding how cognition develops is vital to learning about cognitive psychology. Knowing that the brain is not fully developed until later in life will help people to understand the psychological differences between people and across stages of life.

This chapter expands on the previous in that we were learning previously about language and perception, where now we are looking more abstractly at cognitive development as a whole and the ways of processing and learning new information.

I would like to learn more about twin studies and intelligence. I think it is very interesting to see what similarities and differences people with the same (or similar) genetic makeup and environments have.

While reading this chapter I thought a lot about my developmental psychology class, because this chapter is very similar to what I have learned previously in that class. I also thought about my own intelligence and the experiences I have had with cognitive development.

terms:
vygotsky, stages of development, piaget, egocentric speech, early neural development, cognitive development, intelligence, monozygotic, dizygotic, twin studies, colorado adoption project, spatial ability, verbal ability, principles in cognitive development, organization, adaptation, assimilation, accommodation, cognitive psychology

1.I thought the discussion of adaptation was interesting. It’s really neat how from when we’re born our brains naturally know how to take information and either use assimilation or accomodation to process and store the new information. Even infants have the ability to assimilate to the world around them and to accommodate to new experiences. It’s amazing how this process continues to develop and become more complex as you grow and learn more.

2.Another topic I found interesting was the phenomenon of internalization. I enjoy spending time with kids and plan to have my own someday so it’s interesting to learn about how they develop certain abilities by watching external actions and internalizing into their own. This process could work as adults learn new things too but children use it much more frequently.

3.I also thought reading about the development of speech was interesting. The book mentioned how the main purpose of speech is communication. Initially when a child begins making noises and trying to communicate the purpose is from the individual to society. However as children grow and “transfer social collaborative forms of behavior to the sphere of the inner-personal psychic functions” thinking then goes from society to the individual. Essentially it’s viewed as an egocentric development and it’s not about communicating outward but figuring out what the world can commuicate back to you.

4.A topic I didn’t find as interesting was about neural development. I have a difficult time understanding physiological aspects of topics and can’t connect to them as much. I usually thrive more understanding the functionality of things. Reading about how the brain physically developed therefore wasn’t as interesting to me.

5.I thought this chapter offered a lot of information in helping understand the broader concept of Cognitive Psychology. Many different topics of the development of cognition in the life span were discussed and I don’t think any one topic can be pinpointed as helping me most understand Cognitive Psychology. I learned most from the chapte as a whole and thinking about and processing how people develop over time and how their cognition grows and expands to the more complex process it typically is for an adult.

6.This chapter builds on previous chapters by discussing some previously covered topics from a different approach. For example, memory is a topic we’ve covered in other chapters but this chapter helped build on that topic from the perspective of how it develops over a lifespan.

7.I’d be interested in learning more about senescence. With a growing population of aged adults it’s becoming a topic many people are more curious about as we’re watching more and more individuals go through this period of their life.

8.As I was reading this chapter I thought about how it’s interesting to actually watch some of these processes of development take place in people. My fiance has 3 nieces I’ve been able to watch grow and develop so it’s really neat to actually learn some of the science behind what they’re learning about how they’re developing.

9.Adaptation, assimilation, accomodation

I enjoyed this chapter, and there were three things that I found to be interesting. The first thing that I found interesting was the section on problem solving. I liked this section because it was a good build off of last chapter. I liked how the book talked about the Gestalt way of problem solving because I did not know a lot about that topic. The next section that I found interesting was the section on creativity. I liked this section because I had never thought about creativity as the book described. I did not put a process to the definition so it was interesting to learn about it in another perspective. The last section that I found to be interesting was on cultural block. I liked this section because it is something that I have experienced working in construction. There are times where it is hard to communicate with someone based on their background being different than their. The section that I did not like the most was on Divergence production test. I thought that this section had useful information, but I did not prefer it over the other sections. I will also talk about what I want to learn more about, how this chapter builds off the others, how this chapter helps in my understanding of psychology, and thoughts I had while reading the chapter.

I liked the section on problem solving because it was a nice build off of the previous chapter with inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning. This chapter went a little farther when it talked about gestalt psychology and problem solving. Gestalt psychology looks at the whole of the problem and then narrows down to get to the correct answer. Gestalt theory looks at all the angles and then finally gets to the right answer. This made sense to me because it kind of sounds like deductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning is kind of like that because it narrows options down in order to get to the correct answer as well. I thought that this section had a lot of important information, and built nicely off the previous chapter that we read.

