A2 Intellectual development across the life stages
• In infancy and early childhood there is rapid growth in intellectual and language skills:
o Piaget’s model of how children’s logic and reasoning develops – stages of cognitive
development, the development of schemas, his tests of conservation, egocentrism
and how his model may explain children’s thoughts and actions
o Chomsky’s model in relation to how children acquire language – Language Acquisition
Device (LAD), the concept of a critical period during which children may learn
language, which may explain how children seem to instinctively gain language.
• In early adulthood, thinking becomes realistic and pragmatic, with expert knowledge
about the practical aspects of life that permits judgement about important matters.
• The effects of age on the functions of memory:
o memory loss in later adulthood.
• In infancy and early childhood there is rapid growth in intellectual and language skills:
o Piaget’s model of how children’s logic and reasoning develops – stages of cognitive
development, the development of schemas, his tests of conservation, egocentrism
and how his model may explain children’s thoughts and actions
o Chomsky’s model in relation to how children acquire language – Language Acquisition
Device (LAD), the concept of a critical period during which children may learn
language, which may explain how children seem to instinctively gain language.
• In early adulthood, thinking becomes realistic and pragmatic, with expert knowledge
about the practical aspects of life that permits judgement about important matters.
• The effects of age on the functions of memory:
o memory loss in later adulthood.