Ch 3 Cognitive Development: Building a Foundation for Language

Question 0

Assimilation

Answer 0

The process of using existing schemata to include new information.

Question 1

Schema

Answer 1

A category that we use to process, identify, store, and retrieve information in our brains.

Question 2

Accomodation

Answer 2

When a new schemata is developed to allow for the organization of information that does not fit existing schema.

Question 3

Equilibrium

Answer 3

A cognitive process to maintain a balance between existing schemata (assimilation) and the creation of new schemata (accomodation).

Question 4

Piaget’s 4 stages of intellectual development

Answer 4

1) Sensorimotor Intelligence (Birth to 2 years)
2) Preoperational Thought (2 to 7 years)
3) Concrete Operations (7 to 11 years)
4) Formal Operations (11 to 15 years)

Question 5

1) Sensorimotor Intelligence (Birth to 2 years)

Answer 5

Most behaviors are reflexive and motor. Interaction with environment is mostly physical and unlearned ways, especially earlier in the stage.

Question 6

2) Preoperational Thought (2 to 7 years)

Answer 6

Conceptual thought begins and the most rapid period of language development occurs.

Question 7

3) Concrete Operations (7 to 11 years)

Answer 7

The ability to think logically in dealing with concrete or physical problems is developed, along with the ability to place stimuli into categories based on order and levels.

Question 8

4) Formal Operations (11 to 15 years)

Answer 8

Cognitive abilities become fully developed. The child is able to think abstractly, to solve problems mentally, and to develop and test mental hypotheses.

Question 9

Perception

Answer 9

The processes by which a person selects, organizes, integrates, and interprets sensory stimuli.

Question 10

Distancing

Answer 10

Something that happens during perceptual development, where a child relates to stimuli from a greater and greater distance over time.

Question 11

Representation

Answer 11

The idea that a stimulus can stand for or represent something else.

Question 12

Object Permanence

Answer 12

Knowing that objects exist in time and space even if you cannot see or act on them.

Question 13

Causality

Answer 13

The understanding that events can cause other events.

Question 14

Means-Ends

Answer 14

A conceptual extension of causality; the understanding that there are ways (means) to attain a goal (end).

Question 15

Imitation

Answer 15

Duplication of models you hear and see.

Question 16

Delayed or deferred imitation

Answer 16

Very important because it allows children to produce a desired behavior even when the model is not present.

Question 17

Play

Answer 17

Child-directed activities that provide the child with opportunities for learning.

Question 18

Symbolic Play

Answer 18

A form of play in which one object represents another object.

Question 19

Communication

Answer 19

Conceptual development contributes to the ever increasing development of a child’s language ability.

Question 20

Private speech

Answer 20

Egocentric speech in which the child guides themselves through actions by speaking out loud. As development continues, this slowly goes away and is replaced by thinking through things in a language in one’s mind.

Question 21

Zone of Proximal Development

Answer 21

A zone of tasks in which the child needs help, and the help generally comes in the form of language.

Question 22

Intersubjectivity

Answer 22

When two people working together on a common task with different levels of understanding about how the task can or should be accomplished manage to merge what they know into a shared understanding as the task is completed. In this kind of interaction, each partner accommodates the viewpoint and competence of the other partner.

Question 23

Scaffolding

Answer 23

When an adult provides cognitive and language scaffolds to their child through responses and interaction with their child. The level of difficulty can be adjusted for proper building of language and cognition.

Question 24

Dynamic Systems Theory

Answer 24

Each individual moment of knowing reflects the context specific integration of these components and sets the stage for the next interaction between the child and the context. Over time, stable patterns of behavior emerge as many individual interactions are laid down over the course of a child’s developmental history. Variability and change emerge as the system is pushed into new forms of organization by the specifics of individual contexts, abilities, and experiences.

Question 25

Shape Bias

Answer 25

The generalization of novel names to new instances that match in shape. Generalizations based on shape help children learn new words.

Question 26

Perceptual Stimulation

Answer 26

When a person recognizes that stimuli are present and reacts to the major characteristics of the stimuli.

Question 27

Cognitive Stimulation

Answer 27

When one not only recognizes stimuli by their sensory characteristics but also understands what they mean and how they compare to other stimuli he has received.

Question 28

Executive Functions

Answer 28

A set of control processes in the human brain that allow us to maintain attention, inhibit irrelevant associations, and use working memory.

Question 29

Controlled Attention

Answer 29

The capacity to maintain and hold relevant information, especially when there are internal or external distractions or interferences in the environment.

Question 30

Working Memory

Answer 30

The voluntary, focused, and exclusive processing and maintenance of task relevant information.

Question 31

Theory of Mind

Answer 31

An understanding of mental states that develops over time to assist us in considering other people’s thoughts, feelings, and knowledge.