The next section that I thought was interesting was the section on creativity. When I was reading the section I was really intrigued because I had never thought of creativity in such a way. I did not know that it was a four stage process. The four stages are preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. Creativity is another way to get to a correct answer. I do not feel that it as useful as the other methods that this chapter and previous chapters have talked about. I think that using creativity is a nice way to brain storm ideas to get to a correct answer, but I think that the process of deductive reasoning proves to be more affective. I think that this section also had some useful information, and helped in my understanding of cognitive psychology.

The last section that I thought was interesting was on cultural blocks. I thought that this section was interesting because it is something that I have to experience sometimes. Cultural block can occur when you are trying to explain information to someone who might be of a different background than you. This happens to me when I was working construction. This can happen in both ways, when you are trying to explain something, or they are trying to explain something to you. The example that the book gives deals with trying to explain how to put a pipe in the ground, but you are in a group of six people that are not specialists in the area. It was interesting to see the cultural block because it can be frustrating when someone is trying to explain a subject but they can not get their point across because of a barrier. I thought that this section was interesting and had some important information. I thought that this topic was important to my understanding of psychology.

The section that I did not like the most was on divergent production test. I thought that this section had some really useful information, but I did not like it as much as the other section that I talked about. This section talked about convergent and divergent thinking. Convergent thinking gets to the answer in a more straight forward manner. Divergent thinking uses a more indirect route. An example that might use divergent thinking would be building a chimney. This uses a more complicated way of thinking and is not use a convergent method such as factual information. Like I said, this section had some pretty interesting information, but I thought that the other sections were more interesting to read about.

The topic that I would like to learn more about would have to be problem solving. I would like to learn more about this section because it was a nice build off of the previous chapter. I also liked how they went on to talk about Gestalt psychology and the theory of how it arrives at a decision. I liked that it looks at the whole of things to arrive at an answer. It reminded me of the previous chapter when it talked about deductive reasoning. I think that if I did some more research on the topic for my topical blog for wednesday it would be beneficial in my understanding of cognitive psychology.

This chapter builds off of previous chapters very nicely. This chapter talks about problem solving, and the lase chapter had to do a lot with problem solving as well. The last chapter talked about inductive and deductive reasoning. This chapter talks about creativity, problem solving, and then cultural blocks when trying to make a decision. I think that this chapter has done the best job connecting from chapter to chapter. I think that this really helped in my understanding of cognitive psychology.

This chapter helped a lot in my understanding of cognitive psychology. The sections on problem solving are very interesting and have a lot of information that I can apply to my life. It is nice to know the different areas of problem solving so I can apply them to my life when trying to make decisions. This section did a very nice job of building off of the previous chapter with all the problem solving sections. I was intrigued by the decision making sections in the previous chapters, so it was nice to learn a little more about it in this chapter.

Thoughts that I had while reading had to do a lot with the problem solving section. I was wondering if there was one best problem solving strategy. The book as so many different ways to solve a problem, but I was wondering which one is best? I thought that this might have to do with the situation. I remember reading about some different problem solving techniques in the previous chapters, and it seemed that there were better ways to solve a problem in certain situations.

Terms: Gestalt psychology, divergent thinking, convergent thinking, cultural block, verification, illumination, incubation, preparation, creativity, problem solving,

1) One section I found interesting was the section on early neural development. I learned a lot about prenatal brain growth in this section. The brain images were also helpful, because I could visually see how they change. By the beginning of the 2nd trimester, the cerebral cortex is showing that it is different than the spinal cord. By 7 months the principal lobes are being made. 9 months is where the lobes are distinguished. Synapses increase in number until the age of 2 years, then about 50% of them get “shed” by the age of 16 years.
2) Another section that I found interesting was the section on the environment and neural development. I learned that the environment does affect a person’s cognitive and brain development. They gave the example of how an animal is in a sensory isolation and then is unable to develop normally when it is placed back in to a normal environment. This would go the same for adults. I have read book in kids being locked in closets and stuff and then when they are found they are unable to be in normal social settings and they go through a lot of therapy.
3) Another topic that I found interesting was the section on selective attention. This is where people are able to keep their attention on information that is relevant. Children will eventually get better at this as they develop; people consider them to have “short attention spans.” They just get distracted (like other people do) with other things that are going on around them.
4) The section I found to be the least interesting was the section on memory. I found this the least interesting, because I am taking a memory class and have already went through that stuff.
5) One thing I think will be the most useful is the section of neural development, because I think it is important to know how the brain develops, and when it develops. This will help us so much in understand when different parts of the brain are damaged, what goes on and what they were in control of before that are now effected.
6) This chapter continued on by talking about different parts of the brain such as the lobes, ect, and it also continued a little more on with memory.
7) I think it would be interesting to research people who were in social isolation and see how they have developed through their situation. I have read a couple books or papers on it, and seeing it in the chapter sparked my interest.
8) I related the memory section to my other class, as well as health classes that I have taken to understand how the brain developes.
9) neural development. Cerebral cortex, synapses, lobes, selective attention,

