Ch. 4: Cognitive Development in Infancy and Early Childhood

Question 1

Schemes

Answer 1

According to Piaget, mental structures that organize information and regulate behavior

Question 2

Assimilation

Answer 2

Piaget: Taking in information that is compatible with what one already knows

Question 3

Accomodation

Answer 3

Piaget: changing existing knowledge based on new knowledge

Question 4

Equilibration

Answer 4

Piaget: the process by which children reorganize their schemes to return to a state of equilibrium when disequilibrium occurs. Ex: Mom’s going to work so Dad takes me to school, changes to Dad thinks I’m old enough to walk to school so dad won’t take me.

Question 5

Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development

Answer 5

Sensorimotor 0-2 years
Preoperational 2-7 years
Concrete Operational 7-11 years
Formal Operational 11+

Question 6

Animism

Answer 6

Crediting inanimate objects with life and lifelike properties such as feelings. (Preoperational period)

Question 7

Centration

Answer 7

Narrowly focused type of thought characteristic of preoperational children. (Same about of juice, different beakers example)

Question 8

Core Knowledge Hypothesis

Answer 8

Infants are born with a rudimentary knowledge of the world, which is elaborated based on experiences

Question 9

Teleological Explanations

Answer 9

Children’s belief that living things, including their parts and their actions, exist for a purpose. (Ex: beleif that lions exist so people can see them at the zoo)

Question 10

Essentialism

Answer 10

Children’s belief that all living things have an essence that can’t be seen but gives a living thing its identity. (Believe/understand that watermelon planted in cornfield will still become a watermelon)

Question 11

Orienting Response

Answer 11

individual views a strong or unfamiliar stimulus, and changes in heart rate and brain-wave activity occur (first time hearing an alarm, etc.)

Question 12

Habituation

Answer 12

Act of becoming unresponsive to a stimulus that is presented repeatedly

Question 13

Classical Conditioning

Answer 13

Learning that involves pairing a neutral stimulus and a response originally produced by another stimulus (Pavlov)

Question 14

Operant Conditioning

Answer 14

Form of learning that emphasizes the consequences of reward and punishment

Question 15

One-to-One Principle

Answer 15

Counting principle that states there must be one and only one number name for each object counted

Question 16

Stable-Order Principle

Answer 16

Counting principle that states that number names must always be counted in the same order

Question 17

Cardinality Principle

Answer 17

Counting principle that states that the last number name denotes the number of objects being counted

Question 18

Intersubjectivity

Answer 18

mutual shared understanding between participants in an activity

Question 19

Guided Participation

Answer 19

Children’s involvement in structured activities with others who are more skilled, typically producing cognitive growth

Question 20

Zone of proximal development

Answer 20

Different between what children can do with assistance and what they can do alone

Question 21

Scaffolding

Answer 21

Style in which teachers gauge the amount of assistance they offer to math the learner’s needs

Question 22

Fast Mapping

Answer 22

a child’s connections between words and referents that are made so quickly that he or she cannot consider all possible meanings of the word

Question 23

Underextension

Answer 23

when children define words more narrowly than adults do (using car only to refer to the family car)

Question 24

Overextension

Answer 24

when kid defines word more broadly than adults do (using car to refer to buses and trucks)

Question 25

Phonological Memory

Answer 25

Ability to remember speech sounds briefly; important in acquiring vocabulary

Question 26

Referential Style

Answer 26

Language-learning style of children whose vocabularies are dominated by names of objects, persons, or actions

Question 27

Expressive Style

Answer 27

Language-learning style of children whose vocabularies include many social phrases that are used like one word

Question 28

Telegraphic Speech

Answer 28

Speech used by young children that contains only the words necessary to convey a message

Question 29

Grammatical Morphemes

Answer 29

Words or endings of words that make a sentence grammatical

Question 30

Overregularization

Answer 30

grammatical usage that results from applying rules to words that are exceptions to the rule