Developmental psychologyChapter 9Cognitive development Epistemology: the study of the origins of knowledge and how we know what we know.Two important findings of Piaget:Children of the same age made similar errorsThese errors differed from those of older and younger childrenAccording to Piaget, everything that we know and understand is filtered through our current frame of reference. We construct new understandings of the world based on what we already know.Constructivist.Underlying structures and processesSchemesThe basic unit of understanding is a scheme.This is a cognitive structure that forms the basis of organizing actions and mental representations so that we can understand and act upon the environment.This makes up our frames of reference through which we filter new information. Everything we know starts with the schemes we are born with.Three of the basic schemes we are born with are reflexive actions that can be performed on objects: sucking, looking and grasping.As children grow older they begin to use schemes based on internal mental representations rather than using schemes based on physical activity.These schemes are operations.Processes: organization and adaptation Two innate processes to explain how children modify their schemes:OrganizationThe predisposition to group particular observations into coherent knowledge. It occurs both within and across stages of development.AdaptationComposed of two processes:Assimilation: incorporating the information into existing schemesAccommodation:...