1.
a. I like the part on selective attention.
b. I think that it is interesting that our brain can focus on certain things and keep things that we are focusing on separate from the rest of the things. This is basically is about attention span. Younger people will have less of this than older people because their attention span is shorter than an adults is. As a child ages they can tune out the less relevant things that are not needed to be categorized within the parameters of what they are paying attention to. There are things that will be placed together and things that will be separated in the groups that are made within the area that the person is focusing on. The person has many things that they can categorize within what they are looking at so that they can make what they are focusing on easier to remember and focus their attention on at the time that they need to.
2.
a. I liked the facial attention area.
b. I liked that there were things that a very young age. We are able to recognize faces and tell who they are to us. We recognize and are attached to the people that we see even though we don’t process them at first very well because our vision isn’t that great. An infant can know who is their mother just by their face; they become attached to the face that they see as their mother. The child can map out the face very well so out children have very complex cognitive skills at a very young age because our brain can map out a face and recognize it even within the first few months of life. Which means if we teach ourselves early we can really retain a lot of things that will help us in life.
3.
a. I liked the area on metaphorical thinking.
b. I live to use my imagination to create new stories so I can write things. I have many stories that I have started so metaphorical thinking is very important to me. Not to mention I have several younger nieces and nephews and having a great imagination is a must so that I can sit down and play with them. They are very young still so I need to keep on my toes. I don’t get to see them very much so when I do us play games and that is an imagination playground. I also play with my boyfriend’s girls and they create a totally different type of imagination area and that is a fun experience.
4.
a. I didn’t like the organization (chunking) part.
b. I just didn’t like how it is an odd part of this chapter and I didn’t enjoy it very much.
5. I think that Piaget’s general principles are the most important in this chapter. They are very important to what you need to learn about cognitive development.
6. This chapter builds on types of memory areas which is covered in earlier chapters. It shows what can be seen in smaller areas of the memory system.

7.
a. I wanted to learn more about the metaphorical thinking.
b. I like what metaphorical thinking is all about because it is a really big part of my life now and what it will be in the future.
8. I thought about how much time was spent on learning what they could on facial attention to learn that infants learned faces at an early stage, and that they could recognize people and connect to their mothers.
9. Selective attention, facial attention, metaphorical thinking, cognitive development,

1. The first thing that I found interesting in the chapter was the discussion of adaptation through assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation involves taking information from the outside world and synthesizing it with current knowledge and behaviors. Accommodation involves adapting old schemes to process new information and objects in the environment. This was interesting because I never really thought about how knowledge about objects or environments changes over the lifespan. The example of the coffee table and how a young child might perceive it was also interesting.

2. The second thing that I found interesting was the subject of intelligence in the section discussing the development of cognitive abilities. The information presented from the study done by Plomin and DeFries regarding the genetic basis of intelligence was interesting to read about. The various evidence presented to show that intelligence is determined in part by genetics was also really interesting as well as the fact that this remained stable despite differing environments.

3. The third thing that I found interesting was the topic of selective attention in the discussion of information-acquisition skills. It was interesting to read that older children have an easier time focusing their attention than younger children. The example of finding the letters was an interesting way to display this as well.

4. No one thing stood out in particular that was less interesting than the other information presented in the chapter. The chapter was fairly dry and boring for the most part though. I don’t have too much interest in developmental-style psychology.

5. I think that all of the information with be equally useful in understanding cognitive psychology. I think that the information presented about intelligence will also be really helpful in particular, as knowing that there is a genetic basis inherent across environments could be really useful.

6. This chapter mainly builds on other chapters of the book by taking various cognitive concepts that have been presented and applying them in a developmental perspective. It touches on the old subject of attention and also intelligence and applies them to a developmental view across the lifespan.

7. I think that the subject of childhood amnesia and how memory works in infants and young children could be an interesting subject to learn more about.

