Ch. 7: Cognitive Processes and Academic Skills

Question 1

_____ and _____ are related to the initial storage of information.

Answer 1

Amygdala; hippocampus.

Question 2

What develops later and is related to retrieval of stored memories?

Answer 2

Frontal cortex.

Question 3

Define memory strategies. What are the ones preschool children use? Older children and adolescents?

Answer 3

Memory strategies: activities that improve remembering.

Preschool children look at or touch objects they are told to remember.

Older children and adolescents use rehearsal, organization, elaboration, and chunking.

Question 4

Define metamemory and its two elements. When does it improve?

Answer 4

Metamemory: child’s informal understanding of memory.

Diagnosing memory problems accurately and monitoring effectiveness of memory strategies.

Improves in parallel with metacognitive knowledge.

Question 5

Knowledge and awareness of cognitive processes is called what?

Answer 5

Metacognitive knowledge.

Question 6

Effective cognitive self-regulation is a characteristic of successful students. What is it?

Answer 6

Skill at identifying goals, selecting effective strategies, and monitoring accurately.

Question 7

What are scripts, with regards to memory?

Answer 7

Memory structures that describe the sequence in which events occur.

Question 8

Knowledge helps to organize memory but can also what?

Answer 8

Distort our recall.

Question 9

What is Brainerd and Reyna’s fuzzy trace theory?

Answer 9

Experiences can be stored in memory exactly (verbatim) or in terms of their basic memory (gist).

Question 10

What is autobiographical memory? Which interactions are important? What can impact autobiographical memory from early in life?

Answer 10

People’s memory of their own lives.

Interactions with others (i.e. parents) are important.

Infantile amnesia denotes forgetting of events from early in life.

Question 11

Preschoolers’ testimony can be distorted by what?

Answer 11

Adults’ suggestions or by learned stereotypes.

Question 12

Young children sometimes fail due to inadequate what?

Answer 12

Encoding processes: transform information in a problem into a mental representation.

Question 13

Young children don’t _____. Successful problem solving depends on _____ specific to problem and _____.

Answer 13

Plan ahead; knowledge; general processes.

Question 14

What is a means-end analysis?

Answer 14

Person determines difference between current and desired situations, then does something to reduce the difference.

Question 15

Sometimes children and adolescents solve problems using heuristics. What are they?

Answer 15

“Rules of thumb” based on personal experience (shortcuts). Do not guarantee solution, but useful in solving range of problems.

Question 16

Analytical problem solving is more effortful and incorporates what rules?

Answer 16

Logical/mathematical.

Question 17

Collaboration enhances problem solving. It needs to be supported by what?

Answer 17

Teaching methods that view classmates as resources.

Question 18

Children and even adolescents exhibit faulty scientific reasoning as they do what two things?

Answer 18

Confound variables.

Reach conclusions prematurely based on too little evidence.

Question 19

Children and adolescents have difficulty integrating _____ and _____.

Answer 19

Theory; data.

Question 20

Two important processes are involved in skilled reading. What are they?

Answer 20

Word Recognition: the process of identifying a unique pattern of letters.

Comprehension: the process of extracting meaning from a sequence of word.

Question 21

Pre-reading skills involve what?

Answer 21

Knowing letters and letter sounds.

Question 22

What is phonological awareness?

Answer 22

Ability to hear the distinctive sounds of letters; strongly related with ability to read.

Question 23

Learning to read in English is particularly difficult due to what?

Answer 23

Wide inconsistency in how letters and letter combinations are pronounced.

Question 24

The first step in reading is what? What does research also indicate?

Answer 24

Decoding: identifying individual words by sounding out the letters in them.

Research indicates that phonics instruction is essential.

Question 25

What is the oldest method of teaching reading? What is the whole-word method? What does research indicate?

Answer 25

Oldest method = teaching phonics.

Whole-word method = learn to recognize whole words on sight.

Research indicates whole-word method should be used to complement phonics instruction.

Question 26

Improvements in writing are related to what three things?

Answer 26

Greater knowledge about topics, greater understanding of how to organize writing, and greater ease in dealing with mechanics.

Question 27

What is knowledge transformation?

Answer 27

What to include/exclude in writing; what’s boring, what’s exciting; deciding how to tell story.

Question 28

Children can be taught to be better writers by teaching strategies for what?

Answer 28

Planning, drafting, and revising.

Question 29

Infants can distinguish small quantities such as what?

Answer 29

Two and three.

Question 30

Early counting follows 3 basic principles. Define each.

Answer 30

One-to-one principle: one number name for each object.

Stable-order principle: number names must be counted in same order (e.g., one comes before three).

Cardinality principle: whatever number you get last denotes the total.

Question 31

After formal arithmetic instruction begins in Grade 1, children increasingly do what?

Answer 31

Solve problems by counting mentally.

Question 32

Children derive meaning by combining words to form _____, and them combining those.

Answer 32

Propositions.

Question 33

What is a knowledge-telling strategy?

Answer 33

Writing down information on a topic as it is retrieved from memory.

Question 34

Pediatric Association Guidelines for up to 5 years old indicate what about electronic media?

Answer 34

Screen time for children under 2 years old is not recommended. For children 2-5 years, limit routine or regular screen time to <1 hour per day. Ensure sedentary screen time is not a routine part of child care for children younger than 5 years.

Question 35

Parenting strategies that teach what can be useful for minimizing screen time?

Answer 35

Self-regulation, calming and limit-setting.

Question 36

On television, brief segments presented rapidly leads to children developing what?

Answer 36

Short attention span.

Question 37

_____ of TV programs is important for understanding outcomes.

Answer 37

Content.

Question 38

When can computers have a positive influence on children’s academic development?

Answer 38

When used effectively.