Chapter 11

Question 1

instinct

Answer 1

(1) behaviour that is genetic in its origin, e.g., human sexual desire; (2) a feeling or emotion that has no basis in fact, e.g., ‘My instinct tells me he’s not to be trusted’

Question 2

intuitive psychology

Answer 2

the awareness some people have regarding others’ desires, motives and beliefs; they appear able to communicate others’ reactions and behaviour

Question 3

unexpected transfer test

Answer 3

a measure of theory of mind in which a child sees an object put in one place and it is later moved to another location without the child being aware of it. the theory-of-mind question is ‘where will the child look for the object when they want to find it?’

Question 4

conceptual shift

Answer 4

a large qualitative change in an individual’s cognitive processes

Question 5

representational ability

Answer 5

the ability to form a mental representation of an object or an event

Question 6

metacognition

Answer 6

knowledge of one’s state of mind, reflective access to one’s cognitive abilities, thinking about how one is feeling or thinking

Question 7

deceptive box task

Answer 7

task in which a child sees that a box which they thought contained sweets actually contains pencils, and when asked, ‘What did you originally think was in the box?’ children under the age of 4 will typically say ‘pencils’

Question 8

performance limitations

Answer 8

limitations that are associated with the challenges presented by the task being asked, so that their performance may not reflect their underlying competence

Question 9

competence

Answer 9

the child’s underlying ability, which is often not reflected in their performance or tasks

Question 10

hindsight bias

Answer 10

the inclination to see events that have already happened as being more predictable than they were before they took place

Question 11

modularity

Answer 11

the view that we have separate modules for different abilities, e.g., face perception, understanding mids, numerical abilities

Question 12

cross-cultural study

Answer 12

a study which aims to examine differences that arise purely from culture

Question 13

wing’s triad of impairments

Answer 13

impairments of (1) social relationships, (2) communication, and (3) imagination characteristic of autistic behaviour

Question 14

down’s syndrome

Answer 14

a chromosomal condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome. often DS is associated with some impairment of cognitive ability and physical growth, and a particular set of facial characterictics