8. I mainly tried to apply the various concepts of development to my own experience growing up. I also considered if the information presented on the development of greater selective attention with age could help explain the over-diagnosis of ADD in young children today.

Terms: adaptation, assimilation, accommodation, intelligence, developmental psychology, genetics, selective attention, information-acquisition skills, ADD, childhood amnesia

Chapter 12 Blog

The first thing I found interesting in chapter 12 was about the concrete-operational period that children go through. This period lasts from the age of 7 years to 11 years. I thought that the tests they do for these children were very interesting. I learned about these tests in a developmental class that I took last year. The concept I found the most interest in was the concept of conservation. Conservation is the ability to transform objects. The example that the book gives is of the glasses of water. Say that you have two cups of water that are the same amount. One cup is short and wide and the other cup is tall and skinny. A child under the age of 7 will assume that the short round glass has less water in it and the tall skinny glass has more water in it. But once the child gets around the age of 7, they will understand this concept. This is interesting to me because I can remember when I thought this way. I only had one little brother growing up and we fought a lot about sharing and fairness. We always fought about the serving sizes of food that my mom would give us. I remember as I got older I understood that the serving sizes only seemed different because the bowls or utensils they were served with were different sizes. I would have to help her explain to my little brother why it looked like I had more. This is an interesting concept because it seems so simple once you are older. But when you are younger you have no concept of conservation.

The second thing in chapter 12 that I found interesting was the section that talks about how Mandler disagreed with Piaget. Piaget thought that infants went through a stage of life where they were unable to completely form thought. Mandler did some tests that would prove this wrong. The test that caught my eye was the one with the pacifiers. Half of the children were given smooth pacifiers and the other half were given pacifiers that had protruding bumps on the surface. The researcher would take the pacifier from the child, and hold up the one the child had, along with the one they hadn’t. The child will look at the correct pacifier that they had in their mouth. This shows that the child could form thoughts. They were able to think about the feeling of the pacifier they had. And they were then able to identify it with their eyes, which would cause them to use cognitive processes again. This is really interesting to me because Piaget has a lot of really great ideas on childhood development. I think that the fact that Mandler proved him wrong was intriguing. I also think that it’s interesting that young infants can form thoughts like that. I would never think that infants form concrete thoughts. And maybe their thoughts aren’t complex, but they are still thinking.

The third and final thing that I found interesting in chapter 12 was the topic of gerontology. I know that gerontology is the study of aging. But I have never known what geriatrics was. Geriatrics is the study of disease due to aging. I didn’t ever know what the difference was. Gerontology interests cognitive psychologists because they are concerned with how a person’s mental functions change as they age. The reason that this interests me so much is because I work at a bar that a lot of retired men go to. They are all aging and they always joke about how they are losing their memories. I have always enjoyed being around the elderly and learning about them. I had two grandparents on either side of my family that suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is when an elderly person loses most all of their memory. They eventually become unable to even care for themselves properly. I have done a lot of research on Alzheimer’s because I have seen it happen. It’s very interesting how someone can be physically well, but mentally – they are not there.

The part of chapter 12 that I found the least interesting was the part about neural development. As I have said in previous chapters, neurology is something that doesn’t really interest me. I have learned about neurology in many of my other classes, and I don’t enjoy it. It is hard for me to wrap my mind around. The brain has so many parts that have so many different functions that they are all really hard to keep straight. I took a biopsychology course, and it was really hard for me to follow. I didn’t do too well in that course either. So whenever I see anything about neurology, I automatically am biased because I think of that class. I would rather not read or learn about neurology.

I think that all of this will help in my understanding about cognitive psychology. All of this information is about how people develop cognitively. This chapter goes through the lifespan of a person and what happens to then cognitively. It talks about how a person learns, thinks, and does many other cognitive functions throughout many different phases of their lives. This chapter builds on all of the other chapters because the other chapters are all about cognitive processes. The other chapters we have read so far are about perception, memory, language, and many subcategories of those things. This chapter covers those things, and how they all happen in different stages of our lives. It shows what happens to us cognitively in childhood, adulthood, and when we are elderly. There are many different cognitive phases that we go though, and they are all explained in this chapter.

I would really like to learn more about gerontology. Next semester I am taking a class on gerontology because it has always been something that has interested me. I would like to learn more about how people age cognitively and what happens. I know that they are several health issues that can happen to the elderly. And I know that a lot of these health issues can be related to a person’s declining cognitive abilities. I have seen my grandparents go through these health issues, and that is another reason that I like to learn more about this topic. I think the main thing I will research is the topic of Alzheimer’s disease and other disease that are similar.

