Ch 9. Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle and Late Childhood

Question 1

Learning Disability

Answer 1

Difficulty in understanding or using spoken or written language or in doing mathematics. To be classified as a learning disability, the learning problem is not primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities; intellectual disability; emotional disorders; or due to environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

Question 2

Referral Bias

Answer 2

Happens when the likelihood of unusual outcomes increases as a result of referrals to a study.

Question 3

Dyslexia

Answer 3

A category of learning disabilities involving a severe impairment in the ability to read and spell.

Question 4

Dysgraphia

Answer 4

A learning disability that involves difficulty in handwriting.

Question 5

Dyscalculia

Answer 5

Also known as developmental arithmetic disorder; a learning disability that involves difficulty in math computation.

Question 6

ADHD

Answer 6

A disability in which children consistently show one or more of the following characteristics: (1) inattention, (2) hyperactivity, and (3) impulsivity.

Question 7

Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Answer 7

Serious, persistent problems that involve relationships, aggression, depression, fears associated with personal or school matters, as well as other inappropriate socioemotional characteristics.

Question 8

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

Answer 8

Also called pervasive developmental disorders, they range from the severe disorder labeled autistic disorder to the milder disorder called Asperger syndrome. Children with these disorders are characterized by problems in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and repetitive behaviors.

Question 9

Autistic Disorder

Answer 9

A severe autism spectrum disorder that has its onset in the first three years of life and includes deficiencies in social relationships, abnormalities in communication, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior.

Question 10

Asperger Syndrome

Answer 10

A relatively mild autism spectrum disorder in which the child has relatively good verbal language skills, milder nonverbal language problems, and a restricted range of interests and relationships.

Question 11

Individualized Education Plan (IEP)

Answer 11

A written statement that spells out a program specifically tailored to a child with a disability.

Question 12

Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)

Answer 12

A setting that is as similar as possible to the one in which children who do not have a disability are educated.

Question 13

Inclusion

Answer 13

Educating a child with special education needs full-time in the regular classroom.

Question 14

Seriation

Answer 14

The concrete operation that involves ordering stimuli along a quantitative dimension (such as length).

Question 15

Transitivity

Answer 15

The ability to logically combine relations to understand certain conclusions.

Question 16

Neo-Piagetians

Answer 16

Developmentalists who argue that Piaget got some things right but that his theory needs considerable revision. They have elaborated on Piaget’s theory, giving more emphasis to information processing, strategies, and precise cognitive steps.

Question 17

Long-term Memory

Answer 17

A relatively permanent type of memory that holds huge amounts of information for a long period of time.

Question 18

Working Memory

Answer 18

A mental “workbench” where individuals manipulate and assemble information when making decisions, solving problems, and comprehending written and spoken language.

Question 19

Strategies

Answer 19

Deliberate mental activities that improve the processing of information.

Question 20

Elaboration

Answer 20

An important strategy for remembering that involves engaging in more extensive processing of information.

Question 21

Fuzzy Trace Theory

Answer 21

States that memory is best understood by considering two types of memory representations: (1) verbatim memory trace, and (2) gist. In this theory, older children’s better memory is attributed to the fuzzy traces created by extracting the gist of information.

Question 22

Critical Thinking

Answer 22

Thinking reflectively and productively, as well as evaluating evidence.

Question 23

Mindfulness

Answer 23

Being alert, mentally present, and cognitively flexible while going through life’s everyday activities and tasks.

Question 24

Creative Thinking

Answer 24

The ability to think in novel and unusual ways and to come up with unique solutions to problems.

Question 25

Convergent Thinking

Answer 25

Thinking that produces one correct answer and is characteristic of the kind of thinking tested by standardized intelligence tests.

Question 26

Divergent Thinking

Answer 26

Thinking that produces many answers to the same question and is characteristic of creativity.

Question 27

Metacognition

Answer 27

Cognition about cognition, or knowing about knowing.

Question 28

Brainstorming

Answer 28

A technique in which individuals are encouraged to come up with creative ideas in a group, play off each other’s ideas, and say almost anything that comes to mind.

Question 29

Intelligence

Answer 29

Problem-solving skills and the ability to learn from and adapt to the experiences of everyday life.

Question 30

Individual Differences

Answer 30

The stable, consistent ways in which people differ from each other.

Question 31

The Binet Test

Answer 31

An individually administered intelligence test that was created by Binet. It is a cognitive ability and intelligence test that is used to diagnose developmental or intellectual deficiencies in young children. The test measures five weighted factors: knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, working memory, and fluid reasoning.

Question 32

Mental Age (MA)

Answer 32

Binet’s measure of an individual’s level of mental development, compared with that of others.

Question 33

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

Answer 33

A person’s mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100.

Question 34

Normal Distribution

Answer 34

A symmetrical distribution with most scores falling in the middle of the possible range of scores and a few scores appearing toward the extremes of the range.

Question 35

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

Answer 35

An IQ test designed to measure intelligence and cognitive ability in adults and older adolescents.

Question 36

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Answer 36

Sternberg’s theory that intelligence consists of analytical intelligence, creative intelligence, and practical intelligence.

Question 37

Analytic Intelligence

Answer 37

The ability to analyze, judge, evaluate, compare, and contrast.

Question 38

Creative Intelligence

Answer 38

The ability to create, design, invent, originate, and imagine.

Question 39

Practical Intelligence

Answer 39

The ability to use, apply, implement, and put ideas into practice.