ch. 5 coming to understand the physical world

Question 1

A-not-B error

Answer 1

The tendency of infants to search for an object where it has previously been found and not where it was most recently observed to be hidden.

Question 2

Accommodation

Answer 2

The process by which the child adapts her cognitive and behavioral structures or schemes to more accurately fit with a pattern in the environment.

Question 3

Adaptation

Answer 3

In Piaget’s sense, a process by which the child better fits her schemes with new experiences in the environment.

Question 4

Assimilation

Answer 4

The process by which the child incorporates new information from the environment into his preexisting mental structures or schemes in a way that usually distorts
the new information to fit with the preexisting structures.

Question 5

Allocentric representation

Answer 5

A representation of space that is objective and not relative to
the position of the viewer.

Question 6

Egocentric representation

Answer 6

A representation of space that is relative to the position of the
viewer.

Question 7

Equilibration

Answer 7

The process through which a child’s mental structures come into a better fit with various aspects of the environment through assimilation and accommodation.

Question 8

Invisible displacement

Answer 8

The movement of an object to a new hiding spot when it is covered by another object and therefore not directly visible.

Question 9

Object concept

Answer 9

A concept of the behavior of a bounded physical object, which is generally studied under certain conditions of change, such as when it disappears from view.

Question 10

Object permanence

Answer 10

The property that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight.

Question 11

Object solidity

Answer 11

An object’s property of cohering and taking up space, preventing other objects from passing through it.

Question 12

Place error

Answer 12

Another name for the A- not- B error.

Question 13

Scheme

Answer 13

A complex of mental structures, processes, and actions that are used to interact with
the environment.

Question 14

Sensorimotor period

Answer 14

According to Piaget, a period of development from birth to 2 years of
age, when infants largely understand the world in terms of the way they perceive and act on it and understand objects primarily as embedded parts of perceptual and motor activities.