While reading this chapter, my mind kind of split it into two sections. There was the beginning of the chapter and the end of the chapter. While I was reading the beginning of the chapter, I was mainly thinking about another class I have taken. Last year I took a developmental psychology class and the beginning of chapter 12 reminded me a lot about that. I have learned a lot about cognitive and psychological development in previous classes, and I have always found it very interesting. That is another thing I was thinking about while reading this chapter. And while I was reading the end of the chapter I was thinking about my grandparents and all of the elderly people that I know. When cognitive processes and functions decline, it is a very sad thing. But it is also something that I find interesting and I would like to learn more about it.

Terms: Conservation, Concrete-Operational Period, Mandler, Piaget, Gerontology, Geriatrics, Cognitive Psychology, Neurology

1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?

I thought assimilation and accommodation was interesting. I have learned that before in a previous psychology classes I took, but I still find it interesting. I have three younger siblings and I took care of them a lot of the time until I left for college, and I also volunteered at an orphanage and a homeless shelter for families before, so a lot of the time when I witnessed assimilation and accommodation and didn’t know it. it always struck me at how much we take for granted when it comes to cognition in daily life. I have learned to pay more attention to everything happening around me, since I can always find out things that are related to the class materials.

2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?

I found early neural development interesting. it is amazing how much we grow in the first few years of life. Also, figure 12.5 shows the physical development of the brain, which amazes me even more. Not that I have never seen it before, but every time I see something similar, I cannot stop thinking about how awesome life is. It is still hard to wrap my mind around the fact that as a little squeaky creature as babies are, they are able to learn a lot more than we think and grow a lot more than what we can handle. I basically find everything regarding infants interesting.

3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?

The Colorado adoption project was also an interesting subject. I thought environment plays a bigger role than it actually does. According to the chart, adoptive parents do not have nearly as much impact as the genes of the birth parents do. It is rather disappointing to me as much as it interested me. I never want to blame anything on my genes. I have always believed that as long as I try hard enough, I can defeat what I was programmed to me. I guess I am wrong.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?

I found the stages of development less interesting. it is an interesting topic when I first learned about it, but not anymore after 2 years of professors beating it to death.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?

I thought learning about infant neural development most useful to in understanding cognitive psychology because it is a crucial stage in our lives and has great impact on later developmental stages in life.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?

I don’t think it build on quite well. However, I do not think it can fit better anywhere in the book. I think after talking about language, it is appropriate to know more about cognition.

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?

I would like to learn more about aging. My grandfather is in his 90’s and I can tell every time I see him, he loses a little more mental alertness. I want to know what is going on when people age, and if there is anything that helps delaying the process.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?

I thought about language and how it has an impact on a person as they age. I believe that the more language you know, the more alert you are. It has more impact in the later stages of life, since I know there are research out there that suggest the number of language one knows correlate positively with how long they live.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.

Aging, language, stages of development, assimilation and accommodation, neural development

1) Piaget’s stages of cognitive development are interesting. his research is a basis for developmental psychology and I think that it is neat how people adapt and grow in their environment. There are four stages of cognitive development sensorimotor, preoperative, concrete operation, and formal operations. i really think this is neat cause i get to sit and watch all this go on with my own kids.i get to see how the brain developments and see how each kid is different i the way that they grow. how even thought they are all exposed to the same stuff growing up they are all differnt. that moment that comes and you almost see that light come on and they know that they are their own person and they can think for themselves is neat but dangerous.
2 Vygotsky I thought was neat cause it rejects that there is a biological effect on development. Vygotsky believes that learning precedes development. Thought is biologically determined and learning becomes socially determined. Through naming activity, a child links thought, language, and environmental events. It is interesting that Vygotsky believed the opposite of Piaget in which there is no biological determinism of how children learn to think and speak. It is more of a nature versus nurture debate between the two theories.
3) I found higher-order cognition in children and adults interesting. Children use story schemas to explain the meaning of a situation. They use images to help describe an experience. However, adults rely on semantic representations and language to explain the meaning of a situation. It is only until children learn the depths of language and concrete formations that they can use semantics to interpret situations. It is interesting how, throughout age, individuals explain scenarios in different ways.
4)I liked it all.
5)I will understand my kids more in how they think and maybe why they think that way
6)it all builds in such an understandable way that i cant really explain it
7)
8)I was just thinking about Piaget and Vygosky in how they are different but to me they are the same and how i can see both of their views as right.