Cognitive Development Application Assignment | Online Assignment

not plagiarized
The goal of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to observe first hand the
cognitive development of children. Choose and complete ONE of the following
application activities with at least TWO different children. Based on your application
experience you should submit a 2-4 page report, double-spaced, type-written, and in 12 point
font. In your report, be sure you address the following issues:
1. Describe the children who participated in your activity (e.g. age, gender,
education, SES, culture, has/hasn’t had nap, etc.). How did you select or recruit
your participants and how do you know them? 5 points
2. Describe the environment in which you administered the activity (e.g. time, day
of week, who is present, school vs. home, etc.). 5 points
3. Describe in detail your method (the activity you devised and how you
administered it). What exactly did you do and say (you can even write this out as
a script). Be sure to specifically explain how your activity relates to method(s)
you have read about or heard about in class (e.g. “This was similar to the
…method because I did…. and it did… but instead of… I used….”). 10 points
4. Describe your findings (what exactly were the children’s behaviors and
explanations? What exactly did the children say and do?). Make sure you
provide a detailed account of the children’s words and behavior. 10 points
5. Discuss the conclusions about each child’s cognitive development that can be
drawn based on your findings. Make sure to discuss developmental stages and/or
cognitive abilities using terminology from our course. How do the responses of
the two children compare (similar) and contrast (different) to one another? Were
CDEV/PSYC 3140 Esterly
the findings expected? Be sure to explain why. Were there any factors that might
have impacted your findings (child was tired, parent interrupting, etc) 10 points
6. Discuss how your findings and conclusions relate to what you have read about in
our text or what we have discussed in class. You must discuss at least three
concepts and/or theories of cognitive development discussed in class or in the
text.10 points
Application Activity Choices
Pick one activity below and complete the activity with two different children. Make sure
the activity is designed to be appropriate for the ages and personalities of the children
participating. You need to make sure to use a similar method for both participants so that
you may compare and contrast their development. However, in order to determine the
developmental level of each participant, you may need to make the activity increasingly
difficult if one participant is doing well and/or make the activity decreasingly difficult if
one participant is struggling with the task.
A. Object Permanence (0-3 years): Your task is to examine the object permanence
ability of 2 different children. Based on your readings and our class discussions, devise a
way to test the object permanence ability of two children at different ages (e.g. 3
washcloths and an object). More than one hiding location is needed to look for the Anot-B error. Invisible displacement is needed to identify full object permanence.
B. False Belief (3-6 years): Your task is to assess children’s understanding of false
belief. Based on your readings and our class discussions, devise a way to test false-belief
understanding in two children at different ages (e.g. juice box with ribbons).
CDEV/PSYC 3140 Esterly
C. Conservation (3-10 years): Your task is to examine the conservation abilities of 2
different children. Based on your readings and our class discussions, devise a way to test
conservation understanding in two children at different ages (e.g. water/glasses,
playdough, pennies, etc). You only need to do one type of conservation task.
D. Class Inclusion (3-10 years): Your task is to assess children’s understanding of class
inclusion. Based on your readings and our class discussions, devise a way to test class
inclusion understanding in two children at different ages (e.g. green skittles vs. skittles).
E. Seriation (3-12 years): Your task is to examine children’s abilities to seriate objects.
Based on your readings and our class discussions, devise a way to test the seriation
abilities of two children at different ages (e.g. pencils of different sizes). You’ll need a
physical task (pencils) and an abstract (algebra word problem) task if one of your
participants is older than 8.
If possible you should complete the activity yourself with actual children. If you do not
know any children you may want to ask to join a classmate who does. By completing
this assignment with actual children you can earn up to 5 points extra credit. If you are
unable to complete the assignment with actual children, you may choose to find and
watch video clips of others completing these tasks online. If you do your observations
online, choose wisely. In your paper, make sure to acknowledge your source, and make
sure to discuss similarities and differences in how the task was administered to each child
and specifically how this may influence the results and conclusions